144 
The value of the horse, as a fellow-labourer with 
man in the fields, from his superior activity to the 
ox, is unquestioned by the possessors of light lands. 
His importance in facilitating land commerce has 
been duly appreciated in all times, and by all na- 
tions. His celebrity may be said to prance on loftier 
ground, when historians and poets speak of rushing 
squadrons which descend with the rapidity of light- 
ning on the plain of blood, where the hoofs are red 
with the gore of trampled battalions. But, alas! 
In evil hour, and with unhallow’d voice, (pace Homeri) 
Profaning the pure gift of Poesy, 
Did he begin to sing. He first who sung 
Of arms and combats, and the proud array 
Of warriors on th’ embattled plain 
If the stroke of war 
Fell certain on the guilty head, none else ; 
If they that make the cause might taste th’ effect ; 
Then might the Bard, though child of Peace, delight 
To twine fresh wreaths around the Conqu’ror’s brow, &e. 


As sings a learned and amiable poet of New College, 
the bard of Lewesdon Hill. These poems may well 
excite regret that he wrote no more of this kind. 
The renown of the racer and the hunter is scarcely 
less than that of the charger, and is perhaps more 
highly and more correctly appreciated in England 
than in any other country". Feats of horsemanship 
in Turkey and Persia, and perhaps throughout all 
" Perhaps no where better than at Oxford and Cambridge, 
from the Odes of Pindar, and the plains of Bibury and New- 
market. 
