THE HORSE. 
ll 
THE RACE-HORSE. 
speaking of these things, it will be well to turn for a moment to the classes of persons who are engaged in this stupendous system 
of amusement and play. 
The humblest class connected with the business of the turf consists of the Boys of the Stables, to each of whom is assigned the 
care of one horse, with the duty of riding it at exercise: of these poor youths the number is very great. They enter on their 
bard duties at a period of life so early, that the stable becomes to them a little world, which bounds their thoughts, and influences 
all their habits. One of their number has given us a whole book, under a title eminently characteristic of the stable, “ Genius 
Genuine.” Another, however, has really lived to distinguish himself as a man of letters, and has given us the singular story of 
a Stable-boy s Life. This is Holcroft, known in his age as a dramatic writer and novelist of no mean note. 
The boys, he tells us, rise at half-past two in summer, and at between four and five in the depth of winter. When they 
begin to awaken one another for their morning task, the horses are on the watch, neigh, and express their joy and eagerness to be 
fed. Food being supplied, the litter is shaken, the stalls are made comfortable, and the animals dressed. They are mounted in the 
stable, and taken out to the downs and heaths for exercise, which lasts for several hours. On their return they are again dressed, 
and the boys permitted to break their fast; and nothing, our author tells us, can exceed the enjoyment of a stable-boy’s breakfast. 
The duties of the stable are then resumed, and again the horses are taken to the training-grounds, and again subjected to their long 
exercise. These horses, hot in blood, tender from constant clothing and rubbing, are skittish, often vicious, easily and suddenly 
alarmed, irritable, and dangerous even in their play. The youthful horsemen acquire by degrees a firm seat, clinging to their 
fiery steeds by their knees and legs, and managing them with courage and address. Their seat has not the graceful ease of the 
manege, but accords with the practice found suitable for the Course. In the stable they acquire a wonderful command over the 
hot and dangerous creatures with which they are in contact, ordering them with authority, roughly rubbing their irritable skins 
and dangerous heels, a single stroke of which would terminate the joys and sorrows of the tiny groom. While often a man and a 
stranger durst no more enter the stall or loose box of one of these fiery creatures than the den of a tiger, these boys are to be seen 
as much at their ease as if they were playing with a cat; so strong is the power of reason, even in a child, over brute force and 
the wildest passions of inferior natures. 
In a community of such lads, far away from the vigilance of early friends, associated with evil minds, and witnesses of gross 
pursuits, an extreme severity of discipline is called for. Woe it is to him, our author tells us, who is absent at stable hours; 
but how many are the minor offences which lie between this extreme and the mere thoughtlessness of boyhood, for which the harsh 
reproof, the ashen rod, the abrupt dismissal, are put in force! The want of sleep may seal the urchin’s eyes even when he 
approaches the brushing gallop; how much more soundly is he likely to slumber upon the truss of straw in the warm stall! His 
dreams, however, may be interrupted by the ready broom, and more effective switch. “ I remember to have been so punished once ” 
says our author, describing his falling asleep in his horse’s stall, “ when the blow, I concluded, was given by Tom Watson, as I thought 
no other boy in the stable could have made so large a male: it reached from the knee to the instep, and was of a finger’s breadth ” 
Here the chastisement may have been wholesome; but to the forlorn boy, the more cruel dismissal may bring destitution, sorrow 
and crime. Mr Holcroft describes his own mental sufferings in a case of this kind with touching effect, the penalty of an unlucky 
tumble from a dark-grey filly, by which he nearly broke his neck. But for what further relates to our author’s personal adven¬ 
tures, reference must be made to his own amusing memoirs, where we find detailed his first feelings of joy on partaking of a 
breakfast of cold meat, Gloucester cheese, and white bread; his exultation at finding himself, in place of driving a shoemaker’s 
donkey through the dirt, mounted on an animal outstripping the wind; his fall from the dark-grey filly, and its results; and 
the final ruin of all his equestrian hopes, by his being found “ idling away his time in readingby his scratching ciphers on the 
paling of the stable-yard with a nail; becoming actually able to spell a word of six syllables, to the surprise of his drunken 
schoolmaster; by his being found studying psalmody under the guidance of a journeyman leather-breeches maker; and finally, 
by his throwing away all his earnings, by betting, like his betters, on the stirring events of the heath. While these things may 
make us smile, they may furnish food for graver thoughts. Can nothing be done to benefit the condition of these youthful 
instruments of so many pleasures? Of all the vast sums which are squandered on licentious sports, can no mite be saved 
to gain some little food of the mind for these severely tasked boys, even to the degree of teaching them to spell words of six 
syllables? Can nothing be allotted for relief to them during the trying hours of destitution, when the failure of employment 
renders them helpless and heart-broken, even though their dismissal should have been merited, and for offences greater than 
falling from a dark-grey filly, or singing psalms with a leather-breeches maker ? We do not think they would make the worse 
grooms if some substitutes were provided for skittles, cock-fighting, and halfpenny-roulette tables. The prospects of this 
class, it is believed, are sufficiently melancholy. They soon outgrow the light weight which is necessary for the habitual 
exercise of the Race-Horse. Their highest ambition is to become jockeys; but, in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred, Nature 
