50 DIETT STABIiES. 



placed to hang upon them bridles, halters, and other things of 

 a similar character. The essentials are head collars, surcingles, 

 woollen rugs, and woollen and linen bandages. 



Such are the ordinary requisites of a stable. The desiderata 

 are — firstly, to have a workman who can use them properly ;— 

 secondly, who will use them when need&l ; — and thirdly, keep 

 them in their proper place when not wanted. 



The duties of a groom are, principally, comprised in the 

 following summary, viz., — Peeding and grooming the horses ; 

 attention to the stable and its appendages ; and a general and 

 exact care of everything within or belonging to it. It is dis- 

 agreeable to go into a stable, and see its interior in a state of 

 disorder ; and the place half buried with the accumulated dust 

 and dirt of years. A stable should be kept clean, and neither 

 tools nor articles of any kind should be allowed within it, but 

 such as are to be found either in their proper place, or in con- 

 stant use. The want of care and attention in matters relatiag 

 to order and cleanliness are but too common in numbers of 

 stables. The spare stall of the stable for instance — and few 

 stables of any pretension are without one — may be occupied 

 with the stumps of worn-out brooms, broken pieces of wood, 

 quantities of hay ropes in a half-rotted state, old tubs, old 

 bottle hampers, bones and fragments of broken food, whilst — 

 to crown the whole — it may very likely stink most intolerably 

 of dogs. The cupboard may be filled with rotten dusters ; the 

 windows with old blacking bottles and pieces of broken glass. 

 The paint of the wood work in the higher parts of the stable 

 will most likely be of a dull leaden colour ; and the comers 

 and borders of the ceiling rejoice in a number of antideluvian 

 cobwebs. People who have their stables in a condition similar 

 to what I have described, appear to retain useless lumber with 

 a feeling akin to veneration, so studiously is this indescribable 



