CHAPTER CLXXI.—p. 330.

CONTAINING PART OF A SERMON, WHICH THE READER WILL FIND WORTH MORE

THAN MOST WHOLE ONES THAT IT MAY BE HIS FORTUNE TO HEAR.

_Je fais une grande provision de bon sens en prenant ce que les autres

en ont._

MADAME DE MAINTENON.

INTERCHAPTER XVII.—p. 336.

A POPULAR LAY NOTICED, WITH SUNDRY REMARKS PERTINENT THERETO,

SUGGESTED THEREBY, OR DEDUCED THEREFROM.

Look, he's winding up the watch of his wit: by and by it will strike.

TEMPEST.

INTERCHAPTER XVIII.—p. 347.

APPLICATION OF THE LAY. CALEB D'ANVERS. IRISH LAW. ICON BASILIKE.

JUNIUS. THOMAS À KEMPIS. FELIX HEMMERLEN. A NEEDLE LARGER THAN GAMMER

GURTON'S AND A MUCH COARSER THREAD. THOMAS WARTON AND BISHOP STILL.

THE JOHN WEBSTERS, THE ALEXANDER CUNNINGHAMS, AND THE CURINAS AND THE

STEPHENS.

_Lo que soy, razona poco

Porque de sombra a mi va nada, o poco._

FUENTE DESEADA.

INTERCHAPTER XIX.—p. 378.

THE AUTHOR DIFFERS IN OPINION FROM SIR EGERTON BRYDGES AND THE EMPEROR

JULIAN, SPEAKS CHARITABLY OF THAT EMPEROR, VINDICATES PROTEUS FROM HIS

CENSURE, AND TALKS OF POSTHUMOUS TRAVELS AND EXTRA MUNDANE EXCURSIONS,

AND THE PUBLIC LIBRARY IN LIMBOLAND.

_Petulant_. If he says black's black,—if I have a humour to say it

is blue—let that pass. All's one's for that. If I

have a humour to prove it, it must be granted.

_Witwould_. Not positively must,—But it may, it may.

_Petulant_. Yes, it positively must,—upon proof positive.

_Witwould_. Ay, upon proof positive it must; but upon proof

presumptive it only may. That's a logical distinction

now.

CONGREVE.

THE DOCTOR, &c.

CHAPTER CXXXVII.

DIFFERENCE OF OPINION BETWEEN THE DOCTOR AND NICHOLAS CONCERNING THE

HIPPOGONY, OR ORIGIN OF THE FOAL DROPT IN THE PRECEDING CHAPTER.

———his birth day, the eleventh of June

When the Apostle Barnaby the bright

Unto our year doth give the longest light.

BEN JONSON.

It's as fine a foal as ever was dropt, said Nicholas;—but I should as

soon thought of dropping one myself!

If thou hadst Nicholas, replied the Doctor, 'twould have been a foal

with longer ears, and a cross upon the shoulders. But I am heartily

glad that it has happened to the Mare rather than to thee; for in the

first place thou wouldst hardly have got so well through it, as with

all my experience I should have been at a loss how to have rendered

thee any assistance; and secondly, Nicholas, I should have been

equally at a loss how to account for the circumstance, which certainly

never could have been accounted for in so satisfactory a manner. The

birth of this extraordinary foal supports a fact which the wise

ancients have attested, and the moderns in their presumptuous

ignorance have been pleased to disbelieve: it also agrees with a

notion which I have long been disposed to entertain. But had it been

thy case instead of the Mare's it would have been to no purpose except

to contradict all facts and confound all notions.

As for that matter, answered Nicholas, all my notions are struck in a

heap. You bought that Mare on the 29th of July, by this token that it

was my birth-day, and I said she would prove a lucky one.

One,—two,—three,—four,—five,—six,—seven,—eight,—nine,—-ten,—he

continued, counting upon his fingers,—ten Kalendar months, and to-day

the eleventh of June;—in all that time I'll be sworn she has never

been nearer a horse than to pass him on the road. It must have been

the Devil's doing, and I wish he never did worse. However, Master, I

hope you'll sell him, for in spite of his looks I should never like to

trust my precious limbs upon the back of such a misbegotten beast.

_Un_begotten, Nicholas, replied the Doctor; _un_begotten,—or rather

begotten by the winds,—for so with every appearance of probability we

may fairly suppose him to have been.

The Winds! said Nicholas; he lifted up the lids of his little eyes as

far as he could strain them, and breathed out a whistle of a half

minute long, beginning in C alt and running down two whole octaves.

It was common in Spain, pursued Dr. Dove, and consequently may have

happened in our less genial climate, but this is the first instance

that has ever been clearly observed. I well remember, he continued,

that last July was peculiarly fine. The wind never varied more than

from South South East to South West; the little rain which fell

descended in gentle, balmy, showers, and the atmosphere never could

have been more full of the fecundating principle.

That our friend really attached any credit to this fanciful opinion of

the Ancients, is what I will not affirm, nor perhaps would he himself

have affirmed it. But Henry More, the Platonist, Milton's friend,

undoubtedly believed it. After quoting the well-known passage upon

this subject in the Georgics, and a verse to the same effect from the

Punics, he adds, that you may not suspect it “to be only the levity

and credulity of Poets to report such things, I can inform you that

St. Austin, and Solinus the historian write the same of a race of

horses in Cappadocia. Nay, which is more to the purpose, Columella and

Varro, men expert in rural affairs, assert this matter for a most

certain and known truth.” Pliny also affirms it as an undoubted fact:

the foals of the Wind, he says, were exceedingly swift, but

short-lived, never outliving three years. And the Lampongs of Sumatra,

according to Marsden, believe at this time that the Island Engano is

inhabited entirely by females, whose progeny are all children of the

Wind.

CHAPTER CXXXVIII.

DOUBTFUL PEDIGREE OF ECLIPSE. SHAKESPEAR (N. B. NOT WILLIAM) AND OLD

MARSK. A PECULIARITY OF THE ENGLISH LAW.

_Lady Percy_. But hear you, my Lord!

_Hotspur_. What say'st thou, my lady?

_Lady Percy_. What is it carries you away?

_Hotspur_. Why my Horse, my love, my Horse.

SHAKESPEAR.

After having made arrangements with the owner of the barn for the

accommodation of the Mare in-the-straw, the Doctor and Nicholas

pursued their way to Doncaster on foot, the latter every now and then

breaking out into exclamations of the Lord bless me! and sometimes

with a laugh of astonishment annexing the Lord's name to a verb of

opposite signification governing a neuter pronoun. Then he would cry,

Who would have thought it? Who'll believe it? and so with

interjections benedictory or maledictory, applied indiscriminately to

himself and Miss Jenny and the foal, he gave vent to his wonder,

frequently however repeating his doubts how the come-by-chance, as he

called it, would turn out.

A doubt to the same purport had come across the Doctor; for it so

happened that one of his theories bore very much in support of

Nicholas's unfavourable prepossession. Eclipse was at that time in his

glory; and Eclipse was in the case of those children who are said by

our Law to be more than ordinarily legitimate, tho' he was not like

one of these double legitimates enabled at years of discretion to

chuse for himself between the two possible fathers. Whether Eclipse

was got by Shakespear or by Old Marsk was a point of which the Duke of

Cumberland and his Stud Groom at one time confessed themselves

ignorant; and though at length, as it was necessary that Eclipse

should have a pedigree, they filiated him upon Old Marsk, Dr. Dove had

amused himself with contending that the real cause of the superiority

of that wonderful horse to all other horses was, that in reality he

was the Son of both, and being thus doubly begotten had derived a

double portion of vigour. It is not necessary to explain by what

process of reasoning he had arrived at this conclusion; but it

followed as a necessary inference that if a horse with two Sires

inherited a double stock of strength, a horse who had no Sire at all

must, _pari ratione_, be in a like proportion deficient. And here the

Doctor must have rested had he not luckily called to mind that Canto

of the Faery Queen in which

The birth of fayre Belphœbe and

Of Amorett is told.

how

———wondrously they were begot and bred

Through influence of the Heavens fruitfull ray.

Miraculous may seem to him that reades

So strange ensample of conception;

But reason teacheth that the fruitfull seedes

Of all things living, through impression

Of the sun-beames in moyst complexion

Doe life conceive, and quick'ned are by kynd;

So after Nilus' inundation

Infinite shapes of creatures men doe fynd

Informed in the mud on which the Sunne hath shynd.

Great Father he of Generation

Is rightly called, th' Authour of life and light;

And his faire sister for creation

Ministreth matter fit, which tempred right

With heate and humour breedes the living wight.

So delighted was he with this recollection, and with the beautiful

picture of Belphœbe which it recalled, that he would instantly have

named the foal Belphœbe,—if it had happened to be a filly. For a

moment it occurred to him to call him Belphœbus; but then again he

thought that Belphœbus was too like Belphegor, and he would not give

any occasion for a mistake, which might lead to a suspicion that he

favoured Nicholas's notion of the Devil's concern in the business.

But the naming of this horse was not so lightly to be decided. Would

it have been fitting under all the circumstances of the case to have

given him any such appellation as Buzzard, Trumpeter, Ploughboy,

Master Jackey, Master Robert, Jerry Sneak, Trimmer, Swindler,

Deceiver, Diddler, Boxer, Bruiser, Buffer, Prize-fighter, Swordsman,

Snap—would it have been fitting I say to have given to a Colt who was

dropt almost as unexpectedly as if he had dropt from the clouds,—would

it I repeat have been fitting to have given him any one of these

names, all known in their day upon the Turf, or of the numberless

others commonly and with equal impropriety bestowed upon horses.

CHAPTER CXXXIX.

FACTS AND OBSERVATIONS RELATING TO ONOMATOLOGY.

Moreover there are many more things in the World than there are names

for them; according to the saying of the Philosopher; _Nomina sunt

finita, res autem infinitæ; ideo unum nomen plura significat:_ which

saying is by a certain, or rather uncertain, author approved: _Multis

speciebus non sunt nomina; idcirco necessarium est nomina fingere, si

nullum ante erit nomen impositum._

GWILLIM.

Names, Reader, are serious things; and certain philosophers, as well

as Mr. Shandy, have been to use the French-English of the day, deeply

penetrated with this truth.

The name of the Emperor of Japan is never known to his subjects during

his life. And the people of ancient Rome never knew the true and

proper name of their own City, which is indeed among the things that

have utterly perished. It was concealed as the most awful of all

mysteries, lest if it were known to the enemies of the City, they

might by force of charms and incantations deprive it of the aid of its

tutelary Gods.—As for that mystery which has occasioned among Hebrew

Critics the Sect of the Adonists, I only hint thereat.

Names, Reader, are serious things, so serious that no man since Adam

has been able, except by special inspiration, to invent one which

should be perfectly significant.

_Adan, antes que el bien le fuera oposito,

Fue tan grande filosofo y dialectico,

Que a todo quanto Dios le dio en deposito,

(Aunque pecando fue despues frenetico,)

De nombres adorno tan a proposito

Como quien tuvo espiritu profetico;

Porque naturaleza en modo tacito

Las causas descubrio a su beneplacito._

_Esta virtud tan alta fue perdiendose

De los que del vinieron derivandose,

Tanto que todos van desvaneciendose.

En aplicar los nombres, y engañandose,

Sino es por algun Angel descubriendose,

O por inspiracion manifestandose._[1]

[Footnote 1: CAYRASCO DE FIGUEROA.]

Names, Reader, I repeat, are serious things: and much ingenuity has

been exerted in inventing appropriate ones not only for man and beast,

but for inanimate things. Godfathers and Godmothers, Navigators,

Shipbuilders, Florists, Botanists, Chemists, Jockies, Feeders, Stage

Coach-Proprietors, Quacks, Perfumers, Novelists and Dramatists have

all displayed their taste in the selection of Names.

More whimsically consorted names will seldom be found than among the

Lodges of the Manchester Unity of the Independent Order of Odd

Fellows—You find there Apollo and St. Peter; the Rose of Sharon, and

the Rose of Cheetham; Earl Fitz-william, Farmer's Glory, and Poor

Man's Protection; Philanthropic and Lord Byron, Lord John Russell and

Good Intent; Queen Caroline (Bergami's Queen not George the Seconds)

and Queen Adelaide.

Reader be pleased to walk into the Garden with me. You see that

bush,—what would you call the fruit which it bears?—The

Gooseberry.—But its more particular name?—Its botanical name is

_ribes_—or _grossularia_, which you will Mr. Author.—Still Reader we

are in generals. For you and I, and our wives and children, and all

plain eaters of gooseberry-pie and gooseberry-fool, the simple name

gooseberry might suffice. Not so for the scientific in gooseberries,

the gooseberryologists. They could distinguish whether it were the

King or the Duke of York; the Yellow Seedling or the Prince of Orange;

Lord Hood or Sir Sidney Smith; Atlas or Hercules; the Green Goose or

the Green Bob or the Green Chisel; the Colossus or the Duke of

Bedford; Apollo or Tickle Toby; the Royal Oak or the Royal Sovereign;

the Hero or the Jolly Smoaker; the Game Keeper or the Sceptre; the

Golden Gourd or the Golden Lion, or the Gold-finder; Worthington's

Conqueror or Somach's Victory; Robinson's Stump or Davenport's Lady;

Blakeley's Chisel or Read's Satisfaction; Bell's Farmer or the

Creeping Ceres; the White Muslin, the White Rose, the White Bear, the

White Noble or the White Smith; the Huntsman, the Gunner, the

Thrasher, the Viper, the Independent, the Glory of Eccles, or the

Glory of England; Smith's Grim-Mask, Blomerly's John Bull, Hamlet's

Beauty of England, Goodier's Nelson's Victory, Parkinson's Scarlet

Virgin, Milling's Crown Bob, Kitt's Bank of England, Yeat's Wild-Man

of the Wood, Davenport's Jolly Hatter, or Leigh's Fiddler.—For all

these are Gooseberries: and yet this is none of them; it is the Old

Ironmonger.

Lancashire is the County in which the Gooseberry has been most

cultivated; there is a Gooseberry book annually printed at Manchester;

and the Manchester Newspapers recording the death of a person and

saying that he bore a severe illness with Christian fortitude and

resignation, add that he was much esteemed among the Class of

Gooseberry Growers.—A harmless class they must needs be deemed, but

even in growing Gooseberries emulation may be carried too far.

The Royal Sovereign which in 1794 was grown by George Cook of Ashton

near Preston which weighed seventeen pennyweights, eighteen grains,

was thought a Royal Gooseberry at that day. But the growth of

Gooseberries keeps pace with the March of Intellect. In 1830 the

largest Yellow Gooseberry on record was shown at Stockport, it weighed

thirty-two pennyweights, thirteen grains, and was named the Teazer.

The largest Red one was the Roaring Lion of thirty-one pennyweights,

thirteen grains, shown at Nantwich; and the largest White, was the

Ostrich shown at Ormskirk; falling far short of the others, and yet

weighing twenty-four pennyweights, twenty grains. They have been grown

as large as Pigeon's eggs. But the fruit is not improved by the forced

culture which increases its size. The Gooseberry growers who show for

the prizes which are annually offered, thin the fruit so as to leave

but two or three berries on a branch; even then prizes are not gained

by fair dealing: they contrive to support a small cup under each of

these, so that the fruit shall for some weeks rest in water that

covers about a fourth part, and this they call suckling the

gooseberry.

Your Orchard, Sir! you are perhaps content with Codlins and Pippins,

Non-pareils and Russets, with a few nameless varieties. But Mr.

Forsyth will tell you of the Beauty of Kent, of the Belle Grisdeline,

the Boomrey, the Hampshire Nonsuch, the Dalmahoy, the Golden Mundi,

the Queening, the Oak Peg, the Nine Square, the Paradise Pippin, the

Violet Apple, the Corpendu, the Trevoider, the Ramborn, the Spanish

Onion, the Royal George, the Pigeonette, the Norfolk Paradise, the

Long-laster, the Kentish Fill-baskets, the Maiden's Blush, the Lady's

Finger, the Scarlet Admirable, the Hall-Door, the Green Dragon, the

Fox's Whelp, the Fair Maid of Wishford, Coble-dick-longerkin—an apple

in the north of Devon and Cornwall, which Mr. Polwhele supposes to

have been introduced into the parish of Stratton by one Longerkin who

was called Cobble-dick, because his name was Richard and he was a

Cobler by trade. John Apple,

——whose withered rind, intrench'd

With many a furrow, aptly represents

Decrepid age.[2]

the King of the Pippins (of him hereafter in the Chapter of Kings) and

the Seek-no-farther,—after which no farther will we seek.

[Footnote 2: PHILIPS.]

Of Pears, the _Bon Chrêtien_ called by English Gardeners the

Bum-Gritton, the _Teton de Venus_ and the _Cuisse Madame_, three names

which equally mark the country from whence they came. The last Bishop

of Alais before the French Revolution visiting a Rector once who was

very rich and very avaricious, gave him some gentle admonitory hint of

the character he had heard of him. “_Mais Monseigneur,_” said the Man,

“_il faut garder une Poire pour la soif._” “_Vous avez bien raison,_”

replied the Bishop: “_prenez garde seulement qu'elle soit du bon

Chrêtien._” The first Lord Camelford in one of whose letters this pun

is preserved, thought it perfect. But to proceed with the nomenclature

of Pears, there are the Supreme, the Bag-pipe of Anjou, the Huff Cap,

the Grey Good Wife, the Goodman's Pear, the Queen's Pear, the Prince's

Pear, the Marquis's Pear, the Dean's Pear, the Knave's Pear, the

Pope's Pear, the Chaw Good, the Vicar, the Bishop's Thumb, the Lady's

Lemon, the Lord Martin, the St. Austin, La Pastorelle and Monsieur

John, the Great Onion, the Great Mouthwater, the King of Summer, the

Angelic Pear,—and many others which I would rather eat than enumerate.

At present the Louis Philippe holds pre-eminence.

The _Propria quæ Potatibus_ will be found not less rich,—though here

we perceive a lower key of invention, as adapted to a lower rank of

fruit and affording a proof of Nature's Aristocracy;—here we have Red

Champions, White Champions, Late Champions and English Champions,

Early Manlys, Rough Reds, Smooth Yellows, Silver Skins, Pink Eyes,

Golden Tags, Golden Gullens, Common Wise, Quaker Wise, Budworth's

Dusters, Poor Man's Profit, Lady Queens, Drunken Landlords, Britons,

Crones, Apples, Magpies, Lords, Invincibles, the Painted Lady and the

Painted Lord, the Golden Dun, the Old Red Rough, and the Ox Noble;

_Cum multis aliis quæ nunc perscribere longum est._

For Roses, methinks Venus, and the Fair Maid, and Flora, and Favorite,

and Diana may well keep company with our old favourite the Maiden

Blush. There may be too, though it were to be wished there were not, a

Miss Bold, among these beautiful flowers. Nor would I object to Purple

nor to Ruby, because they are significant if nothing more. But for

Duchess, with double blush, methinks the characteristic and the name

go ill together. The Great Mogul is as bad as the Vagrant; the Parson

worse than either; and for Mount Etna, and Mount Vesuvius, it excites

an explosion of anger to hear of them.

Among the trees in Barbadoes, we read of Anchovy the Apple, the Bread

and Cheese, or Sucking bottle, the Belly ache and the Fat Pork Tree!

From the fields and gardens to the Dairy. In the Vaccine nomenclature

we pass over the numerals and the letters of the Alphabet. Would you

have more endearing appellations than Curly, Curl-pate, Pretty,

Browny, Cot Lass, Lovely Lass (a name peradventure imposed by that

person famous in the proverb, as the old Woman who kissed her

Cow)—more promising than Bee, Earnest, Early, Standfast, Fill-bouk,

Fillpan,—more romantic than Rose, Rosely, Rosebud, Roseberry,

Rosamond, Rosella, Rosalina, Furba, Firbrella, Firbrina, more rural

than Rurorea.

Then for Bulls,—was there not the Bull Shakespeare, by Shakespeare off

young Nell, who was sold in the year 1793 for £400., with a condition

that the seller should have the privilege every year of introducing

two Cows to the said Shakespeare. And was there not the Bull Comet who

was sold for 1000 guineas. I say nothing of Alderman Bull, nor of John

Bull, nor of the remarkable Irish Breed.

For horses I content myself with remembering the never to be forgotten

Pot-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-os, sometimes written Pot8os. Whose was the proudest

feeling of exultation, his who devised this numerico-literal piece of

wit,—or that of Archimedes when he exclaimed _Εὑρηκα_? And while

touching the Arithmographic mode of writing let us not forget the

Frenchman who by the union of a pun and a hieroglyph described his

Sovereign's style thus—Louis with ten-oysters in a row after the name.

As for the scientific names of Plants,—if Apollo had not lost all

power he would have elongated the ears of Tournefort and Linnæus, and

all their followers, as deservedly as he did those of Midas.

Of the Knights or Horsemen, Greeks and Trojans, Rustics and Townsmen

among—Butterflies,—and the Gods, Goddesses, Muses and Graces, Heroes,

Worthies and Unworthies, who feed in their grub state upon lettuces

and cabbages, sleep through their aurelian term of existence, and

finally obtain a name in the naturalist's nomenclature, and perhaps a

local habitation in his Cabinet with a pin through their bodies, I say

nothing, farther than to state why one tribe of them is denominated

Trojans. Be it known then in the words of a distinguished

Entomologist, that “this tribe has been dedicated by Entomologists to

the memory of the more distinguished worthies of the Trojan race, and

above others to preserve, the memory of those heroes whose exploits in

the defence of that rich and potent station of the ancient world, the

town of Troy, have been commemorated in the Iliad by the immortal

Homer.” Lest Homer therefore and all the works derived from him should

perish from remembrance the Entomologists have very considerately

devised this means for preserving the memory of Hector.

Hath not Daniel Girton, of the County of Bucks, in his Complete

Pigeon-Fancier, wherein he points out to the Gentlemen of the Fancy,

the foul marks and the real perfections of every valuable species of

Fancy Birds and Toys which in his time were bred in England, France

and Holland;—hath not Daniel Girton, I say, (tho' Boswell thought that

a sentence so formed as to require an _I'say_ to keep it together,

resembled a pair of ill-mended breeches, and candidly acknowledged the

resemblance in his own,—the sentence I mean, which he was then

penning, not the breeches which he wore;)—hath not Daniel Girton, I

say, particularly enumerated in his Title-Page among the varieties of

such Fancy Birds, Powters, Carriers, Horsemen, Dragoons, Croppers,

Powting Horsemen, Uplopers, Fantails, Chinese Pigeons, Lace-Pigeons,

Tumblers, Runts, Spots, Laughers, Trumpeters, Jacobines, Capuchines,

Nuns, Shakers, Helmets, Ruffs, Finnikins, Turners, Barbs, Mahomets,

Turbits, Owls, and Smiters, concluding the imperfect enumeration with

an &c.

The Foul Fiends also have odd names. Witness the list which John Gee

collected after the veracious Romish Priests of his time: Lusty Dick,

Killico, Hob, Corner-Cap, Puffe, Purre, Frateretto, Fliberdigibbet,

Haberdicut, Cocabelto, Maho, (this Maho, who was a gentleman as

Shakespeare tells us, maintained his ground against a Priest for seven

hours) Kellicocam, Wilkin, Smolkin, Lusty Jolly Jenkin, (this must

have been a Welsh Devil and of a noble race) Porto Richo,

(peradventure a Creole Devil,) Pudding of Thame—(fie on such pudding!)

Pour Dieu (Pour Diable!) Bonjour, Motubizanto, Nur, Bernon, Delicate.

The familiar of that “damnable and malicious witch Elizabeth

Southerns, alias Dimdikes, was called Tibb: she dwelt in the forest of

Pendle,” a vast place fit for her profession, and she was a general

Agent for the Devil in all those parts.

There was one Mr. Duke, a busy fanatic, in Devonshire in Charles II.'s

days, whom old Sir Edward Seymour used to call Spirit Po, that said Po

being a _petit diable_, a small devil that was _presto_ at every

Conjuror's nod. He (the said Mr. Duke) was a common runner up and down

on factious errands; and there could not be a meeting in the country

for business or mirth, but Spirit Po was there.

Actæus Megalesius, Ormenus, Lycus, Nicon and Mimon are five of the

Chief Telchinnes or Alastores, who take the waters of Styx in their

hands, and sprinkle them over the earth, thereby causing all kinds of

diseases and calamities.

It is known upon testimony which has received the sanction of the Holy

Office, that Lucifer has three Lord Lieutenants, whose names are

Aquias, Brum, and Acatu: whether the second assumed his name in

prospective compliment to the Queen's Attorney-General, or whether the

name itself has some appropriate and amiable signification in the

infernal tongue must be left to conjecture. These Lord Lieutenants

were sent with a whole army of Devils to make war against a person of

the feminine gender called in her own language Anna de Santiago, but

in the language of Hell, Catarruxa, which according to the

interpretation given by the Devils themselves, means the Strong Woman.

The General was named Catacis, and the names of the subordinate

Commanders have been faithfully recorded by a Franciscan Chronicler of

unquestioned veracity, for the use of Exorcists, experience having

shown that it is of signal use in their profession to know the names

of the enemies with whom they are contending, the Devils perhaps

having learnt from the Lawyers, (who are able to teach the Devil), to

take advantage of a misnomer. This indeed is so probable that it

cannot be superfluous to point out to Exorcists a received error,

which must often have frustrated their laudable endeavours, if the

same literal accuracy be required in their processes as in those of

the Law. They no doubt have always addressed the Prince of the Devils

by the name of Beelzebub, but his real name is Beelzebul; and so St.

Jerome found it in all his Manuscripts, but not understanding what was

then the common, and true reading, he altered _Βεελζεβȣλ_ into

_Βεελζεϐȣϐ_,—by which he made the word significant to himself, but

enabled Beelzebul to quash all actions of ejectment preferred against

him in this false name. The value of this information will be

appreciated in Roman Catholic Countries. Gentlemen of the long robe

will think it beautiful; and I have this additional motive for

communicating it, to wit, that it may be a warning to all verbal

Critics. I now return to my nomenclature.

If a catalogue of plants or animals in a newly discovered country be

justly esteemed curious, how much more curious must a genuine

muster-roll of Devils be esteemed, all being Devils of rank and

consequence in the Satanic service. It is to Anna de Santiago herself

that we are originally beholden for it, when at her Confessor's

desire,

_θεȣς δ᾽ ὀνομῄνεν ἀπαντας

Τȣς ὑποταρίȣς_[3]

[Footnote 3: HOMER.]

“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 hours

In reckoning up the several Devil's names

That 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; _look_ I 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.

CHAPTER CXL.

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 the _ultima 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 a _Brummejam_ of 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.

CHAPTER CXLI.

A SINGULAR ANECDOTE AND NOT MORE SAD THAN TRUE.

Oh penny Pipers, and most painful penners

Of bountiful new Ballads, what a subject,

What a sweet subject for your silver sounds!

BEAUMONT and 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.

CHAPTER CXLII.

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, as _in

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.

CHAPTER CXLIII.

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 provide

So fit for such a man to ride;

Nor find a man with strictest care

So fit for such a horse to bear.[1]

[Footnote 1: CHURCHILL.]

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 Gratiæ

E valle Permessi vagantem

Pegason; alipedemque sacris

Frenate sertis.—Ut micat auribus!

Vocemque longé vatis amabili

Agnoscit hinnitu! Ut Dearum

Frena ferox, hilarique bullam

Collo poposcit._[2]

[Footnote 2: CASIMIR.]

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]

[Footnote 3: BUSINI.]

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 use

Such choice to chuse,

As may delight

The country wight,

And knowledge bring:

For such do praise

The country phrase,

The country acts,

The country facts,

The country toys,

Before the joys

Of any thing.[4]

[Footnote 4: TUSSER.]

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.”[5] But he was in every respect the reverse.

[Footnote 5: TAMING OF THE SHREW.]

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 furieuse

Glorieux trot, la bride glorieuse._[6]

[Footnote 6: CLEMENT MAROT.]

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

_J'allay curieux

En chocs furieux,

Sans craindre estrapade;

Mal rabotez lieux

Passez a cloz yeux,

Sans faire chopade.

La viste virade,

Pompante pennade,

Le saut soubzlevant,

La roide ruade,

Prompte petarrade

Je mis en avant.

Escumeur bavant

Au manger sçavant,

Au penser très-doux;

Relevé devant,

Jusqu' au bout servant

J'ay esté sur tous._

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

_Egli avea tutte le fattezze pronte

Di 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.

[Footnote 7: PULCI.]

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 πεφυκότες

Τὸν Πηλέως φέρουσι θούριον γόνον.

Δίδωσι δ᾽ αὐτους πωλοδαμνήσας ἄναξ

Πηλεῖ 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.

[Footnote 8: EURIPIDES.]

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 appearance _qu'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 Hercule_

was 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 the _Memoires 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 was _la 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᾽ ἀριστος

Ἳππῶν, 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 up

And say to all the world, this was a Horse.

[Footnote 9: HOMER.]

In the words of an old romance, to describe him _ainsi 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 space

As 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 never _Nobs 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 the _Principe Constante_ D. Fernando fought, when

they found him without an owner upon a field covered with slain; a

horse

_tan monstruo, que siendo hijo

del Viento, adopcion pretende

del Fuego; y entre los dos

lo desdize y lo desmiente

el color, pues siendo blanco

dize el Agua, parto es este

de mi esfera, sola yo

pude 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 ancas

puestos los dos juntamente,

mares de sangre rompimos;

por cuyas ondas crueles

este 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 fronte

E 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 vibra

Le tese orecchie, e per levarsi avvampa,

E col ferrato piè non è mai stanco

Battere il prato, e tutte l'aure sfida

Al sonar de magnanimi nitriti._

Galafron had employed

_Tutto l'Inferno a far veloce in corso

Qual 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 unum

Groppettum, 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]

[Footnote 10: FULLER.]

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 best _Albeytares_ that

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 that

_Libre de Menescalià_, the original of which in the Valencian dialect

was among the MSS. that Pope Alexander VII. collected, and which began

_In nome sia de la Sancta Trinitat, que es Pare, è Fill, e Sant

Spirit, tot hum Deu;_ and which he as _Majordom_ of the _molt alt e

poderos Princep, e victorios Signior Don Alfonso, Re de Ragona,_ &c.

set forth to show to _als 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 a _Rico Cavallo_, the first who obtained that rank.

CHAPTER CXLIV.

HISTORY AND ROMANCE RANSACKED FOR RESEMBLANCES AND NON-RESEMBLANCES TO

THE HORSE OF DR. DANIEL DOVE.

Renowned beast! (forgive poetic flight!)

Not less than man, deserves poetic right.

THE BRUCIAD.

When I read of heroic horses in heroic books, I cannot choose but

remember Nobs, and compare him with them, not in particular qualities,

but in the sum total of their good points, each in his way. They may

resemble each other as little as Rabelais and Rousseau, Shakespeare

and Sir Isaac Newton, Paganini and the Duke of Wellington, yet be

alike in this that each had no superior in his own line of excellence.

Thus when I read of the courser which Prince Meridiano presented to

Alphebus, the Knight of the Sun, after the Prince had been defeated by

him in the presence of his Sister Lindabridis, I think of Nobs, though

Cornelin was marvellously unlike the Doctor's perfect roadster. For

Cornelin was so named because he had a horn growing from the middle of

his forehead; and he had four joints at the lower part of his legs,

which extraordinary formation, (I leave anatomists to explain how,)

made him swifter than all other horses, insomuch that his speed was

likened to the wind. It was thought that his Sire was an Unicorn,

though his dam was certainly a mare: and there was this reason for

supposing such to be the case, that Meridiano was son to the Emperor

of Great Tartary, in which country the hybrid race between Unicorn and

Mare was not uncommon in those days.

When the good Knight of the Sun engaged in single combat with the

Giant Bradaman, this noble horse stood him in good stead: for Bradaman

rode an elephant, and as they ran at each other, Cornelin thrust his

natural spike into the elephant's poitrel, and killed him on the spot.

Cornelin did special service on another occasion, when some Knights

belonging to a Giant King of the Sards, who had established one of

those atrocious customs which it was the duty of all Errant Knights to

suppress, met with the Good Knight of the Sun; and one of them said he

would allow him to turn back and go his way in peace, provided he gave

him his arms and his horse, “if the horse be thine own,” said he,

“inasmuch as he liketh me hugely.” The Good Knight made answer with a

smile “my arms I shall not give, because I am not used to travel

without them; and as for my horse, none but myself can mount him.” The

discourteous Knight made answer with an oath that he would see whether

he could defend the horse; and with that he attempted to seize the

bridle. No sooner had he approached within Cornelin's reach, than that

noble steed opened his mouth, caught him by the shoulder, lifted him

up, dropt him, and then trampled on him _si rudement que son ame

s'envola à celuy à qui elle estoit pour ses malefices_. Upon this

another of these insolent companions drew his sword, and was about to

strike at Cornelin's legs, but Cornelin reared, and with both his

fore-feet struck him on the helmet with such force, that no armourer

could repair the outer head-piece, and no surgeon the inner one.

It was once disputed in France whether a horse could properly be said

to have a mouth; a wager concerning it was laid, and referred to no

less a person than a Judge, because, says a Frenchman, “our French

Judges are held in such esteem that they are appealed to upon the most

trifling occasions.” The one party maintained _qu'il falloit dire la

gueule à toutes bestes, et qu'il n'y avoit que l'homme qui eust

bouche_; but the Judge decided, _qu'à cause de l'excellence du cheval,

il falloit dire la bouche_. The Giant King's Knights must have been of

the Judge's opinion when they saw Cornelin make but a mouthful of

their companion.

When our English Judges are holden in such esteem as to be referred to

on such occasions, they do not always entertain the appeal. Mr.

Brougham when at the Bar—that Mr. Brougham (if posterity enquiries

whom I mean) who was afterwards made Lord Chancellor and of whom Sir

Edward Sugden justly observed, that if he had but a smattering of law

he would know something of everything—Mr. Brougham, I say, opened

before Lord Chief Justice Tenterden an action for the amount of a

wager laid upon the event of a dog-fight, which through some

unwillingness of dogs or men had not been brought to an issue: “We, My

Lord,” said the advocate, “were minded that the dogs should

fight.”—“Then I,” replied the Judge “are minded to hear no more of

it;” and he called another cause.

No wager would ever have been left undecided through any unwillingness

to fight on the part of Cornelin or of his Master the Knight of the

Sun.

When that good Knight of the Sun seeking death in his despair landed

upon the Desolate Island, there to encounter a monster called Faunus

el Endemoniado, that is to say the Bedevilled Faun, he resolved in

recompence for all the service that Cornelin had done him to let him

go free for life: so taking off his bridle and saddle and all his

equipments, he took leave of him in these sorrowful words. “O my good

Horse, full grievously do I regret to leave thee! Would it were but in

a place where thou mightest be looked to and tended according to thy

deserts! For if Alexander of Macedon did such honour to his dead horse

that he caused a sepulchre to be erected for him and a city to be

called after his name, with much more reason might I show honour to

thee while thou art living, who art so much better than he. Augustus

had his dead horse buried that he might not be devoured by carrion

birds. Didius Julianus consecrated a marble statue of his in the

Temple of Venus. Lucius Verus had the likeness of his while living

cast in gold. But I who have done nothing for thee, though thou

surpassest them all in goodness, what can I do now but give thee

liberty that thou mayest enjoy it like other creatures? Go then, my

good Horse, the last companion from whom I part in this world!” Saying

this, he made as if he would have struck him to send him off. But here

was a great marvel in this good horse: for albeit he was now free and

with nothing to encumber him, he not only would not go away, but

instead thereof approached his master, his whole body trembling, and

the more the Knight threatened the more he trembled and the nearer he

drew. The Knight of the Sun knew not what he should do, for on the one

hand he understood in what danger this good horse would be if he

should be perceived by the Faun; and on the other threaten him as he

would he could not drive him away. At length he concluded to leave him

at liberty, thinking that peradventure he would take flight as soon as

he should see the Faun. He was not mistaken; Cornelin would have stood

by his Master in the dreadful combat in which he was about to engage,

and would peradventure have lost his life in endeavouring to aid him;

but the Bedevilled Faun had been so named because he had a hive of

Devils in his inside; fire came from his mouth and nostrils as he

rushed against the Knight, and swarms of armed Devils were breathed

out with the flames; no wonder therefore that even Cornelin took

fright and galloped away.

But when Alphebus had slain the Bedevilled Faun, and lived alone upon

the Desolate Island, like a hermit, waiting and wishing for death,

eating wild fruits and drinking of a spring which welled near some

trees, under which he had made for himself a sort of bower, Cornelin

used often to visit him in his solitude. It was some consolation to

the unhappy Knight to see the good horse that he loved so well: but

then again it redoubled his grief as he called to mind the exploits he

had performed when mounted upon that famous courser. The displeasure

of his beautiful and not less valiant than beautiful mistress the

Princess Claridiana had caused his wretchedness, and driven him to

this state of despair; and when Claridiana being not less wretched

herself, came to the Desolate Island in quest of him, the first thing

that she found was the huge and broken limb of a tree with which he

had killed the Faun, and the next was Cornelin's saddle and bridle and

trappings, which she knew by the gold and silk embroidery, tarnished

as it was, and by the precious stones. Presently she saw the good

horse Cornelin himself, who had now become well nigh wild, and came

toward her bounding and neighing, and rejoicing at the sight of her

horse, for it was long since he had seen a creature of his own kind.

But he started off when she would have laid hold of him, for he could

not brook that any but his own master should come near him now.

Howbeit she followed his track, and was thus guided to the spot where

her own good Knight was wasting his miserable life.

Nobs was as precious a horse to the Doctor as Vegliantino was to

Rinaldo,—that noble courser whom the Harpies killed, and whom Rinaldo,

after killing the whole host of Harpies, buried sorrowfully, kneeling

down and kissing his grave. He intended to go in mourning and afoot

for his sake all the rest of his life, and wrote for him this epitaph

upon a stone, in harpy's blood and with the point of his sword.

_Quì giace Vegliantin, caval de Spagna,

Orrido in guerra, e tutto grazie in pace;

Servi Rinaldo in Francia ed in Lamagna,

Ed ebbe ingegno e spirto si vivace

Che averebbe coi piè fatto una ragna;

Accorto, destro, nobile ed audace,

Morì qual forte, e con fronte superba;

O tu, che passi, gettagli un pò d'erba._[1]

He was as sagacious a horse and as gentle as Frontalatte, who in the

heroic age of horses was

_Sopra ogni altro caval savio ed umano._[2]

[Footnote 1: RICCIARDETTO.]

[Footnote 2: ORLANDO INAMORATO.]

When the good Magician Atlante against his will sent his pupil

Ruggiero forth, and provided him with arms and horse, he gave him this

courser which Sacripante had lost, saying to him

_certamente so che potrai dire

Che'l principe Rinaldo e'l conte Orlando

Non ha miglior caval._[3]

_Avendo altro signore, ebbe altro nome;_

His new master called him Frontino

_Il mondo non avea più bel destriero,_

* * * * *

_Or sopra avendo il giovane Ruggiero,

Piu vaga cosa nun si vide mai.

Chi guardasse il cavallo e'l cavaliero

Starebbe a dar giudicio in dubbio assai,

Se fusser vivi, o fatti col pennello,

Tanto era l'un e l'altro egregio e bello._[3]

[Footnote 3: ORLANDO INAMORATO.]

Nobs was not like that horse now living at Brussels, who is fond of

raw flesh, and getting one day out of his stable found his way to a

butcher's shop and devoured two breasts of mutton, mutton it seems

being his favourite meat. If his pedigree could be traced we might

expect to find that he was descended from the anthropophagous stud of

that abominable Thracian King whom Hercules so properly threw to his

own horses for food.

Nor was he like that other horse of the same execrable extraction,

whom in an evil day Rinaldo, having won him in battle, sent as a

present by the damsel Hipalca to Ruggiero,—that Clarion

_A quien el cielo con rigor maldixo,

Y una beldad le diò tan codiciada;_

that fatal horse who as soon as Ruggiero mounted him, carried his

heroic master into the ambush prepared for him in which he was

treacherously slain. The tragedy not ending there, for one of the

traitors took this horse for his reward and his proper reward he had

with him

_Púsole el traidor pernas, corrió el fuerte

Desenfrenado potro hasta arrojallo,

En medio de la plaza de Marsella,

A ojos de Bradamante, y su doncella._

_Alli en presencia suyo hecho pedazos

Al Magancés dexó el caballo fiero:

Viendole Hipalca muerto entre los brazos,

Y no en su silla qual penso a Rugero,

Notorios vió los cavilosos lazos

Del fementido bando de Pontiero.

Alteróse la bella Bradamante

Y el sobresalto le abortó un infante._

_Y al quinto dia con la nueva cierta

De la muerte infeliz del paladino,

La antes dudosa amante quedó muerta,

Y cumplido el temor del adivino.

Y por tantas desgracias descubierta

La traicion de Maganza, un rio sanguino

Labró Morgana, y de la gente impia

Cien falsos Condes degolló en un dia._[4]

_eso quieren decir las desgracias del Caballo Clarion_, says the

author of this poem El Doctor Don Bernardo de Balbuena, in the

allegory which he annexes to the Canto, _que la fuerza de las

estrellas predomina en los brutos, y en la parte sensitiva, y no en el

albedrio humano y voluntad racional._

[Footnote 4: BALBUENA.]

Neither did Nobs resemble in his taste that remarkable horse which Dr.

Tyson frequently saw in London at the beginning of the last century.

This horse would eat oysters with great delight, scrunching them

shells and all between his teeth. Accident developed in him this

peculiar liking; for being fastened one day at a tavern-door where

there happened to be a tub standing with oysters in it, the water

first attracted him, and then the fresh odour of fish induced him to

try his teeth upon what promised to be more savoury than oats and not

much harder than horse-beans. From that time he devoured them with

evident satisfaction whenever they were offered him; and he might have

become as formidable a visitor to the oyster-shops, if oyster-shops

there then had been, as the great and never-to-be-forgotten Dando

himself.

He was not like the Colt which Boyle describes, who had a double eye,

that is to say two eyes in one socket, in the middle of his forehead,

a Cyclops of a horse.

Nor was he like the coal-black steed on which the Trappist rode,

fighting against the _Liberales_ as heartily as that good Christian

the Bishop Don Hieronimo fought with the Cid Campeador against the

Moors, elevating the Crucifix in one hand, and with his sword in the

other smiting them for the love of Charity. That horse never needed

food or sleep: he never stumbled at whatever speed his master found it

needful to ride down the most precipitous descent; his eyes emitted

light to show the Trappist his way in the darkness; the tramp of his

hoofs was heard twenty miles around, and whatsoever man in the enemy's

camp first heard the dreadful sound, knew that his fate was fixed, and

he must inevitably die in the ensuing fight. Nobs resembled this

portentous horse as little as the Doctor resembled the terrible

Trappist. Even the great black horse which used to carry old George,

as William Dove called the St. George of Quakerdom, far exceeded him

in speed. The Doctor was never seen upon his back in the course of the

same hour at two places sixty miles apart from each other. There was

nothing supernatural in Nobs. His hippogony, even if it had been as

the Doctor was willing to have it supposed he thought probable, would

upon his theory have been in the course of nature, though not in her

usual course.

Olaus Magnus assigns sundry reasons why the Scandinavian horses were

hardier, and in higher esteem than those of any other part of the

World. They would bear to be shod without kicking or restraint. They

would never allow other horses to eat their provender. They saw their

way better in the dark. They regarded neither frost nor snow. They

aided the rider in battle both with teeth and hoofs. Either in

ascending or descending steep and precipitous places they were

sure-footed. At the end of a day's journey a roll in the sand or the

snow took off their fatigue and increased their appetite. They seldom

ailed anything and what ailments they had were easily cured. Moreover

they were remarkable for one thing,

_Ch' à dire è brutto, ed à tacerlo è bello_—[5]

and which, instead of translating or quoting the Dane's Latin, I must

intimate——by saying that it was never necessary to whistle to them.

[Footnote 5: RUCELLAI.]

Nobs had none of the qualities which characterized the Scandinavian

horses, and in which their excellencies consisted, as peculiarly

fitting them for their own country. But he was equally endowed with

all those which were required in his station. There was not a

surer-footed beast in the West Riding; and if he did not see his way

in the dark by the light of his own eyes like the black horse of the

Trappist, and that upon which the Old Woman of Berkeley rode double

behind One more formidable than the Trappist himself, when she was

taken out of her coffin of stone and carried bodily away,—he saw it as

well as any mortal horse could see, and knew it as well as John Gough

the blind botanist of Kendal, or John Metcalf the blind guide of

Knaresborough.

But of all his good qualities that for which the Doctor prized him

most was the kindness of his disposition, not meaning by those words

what Gentlemen-feeders and professors of agriculture mean. “It is the

Grazier's own fault,” says one of those professors, “if ever he

attempts to fatten an unkind beast,”—kindness of disposition in a

beast importing in their language, that it fattens soon. What it meant

in the Doctor's, the following authentic anecdote may show.

The Doctor had left Nobs one day standing near the door of a

farm-house with his bridle thrown over a gate-post; one of the

farmer's children, a little boy just old enough to run into danger,

amused himself by pulling the horse's tail with one hand and striking

him with a little switch across the legs with the other. The Mother

caught sight of this and ran in alarm to snatch the urchin away; but

before she could do this, Nobs lifted up one foot, placed it against

the boy's stomach, and gently pushed him down. The ground was wet, so

that the mark of his hoof showed where he had placed it, and it was

evident that what he had done was done carefully not to injure the

child, for a blow upon that part must have been fatal. This was what

the Doctor called kindness of disposition in a horse. Let others argue

if they please _que le cheval avoit quelque raison, et qu'il

ratiocinoit entre toutes les autres bestes, à cause du temperament de

son cerveau_;[6] here, as he justly said, was sufficient proof of

consideration, and good nature.

[Footnote 6: BOUCHET.]

He was not like the heroic horse which Amadis won in the Isle

Perilous, when in his old age he was driven thither by a tempest,

though the adventure has been pretermitted in his great history. After

the death of that old, old very old and most famous of all Knights,

this horse was enchanted by the Magician Alchiso. Many generations

passed away before he was overcome and disenchanted by Rinaldo; and he

then became so famous by his well-known name Bajardo, that for the

sole purpose of winning this horse and the sword Durlindana which was

as famous among swords as Bajardo among horses, Gradasso came from

India to invade France with an army of an hundred and fifty thousand

knights. If Nobs had been like him, think what a confusion and

consternation his appearance would have produced at Doncaster races!