A VISIT TO MY UNCLE. 
436 
through them, sufficiently large to admit of the reins being 
buckled either to one or the other of them, has precisely the same 
effect as is usually only obtained through the use of bits of 
various lengths.” — “ I am glad you like my bit : it is, I 
believe I may say, unique of its kind. I had it made forty 
years ago, according to a fancy of my own ; and (handing me 
the bit) look how well the plate upon it has worn ! And I don’t 
— as you seem to do — deem it anywise unsightly.” — ‘‘Well, 
seeing how much you study ease and utility in horsemanship 
more than elegance, I suppose you have, before now, discovered 
the superior degree of rest afforded the foot of the rider by a 
stirrup with a spreading oval bottom, having three in place of 
two bars across it V' — “No, I cannot say T have; but I can 
readily imagine you are right on that point.” 
“ I remember an old cropped horse you used to ride a hunting ; 
and a capital horse he was. Did you buy him cropped]” — “Ah ! 
he was the shiest horse I ever rode ; he would take fright at his 
own shadow. He was cropped when I bought him, for crop- 
ping was in fashion in those days : at least, was so far practised, 
that horses of any value for riding, who happened to have long 
or lopped or ugly ears, were frequently subjected to the opera- 
tion by way of improvement in their appearance.” 
“ I was going to divert from the subject of ‘ horses ’ to men- 
tion to you a singular practice, and yet one, for my own part, I 
admire so much, that I now always follow it, and that has rela- 
tion to the simple affair of killing fowls. ' Instead of pulling 
their necks or twisting their heads, or twirling their bodies round 
their heads as round an axis, as is the cruel custom of our own 
country, the French poultry-woman — la marchande de volatile — 
places the fowl in her lap, between her knees, and then, separat- 
ing its beaks with one hand, she with the other hand simply snips 
the bridle of the tongue — the frcenum linguce — with a pair of 
scissors ; the effect of which is, an immediate and copious dis- 
charge of blood from the mouth, causing the creature to struggle 
and flap its wings for a moment or two, while being held up by 
the legs, and life is gone. It is, in my estimation, in a humane 
point of view, a great improvement on our mode of killing.” 
“ What is that engraving hanging on my right hand ]” — 
“Why, that is the portrait — and I believe a pretty faithful 
one — of the noted — I might say, notorious — character, old 
Frampton, 
“ The Father of the Turf 
A long inscription about his and his horse Dragon’s exploits is 
appended to it, which, if you have notread before or heard of it, 
may afford you amusement, stained as the account is with base 
