Chapter 3

θεȣς δ᾽ ὀνομῄνεν ἀπανταςΤȣς ὑποταρίȣς3

3HOMER.

“The reader (as Fuller says,) will not be offended with their hard names here following, seeing his eye may run them over in perusing them, though his tongue never touch them in pronouncing them.” And when he thinks how many private and non-commissioned officers go to make up a legion, he may easily believe that Owen Glendower might have held Hotspur

at least nine hoursIn reckoning up the several Devil's namesThat were his lackeys.

Barca, Maquias, Acatam, Ge, Arri, Macaquias, Ju, Mocatam, Arra, Vi, Macutu, Laca, Machehe, Abriim, Maracatu, Majacatam, Barra, Matu, the Great Dog, (this was a dumb devil), Arracatorra, Mayca, Oy, Aleu, Malacatan, Mantu, Arraba, Emay, Alacamita, Olu, Ayvatu, Arremabur, Aycotan, Lacahabarratu, Oguerracatam, Jamacatia, Mayacatu, Ayciay, Ballà, Luachi, Mayay, Buzache, Berrà, Berram, Maldequita, Bemaqui, Moricastatu, Anciaquias, Zamata, Bu, Zamcapatujas, Bellacatuaxia, Go, Bajaque, and Baa,—which seems but a sheepish name for a Devil.

Can there be yet a roll of names more portentous in appearance, more formidable in sound, more dangerous in utterance? Look, reader, at the ensuing array, and judge for thyself;lookI say, and mentally peruse it, but attempt not to enunciate the words, lest thou shouldest loosen thy teeth or fracture them in the operation.

Angheteduff, otherwise Anghutuduffe, otherwise Ballyhaise, Kealdragh, Caveneboy, Aghugrenoase, otherwise Aghagremous, Killataven, Kilnaverley, Kelvoryvybegg, Tonnegh, Briehill, Drommody, Amraghduffe, Drumhermshanbeeg, Dranhill, Cormaghscargin, Corlybeeg, Cornashogagh, Dromhome, Trimmigan, Knocklyeagh, Carrigmore, Clemtegrit, Lesdamenhuffe, Correamyhy, Aghnielanagher, otherwise Agnigamagh, Prittage, Aghaiasgim, Tobogamagh, Dromaragh, otherwise Dromavragh, Cnockamyhee, Lesnagvan, Kellarne, Gargaran, Cormodyduffe, Curraghchinrin, Annageocry, Brocklagh, Aghmaihi, Drungvin, otherwise Dungen, Dungenbegg, Dungemore, Sheina, Dremcarplin, Shaghtany, Knocksegart, Keillagh, Tinlaghcoole, Tinlagheryagh, Lyssybrogan, Lyssgallagh, Langarriah, Sheanmullagh, Celgvane, Drombomore, Lissgarre, Toncantany, Knockadawe, Dromboobegg, Drumpgampurne, Listiarta, Omrefada, Corranyore, Corrotober, Clere, Biagbire, Lurgriagh, Tartine, Drumburne, Aghanamaghan, Lusmakeragh, Nucaine, Cornamuck, Crosse, Coyleagh, Cnocknatratin, Toanmore, Ragasky, Longamonihity, Atteantity, Knockfodda, Tonaghmore, Drumgrestin, Owley, Dronan, Vushinagh, Carricknascan, Lyssanhany, otherwise Lysseyshanan, Knockaduyne, Dromkurin, Lissmakearke, Dromgowhan, Raghege, Dromacharand, Moneyneriogh, Drinsurly, Dromillan, Agunylyly, Gnockantry, Ellyn, Keileranny, otherwise Kulrany, Koraneagh, and Duigary.

“Mercy on us,” says the Reader, “what are these!”—Have patience Reader, we have not done yet, there are still—Magheryhillagh, Drung, Clefern, Castleterra, Killana, Moybolgace, Kilfort, Templefort, Killaghadon, Laragh, Cloncaughy, Annaghgiliffe, Towninmore, Rathany, Drumgoone, Tyrelatrada, Lurganboy, Ballyclanphilip, Killinkery, Ballintampel, Kilbride, Crosserlough, Drumlawnaught, Killanaburgh, Kilsherdan, otherwise Killersherding, Dremakellen, Aughaurain, Drumgress and Shanaraghan.

“For mercy's sake,” exclaims the Reader, “enough—enough! what are they?” The latter, dear Reader, are all Poles and Termons. And the whole of them were set up for sale by public cant in Dublin, pursuant to a Decree of his Majesty's High Court of Chancery in Ireland, dated the 18th of May, 1816.

HOW THERE AROSE A DISPUTE BETWEEN BARNABY AND NICHOLAS CONCERNING THE NAMING OF THIS COLT, AND OF THE EXTRAORDINARY CIRCUMSTANCES THAT ENSUED.

Quoiqu'il en soit, je ne tairai point cette histoire; je l'abandonne à la credulité, ou à l'incredulité des Lecteurs, ils prendront à cet égard quel parti il leur plaira. Je dirai seulement, s'ils ne la veulent pas croire, que je les defie de me prouver qu'elle soit absolument impossible; ils ne le prouveront jamais.

GOMGAM.

While the Doctor was deliberating by what significant name to call the foal of which he had in so surprising a manner found himself possessed, a warm dispute upon the same subject had arisen between Barnaby and Nicholas: for though a woman does not consider herself complimented when she is called a horse-godmother, each was ambitious of being horse-godfather on this occasion, and giving his own name to the colt, which had already become a pet with both.

Upon discovering each other's wish they first quietly argued the point. Nicholas maintained that it was not possible any person, except his master, could have so good a right to name the colt as himself, who had actually been present when he was dropt. Barnaby admitted the force of the argument, but observed that there was a still stronger reason for naming him as he proposed, because he had been foaled on the eleventh of June, which is St. Barnabas's day.

Nicholas, quoth his antagonist, it ought to be, for I was there at the very nick of time. Barnaby, retorted the other, it ought to be; for in a barn it happened.

Old Nick was the father of him! said Nicholas.—The more reason, replied Barnaby, for giving him a Saint's name.

He shall be nicked to suit his name, said Nicholas;—and that's a good reason!—Its a wicked reason, cried Barnaby, he shall never be nicked. I love him as well as if he was a bairn of my own: and that's another reason why he should be called Barnaby. He shall neither be nicked or Nicholased.

Upon this Nicholas grew warm, and asserted that his name was as good as the others, and that he was ready to prove himself the better man. The other who had been made angry at the thought of nicking his pet, was easily put upon his mettle, and they agreed to settle the dispute by theultima ratio regum. But this appeal to the immortal Gods was not definitive, for John Atkinson the Miller's son came up and parted them; and laughing at them for a couple of fools when he heard the cause of their quarrel, he proposed that they should determine it by running a race to the gate at the other end of the field.

Having made them shake hands, and promise to abide by the issue, he went before them to the goal, and got on the other side to give the signal and act as umpire.

One!—Two!—Three and away!—They were off like race-horses. They jostled mid-way. It was neck and neck. And each laid his hand at the same moment on the gate.

John Atkinson then bethought him that it would be a more sensible way of deciding the dispute, if they were to drink for it, and see who could swallow most ale at the Black Bull, where the current barrel was much to his taste. At the Black Bull, therefore they met in the evening. John chalked pint for pint; but for the sake of good fellowship he drank pint for pint also; the Landlord (honest Matthew Sykes) entered into the spirit of the contest, and when his wife refused to draw any more beer, went for it himself as long as he had a leg to stand on, or a hand to carry the jug, and longer than any one of the party could keep the score.

The next day they agreed to settle it by a sober game at Beggar-my-Neighbour. It was a singular game. The cards were dealt with such equality that after the first round had shewn the respective hands, the ablest calculator would have been doubtful on which side to have betted. Captures were made and remade,—the game had all and more than all its usual ups and downs, and it ended in tyeing the two last cards. Never in any contest had Jupiter held the scales with a more even hand.

The Devil is in the business to be sure, said Nicholas, let us toss up for it!—Done, said Barnaby; and Nicholas placing a half-penny on his thumb nail sent it whizzing into the air.

Tails! quoth Barnaby.—Tis heads, cried Nicholas, hurrah!

Barnaby stampt with his right foot for vexation—lifted his right arm to his head, drew in his breath with one of those sounds which grammarians would class among interjections, if they could express them by letters, and swore that if it had been an honest half-penny, it would never have served him so! He picked it up,—and it proved to be aBrummejamof the coarsest and clumsiest kind, with a head on each side. They now agreed that the Devil certainly must be in it, and determined to lay the whole case before the Doctor.

The Doctor was delighted with their story. The circumstances which they related were curious enough to make the naming of this horse as remarkable as his birth. He was pleased also that his own difficulties and indecision upon this important subject should thus as it were be removed by Fate or Fortune; and taking the first thought which now occurred, and rubbing his forehead as he was wont to do, when any happy conception struck him, (Jupiter often did so when Minerva was in his brain), he said, we must compromise the matter, and make a compound name in which both shall have an equal share. Nicholas Ottley, and Barnaby Sutton; N. O.—B. S.—Nobs shall be his name.

Perhaps the Doctor remembered Smectymnuus at that time, and the notorious Cabal, and the fanciful etymology that because news comes from all parts, and the letters N. E. W. S. stand for North, East, West, and South—the word was thence compounded. Perhaps also, he called to mind that Rabbi Moses Ben Maimon, the famous Maimonides, was called Rambam from the initials of his titles and his names; and that the great Gustavus Adolphus when he travelled incognito assumed the name of M. Gars, being the four initials of his name and title. He certainly did not remember that in the Dialogue of Solomon and Saturnus the name of Adam is said to have been in like manner derived from the four Angels Archox, Dux, Arocholem, and Minsymbrie. He did not remember this—because he never knew it; this very curious Anglo-Saxon poem existing hitherto only in manuscript, and no other portions or account of it having been printed than those brief ones for which we are indebted to Mr. Conybeare, a man upon whose like we of his generation shall not look again.

A SINGULAR ANECDOTE AND NOT MORE SAD THAN TRUE.

Oh penny Pipers, and most painful pennersOf bountiful new Ballads, what a subject,What a sweet subject for your silver sounds!BEAUMONTand FLETCHER.

The chance of the Birmingham halfpenny was a rare one. I will not so far wrong the gentle Reader as to suppose that he will doubt the accuracy of any thing which is recorded in this true history; and I seriously assure him that such a halfpenny I have myself seen in those days when the most barefaced counterfeits were in full circulation,—a halfpenny which had a head on either side, and consequently was like the fox in the fable, or a certain noble Marquis, and now more noble Duke when embassador at Petersburg,—not as being double-faced, but as having lost its tail.

A rare chance it was, and yet rarer ones have happened.—I remember one concerning a more serious appeal to fortune with the same instrument. An Organist not without some celebrity in his day, (Jeremiah Clark was his name), being hopelessly in love with a very beautiful lady, far above his station in life, determined upon suicide, and walked into the fields to accomplish his purpose. Coming to a retired spot where there was a convenient pond, surrounded with equally convenient trees, he hesitated which to prefer, whether to choose a dry death, or a watery one;—perhaps he had never heard of the old riddle concerning Ælia Lælia Crispis, which no Œdipus has yet solved. But that he might not continue like the Ass between two bundles of hay in the sophism, or Mahomet's coffin in the fable, he tossed a halfpenny in the air to decide whether he should hang or drown himself,—and the halfpenny stuck edgeways in the dirt.

The most determined infidel would at such a moment have felt that this was more than accident. Clark, as may well be supposed went home again; but the salutary impression did not remain upon his poor disordered mind, and he shot himself soon afterwards.

A DEFECT IN HOYLE SUPPLIED. GOOD ADVICE GIVEN, AND PLAIN TRUTH TOLD. A TRIBUTE OF RESPECT TO THE MEMORY OF F. NEWBERY, THE CHILDREN'S BOOKSELLER AND FRIEND.

Neither is it a thing impossible or greatly hard, even by such kind of proofs so to manifest and clear that point, that no man living shall be able to deny it, without denying some apparent principle such as all men acknowledge to be true.

HOOKER.

There are many things in these kingdoms which are greatly under valued: strong beer for example in the cider countries, and cider in the countries of good strong beer; bottled twopenny in South Britain; sprats and herrings by the rich, (—it may be questioned whether his Majesty ever tasted them, though food for the immortal Gods),—and fish of every kind by the labouring classes;—some things because they are common, and others because they are not.

But I cannot call to mind any thing which is estimated so much below its deserts as the game of Beggar-my-Neighbour. It is generally thought fit only for the youngest children, or for the very lowest and most ignorant persons into whose hands a pack of cards can descend; whereas there is no game whatever in which such perpetual opportunities of calculation are afforded to the scientific gamester; not indeed for playing his cards, but for betting upon them. Zerah Colburn, George Bidder and Professor Airy would find their faculties upon the stretch, were they to attempt to keep pace with its chances.

It is, however, necessary that the Reader should not mistake the spurious for the genuine game, for there are various ways of playing it, and as in all cases only one which is the orthodox way. You take up trick by trick. The trump as at other games, takes every other suit. If suit is not followed the leader wins the trick; but if it is, the highest card is the winner. These rules being observed (I give them because they will not be found in Hoyle) the game is regular and affords combinations worthy to have exercised the power of that calculating machine of flesh and blood, called Jedediah Buxton.

Try it Reader, if you have the slightest propensity for gambling.—But first pledge your sacred word of honour to the person whose good opinion you are most desirous of retaining, that you will never at any game, nor in any adventure, risk a sum which would involve you in any serious difficulties, or occasion you any reasonable regret if it should be lost. Make that resolution, and keep it;—and you and your family will have cause to bless the day in which you read the History of Dr. Dove.

Observe, it is your word of honour that I have requested, and not your oath. Either with you might and ought to be equally binding, asin foro conscientiæ, so every where else. But perhaps you are, or may hereafter be a Member of Parliament, (a propensity whether slight or not for gambling which has been presupposed, renders this the more likely;) and since what is called the Catholic Relief Bill was passed, the obligation of an oath has been done away by the custom of Parliament, honourable Members being allowed to swear with whatever degree of mental reservation they and their Father Confessors may find convenient.

A Frenchman some fifteen years ago published a Treatise upon the game of Thirty-One; and which is not always done by Authors, in French or English, thought it necessary to make himself well acquainted with the subject upon which he was writing. In order therefore to ascertain the chances, he made one million five hundred and sixty thousand throws which he computed as equivalent to four years' uninterrupted play. If this indefatigable Frenchman be living, I exhort him to study Beggar-my-Neighbour with equal diligence.

There are some games which have survived the Revolutions of Empires, like the Pyramids; but there are more which have been as short-lived as modern Constitutions. There may be some old persons who still remember how Ombre was played, and Tontine and Lottery; but is there any one who has ever heard of Quintill, Piquemdrill, Papillon, L'Ambigu, Ma Commère, La Mariée, La Mouche, Man d'Auvergne, L'Emprunt, Le Poque, Romestecq, Sizette, Guinguette, Le Sixte, La Belle, Gillet, Cul Bas, Brusquembrille, the Game of Hoc, the Reverse, the Beast, the Cuckoo and the Comet,—is there any one, I say, who has ever heard of these Games, unless he happens to know as I do, that rules for playing them were translated from the French of the Abbé Bellecour, and published for the benefit of the English people some seventy years ago by Mr. F. Newbery, a publisher never to be named without honour by those who have read in their childhood the delectable histories of Goody Two-Shoes, and Giles Gingerbread.

A FEEBLE ATTEMPT TO DESCRIBE THE PHYSICAL AND MORAL QUALITIES OF NOBS.

Quant à moi, je desirerois fort sçavoir bien dire, ou que j'eusse eu une bonne plume, et bien taillée à commandement, pour l'exalter et louër comme il le mérite. Toutesfois, telle quelle est, je m'en vais l'employer au hazard.

BRANTOME.

Such, O Reader were the circumstances concerning Nobs, before his birth, at his birth and upon his naming. Strange indeed would it have been, if anything which regarded so admirable a horse, had been after the manner of other horses.

Fate never could a horse provideSo fit for such a man to ride;Nor find a man with strictest careSo fit for such a horse to bear.1

1CHURCHILL.

To describe him as he was would require all the knowledge, and all the eloquence of the immortal Taplin. Were I to attempt it in verse, with what peculiar propriety might I adopt the invocation of the Polish Poet.

Ducite GratiæE valle Permessi vagantemPegason; alipedemque sacrisFrenate sertis.—Ut micat auribus!Vocemque longé vatis amabiliAgnoscit hinnitu! Ut DearumFrena ferox, hilarique bullamCollo poposcit.2

2CASIMIR.

Might I not have applied the latter part of these verses as aptly, as they might truly have been applied to Nobs, when Barnaby was about to saddle him on a fine spring morning at the Doctor's bidding? But what have I to do with the Graces, or the Muses and their winged steed? My business is with plain truth and sober prose.

———Io non so dov'io debba comminciare,Dal capo, da gli orecchi, o dalla coda.Egli è per tutto tanto singulare,Ch'io per me vò lodarlo, intero, intero;Poi pigli ognun qual membro più gli pare.3

3BUSINI.

Stubbs would have found it difficult to paint him, Reginald Heber himself to describe him as he was. I must begin by saying what he was not.

And grant me now,Good reader, thou!Of terms to useSuch choice to chuse,As may delightThe country wight,And knowledge bring:For such do praiseThe country phrase,The country acts,The country facts,The country toys,Before the joysOf any thing.4

4TUSSER.

He was not jogged under the jaw, nor shoulder-splat, neck-cricked, pricked in the sole or loose in the hoof, horse-hipped, hide-bound, broken-winded, straight or heavy shouldered, lame in whirl-bone, run-away, restiff, vicious, neck-reversed or cock-thrappled, ewe-necked, or deer-necked, high on the leg, broken-knee'd, splent, oslett, false-quartered, ring-boned, sand-cracked, groggy, hollow-backed, bream-backed, long-backed or broken-backed, light-carcased, ragged hipped, droop-Dutchman'd, Dutch buttock'd, hip shot-stifled, hough-boney or sickle-hammed. He had neither his head ill set on, nor dull and hanging ears, nor wolves teeth, nor bladders in the mouth, nor gigs, nor capped-hocks, nor round legs, nor grease, nor the chine-gall, the navel-gall, the spur-gall, the light-gall, or the shackle-gall; nor the worms, nor the scratches, nor the colt-evil, nor the pole-evil, nor the quitter bones, nor the curbs, nor the Anticoré, nor the pompardy, nor the rotten-frush, nor the crown-scab, nor the cloyd, nor the web, nor the pin, nor the pearl, nor the howks, nor the haws, nor the vines, nor the paps, nor the pose: nor the bladders, nor the surbate, nor the bloody riffs, nor sinews down, nor mallenders, nor fallenders, nor sand cracks, nor hurts in the joints, nor toes turned out, nor toes turned in, nor soft feet, nor hard feet, nor thrushes, nor corns. Nor did he beat upon the hand, nor did he carry low, nor did he carry in the wind. Neither was he a crib-biter, nor a high-goer, nor a daisy cutter, nor a cut-behind, nor a hammer and pinchers, nor a wrong-end-first, nor a short stepper, nor a roarer, nor an interferer. For although it hath been said that “a man cannot light of any horse young or old, but he is furnished with one, two, or more of these excellent gifts,” Nobs had none of them: he was an immaculate horse;—such as Adam's would have been, if Adam had kept what could not then have been called a saddle-horse, in Eden.

He was not, like the horse upon which Petruchio came to his wedding, “possessed with the glanders and like to mose in the chine; troubled with the lampass, infected with the fashions, full of wind-galls, sped with spavins, raied with the yellows, past cure of the fives, stark spoiled with the staggers, begnawn with the bots, swayed in the back and shoulder-shotten.”5But he was in every respect the reverse.

5TAMING OF THESHREW.

A horse he was worthy to be praised like that of the Sieur Vuyart

Un courtaut brave, un courtaut glorieux,Qui ait en l'air ruade furieuseGlorieux trot, la bride glorieuse.6

6CLEMENTMAROT.

A horse who like that famous charger might have said in his Epitaph

J'allay curieuxEn chocs furieux,Sans craindre estrapade;Mal rabotez lieuxPassez a cloz yeux,Sans faire chopade.La viste virade,Pompante pennade,Le saut soubzlevant,La roide ruade,Prompte petarradeJe mis en avant.Escumeur bavantAu manger sçavant,Au penser très-doux;Relevé devant,Jusqu' au bout servantJ'ay esté sur tous.

Like that Arabian which Almanzar sent to Antea's father, the Soldan,

Egli avea tutte le fattezze pronteDi buon caval, come udirete appresso.7

Like those horses, described by Mr. Milman in his version of the episode of Nala from the Mahábhárata, he was

fit and powerful for the road;Blending mighty strength with fleetness,—high in courage and in blood:Free from all the well-known vices,—broad of nostril, large of jaw,With the ten good marks distinguished,—born in Sindhu, fleet as wind.

7PULCI.

Like these horses he was,—except that he was born in Yorkshire;—and being of Tartarian blood it may be that he was one of the same race with them.

He was not like the horses of Achilles;

Ἐξ ἀφθίτων γὰρ ἄφθιτοι πεφυκότεςΤὸν Πηλέως φέρουσι θούριον γόνον.Δίδωσι δ᾽ αὐτους πωλοδαμνήσας ἄναξΠηλεῖ Ποσειδῶν, ὡς λεγουσι, πόντιος.8

Like them therefore Nobs could not be, because he was a mortal horse; and moreover because he was not amphibious, as they must have been. If there be any of their breed remaining, it must be the immortal River, or more properly Water-Horse of Loch Lochy, who has sometimes, say the Highlanders, been seen feeding on the banks: sometimes entices mares from the pasture, sometimes overturns boats in his anger and agitates the whole lake with his motion.

8EURIPIDES.

He was of a good tall stature; his head lean and comely; his forehead out-swelling; his eyes clear, large, prominent and sparkling, with no part of the white visible; his ears short, small, thin, narrow and pricking; his eye-lids thin; his eye-pits well-filled; his under-jaw thick but not fleshy; his nose arched; his nostrils deep, open and extended; his mouth well split and delicate; his lips thin; his neck deep, long, rising straight from the withers, then curving like a swan's; his withers sharp and elevated; his breast broad; his ribs bending; his chine broad and straight; his flank short and full; his crupper round and plump; his haunches muscular; his thighs large and swelling; his hocks round before, tendonous behind, and broad on the sides, the shank thin before, and on the sides broad; his tendons strong, prominent and well detached; his pasterns short; his fet-locks well-tufted, the coronet somewhat raised; his hoofs black, solid and shining; his instep high, his quarters round; the heel broad; the frog thin and small; the sole thin and concave.

Here I have to remark that the tufted fetlocks Nobs derived from his dam Miss Jenny. They belong not to the thorough-bred race;—witness the hunting song,

‘Your high bred nags,Your hairy legs,We'll see which first come in, Sir.’

He had two properties of a man, to wit, a proud heart, and a hardy stomach.

He had the three parts of a woman, the three parts of a lion, the three parts of a bullock, the three parts of a sheep, the three parts of a mule, the three parts of a deer, the three parts of a wolf, the three parts of a fox, the three parts of a serpent, and the three parts of a cat, which are required in a perfect horse.

For colour he was neither black-bay, brown-bay, dapple-bay, black-grey, iron-grey, sad-grey, branded-grey, sandy-grey, dapple-grey, silver-grey, dun, mouse-dun, flea-backed, flea-bitten, rount, blossom, roan, pye-bald, rubican, sorrel, cow-coloured sorrel, bright sorrel, burnt sorrel, starling-colour, tyger-colour, wolf-colour, deer-colour, cream-colour, white, grey or black. Neither was he green, like the horse which the Emperor Severus took from the Parthians, and reserved for his share of the spoil, with a Unicorn's horn and a white Parrot;et qu'il estima plus pour la rareté et couleur naïve et belle que pour la valeur, comme certes il avoit raison: car, nul butin, tant precieux fut-il, ne l'eust pu esgaler, et sur tout ce cheval, verd de nature—Such a horse Rommel saw in the Duke of Parma's stables; because of its green colour it was called Speranza, and the Duke prized it above all his other horses for the extreme rarity of the colour, as being a jewel among horses,—yea a very emerald.

Nor was he peach-coloured roan, like that horse which Maximilian de Bethune, afterwards the famous Duc de Sully, bought at a horse-market for forty crowns, and which was so poor a beast in appearancequ'il ne sembloit propre qu'a porter la malle, and yet turned out to be so excellent a horse that Maximilian sold him to the Vidasme of Chartres for six hundred crowns. Sully was an expert horse-dealer. He bought of Monsieur de la Roche-Guyon one of the finest Spanish horses that ever was seen and gave six hundred crowns for him. Monsieur de Nemours not being able to pay the money,une tapisserie des forces de Herculewas received either in pledge or payment, which tapestry adorned the great hall at Sully, when the veteran soldier and statesman had the satisfaction of listening to theMemoires de ce que Nous quatre, say the writers,qui avons esté employez en diverses affaires de France sous Monseigneur le Duc de Sully, avons peu sçavoir de sa vie, mœurs, dicts, faicts, gestes et fortunes; et de ce que luy-mesme nous peut avoir appris de ceux de nostre valeureux Alcide le Roy Henry le Grand, depuis le mois de May 1572 (qu'il fut mis à son service,) jusques au mois de May 1610, qu'il laissa la terre pour aller au Ciel.

No! his colour was chesnut; and it is a saying founded on experience that a chesnut horse is always a good one, and will do more work than any horse of the same size of any other colour. The horse which Wellington rode at the Battle of Waterloo for fifteen hours without dismounting, was a small chesnut horse.

This was the ‘thorough-bred red chestnut-charger’ mentioned by Sir George Head when he relates an anecdote of the Duke of Wellington and Sir Thomas Picton, who, contrary to the Duke's intentions, seemed at that moment likely to bring on an engagement, not long after the battle of Orthez. Having learnt where Sir Thomas was, the Duke set spurs to his horse; the horse “tossed up its head with a snort and impetuously sprang forward at full speed, and in a few minutes,ventre à terre, transported its gallant rider, his white cloak streaming in the breeze, to the identical copse distant about half a mile from whence the firing of the skirmishers proceeded. As horse and rider furiously careered towards the spot, I fancied,” says Sir George, “I perceived by the motion of the animal's tail, a type, through the medium of the spur, of the quickened energies of the noble Commander, on the moment when for the first time he caught view of Picton.”

This famous horse, named Copenhagen because he was foaled about the time of the expedition against that City, died on the 12th of February, 1836, at Strathfieldsaye of old age; there, where he had passed the last ten years of his life in perfect freedom, he was buried, and by the Duke's orders a salute was fired over his grave. The Duchess used to wear a bracelet made of his hair. Would that I had some of thine in a broche, O Nobs!

Copenhagen has been wrongly described in a newspaper as slightly made. A jockey hearing this said of a horse, would say, “aye a thready thing;” but Copenhagen was a large horse in a small compass, as compact a thorough bred horse as ever run a race,—which he had done before he was bought and sold to the Duke in Spain. “He was as sweet gentle a creature,” says a right good old friend of mine, “as I ever patted, and he came of a gentle race, by the mother's side; she was Meteora, daughter of Meteor, and the best trait in her master's character, Westminster's Marquis, was that his eyes dropped tears when they told him she had won a race, but being over weighted had been much flogged.”

He was worthy, like the horses of the Greek Patriarch Theophylact, to have been fed with pistachios, dates, dried grapes, and figs steeped in the finest wines,—that is to say if he would have preferred this diet to good oats, clean hay, and sometimes in case of extraordinary exertion an allowance of bread soaked in ale.

Wine the Doctor did not find it necessary to give him, even in his old age; although he was aware of the benefit which the horse of Messire Philippe De Comines derived from it after the battle of Montl'hery: “J'avoye,” says that sagacious soldier, “un cheval extremement las et vieil; Il beut un seau plein de vin; par aucun cas d'aventure il y mit le museau; Je le laissay achever; Jamais ne l'avoye trouvé si bon ne si frais.”

He was not such a horse as that famous one of Julius Cæsar's, which had feet almost like human feet, the hoofs being cleft after the manner of toes. Leo X. had one which in like manner had what Sir Charles Bell calls digital extremities; and Geoffrey St. Hilaire, he tells us, had seen one with three toes on the fore-foot and four on the hind-foot; and such a horse was not long since exhibited in London and at Newmarket.—No! Nobs was not such a horse as this;—if he had been so mis-shapen he would have been a monster. The mare which the Tetrarch of Numidia sent to Grandgousier and upon which Gargantua rode to Paris, had feet of this description; but that mare wasla plus enorme et la plus grande que fut oncques veüe, et la plus monstreuse.

He was a perfect horse;—worthy to belong to the perfect Doctor,—worthy of being immortalized in this perfect history. And it is not possible to praise him too much,

οὓνεκ᾽ ἀριστοςἻππῶν, ὅσσοι ἔασιν ὑπ᾽ ἠώ τ᾽ ἡέλιον τε:9

not possible I repeat,porque, as D. Juan Perez de Montalvan says,parece que la naturaleza le avia hecho, no con la prisa que suele, sino con tanto espacio y perfection, que, como quando un pintor acaba con felicidad un lienzo, suele poner a su lado su nombre, assi pudo la Naturaleza escrivir el suyo, como por termino de su ciencia:which is, being translated, “Nature seemed to have made him, not with her wonted haste, but with such deliberation and perfection, that as a painter when he finishes a picture successfully, uses to mark it with his name, so might Nature upon this work have written hers, as being the utmost of her skill!” As Shakespeare would have expressed it—

Nature might stand upAnd say to all the world, this was a Horse.

9HOMER.

In the words of an old romance, to describe himainsi qu'il apartient seroit difficile jusques à l'impossibilité, beyond which no difficulty can go.

He was as excellent a horse, the Doctor used to say, as that which was first chosen to be backed by Cain, and which the divine Du Bartas, as rendered by the not less divine Sylvester, thus describes,

With round, high, hollow, smooth, brown, jetty hoof;With pasterns short, upright, but yet in mean;Dry sinewy shanks; strong fleshless knees and lean;With hart-like legs; broad breast, and large behind,With body large, smooth flanks, and double chined;A crested neck, bowed like a half bent bow,Whereon a long, thin, curled mane doth flow;A firm full tail, touching the lowly ground,With dock between two fair fat buttocks drown'd;A pricked ear, that rests as little spaceAs his light foot; a lean, bare, bony face,Thin joule, and head but of a middle size;Full, lively-flaming, quickly-rolling eyes;Great foaming mouth, hot fuming nostril wide;Of chesnut hair, his forehead starrified;Three milky feet, a feather in his breast,Whom seven-years-old at the next grass he guest.

In many respects he was like that horse which the elder of the three Fracassins won in battle in the Taprobanique Islands, in the wars between the two dreadful Giant Kings Gargamitre and Tartabas.Ce furieux destrier estoit d'une taille fort belle, à jambe de cerf, la poictrine ouverte, la croupe large, grand corps, flancs unis, double eschine, le col vouté comme un arc mi-tendu, sur lequel flottoit un long poil crespu; la queue longue, ferme et espesse; l'oreille poinctue et sans repos, aussi bien que le pied, d'une corne lissee, retirant sur le noir, haute, ronde, et creuse, le front sec, et n'ayant rien que l'os; les yeux gros prompts et relevez; la bouche grande, escumeuse; le nareau ronflant et ouvert; poil chastain, de l'age de sept ans. Bref qui eut voulu voir le modelle d'un beau, bon et genereux cheval en estoit un.

Like this he was, except that he was neverNobs furieux, being as gentle and as docile at seven years old, as at seventeen when it was my good fortune to know and my privilege sometimes to ride him.

He was not such a horse as that for which Muley, the General of the King of Fez, and thePrincipe ConstanteD. Fernando fought, when they found him without an owner upon a field covered with slain; a horse

tan monstruo, que siendo hijodel Viento, adopcion pretendedel Fuego; y entre los doslo desdize y lo desmienteel color, pues siendo blancodize el Agua, parto es estede mi esfera, sola yopude quaxarle de nieve.

Both leaped upon him at once, and fought upon his back, and Calderon's Don Fernando thus describes the battle,—

En la silla y en las ancaspuestos los dos juntamente,mares de sangre rompimos;por cuyas ondas crueleseste baxel animado,hecho proa de la frente,rompiendo el globo de nacar.desde el codon al copete,parecio entre espuma y sangre,ya que baxel quise hazerle,de quatro espuelas herido,que quatro vientos le mueven.

He did not either in his marks or trappings, resemble Rabicano, as Chiabrera describes him, when Rinaldo having lost Bayardo, won this famous horse from the Giant to whose keeping Galafron had committed him after Argalia's death.

Era sì negro l'animal guerriero,Qual pece d' Ida; e solamente en fronteE sulla coda biancheggiava il pelo,E del piè manco, e deretano l'unghia;Ma con fren d'oro, e con dorati arcioni.Sdegna tremando ogni reposo, e vibraLe tese orecchie, e per levarsi avvampa,E col ferrato piè non è mai stancoBattere il prato, e tutte l'aure sfidaAl sonar de magnanimi nitriti.

Galafron had employed

Tutto l'Inferno a far veloce in corsoQual negro corridor.

Notwithstanding which Rabicano appears to have been a good horse, and to have had no vice in him; and yet his equine virtues were not equal to those of Nobs, nor would he have suited the Doctor so well.

Lastly, he was not such a Horse as that goodly one “of Cneiüs Seiüs which had all the perfections that could be named for stature, feature, colour, strength, limbs, comeliness, belonging to a horse; but withal, this misery ever went along with him, that whosoever became owner of him was sure to die an unhappy death.” Nor did the possession of that fatal horse draw on the destruction of his owner alone, but the ruin of his whole family and fortune. So it proved in the case of his four successive Masters, Cneiüs Seiüs, Cornelius Dolabella, Caius Cassius and Mark Antony, whom if I were to call by his proper name Marcus Antonius, half my readers would not recognize. This horse was foaled in the territory of Argos, and his pedigree was derived from the anthropophagous stud of the tyrant Diomedes. He was of surpassing size,haud credibili pulchritudine vigore et colore exuberantissimo,—being purple with a tawney mane. No! Nobs was not such a horse as this.

Though neither in colour nor in marks, yet in many other respects the description may be applied to him which Merlinus Cocaius has given in his first Macaronea of the horse on which Guido appeared at that tournament where he won the heart of the Princess Baldovina.

Huic mantellus erat nigrior carbone galantus,Parvaque testa, breves agilesque movebat orecchias;Frontis et in medio faciebat stella decorem.Frena biassabat, naresque tenebat apertas.Pectore mostazzo tangit, se reddit in unumGroppettum, solusque viam galopando misurat,Goffiat, et curtos agitant sua colla capillos.Balzanus tribus est pedibus, cum pectore largo,Ac inter gambas tenet arcto corpore caudam;Spaventat, volgitque oculos hinc inde fogatos;Semper et ad solam currit remanetque sbriatam,Innaspatque pedes naso boffante priores.

That he should have been a good horse is not surprizing, seeing that though of foreign extraction on the one side, he was of English birth, whereby, and by his dam, he partook the character of English horses. Now as it has been discreetly said, “Our English horses have a mediocrity of all necessary good properties in them, as neither so slight as the Barbe; nor so slovenly as the Flemish; nor so fiery as the Hungarian; nor so aery as the Spanish Gennets, (especially if, as reported, they be conceived of the wind;) nor so earthly as those in the Low Countries, and generally all the German Horse. For stature and strength they are of a middle size, and are both seemly and serviceable in a good proportion. And whilst the seller praiseth them too much, the buyer too little, the indifferent stander-by will give them this due commendation.”10

10FULLER.

A reasonably good horse therefore he might have been expected to prove as being English, and better than ordinary English horses as being Yorkshire. For saith the same judicious author, “Yorkshire doth breed the best race of English horses, whose keeping commonly in steep and stony ground bringeth them to firmness of footing and hardness of hoof; whereas a stud of horses bred in foggy, fenny ground, and soft, rotten morasses,—(delicacy marrs both man and beast,) have often a fen in their feet, being soft, and soon subject to be foundered. Well may Philip be so common a name amongst the gentry of this country, who are generally so delighted in horsemanship.”

Very good therefore there might have been fair ground for hoping that Nobs would prove; but that he should have proved so good, so absolutely perfect in his kind and for his uses, was beyond all hope—all expectation.

“I have done with this subject, the same author continues, when I have mentioned the monition of David, ‘an Horse is but a vain thing to save a man,’ though it is no vain thing to slay a man, by many casualties: such need we have, whether waking or sleeping, whether walking or riding, to put ourselves by prayer into Divine Protection.”

Such a reflection is in character with the benevolent and pious writer; and conveys indeed a solemn truth which ought always to be borne in mind. Its force will not be weakened though I should remark that the hero of a horse which I have endeavoured to describe may in a certain sense be said to afford an exception to David's saying: for there were many cases in which according to all appearance the patient could not have been saved unless the Doctor had by means of his horse Nobs arrived in time.

His moral qualities indeed were in as great perfection as his physical ones; but—il faut faire desormais une fin au discours de ce grand cheval; car, tant plus que j'entrerois dans le labyrinthe de ses vertus, tant plus je m'y perdrois.With how much more fitness may I say this of Nobs, than Brantome said it of Francis I.!

When in the fifteenth century the noble Valencian Knight, Mossen Manuel Diez accompanied Alonso to the conquest of the kingdom of Naples, he there had occasion to remark of how great importance it was that the knights should be provided with good horses in time of war, that they might thereby be the better able to increase the honour and extend the dominions of their king; and that in time of their old age and the season of repose they should have for their recreation good mules. He resolved therefore to compose a book upon the nature and qualities of these animals, and the way of breeding them, and preserving them sound, and in good condition and strong. And although he was well versed in these things himself, nevertheless he obtained the king's orders for calling together all the bestAlbeytaresthat is to say in old speech, farriers, horse-doctors, or horse-leeches, and in modern language Veterinary surgeons; all which could assemble were convened, and after due consultation with them, he composed thatLibre de Menescalià, the original of which in the Valencian dialect was among the MSS. that Pope Alexander VII. collected, and which beganIn nome sia de la Sancta Trinitat, que es Pare, è Fill, e Sant Spirit, tot hum Deu;and which he asMajordomof themolt alt e poderos Princep, e victorios Signior Don Alfonso, Re de Ragona,&c. set forth to show toals jovents Cavellers, gran part de la practica è de la conexenza del Cavalls, e de lurs malaties, è gran part de les cures di aquells. If Nobs had lived in those days, worthy would he have been to have been in all particulars described in that work, to have had an equestrian order instituted in his honour, and have been made aRico Cavallo, the first who obtained that rank.

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