number of years, taking the proper steps to replenish their extenfive and fertile regions with a race of Horfes worthy of them. They have occafionally imported fome of the best bred ftallions and mares, from this country. The famous Shark, which was perhaps, after Childers and Eclipse, the best Horse that ever ran over English ground; which beat all the Horfes of his time, both speedy and stout, each at their own game, and won his owner twenty thousand guineas, has for fome years continued to stock the plains of Virginia with high racing blood.

I am credibly informed, that a noble lord, of great celebrity in the annals of the turf, offered ten thousand guineas for this famous Horse, the day on which he was finally withdrawn from his labours, covered with the honours of the course. In the Jerfies, Tallyho, a fon of Highflyer, and several well-bred Horses, cover with great fuccefs, and to the confiderable emolument of their owners. A sporting friend of mine, who was in America during the late unfortunate war, described their faddlehorfes, as a light, fpider-legged, fickle-hammed race, with much more activity than lasting goodness, resembling the worst of our halfbreds. Briffot, who travelled those countries afterwards, and mentions the great exertions of their stages upon the road, extending fometimes to ninety-fix miles in a day, seems to think

think their Horses inadequate in ftrength, and that the care beftowed upon them, and the keep, are by no means fufficient. But there can be no doubt, that the late great emigrations from Yorkshire, with fome of the best cattle, will also import into America, the just and generous ftable-œconomy of old England.

The few hacks and hunters of Ireland, which have come under my obfervation, appeared to me to vary no otherwise from English-bred Horses, than that they were somewhat more flim, and sharper built; perhaps they have naturally a little more fire. The following account of the present state of Equestrian affairs in Ireland, I received in April 1796, from a man who has had more than forty years experience in Horses; and who had returned the preceding week from Dublin, where he had refided a confiderable time, as an affistant at one of the Horfe Repofitories. They have few or none of those large carthorfes fo common in this country; those they have, for the moft part, ill-fhaped, loose, and leggy. Their faddle-horfes naturally as good as ours; but, in generai, poorly kept, worse groomed, and ftill worfe fhod. In the latter refpect, they are thirty years behind us; the feet of their hacks, even in Dublin, being torn to pieces by weight of iron, and nails like

fkewers.

skewers. Their hunters the highest leapers in the world, being trained to it from their being first bitted. Prices confiderably under ours; good coaching-like nags, and chapmens' Horfes, being fold at the repofitories for ten or twelve pounds each. They excel even the good people of England, in anticipating the ftrength of their Horses, and wearing them out early; and deem them aged at the sixth year. Their hay ill-made, spoiled by standing too long before the grafs is cut, and afterwards, by not being stacked. It is carried loose to market. General want of industry among the Irish, and the rage of fetting up for Fontlemen, fo universal and contagious, that no sooner has a man acquired a few hundred pounds, by the exertion of an unfashionable industry, than he fcorns to turn his attention to any thing farther, than the readieft means of spending it. Freight of Horses to Park-gate, two guineas each.”

I intreat the good citizens of Ireland, to excuse my detailing the above unfavourable particulars, and to oblerve, that I speak merely from the report of another. If the picture be falfe or overcharged (which my partiality for the gallant character of the Irish makes me anxiously wish) they will pass it over with a forbearing fmile; if in any respect true, their ferious reflections upon it, will prove the first step towards amendment.

I fhall

I fhall now (after a few preliminary remarks) prefent the reader with a general defcription of the external conformation of the Horse, grounded, I conceive, upon juft principles of theory, and confirmed by experience. By a general description, I would be understood to intend fuch an one, as is equally applicable to the racer, and the cart-horse; the particulars wherein they differ, will be explained in the course of the work, under the diftinct heads. In laying down certain rules, as the standard of beauty and proportion in Horses, human judgment has, no doubt, been guided by the observation of the best natural models; these have been originally furnished by the courfers of Arabia, according to all history and tradition, the oldest breed in the world, and proved, from all experience, to be the best shaped. I have already obferved upon the ingenuity of thofe geometrical rules and calculations, adopted in the French veterinary schools, for the purpose of fixing a standard of just proportions for the Horse; and had I room to spare, I fhould borrow them of Saintbel, who has freely borrowed of other authors, both French and English; but it does not come within my plan to be so mathematically exact.

The HEAD OF A HORSE fhould be void of flesh, and for length and fize, appear to hold fair proportion with the fize of his body; his eye

full,

full, and somewhat prominent; eye-lids thin and dry; ears thin, narrow, erect, of middling length, and not diftant from each other; forehead flat, not too large or fquare, and running nearly in a straight line, to the muzzle, which fhould be small and fine; noftrils capacious; lips thin; mouth of fufficient depth, and the tongue not too large; the jaw-bones wide at top, where they join the neck; the head not abruptly affixed to the extremity of the neck, but with a moderate curve and tapering of the latter.

The NECK must be of moderate, not too great length, nor too thick and gross on the upper part, nor too large and deep, but rising from the withers or forehand, and afterwards declining and tapering at the extremity, it will form fomewhat of an arch; underneath, the neck fhould be ftraight from the cheft, and by no means convex, or bellying out.

The SHOULDERS capacious, and of large extent, so as to appear the most confpicuous part of the body, but without being loaded with flesh; they fhould reach fairly to the top of the withers, which must be well raised; the cheft fhould be fufficiently full, not narrow or pinched.

The BODY deep and fubftantial; back a plane of good width, but handfomely rounded; back-bone straight, or with a trifling inclination,

and