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pepper to a Greenlander: it was thought not only unnecessary, but would have been held as detrimental to him; for, going upon the principle that whatever is contrary to nature must be injurious, the horse being an herbaceous feeder, it was then thought that the greater quantum of natural food that could be got into the colt, so much the better for him. This might be all very well if we were content with the horse in his natural state. He was doubtless a fine animal even in such a state; and to render him so, the ordinary feed of the plains was sufficient. The wild flower is pretty, and to the eye of the savage beautiful for this Nature has supplied sufficient nourishment: but the eye accustomed to prize pansies, anemonies, and dahlias, becomes more fastidious, and to rear these the hotbed must come into use: so if we want a Plenipo, or a Harkaway, the oats and (comparatively) the hotbed must be used too. I may be told to look at the American Indian living in a state of nature in its simplest form, and to remark his activity, strength, and hardihood. We will look

at the three attributes. That he is more active, strong, and hardy than a journeyman tailor or an effeminate man of fortune, is of course fact; but this does not arise from the absence of the soup and madedishes, but from the active life he leads. Feed him on beef and mutton, and let him use the same exercise in the same air, he would be just as active and much stronger than he now is; for it is a pretty well-known fact that a hundred of our jolly tars are nearly as active, and decidedly stronger, than an equal number of the average race of savages, and almost, nay perhaps quite, as hardy. Show me the savage equal in bodily strength to the fighter entering the prize ring:

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NATURE NO TRAINER FOR THE P. R.

I suspect Mr. Adam would have made a poor stand against such a man; and if Johnny Broom, in training, had been substituted for master Abel in his match with Cain, the fight would have turned out differently. It is not the high feeding that hurts man or horse, but the want of work with it. To enable either to withstand inclemency of weather, I allow exposure to weather is necessary; but then beef-steaks and mutton-chops will enable a man to endure this much. better than vegetable marrow. But this description of hardihood is not that which we want: it might be desirable in a post-horse of Tobolsk, but we do not use sledges in Leicestershire, or run across the flat in a deep snow (though by the by I once saw that done): so, in fact, hardihood is about the last thing we want in the high-bred colt; and such is the nature of the horse, that, if we were determined to get it, it would unquestionably be at the expense of size, shape, and beauty. Then as to natural food being taken into consideration, we might just as well say it was intended man should go naked. This might or might not have been the intention of nature or providence: if it was, it was only because pilot coats were not then made. If I were obliged to state in three words what quantity of grass I would daily allow a racing colt, and was not permitted to add exceptions to that quantity, I should use the three words—none at all. If in general terms I was asked when I would allow a colt or horse his full feed of grass, or, in more vulgar phrase, his bellyful, I should say, never-never from the day he could bite it till the day of his death. Now when I answered the first question by saying none at all, I only did so from supposing I was limited to words, and it would be the safest reply I could

66 IN MEDIO TUTISSIMUS IBIS."

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make; for had I said "what he likes," he would shortly be good for nothing. Had I said, "only ten pounds," that for three hundred days out of the three hundred and sixty-five would be ten pounds too much: so, by giving none, of two evils I am satisfied I should 'choose the least: though an evil it would be, but most decidedly a fill of grass of any sort should be unknown to the racing or hunting colt.

Many persons may say, by feeding colts so early and so much on corn I should be sowing the seeds of many disorders in the future horse. If that assertion came from one among the many who knew better than myself, I should bow with deference to their opinion; but if it came from one who does not know better, I should say I do not at all think this would be the result; for with proper air, exercise, mashes, and physic, with a little green meat given at my discretion, and not taken at the colt's, I trust I could keep him tolerably straight, notwithstanding warmth and oats; and I am quite sure I could not do this without a free use of both-or, in perhaps more proper terms, I think so. But to avoid argument, and not to rely too much on my own opinion, supposing high-feeding even does produce a predisposition to certain disorders, men will hunt and race-at least I trust in GOD they will continue to do so as long as we are Englishmen ; and while they do this, they will have horses fitted for both. That we cannot get these by rearing a colt in any way bordering upon a state of nature is quite indisputable: therefore, supposing the arguments against artificial rearing brought forward by those in favour of a more natural mode are correct, it just amounts to this, we must go without hunters and race-horses, or we must run the risk

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of those diseases alluded to. This is putting the thing in its worst light, and in a diametrically opposite view to the one I take of it, so far as my humble opinion is concerned; for, in that humble opinion, distending a colt's bowels by grass, rendering him gross and plethoric in habit, dull in himself, and energetic in his temperament and movement, is likely, when we want to call for his exertions, to produce results ten times more fatal to our hopes than all the excitement of constitution produced by the opposite treatment. A debilitated habit, which the grassreared horse comparatively has, when opposed to the one artificially reared, it would take years to work up to that necessary for the race-horse and hunter; but if we find we have got the full tone in the instrument, and half a note too high, there will be no great difficulty in bringing it to concert pitch.

That green meat is occasionally useful, and indeed necessary for all colts, and indeed all horses, no one will dispute; but I should wish it to be considered merely in the light of an alterative, not as a part of the daily sustenance. Considered as an article of general food, I would never let it into a stable; I would as soon be forced to make half my dinner on pickles.

Warmth, we have been told so often, is congenial to the horse, and necessary to him to meet our purposes, that I believe there remains no doubt on that head. I feel quite certain it is as necessary to his growth as a colt, as it is to his condition as a horse; and for this purpose, Nature in all countries furnishes the clothing of the animal in accordance with the climate. All Northern animals have long coats: this shows that Nature from the FIRST furnishes the covering fitted to the temperature of the climate or at

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mosphere in which the young is BORN. I have, therefore, no doubt in my own mind, that if a mare was kept out during the winter, and her colt dropped in this situation, and so left, he would have given to him the roots of a rougher and longer colt than one where the mother was kept, and her colt dropped, in a warmer temperature. It may be said, however rough the mother or colt may be kept, that when the latter as a horse is kept warm, his coat will become fine: fine it certainly will comparatively become: but will it become as fine as that of the one born and matured in the warmer atmosphere? We know that Northern animals brought here lose a part of their shagginess: the North American bear does; but he is still a bear: there are the roots of his shaggy covering still: those roots were given in his youth, and are of a very different description of course to those given to the Ethiopian animal. We cannot, it is true, bring an African or Asiatic climate here; but our hot-houses, forcing-houses, or conservatories, show we can by art do what quite answers (as a substitute) for the vegetable kingdom: so we can, in a limited sense, for the animal. The Arab colt is born in warmth; the seed or roots of a coat fitted for the atmosphere he is destined to breathe in is given him: so are those of the Cossack; and I make no doubt but being born in a mild or cold atmosphere lays the foundation in a very great degree of the description of after-coat the horse will carry. I do not mean he should be foaled or kept in a hot-house; but even that would be far better than frost, snow, or keen winds.

It may be urged, that, by bringing up a colt in some measure in an artificial state, as in the case of forcing him by corn, he might be rendered more sus