256 ON COLOUR. 



favourite colours, while it cannot be denied 

 that some are more pleasing than others to the 

 eye; but no one, I think, is entitled to claim 

 any particular merit as a general attribute 

 of any especial colour, or to condemn any 

 colour on other than aesthetic grounds. 



A few remarks ujaon colour may, never- 

 theless, not be without interest. Bay, I 

 suppose, is still the commonest colour in 

 this country ; but what infinite gradations 

 of tint do this colour, and chestnut, afford ! 

 Of twenty bay, or twenty chestnut, horses 

 in a stud, you would hardly find two of 

 exactly the same shade of colour. Bay 

 ranges from a pale, or mealy bay, as it is 

 called, almost approaching a dun, through 

 a series of tints called bright, sherry, or 

 blood-bay to that which is perhaps the 



most beautiful colour for a horse of all 



a very dark bay, which is apt to be called 

 brown. A mare of this lovely colotir I rode 

 for many years ; looking down from the saddle 



