EDITORIAL OBSERVATIONS. 
651 
for thinkings they are not altogether groundless. We do 
believe that, what horse-gentry by, inter se, a well-understood 
appellation; denominate good horses , are not so abundant or 
readily procurable as they were some years ago. And we 
can the more easily give credence to the alleged fact when 
we come to reflect on the changes which have beeii; palpably 
to every body, taking place in the horse world in the interval 
between the time when horses of the description in question 
were plentiful enough and the present day of their asserted 
scarcity. 
The great war in which this country had been for several 
years engaged with France, at the cost of so many horses 
as well as men, ended in 1815; but it was not until 1819 
that the great reduction of the army took place, owing to a 
considerable portion of that force having been left in France 
(in occupation) for three years longer. Nor did this reduction, 
distributed about the country as the sales of the cast horses 
of regiments were (and still are), affect the horse-market more 
than temporarily lowering the prices of good horses, which, 
up to that time, had been extraordinarily high. 
In 1833, the London and Birmingham Railway opened for 
traffic. This was succeeded by the establishment of other rail¬ 
ways ; and thereupon speedily followed, as a necessary con¬ 
sequence, the break-up of coaching establishments on the 
Great Northern and other roads, numbering altogether some 
thousands of horses,— aye ! and of horses which had for years 
past been becoming of a better and better quality; and 
which, at the time of the dissolution, had become, in the 
fast-coaches, in particular between London and Birmingham, 
and other large towns, of a very superior description. This 
threw in quick succession into the market numbers of really 
good horses; and, as the opening of lines of railway con¬ 
tinued, and was followed by the establishment of others, em¬ 
bracing a wide sphere of railway traffic, more and more good 
horses were thrown into the public market: the effect of 
which was, some years back, that prices sank extraordinarily 
low, and “ prime cattle 93 were to be seen, degraded in their 
station, working in our omnibuses and street cabs. 
