The Sporting Dictionary, and Rural Repository, Volume 1 (of 2) / Of General Information upon Every Subject Appertaining to the Sports of the Field

BABBLER

—is a hound upon whose tongue no firm reliance is to be made, either in drag, upon trail, or the recovery of a fault during the chase; so strictly true is the well known adage, that "a liar is not to be believed although he speaks the truth."

BABRAHAM

—was one of the best racers of his time; he was bred by Lord Godolphin; foaled in 1740; was got by the Goldophin Arabian out of the large Hartley mare, got by Mr. Hartley's blind horse; her dam Flying Wig, by Williams's Woodstock Arabian; grand-dam by the St. Victor Barb, out of a daughter of Whynot, son of the Fenwick Barb. He became a STALLION of much celebrity, having been the sire of Sir Isaac Lowther's Babraham, Mr. Leedes's Young Babraham, Babraham Blank, Jack of Newbury, Traplin, Aimwell, Louisa, Molly Long Legs, Harry Long Legs, Fop, Lovely, Americus, and many other excellent runners.

BACK

—of a horse, the very part upon which the centrical point of beauty principally depends. If he is long in the back, narrow across the loins, flat in the ribs, and light in the carcase, (however well he may be otherways furnished with good points,) he will never be considered either a handsome or strong horse. Horses of this description are in general good goers as to speed, but very little to be relied on in hard service, or long journies.

BACKING

—is the term used for the first time of mounting a colt (or taking seat upon the saddle) after he has been previously handled, quieted, stabled, and accustomed to the mouthing-bit, the cavezon, martingal, lunging-rein, saddle, and the whole of the apparatus with which he has been led his different paces in the ring: all this he should be brought to submit to most quietly, as well as to the being saddled, and every part of liable discipline, before any attempt is made to back him; if not, it cannot be termed a systematic completion of the business. As backing a colt (after every precaution) requires a certain degree of cool and steady fortitude appertaining principally to the breaker, whose province it is, (and is but little attempted by others,) a minute description of the means and ceremony could prove but of little utility here, and is of course for that reason dispensed with.

Opinion and practice have very much varied in respect to the age most proper for backing a colt, or even taking him in hand. Not more than half a century past, colts were never touched (upon the score of handling) till rising four, backed and brought into very gentle use when rising five, and never seen in constant work till nearly or full six years old. But so wonderfully has fashionable refinement operated upon the human mind, and so constantly is it agitated by the fascinating effusions of novelty and innovation, that we now find colts handled at two, broke (and racing) at three, and in constant work at four, in every part of the kingdom; in consequence of which impatient and premature improvement upon the judgment and practice of our forefathers, we now daily observe horses at five, six, and seven years old, more impaired in their powers, than they formerly were at double that age, to the evident production of strained sinews, swelled legs, splents, sprains, wind-galls, and the long list of ills so admirably calculated for the support of the new generation of veterinarians, who are daily emerging from obscurity, and for whom employment must necessarily be obtained.

BACK SINEWS

,—so called in a horse, are the tendons extending from the junction of the knee, at the back of the shank-bone to the fetlock joint, where they are inserted. These parts are so much acted upon, and partake so palpably of the labour in which the animal is constantly engaged, that they are eternally liable to injury from over work, rolling stones, deep ground, or projecting prominences in the pavement of large towns. When injuries of this kind are severe, and threaten, by swelling and inflammation, some duration, a repetition of work should be by all means avoided. A speedy and permanent cure principally depends upon the first steps taken for relief, to which mild treatment, attention, unremitting care, and rest, will conjunctively contribute. In most cases too much is done in too short a time, to gratify either the impatience of the owner, or the pecuniary sensations of his medical monitor; burning applications (increasing the original inflammation) of what they term hot oils, followed up by blisters of extra strength, and lastly, the humane (and frequently ineffectual) operation of the firing irons, constitute the routine of professional practice, to the utter rejection of milder means, and the indications of nature, who, with the assistance of rest, would frequently effect her own purpose, and complete a cure.

BACK RAKING

—is an operation of which confident grooms, and indolent farriers, are too frequently fond. It is introducing the hand at the sphincter ani, to extract the indurated fÆces, or hardened dung, from the rectum, in which the horse must experience considerable pain, that would be better avoided by the more humane and considerate administration of a clyster. By this a repetition of the more slovenly and less efficacious operation would be rendered unnecessary, as well as the original intent more expeditiously promoted. There can be but little doubt, under the present improved practice, that means of relief so singular and unnatural, will soon give place to, and be totally superseded by, methods of greater neatness and humanity in their operation, and greater certainty in the effect.

BADGER

.—Though this animal cannot be said to afford sport to the superior classes, he is entitled to notice here, in conformity with the original intent and title of the Work. Former writers have, with a greater attention to the fertility of invention, than any respect to truth, held forth a seemingly plausible description of BADGERS of two distinct and separate kinds, under the different appellation of a dog-badger and hog-badger; the former having feet resembling a dog; the feet of the latter cloven, exactly similar to those of the hog. To strengthen this assertion, they tell you they subsist on different food; that the one eats with eagerness any kind of flesh and carrion as a dog; the other, roots, fruits, and vegetables, as a hog. This, however, may be justly considered the effect of fiction, or of a too enlarged imagination, as the existence of only one kind of badger is admitted amongst us, with such trifling difference in size or colour, as may happen from age, the peculiar soil of any particular county, or other such collateral circumstance as may add something to the size in one part of the kingdom, or vary a shade or two in the colours of another.

Hunting the badger is no more than an occasional sport with rustics of the lower order, and can only be enjoyed by moonlight; the badger, from his natural habits, being never to be found above ground by day. In this sport they are obliged to oppose art to cunning, and obtain by stratagem what they cannot effect by strength. At a late hour in the evening, when the badger is naturally concluded to have left his kennel or his castle, in search of prey, some of the party (as previously adjusted) proceed to place a sack at length within the burrow, so constructed that the mouth of the sack directly corresponds with the mouth of the earth, and is secured in that position by means of a willow hoop, which, from its pliability, readily submits to the form required. This part of the business being completed, the parties withdrawn, and the signal whistle given, their distant companions lay on the dogs, (either hounds, terriers, lurchers, or spaniels,) encouraging them through the neighbouring woods, coppices, and hedge rows, which the badgers abroad no sooner find, than being alarmed, and well knowing their inability to continue a state of warfare so much out of their own element, they instantly make to the earth for shelter, where, for want of an alternative, and oppressed with fear, they rush into certain destruction, by entering the sack, where being entangled, (by the rapidity with which they enter,) they are soon secured by those who are fixed near the spot for that purpose.

If he escapes by the ill construction or accidental falling of the sack, (which is sometimes the case,) and enters the earth with safety, digging him out is not only a certain laborious attempt, but with a very precarious termination; for the badger possessing instinctively much art, ingenuity, and perseverance, has generally formed his retreat with no small strength resulting from natural fortification; to render which the more probably tenable against the premeditated attacks of constant and implacable enemies, it is most frequently formed amongst the roots of some old pollard, in the banks of moors, or unfrequented ground, or underneath a hollow tree, from amidst the large and spreading roots of which the burrows run in such remote and ramified directions, that his assailants are compelled, by loss of time and labour, (after digging fifteen or twenty feet,) to relinquish the pursuit, and abandon the contest: corroborating the opinion of countrymen in general, that, in a light or sandy soil, badgers can make way as fast from their pursuers, as the latter erroneously conceive they are gaining ground upon them, and to this perhaps it is owing that there are so many drawn battles between the pursuers and the pursued.

Badger baiting is a different sport, and exceedingly prevalent in both town and country, particularly with the butchers, and lower orders in the environs of the metropolis, for whom a constant supply of badgers, from the woods of Essex, Kent, and Surry, were sure to be obtained. To so great a pitch of celebrity had this sublime amusement attained in the neighbourhood of Tottenham Court and Islington, that the magistrates most laudably exerted themselves to put an end to a pleasurable business, which brought together an infinity of the most abandoned miscreants, with their bull dogs and terriers, from every extremity of the town. To the dreadful and inhuman scene of baiting bears and badgers (with the most ferocious dogs) till nature was quite exhausted, succeeded dog fights, boxing matches, and every species of the most incredible infamy under sanction of the knights of the cleaver; till, by the persevering efforts of the more humane inhabitants, and the spirited determination of magistracy, the practice seems totally abolished, and likely to be buried in a much-wished-for oblivion.

BALLS

,—medicines so called when prepared in that form, as they now mostly are, for the mitigation and cure of almost every disease to which the horse is incident. There are purging balls of various kinds, prepared of proportional strengths, and compounded of different ingredients, with or without the impregnation of mercury, according to the state, disease, or condition of the subject. Mild and strong diuretic balls, for cracked heels, swelled legs, fluctuating humours, and grease. Pectoral cordial balls, for colds, as well as to be given after severe chases, or long journeys: they are also useful when a horse is off his appetite, as well as an excellent preventative to cold when a horse has been long out of the stable, in sharp winds or chilling rains. Pectoral detergent balls, for obstinate coughs, and thick-winded horses. Likewise balls for flatulent and inflammatory cholic, as well as for strangury and other disorders. Articles of this description are usually prepared from the prescriptions of those authors who have written upon farriery and veterinary medicine; but, for the accommodation of the public at large, and to prevent the abuses sometimes attendant upon the casual preparation in shops, by the inattention of servants, or the privilege and practice of substituting one article for another, the Author, immediately after the publication and success of his "Stable Directory" prepared his own advertised medicines, which have now been fourteen years honoured with public patronage, a list of which, with the prices, will be found annexed to this Work.

BALSAMICS

,—in medicine, is a kind of indefinite term, upon which the most eminent writers have hardly agreed: but however they may have differed in respect to derivation, there can be no doubt but the true sense of the word must appertain to such nutritive emollients, and gelatinous restoratives, as heal without, and invigorate within. The term is more generally applied to medicines administered in disorders of the chest and lungs.

BARBS

—are horses brought from the coast of Barbary, and mostly consigned as presents to His Majesty, or some other branch of the royal family. Those arriving under such distinction, are to be considered the true MOUNTAIN BARB, the pedigree of whose blood has been recorded with as much tenacity and care as the genealogy of our most ancient nobility. Barbs (as they are called) are to be found in the possession of many people of fashion and fortune in England, but they are in general of inferior degree, and thought to be only the common horses of the country from whence they came: such there are at all times to be obtained through the intervening medium of Provence and Languedoc in France; but in this kingdom they are held in very slender estimation; not more for their deficiency in growth and strength, than the aukwardness of their action.

Barbs were formerly in great request here; and neither trouble or expence was spared to obtain them, for the sole purpose of improving the speed of our own breed for the TURF, where, upon the various events in RACING at Newmarket, and in the north, immense sums are frequently depending; and from the various crosses in blood, the breeding in and in, with the different fancied interlineations by different individuals, it is affirmed, by some of those best versed in racing pedigree, that there are at this time a very few (if any) thorough bred English horses, but what have a cross of foreign blood in their composition. To elucidate or justify this opinion, reference may be made to the well authenticated list of Barbs and Arabians, who have contributed, as stallions, more or less, to the increase of the most select and valuable studs in every part of the kingdom.

The Helmsley Turk (one of the first we can go back to) was the property of an old Duke of Buckingham, and afterwards of Mr. Place, (studmaster to Oliver Cromwell when Protector,) in whose possession he got Bustler, &c. Mr. Place had also a stallion, called Place's White Turk, who was the sire of Wormwood, Commoner, and other good horses.

The Stradling or Lister Turk was brought into England by the Duke of Berwick, from the siege of Buda, in the reign of James the Second. He got Snake, Brisk, Piping Peg, Coneyskins, &c.

The Byerley Turk was Captain Byerley's charger in Ireland in King William's wars, 1689, and was afterwards the sire of many good runners.

Greyhound was got in Barbary by a white Barb, out of Slugey, a natural Barb mare. After the leap, both sire and dam were purchased and brought to England by Mr. Marshall, where the sire became one of King William's stud, and was called the "White Barb Chillaby." Greyhound was the sire of Othello, Whitefoot, Osmyn, Rake, Sampson, Goliah, Favorite, Desdemona, and others.

D'Arcy White Turk got old Hautboy, Grey Royal, Cannon, &c.

D'Arcy Yellow Turk was the sire of Spanker, Brimmer, and the great great grand-dam of Cartouch.

Curwen's Bay Barb was a present from Muly Ishmael, Emperor of Morocco, to Lewis the Fourteenth, and was brought to England by Mr. Curwen, who procured from Count Byram and Count Thoulouse (natural sons of the French King) the two horses afterwards called the Curwen Bay Barb and Thoulouse Barb, both which proved excellent stallions, getting a great number of winners, and transmitting their blood through the sisters of Mixbury to Partner, Little Scar, Soreheels, and the dam of Crab; as well as to Bagpiper, Blacklegs, Panton's Molly, and the dam of Cinnamon.

Darley's Arabian was brought over by a brother of Mr. Darley in Yorkshire, who being a commercial agent abroad, exerted his interest to procure the horse. He was sire of the famous horse Childers, (who was said to have ran a mile in a minute,) DÆdalus, Dart, Skipjack, Aleppo, and other good horses.

Sir J. Williams's Turk got Mr. Honeywood's two True Blues, out of the only thorough-bred mare he was ever known to cover; though he got some middling racers out of common mares, whose pedigrees were not known.

The Belgrade Turk was taken at the siege of Belgrade, and, after passing through the hands of General Merci, the Prince de Craon, and the Prince of Lorrain, became the property of Sir Marmaduke Wyvill, in whose possession he died about 1740.

Croft's Bay Barb was got by Chillaby out of the Moonah Barb Mare.

The Godolphin Arabian was the property of Lord Godolphin, and thought so little of as a stallion, and so little likely to get racers, that he was for some years teazer to Hobgoblin; but, upon his refusing to cover Roxana, the Arabian had the leap, which produced Lath, the first horse he ever got. To Lath succeeded Cade, Regulus, Blank, Babraham, Bajazet, &c. &c. and there can be no doubt, from the success of the progeny of each, but that he contributed more to the value and speed of horses for the turf, than any other foreign stallion ever brought into this kingdom.

The Cullen Arabian was sire of Camillus, Sour Face, the dam of Regulator, &c. &c.

The Coombe Arabian, called also the Pigot Arabian, was sire of Methodist, the dam of Cross, &c.

The Compton Barb, or Sedley Arabian, was sire of Coquette, Greyling, &c.

The Arcot Arabian has been covering a few years in the neighbourhood of the metropolis, but has not produced any thing of note. This may probably happen from a want of interest in procuring thorough-bred mares, without which a stallion for racing blood can acquire no celebrity.

King Charles the Second sent over his master of the horse to procure a number of foreign horses and mares for breeding; and the mares brought over by him, as well as many of their produce, have since been called Royal Mares. Dodsworth, though foaled in England, was a natural Barb; his dam was imported in foal during the time of Charles the Second, and was sold for forty guineas at twenty years old, (after the King's death,) then in foal (by the Helmsley Turk) of Vixen, afterwards dam of the old Child Mare.

However largely this description of horses may have contributed to the improvement of blood in this country, and however grand and majestic they may appear in competition with our more settled, steady, and well-broke studs; yet, when the uniformity of parts which constitute the whole come to be judiciously examined, and every point of perfection precisely ascertained, no doubt can or need be entertained, but the best bred horses in Britain, as Highflyer, Escape, Rockingham, Hambletonian, Diamond, and many others, must stand firmly entitled to the palm of priority. The most accurate must have observed, that the major part of the horses brought to this country as Barbs and Arabians, being submitted to public inspection, are very much inferior in height to our own, few reaching, and none exceeding, fifteen hands: they have mostly a curvilinear hollowness of the back, a narrowness of the chest, (indicative of speed, but the reverse of strength,) and a palpable deficiency in the arm or fore thigh, seemingly disproportioned to their own weight. Their apparent powers are entirely appropriate to the purposes of speed, and not to the common services of the people of this country; being, in general, bad, uneven walkers; and once exerted to a trot, their legs are thrown about in the clambering manner of the German cavalry, much more adapted to the gratification of pompous parade, than the neatness or utility of expeditious action.

BARS

—are the fleshy ridges at the upper part of a horse's mouth. These ridges are always more prominent in young horses than in old. When they are luxuriant towards the front teeth, and, with a kind of elastic puffiness, project and prevent mastication, they are called Lampas, (which see.) In all cases of emergency where bleeding is necessary, and the apparatus not at hand, particularly in the night, an incision or two across the bars with the fleam, instantly answers the purpose, and prevents farther ceremony.

—is a favorite sport with farmer's servants on a winter's evening, and can only be enjoyed with a degree of success proportioned by the darkness of the night. The party should not consist of less than four; two of whom are provided with long flimsey hazel sticks or hurdle rods; the third carries and manages the flap, (or folding net;) and the fourth a candle and lanthorn, suspended to the end of a pole seven or eight feet long. Upon the net being spread, by separating the side rods to their utmost extent, before the corn-rick, out-houses, eaves of stable thatch, yew hedge, or whatever spot it is intended to try, the candle and lanthorn is then to be held up as nearly the centre of the net as possible, but at about three or four feet distance, just before the assistants begin to beat the rick, thatch, or hedge, with their poles; when the birds being thus suddenly alarmed from their resting-place, make instantly for the light, when the net being directly closed (if by a skilful practitioner) the success is beyond description; it being no uncommon thing, in large remote farms, and in severe winters, to take twenty or thirty dozen of sparrows, and other small birds, in one evening's diversion.

BATTLE ROYAL

—was formerly (much more than at present) a favorite mode of fighting amongst COCKERS of the lower order, who, upon the old maxim of "the more danger the more honor," became practical advocates for general destruction in the following way. A battle royal may consist of any number of cocks, but is hardly ever known to exceed eight. The owner of each having made good his stake, or previously contributed his share of the prize or purse for which they fight, and all parties being ready, the cocks are most inhumanly pitted at the same moment, when a long and distressing scene ensues, to which there is no termination so long as a second cock is left alive, and the victory can only be obtained by the last survivor. This species of sport is but little practised now, and that in the most distant and remote corners of the kingdom.

BAY

—the colour of a horse so called, and is the most esteemed of any other in constituting the beauty of the horse. They have invariably black manes and tails, are many shades lighter than a brown horse, and were originally called bay from their affinity to the leaf of the bay tree. There are, however, some degrees of difference and variations in those so termed: for instance, there is the light or yellow bay, the brown bay, and the mottled bay. Bay horses with black legs have the preference of all other colours, and now almost wholly constitute the racing breed of this country.

BAY

—is a sporting term, and used in the following sense. When a stag has been so long pursued that, finding his speed or strength nearly exhausted, he turns round, (having some protection of building or paling in his rear,) and facing the hounds, resolutely defends himself with his antlers, keeping the hounds at bay, till the sportsmen come up, who immediately assist in drawing off the hounds, and saving the life of the deer. When the deer takes soil, (that is, takes to the water,) he will defend himself, and keep the hounds a long time at bay, provided he fathoms the lake or river so well as to keep the hounds swimming, and not go out of his own depth; if he loses which, and is obliged to swim at the time he is up, (in other words, quite tired,) and surrounded by the hounds, he is inevitably drowned by his numerous and determined foes, in opposition to every exertion that can be made to save him.

In fox-hunting, when the fox is supposed to have gone to earth, the fact can only be ascertained in many cases by the excellence of the terrier attending the pack, who has in general strength and speed sufficient to keep him from being far behind. Upon entering the earth, discovery is soon made of the certainty of his retreat, by the terrier's "laying well at him," provided the fox has not turned in the earth: if he has so done, and they are face to face, they are both baying, or keeping each other at bay, till the controversy ends in digging out the fox, and letting in the hounds for their share of the entertainment, with the additional acquisition of blood for the advantage of the pack.

BAY BOLTON

—was bred by Mr. Vernon; foaled in 1777: he was got by Matchem, dam by Regulus, out of an own sister to the Ancaster Starling. He has long been in the possession of his Majesty, and was for many years the favorite stallion at Hampton Court, from whom most of his Majesty's present stud were produced.

BAY MALTON

—was esteemed the first horse of his year in the kingdom, and won more prizes of consequence and value than any horse of his time. He was bred by the then Marquis of Rockingham; was foaled in 1760; got by Sampson, dam by Cade, and grand-dam by Old Traveller. It is believed he never covered as a STALLION: if so, he produced no horses of note.

BAY TREE

—The leaves of which are so useful in fomentations, and the berries in clysters, for horses upon every emergency, particularly remote from towns, that sporting gentlemen in the country should never be without a tree of this description upon their premises.

BEAGLES

,—in early stages of the sporting world, was an appellation of much more definite meaning than in the polish of the present times, and was then used to signify a brace or two of the tanned or pied hounds of small dimensions, with which the country squire or opulent farmer picked and chopped the trail of a hare to her form for a course with his greyhounds. As they were, however, so constantly useful in recovering the hare after the first course, and bringing her to view for a second, it became in a great degree stigmatized by sportsmen in general, and is now considered neither more or less than one mode of poaching under the sanction of legal authority. Many packs of these small beagles (for beagle then implied the smallest kind of hound known) were formerly kept by country gentlemen at a very trifling expence, and with no small share of amusement to their rustic neighbours; for, although those who joined in the chase might be numerous, yet two or three horsemen only were seen in the field, so easy was it to keep up with the hounds (alias beagles) on foot. They were in general so well matched, that they did not exceed eleven inches in height; and ran so well together, they (to speak technically,) "might be covered with a sheet." Though they were slow, they were sure; for if the scent lay well, a hare could seldom escape them; and this, to the object of pursuit, mostly proved a lingering as well as a certain death: for though, in the early parts of the chase, they could never get near enough to press her, they were frequently two or three hours in killing.

In proportion to the increasing spirit of the times, slow hunting declined, and beagles of this kind got in disrepute. The numerous crosses in the breed of both beagles and hounds, according to the wishes and inclinations of those who keep them, have so diversified the variety, that a volume might be produced, in a description of the different sorts and sizes adapted to the soil and surface where they hunt; from the old heavy, deep tongued, dew-lapped southern hound of Manchester, (where the huntsman with his long pole goes on foot,) to the highest crossed harriers of the present day, who kill the stoutest hares in thirty and forty minutes with a speed not much inferior to coursing. Beagles, when the term is now used, implies hounds who hunt hares only, in contra-distinction to those who hunt either STAG or FOX. Harriers have been produced from the crosses between the beagle and the fox hound, for the advantage of speed; but harriers are not, in sporting acceptation, to be considered synonymous with beagles, to whom they are very superior in size. Mr. Daniel, in a recent publication, called "Rural Sports," has given an account of "a cry of beagles, ten or eleven couple, which were always carried to and from the field in a large pair of panniers, slung across a horse: small as they were, they would keep a hare at all her shifts to escape them, and often worry her to death. The catastrophe (says he) attending this pack of hounds is laughable, and perhaps is a larceny unique in its attempt. A small barn was their allotted kennel, the door of which was one night broke open, and every hound with the panniers stolen; nor could the most diligent search discover the least trace of the robbers or their booty."

BEAK

,—the bill of a bird, more expressively understood in the "setting too" of a cock; which, according to the articles and fixed rules of cocking, must be "beak to beak."

BEAM

,—in the head of a deer, is the basis, or part bearing the antlers, royals and tops.

BEAT for a Hare

,—is a term in hunting, much less known, and much less used, formerly, than of late years. When the huntsman was mounted at day break, and the hounds were thrown off at the place of meeting, as soon as the horsemen could see to ride, the hounds took trail, and went to their game in a style much better conceived than described. No assistance was then required to beat for hares, when the hounds were thus early enabled to find for themselves. A chase (or two) was enjoyed at that time, and the hounds at home in the kennel, before the hour at which it is now the custom to reach the field. Hence the custom of engaging help to beat for a hare, the worst method that can be adopted, and the most destructive of all discipline with the hounds; for once accustomed to the practice, heads are all up; and they are much more employed in staring about, and listening for a view holloa, than in putting their noses to the ground.

BEDDING

—appertains here only to the bedding of the horse, upon which there are such a variety of opinions, that there cannot be the least expectation of all ever centering in one point. While some are profuse of straw at all seasons, even to a degree of waste and extravagance, others, from a parsimonious principle, do not (at least readily) admit the necessity of any at all. In extremes, perhaps, the line of mediocrity may be the most satisfactory, and least liable to reprehension.

BETTING

—is one great gratification of happiness with the people of this country, who never can be said to be truly happy, unless it is blended with a chance of becoming completely miserable. It is that kind of national furor, that no laws, however penal, no restrictions, however severe, can have sufficient force to stem the torrent of popular propensity; particularly when nurtured and encouraged by the prevalent example, and personal practice, of the first and most exalted characters in the kingdom. Experience has for ages proved it a privilege implanted in the very hearts of its devotees, which can only terminate when sporting propagation ceases, and will of course continue to the end of time. Legislative dictation, and magisterial authority, may give a temporary check to games of chance at tables of public notoriety, where the most villainous depredations are in constant practice; but so long as that excitement to the true spirit of speculation, a lottery, the exhilarating power of a race, the infectious clamour of a cockpit, or the greater hobby-horse of John Bull, a boxing match, is open to all minds, and in all directions, so long will betting excite the attention, and continue to constitute the pleasing, painful anxiety of pecuniary speculation with the people of this country, (and probably of every other,) from the highest to the lowest classes of society.

Betting is the act of laying a wager, or making a deposit of money, by two persons of contrary opinions, for one to become the winner, upon the decision of some public or popular event; and that so fashionable a mode of terminating disputes may meet with but little difficulty or obstruction, bets are made with as much deliberation, and discharged by the SPORTING WORLD with as much integrity, as the most important transactions of the commercial part of society in the first city of the universe. Betting has of late years been reduced to a system, by which there are now many professors in existence, who were originally of the very lowest order; but, by an indefatigable and persevering industry at Newmarket, the cockpit, and the gaming table, have acquired princely possessions, by the unexpected honour of being admitted to princely association. Where two opponents deposit each an equal sum (whether five pounds or five hundred) upon any event whatever, it is then termed an even bet. An offer of six to four, implies the odds in direct ratio of six pounds to four, twelve to eight, sixty to forty; or in that proportion to any amount. Betting two to one, is laying ten pounds to five, twenty to ten, and so forth; one depositing exactly double the amount of his adversary's stake; three, four and five to one being regulated in the same way. The latter are all termed laying the odds, which vary according to the predominant opinions of the best judges upon the probable termination of the event; one rule being invariable, the person betting the odds (or, in other words, the larger sum against the smaller) has always the privilege of taking his choice in preference to his adversary, against which no appeal can ever be made with a decision in its favor.

Any person proposing a bet to another during the running of a horse, the fighting of a cock, or any other transaction, the party applied to, saying "done," and the proposer replying "done" also, it then becomes a confirmed bet, and cannot in sporting etiquette and honour be off, or revoked, but by mutual consent. No bet above ten pounds can be sued for and recovered in our courts of law; the payment of all losings above that sum must depend entirely upon the sporting integrity of the parties concerned.

BISHOPING

—is an operation performed upon the teeth of a horse, and supposed to have derived its modern appellation from an eminent and distinguished dealer of the name of Bishop; whether from any peculiar neatness in, or reputed celebrity for, a personal performance of the deception, it is most probably not possible (or necessary) to ascertain. The purport of the operation is to furnish horses of ten or twelve years old with a regeneration of teeth, bearing the appearance of five or six, and is thus performed. The horse being powerfully twitched by both the nose and the ears, a cushioned roller (large enough to keep the jaws extended) is then placed in the mouth; which done, the teeth of the under jaw are somewhat reduced in their length (according to their growth) by the friction of a whitesmith's cutting file: an engraver's tool is then employed in taking away as much from the centre of the surface of each tooth as will leave a conspicuous cavity in the middle; this cavity (or rather every individual cavity) is then burned black with an iron instrument red hot, and adapted to the purpose; a composition of cement is then insinuated, so well prepared in both colour and consistence, that it is frequently not discoverable (at least to slight observers) for many months after its introduction.

BITCH

—is the feminine of the canine species, in contra-distinction to dog. It is sometimes used in a similar sense with respect to foxes, where the female is termed a bitch fox; though a vixen is the more sportsman-like appellation. Bitches are sometimes spayed, to prevent their farther propagation: it requires judgment and expertness in the operation, the best time for which is about a week after the heat is gone off.

BITS

—are of different kinds, formed of iron, and constitute the mouth-part of bridles of every denomination, whether in carriage harness, or for use on the turf, in the chase, or upon the road. The single large-mouthed bit, first used with colts in breaking, is known by the name of mouthing-bit: the same shaped bit, but of a much smaller size, with a small cheek of about three inches long, is called a piped cheek snaffle. A single bit, having a curb, and a cheek of five or six inches long, with one rein only, and that inserted to the bottom of the cheek, is termed a hard and sharp, and with justice; it is one of the worst inventions ever adopted, never seen in use with a sportsman, and only calculated for vicious run-away horses, not to be stopped by any common means. A bit of the same form, having eyes for two reins, one on each side the mouth-piece, and others at the lower extremity of the cheek, are called pelhams, as a favourite bit of the old Duke of Newcastle. A bridoon is a small snaffle, or mouth-piece, having no other cheek than a circular eye to receive the rein into the same headstall, with which is stitched a roller-mouthed polished port bit, having a cheek of four, five or six inches in length, according to fancy, or the mouth of the horse: the rein to this bit is affixed to the lower extremity of the cheek, and, in conjunction with the bridoon, constitutes the double reined bridle, called a Weymouth, mostly in use.

BITES

—frequently happen to sporting dogs as well as to horses, but much more frequently to the former, by poisonous insects that are, as well as many not known. Means of relief must of course be regulated by immediate appearances: in great inflammation, bleeding, and external emollients, are of good effect: in bites of the viper, its own fat liquified, and to be had at the medical shops as the "oil of vipers," is acknowledged a certain antidote.

BITTERN

—is a bird of similar formation to the heron, but of much smaller size, and more beautifully variegated in its plumage. They are principally found in sedgey moors, where they breed, particularly within a few miles of the sea-coast, not being very common in the centrical parts of the kingdom. If brought down by the gun with only a broken wing, they display great courage in opposing their destroyer; possessing such determined power, and quick exertion of both talons and beak, they cannot be with safety secured till deprived of life. From their scarcity, they are esteemed a rarity at the tables of the great, where one is received as a handsome present; a brace being seldom seen together, either dead or alive.

BLACK ACT

—is so called, because it was enacted in consequence of the most unprecedented depredations committed in Essex by persons in disguise, with their faces blacked and disfigured, and is literally thus.

"By this statute it is enacted, that persons, hunting armed and disguised, and killing or stealing deer, or robbing warrens, or stealing fish out of any river, &c. or any person unlawfully hunting in His Majesty's forests; or breaking down the head of any fish-pond; or killing of cattle; or cutting down trees; or setting fire to house, barn, or wood; or shooting at any person; or sending letters, either anonymous, or signed with a fictitious name, demanding money, &c. or rescuing such offenders, are guilty of felony without benefit of clergy." This is commonly called the Waltham Black Act, and was made perpetual by 31 George II. c. 42.

BLACK-LEGS

—is the expressive appellation long since given by the superior classes of the sporting world (consisting of noblemen and gentlemen of fortune) to the very honorable and very distinguished fraternity who are known to constitute "a family," and are, perhaps, without exception, the most unprincipled and abandoned set of thieves and harpies that ever disgraced civilized society. They are a body, existing by, and subsisting upon, the most villainous modes of deceptive depredation: their various modes of attacking, and preying upon, the credulity of the inexperienced and unsuspecting part of the public, are beyond conception: their number is incredible, and their stratagems exceed description. Destitute not only of character, but of every sense of honor, their minds are destined solely to the purposes of determined devastation upon the property of those unthinkingly seduced or betrayed into their company; upon whose credulity and indiscretion they are supported in a continued scene of the most luxurious and fashionable dissipation.

As members have no great power in exerting themselves with much success individually, the firm (if a phalanx of the most infamous combination can be termed so) are adequate to almost every desperate undertaking, from pricking in the belt, hustling in the hat, or slipping a card, to the casually meeting a friend upon Hounslow Heath. They are sole proprietors of the different gaming tables, public and private, as well in the metropolis, as the hazard and E O tables at all the races of eminence in the kingdom. They are invariably present at every fashionable receptacle for sport: the tennis-court, the billiard-room, the cockpit, have all to boast a majority in quest of prey; and even the commonest coffee-house is a spot where modest merit, in the form of a lounging emissary, frequently obtrudes, in the anxious hope of picking up some opulent juvenile, that he may afterwards enjoy the pleasure of introducing him in the most friendly and liberal way to another member of the fraternity, as a very proper object, or pidgeon, well worth plucking for the benefit of the family.

BLADDER

—is a part of the horse liable to disease; but seldom known to occur, unless by the indiscretion of the owner. A long retention of urine, by continuing a journey to too great an extent without stopping, may produce strangury; and that not being soon relieved, inflammation may ensue. Instances are recorded of stones, calcareous substances, and different concretions, having been found in the bladders of horses after death. Discretion is a proper and cheap preventative.

BLANK

—was a horse in high form, beating almost every horse of his time, and his blood was held in the utmost estimation: he was bred by Lord Godolphin; foaled 1740; got by the Godolphin Arabian, dam by Bartlett's Childers, out of the dam of the Large Hartley Mare. The various performances of Blank will not admit of being brought within the compass of so concise a description; therefore, suffice it to say, that, after his performances upon the turf, he became a stallion of the first celebrity, and was sire of Ghost, Tripod, Chatsworth, Hengist, Croney, Yeoman, Porsenna, Lottery, Young Blank, Lustre, Lumber, Whipster, Amazon, Britannicus, Charlotte, Prussia, Helen, Lycurgus, and a very long list of excellent runners, too numerous for insertion under this head.

BLEEDING

—of horses is a simple and easy operation, hitherto performed with an instrument called a fleam, which being steadily supported over the neck vein (about five inches below the superior process of the jaw-bone) is forcibly struck with what is professionally termed a bloodstick, turned out of the wood called lignum vitÆ, as being sufficiently heavy to insure weight and certainty to the blow: the blade of the fleam is supported by a shoulder, to prevent the incision's being made beyond the depth of safety: the use of the line round the lower part of the neck, previous to the operation, is now greatly out of use; although it is certainly a means of keeping the vein firm from fluctuation, and of course a very proper guide, particularly for young practitioners. Of late years this mode of operating has greatly declined, particularly with veterinarians of the new school, the most expert of whom adopt the use of the lancet, and are introducing it to general practice; and, although the neatness of the operation must be candidly admitted, yet, with high spirited, shy, unruly horses, (where there is a chance of the point of the lancet's being broken in the orifice,) a doubt naturally arises, whether, in such cases, the former method is not both the least troublesome and least dangerous of the two.

The consistency and propriety of BLEEDING upon slight or moderate occasions, has always been matter of cavil and capricious controversy with those whose cynical rigidity, and restless spirit, ever prompts them to take even the wrong side of any argument, (however absurd and ridiculous,) rather than want a cause to carp at; but with those possessing the power of scientific disquisition, and practical professional knowledge, such fallacious and ill-founded reasoning must fall to the ground. Its utility, upon the attack of almost every disease to which the animal is subject, is now so generally admitted, that it stands in need of no additional corroboration from the more refined rays of constantly increasing improvement.

The quantity proper to be taken away at one time, in any case, may be from three to five pints; the latter only in such disorders as require plentiful depletion: in all cases of inflammation (particularly the lungs) frequent repetitions are to be justified, provided they follow not too fast upon each other; the lives of many horses have been preserved (particularly in those influenzas of late years called "the distemper") by four or five plentiful bleedings in so many days; and, vice versa, as great a number lost by a want of the same means. As blood is generated, and the unloaded vessels replenished, by the constant supply of aliment in health, or nutriment in disease, so little, or, in fact, no permanent injury can be sustained by leaning to the safe side, and taking away even too much, provided it be at different times, particularly when it is remembered, that the life of a valuable horse is very frequently lost by a too great pusillanimity and forbearance in the operation.

BLEMISHES

—are so called which constitute disfiguration and eyesore, without impediment to sight or action; it is therefore readily conceived, a horse may be very materially blemished without being unsound. Blemishes are various, and many of them not to be immediately perceived, in a superficial survey of the subject: broken knees are a very material and conspicuous blemish: splents, if large, are unpleasing to the eye of the good judge and nice investigator: warts are easily observed, and as easily cured: thrushes, and a carious state of the frogs, not to be known but by an examination of the feet: sandcracks, previously cured, sometimes remain unseen, but are always liable to a renewal of the original defect: the marks of former blistering is, in general, to be plainly perceived by a variation in colour, or an unnatural roughness in the hair of those parts: the marks of firing-irons may be easily traced (however neatly performed) upon the hocks for spavins and curbs, or upon the back of the shank-bones for strains in the back sinews. A horse may be blemished by a speck in the eye, arising from a blow with the lash of a whip or switch; this is frequently no more than a partial thickening of a small part of the outer humour of the eye, not obstructing those rays of light which constitute vision.

If a horse is warranted "perfectly sound, without blemish, free from vice, steady to ride, and quiet in harness," it is a full and general warranty speaking for itself; leaving very little for the intentional purchaser to do (in respect to inspection) if he has previously tried and approved the paces of the horse. But where a warranty seemingly guarded, or cautiously partial, is offered, a proper degree of circumspection will be necessary to prevent a chance of early repentance; a prevention of litigation will prove less expensive than the cure of a lawsuit.

BLINDNESS

—in a horse (whether in one or both eyes) may originate in a variety of well-known causes, many of which are occasioned by means of violence, and may at all times be prevented by proper care and humane attention. If a horse, having naturally good eyes, is observed to undergo a sudden change in the external appearance, from enlargement of the lids, or a discharge of hot watery serum, with a visible heat and pain of the part, (the horse constantly shaking his head and ears,) it may reasonably be attributed to some cause originating in external injury: if not by such means, it must be from some morbid affection in the system, acting more immediately and powerfully upon the most irritable parts.

The eyes of some horses are periodically affected, even for months and years, before they terminate in total blindness: to this species of ocular defect, the illiterate and less enlightened of former times gave the appellation of "moon-blind," under the weak and ridiculous idea, that such changes were produced by the gradational stages of the moon; an opinion too trifling to render animadversion necessary, it being one of the very few remaining traits of superstition which will speedily be totally done away. Many horses lose their eyes from extreme exertion, as by over racing; in proof of which, a very long list of instances might be adduced: the same effect has been produced upon STALLIONS in being permitted to cover mares not only in an unlimited degree in respect to number, but stimulated so to do by the use of powerful and prejudicial provocatives: in both these cases the loss of sight is occasioned by a total subversion of the nervous system, reducing it to a fixed or partial debility of those particular parts, from which they never recover.

Horses are frequently found to inherit constitutional defects from SIRE or DAM; and none are, perhaps, to be considered more justly hereditary than defects of the eyes; and to render such fact the more extraordinary, it generally happens to have lain dormant for the first three or four years, and never to display itself to any visible inconvenience till a colt is broke, and brought into work. The eyes of a horse inheriting this taint by hereditary transmission, are much less prominent than a natural, well-formed and good eye; they have a kind of indented furrow in the lid above the orb, and a wrinkled contraction in the part immediately over that, constituting a kind of "vinegar aspect," better conceived than described: this kind of eye should be carefully avoided in purchase; for however they may vary by changes in work, and a diversity of seasons, they, nine times out of ten, terminate in blindness; a circumstance fairly to be presumed, no professional man living can prevent.

BLISTERING

—is an operation performed upon a horse by unguents prepared of different degrees of strength, according to the circumstances of the case. They are in general use for blood and bone spavins, curbs and strains of the back sinews: where they do not complete the purpose for which they were intended, they are repeated at a proper period; or firing the part is adopted, and the horse is turned out. Blistering is in general too soon resorted to as a remedy, and in many cases before the inflammation arising from the original injury has sufficiently subsided for the operation to take place; from which injudicious mode of practice, a permanent enlargement of the part is occasioned, that is never got rid of during the life of the horse.

BLOOD

—is the well known fluid issuing from wounds, or separated vessels, in an accidental destruction of parts: it is not only the very basis, but the support, of life itself; and drawn from the frame of any animal beyond a certain proportion (professionally ascertained,) causes instant death. In the regular routine of the animal oeconomy, blood is generated by the frequent supplies of nutritive aliment, and retaining within itself sufficient strength and power for its own peculiar purposes, throws off, by the different emunctories, the superflux with which it may be encumbered: but as medical or anatomical disquisition is not intended in a work of this general kind, it must suffice to observe, that, from the blood in its original and first formed state, proceeds all the progressive and superior functions of Nature. From the blood issues every gradational proportion of insensible, sensible and profuse perspiration; from the blood, the urine is secreted (or separated) by the kidnies; and from the blood is extracted, by the genitals, that very masculine semen, by which (we are told from high and indisputable authority) our posterity is to be continued to the end of time.

BLOOD HOUNDS

.—Those so called, have always had a kind of fabulous property ascribed to them, of pursuing, and infallibly taking or seizing, robbers, murderers, or depredators, whenever they could be laid upon the footsteps (or scent) of the particular object they were intended to pursue; and of their possessing this property there can be no doubt, when the experience of ages, transmitted to us by our predecessors, (as well as our own observations,) have afforded the most indisputable proofs, that hounds may be taught or broke in to carry on any particular scent, when feelingly convinced they are to hunt no other. There requires no "ghost from the grave" to confirm a fact of so much notoriety: a mere sporting embryo would tell us, that "a pack who for some years hunted fallow deer in the possession of their last owner, are hunting hare in high style with the present; that the principal body of the celebrated pack who for some years past hunted fox with Lord Darlington in the north, are now probably destined to the pursuit of the red deer with Lord Derby in the south: and the whole art of changing hounds from one chase to another is the temporary trouble of breaking them afresh, and making them steady to the scent they are to pursue."

In respect to the received opinion of what were formerly called bloodhounds, the fact is simply this: the original stock partook, in nearly an equal degree, of the large, heavy, strong, boney old English stag-hound, and the deep-mouthed southern hound, of which mention is made under the head "Beagle." The hounds destined to one particular kind of business or pursuit, as bloodhounds, were never brought into the chase for a constancy with the pack for the promotion of sport, but were preserved and supported (as a constable or Bow-Street runner of the present day) for the purposes of pursuit and detection, whenever they could, with certainty, be laid on in good time upon the scent of footsteps of the object it was thought expedient to pursue. Deer stealing, for instance, was so very common a century since to what it is at present, that the GAME and PARK keepers in most parts of the kingdom were in a kind of eternal watching and nocturnal warfare: the hounds we are now describing were then constantly trained to the practice, and so closely adhered to the scent they were once laid on upon, that (even after a very long and tedious pursuit) detection was certain and inevitable: from this persevering instinct and infallibility, they acquired the appellation they have so long retained; and an offending criminal not a century since, was absolutely conceived to be positively taken, and half convicted, the very moment a blood-hound could be obtained.

BLOOD SPAVIN

—is a preternatural and puffy enlargement on the inside of a horse's hock, proceeding from a distension of the vein crossing the internal junction of the inferior part of the thigh bone with the superior part of the shank; and whenever such injury is observed, it may rather be supposed to have originated in a blow, a kick, or more probably from a ligamentary twist or distortion, (by a short and sudden turn in the small stall of an ill constructed stable,) than by any continued exertion of speed, either on a journey or in the chase.

BLOWS

—inconsiderately given, in passion, to harmless, inoffending animals, are nineteen times out of twenty productive of repentance, when probably repentance comes too late. A horse sometimes, and most commonly from the inattention of the rider, steps almost unavoidably upon a flint or rolling-stone; and in the very exertion of recovering himself from nearly falling, he at that critical moment receives a severe and unexpected blow behind the ear from the stick of his philosophic, patient, humane rider, which brings him instantly to the ground, giving and receiving ample proof, that "the remedy was worse than the disease." No conjectures need be formed upon the loss of eyes annually sustained by blows from petulant masters, as well as the most rascally servants; injuries of this kind may be daily seen by observers with their eyes open in every part of the kingdom.

Blows will most assuredly sometimes happen from accident, though most of this description arise from folly, ignorance, or indiscretion; as for instance, the very common circumstances of carelessly giving a horse's head or eye a blow against the stall in turning, or the hip-bone very frequently against the post of the stable door, and this by the stupidity of those who seem to think a horse can turn within as small a space as themselves; or rather, perhaps, by those who seem unfortunately destined by Nature never to think at all. In general, the good or bad usage of servants to horses, or other animals under their care, may be conceived a very fair and unerring criterion of the depravity or integrity of their own hearts; and such should be emphatically told, that not only broken bones, but instantaneous loss of life, has frequently followed passionate blows, and cruel usage, by the law of retaliation, in the resentment of an animal capable of distinguishing between a fault committed, a reproof given, or any unjust injury sustained.

BONE SPAVIN

—is an ossified enlargement on the outside of, and rather below, the centre of the hock, originating in a cartilaginous protrusion from the seat of articulation becoming progressively callous, and lastly a substance equally firm with the bone itself. They do not invariably constitute lameness upon their first appearance, but it soon follows a course of hard or regular work. Blistering first, and firing afterwards, was the practice of farriers of the old school, which it is not known has undergone any change with veterinarians of the new.

BOLTING

.—When a fox, laying at earth, has been dug to, and, upon the approach of the spade, the terrier, or the person attempting to take him, makes a sudden spring, and goes off, he is then said to have bolted; when, of course, the chase is continued with the hounds. The term is also applicable to a rabbit from its burrow, or the badger from his earth.

BORING

;—one of the former humane operations in farriery for what is now called a lameness, then termed a wrench in the shoulder: it consisted in making a small orifice, or superficial incision, through the integument near the part affected: into this is insinuated a small tube or pipe; by the operator's breath through which the part is inflated, directly in the way a butcher swells his veal: a flat piece of iron, of small dimensions, is then introduced between the ribs and the shoulder in different directions, to produce some effect hitherto unexplained, and never understood. The seeming cruelty, and evident uncertainty, of the operation, has long since buried it in oblivion, at least with scientific practitioners; and it is very little seen or heard of, except amongst the rustic Vulcans in remote corners of the kingdom.

BOTTS

—are differently described by different writers; a certain proof many of them wrote more from theory, copy, and hearsay, than from attentive practice, or personal observation. Some have observed, they were of one shape; a second, of another; a third has said their seat was invariably upon one particular part; but the present Author has told you, in his former Works, and now repeats the fact, that they are equally inhabitants of the stomach before, as they are of the rectum behind; and are as constantly found in the former after the death of the subject, as they are seen adhering to the sphincter of the rectum during his life; and that horses, who have fallen victims to the ravages of these destructive diminutives, had both the stomach and rectum loaded with numbers in a degree to be fairly concluded incredible, unless the proof had been personally confirmed by sight and individual conviction. The mode by which they are conveyed into the body (or how they are engendered there) may possibly long continue a matter of conjecture and ambiguity: Not so with the effect; when there, they soon continue to increase, and to occasion constant disquietude; sometimes violent pain. A horse labouring under their persecuting pinchings, is frequently eating, and without appetite, in a hope of relieving himself from the gnawing sensations within: he is generally rough in the coat, low in flesh, depressed in the stable, and not elated when out. Various remedies are in use; but mercurial physic is the only certain mode of extirpation.

BOWEL-GALLED

—is a laceration occasioned by the tightness and heat, or friction, of the girths, just behind the elbows of the fore legs, and is soon hardened and obliterated by two or three applications of a soft sponge, impregnated with common vinegar.

BOWLS

—is a game played upon a fine smooth grassy surface, either square, circular, or oblong, used solely for the purpose, and called a BOWLING-GREEN. The party may consist of two, four, six, or eight, and is generally chosen alternately, after tossing up a coin to decide who shall have the first choice. The sides being selected, each player has two bowls, which bowls have numerical figures, thereby ascertaining to whom they belong. The leader sends off a smaller bowl, called the jack, to what distance he pleases, it being (by the toss) his privilege so to do: this he follows with his first bowl, getting as near the jack as possible: he is then followed by one of the adverse party, the partner of the first following, and so in rotation till all the bowls are played; when as many of the bowls, on either side, as are nearer to the jack than the nearest on the opposite side, so many do the successful party score that time toward the game, and so on in succession, till one side or the other have won the match. Sometimes great disappointment happens in the play, when a ball laying very near the jack, is removed to a distance by the hit of an adversary's bowl, which remains nearer the jack than the bowl it has driven away; this is called a rub, and gave rise to the long-standing adage, "he that plays at bowls, must expect rubs."

—would not have been entitled to notice in a work of this kind, had it not been in a certain degree of conditional use with horses of different descriptions, in sickness as well as in health. Bran is an article almost generally known to be the coarser part of the skin or covering of the grain called wheat, from the body of which flour is manufactured, and bread made. With some people (particularly in the country parts of the kingdom, who are desirous of keeping their horses at little expence) bran constitutes a principal part of their food; in consequence of which, it becomes necessary to advert concisely to its known effects. From its nutritive property having been taken away, it contains little more than the means of distending the frame, without the generative quality of enriching the blood, or contributing to the formation of flesh. Not calculated to become a primary object of support, it may in some ways be brought into use as a collateral of utility. Horses belonging to bakers and mealmen, who have been principally subsisted upon this article, with the addition of a few split beans, (or peas,) have become pursive and thick-winded; then asthmatic; lastly, dull, heavy, and inactive; dying at nine or ten years old; when a large ball, or mealy concretion, (of different sizes in different subjects,) has been found in the stomach or intestinal canal, of a most impenetrable hardness, to the weight of ten or twelve pounds. Though not proper for food in its dry state, it is a most useful article in mashes with malt, to disunite and prevent the satiating richness of that article alone; or to assist in common mashes with oats, (when a horse is in physic,) as well as to incorporate with a proper impregnation of honey in the mashes for colds during the severity of the winter season.

"On the 15th of November, 1799, died, after having been disordered some days, a horse belonging to Mr. Ransom, of Hitchin. The cause of his death was owing to a substance found in his stomach, of a brown colour, exactly resembling a large pebble stone, very smooth and hard on the surface, and weighed 11 lbs. 14 oz. avoirdupoise. It is nearly spherical, and measures just two feet in circumference, being about the size of a man's head. It is supposed to have been occasioned by his eating of bran, that having been his constant food."—Sporting Magazine.

BREAKING the Herd

—is the ceremony of singling out a deer (either stag or hind) from the herd for the chase, which is thus performed with His Majesty's establishment in Windsor Forest. A survey being made of the herd, and the particular deer fixed on for separation, the huntsmen, assisted by one of the yeomen prickers, ride at a hunting rate, gallop directly into the herd, continuing so to do (as the herd divide) at the particular part to which the deer intended to be singled out continues to adhere. This ceremony is sometimes a very tedious business to the men, as well as to the horses, as it is no uncommon thing, when they have detached, or reduced a divided part of the herd to a leash or two brace, (amongst which is the particular deer wanted,) for that number to make a circle of ten, fifteen, or even twenty miles, before the riders, with all their energy, can disunite them more than to a single brace, and not at all to a single deer. When this is effected, the hounds, who are in waiting at some distance, under the six remaining YEOMEN PRICKERS, are capped forward, and laid upon the scent; when the brace finding themselves pursued, soon divide, under the impression of individual safety; and the selected deer being thus completely singled out, the chase goes on, and continues till the deer is taken; unless, after a pursuit of proper length, for the sport of the day, he should regain the herd, where he is then permitted to remain, and the hounds are drawn off: but if it is either an old hind, or a calf destined to death, for the purpose of blooding the hounds, a repetition of the original ceremony of separation takes place, when which is effected, the chase is immediately renewed till the object of blood is attained.

BREAKING the Deer

—is the act of cutting open the deer after the chase, that the purchased perquisites of blood and garbage may go to the hounds. It is also the term for cutting up and dressing the fallow deer called BUCKS and DOES.

BREAST-PLATE

,—an article in horse furniture of great utility with light carcased horses, who very frequently, in both hunting and racing, run through their girths. It is made of either spring web or soft leather, as most agreeable to taste or fancy, and is fastened by buckles to small loops screwed to the tree of the saddle, just under the upper saddle-flap behind the withers of the horse; from whence the two parts divide transversely, and one passes down each shoulder to the point of the breast, where they are united to a strong strap, having holes, a buckle and loop, through which loop one of the girths is passed when the saddle is put on, and being thus fixed, it is considered almost an impossibility that any alteration can take place in its situation, but by the manual assistance of master or groom.

BREEDING

—is the production of COLTS in a stud principally or solely kept for that purpose. The methods of bringing up colts vary according to the purpose for which they are intended, whether for the turf, field, draft, or road. The breeders of opulent magnitude in the northern counties, most celebrated for the breed of horses in Britain, are too well skilled in the practical part to require the least aid from theoretic instruction. They are well convinced, by the unerring principle of well-founded experience, that sound sires, well shaped dams, good summer care, and winter keep, are the means (and the only means) to insure well-grown, strong and valuable stock for any of the before mentioned purposes to which they are afterwards to become appropriate.

BRIDLE

,—the well-known article by which we are enabled to ride, guide and regulate the speed and action of the most noble, spirited, powerful and valuable animal in the creation. They are of different kinds, as most applicable to the mouth and temper of the horse; consisting of snaffles, Pelhams, Hard-and-sharps, Weymouths, &c. There are also others of different constructions; but as they appertain principally to the MILITARY MANEGE and the RIDING-HOUSE, a minute description would afford neither use or entertainment to the sporting world, for whom this Work is more immediately intended.

BRIDLE-HAND

.—The left is so called, in contra-distinction to the right, which, in racing, is termed the whip; and in military evolutions with cavalry, called the sword hand. Those who are deemed good sportsmen, or complete horsemen, manage the reins with equal dexterity, and one hand is generally as much in use as the other.

BROKEN WIND

—remains in its long-standing state of professional ambiguity; for, notwithstanding frequent dissections must have afforded every assistance to earnest investigation, yet no authenticated, well-established opinion has transpired, sufficiently attracting or corroborative to fix a criterion upon which scientific or public faith seem inclined to rely. Since the appearance of "The Gentleman's Stable Directory," (about fourteen years since,) a great variety of veterinary writers, and veterinary practitioners, have emerged from obscurity in the metropolis, as well as in different parts of the kingdom. One has defined broken wind to be "an inflammation, which continuing a length of time, throws a quantity of extravasated blood into the windpipe, where it occasions a kind of roaring": this was the opinion of an eminent veterinarian, delivered upon a horse cause tried before Lord Kenyon in the court of King's Bench. In this sublime description there certainly appears no brilliant or satisfactory elucidation. A recent writer says, "Broken wind is a disorder that a horse is subject to when he is suffered to stand too long in the stable without exercise; by which means he contracts gross and thick humours in such abundance, that, adhering to the hollow parts of his lungs, they stop his windpipe." So much for the "sublime and beautiful." A third attributes it to "a relaxation or rupture of the phrenic nerves, which cause the motions of the diaphragm." A fourth supposes "the disease to proceed from a morbid or obstructed state of the glands, and membranes of the head and throat, the enlargement of which prevents a free passage to the wind." Doctor Darwin, speaking of humoural asthma, attributes it to "a congestion of lymph in the air cells of the lungs, from defective absorption."

Others, harping upon the same string, constitute an echo of nearly the same sound: "In my ideas, a redundance of lymph being thrown upon the lungs, the quantity becomes too great for the capacity of the absorbent vessels; hence it stagnates, and choaks up the air conduits; and the theatre of its action being more confined, of course respiration must be more difficult and laborious." All which divested of the transposition of words, is the opinion of the present writer, promulgated in his Stable Directory, "that the disease originated in a sizey state of the blood, which at length becoming viscid and stagnant, occasioned obstructions in the first instance, lastly tubercles, by which respiration became imperfect, and one or both lobes of the lungs inadequate to the execution of their office." However literary speculators may differ in either opinion or description, no great diversity of opinion can happen upon the subject of relief; palliation may be obtained; perfect cure must not be expected.

BROOD

,—a word almost indiscriminately used for the young of any fowl. There is, however, a much nicer and more sporting-like distinction. To speak properly, we say, a brood of ducks, a clutch of chickens, a setting of gulls, a covey of partridges, and a nide of pheasants.

BROOD MARE

—is a mare kept solely for the purpose of breeding colts, and put to no other use whatever.

BROW ANTLER

—the first branch from the beam in the head of a stag.

BUCK

—the male of the fallow deer. In his first year he is called a fawn; he is then a pricket; and lastly A BUCK. In colour they are mottled, sandy, or a deep dingy brown, approaching to black. The males have horns; the does none. Buck venison is very superior to doe; and when well fatted, sells from three to four guineas each haunch. The season for it in the highest perfection is from June to September.

Buck hunting—has been of late years but little practised, very few of them affording chase enough to render it a matter of much sporting attraction; particularly if bred in a park, whence, from its being so much accustomed to the sight of the human frame, it becomes in some degree like a kind of domestic animal. They were much hunted by the late and great (Culloden) Duke of Cumberland; but with his hounds (called buck hounds) he drew for and roused his outlying deer in Cranbourne Chace, near Windsor Great Park. When found in this way, they frequently went away well across the country, and sometimes afforded tolerable sport. The bucks shed their horns (called heads) annually in April or May, which, with the skins of both bucks and does killed within the year, (if a park is large,) make no inconsiderable perquisite to the keeper.

BULL DOG

.—A bull dog, though inoffensive and harmless when properly domesticated, forms, to the eye of timidity, a most terrific appearance: the doubtful and designing leer of the eye, the tiger-like shortness of the head, the under-hung jaw, the wideness of the forehead, the width of the skull, the distension of the nostrils, and the almost constant sight of the teeth, hold forth a very emphatic specimen of the power they possess, when that power is angrily brought into action. The breed is by no means so numerous as formerly, in consequence of the gradual decline of bull-baiting, and the great number taken abroad, for many of which very great prices were obtained. The natural ferocity, strength, and thirst for blood, in this animal, rendered them a formidable nuisance in their unrestrained state, and they are now seldom seen at their full liberty, either in town or country; the owners, from a proper fear of the law, finding it more prudent to keep them properly confined.

BULL-BAITING

—was formerly not merely a pleasing pursuit, but an extatic diversion, of the most unfeeling, and least humane, part of the very lowest, and most abandoned, orders of the people. To such a pitch of prevalence had it arrived in some particular parts, and was so much considered to give additional callosity to the minds of its cruel and inconsiderate abettors, that the more polished and humane classes of society made strong and repeated efforts for its total abolition, by endeavouring to obtain an act of the Legislature for that purpose; which, however, unluckily failed of the intentional effect; for the bill being rejected by a very trifling majority in the House of Commons, it left the sport at the full liberty of every subject to enjoy, who is not restrained by any more humane, sublime and manly sensations of his own, prompting him to believe it "more honoured in the breach than the observance." The towns of Stamford, in Lincolnshire, and Wokingham, in Berkshire, are now, perhaps, the only places of any note where the sport (as it is called) is obstinately persevered in, or enthusiastically and annually repeated by the clamours of those unfeeling advocates for custom, who, in the language of Shylock, claim "it as a right, and will not be deprived of it."

The first bull-bait in this country is supposed to have been at Stamford, in the year 1209, in the reign of King John, and at Tutbury, Staffordshire, in 1374. The introduction of it at Stamford was as follows.

"William, Earl Warren, Lord of this town, standing upon the walls of the castle, saw two bulls fighting for a cow in the castle meadow, till all the butchers' dogs pursued one of the bulls (madded with noise and multitude) clean through the town. This sight so pleased the Earl, that he gave the castle meadow, where the bull's duel began, for a common to the butchers of the town, after the first grass was mowed, on condition that they should find a mad bull, the day six weeks before Christmas-day, for the continuance of that sport for ever."

"George Staverton, by will, dated May 15, 1661, gave the whole rent of his dwelling-house at Staines, after two lives, to buy a bull annually for ever; which bull he gave to the poor of the town of Wokingham, to be there baited, then killed, and properly divided; the offal, hide, and gift money, to be laid out in shoes and stockings to be distributed among the children of the poor. The alderman and one Staverton (if one of the name should be living in the town) to see the work done honestly, that one of the poor's piece did not exceed another in bigness."

These seem to have been the principal donations upon which the practice was originally founded, and afterwards continued upon the plea of charity for its justification. To give it a degree of singularity in the town of Wokingham, St. Thomas (21st. Dec.) is the day dedicated to the sport, and the market-place the spot destined to the sacrifice.

Let the reflecting mind indulge one moment in awful rumination upon the dreadful scene and "note of preparation." On a day when every well informed mind, and duly disposed heart, must feel inclined to follow the dictates of religious inculcation; when a certain impressive silence pervades the whole; when the devout, the aged, and the infirm, await the signal by which they are summoned to receive every comfort and consolation from clerical benediction; it must be to all good hearts a mortifying circumstance, that the very bell which tolls to bring the moral and religious part of the inhabitants to their duty in the church, is also the signal for bringing a poor, harmless, unoffending animal (with his chain) to the stake. Incredible it must seem to those who have never witnessed the cruelty of the scene, that this very stake is fixed (and called the bull-ring) in the center of the market-place of a market town no more than twelve miles from the seat of Majesty, and thirty only from the metropolis of this great and enlightened kingdom.

Without enlarging much upon the "hellish practice" of the sport itself, it cannot be inapplicable to advert one moment to the effect a scene of so much insatiate cruelty must inevitably produce upon the growing offspring of the lower classes, in towns where a custom so generally execrated is so shamefully carried on. Previous to the commencement, "every heart beats high with the coming joy;" not a window but is crowded with women and children; not a street, or an avenue, but is crowded with brutes; the very scum and refuse of society from every part of the surrounding country; and then begins a scene of the most cruel and infernal practice that ever entered the heart of man, under the appellation of sporting mirth to the multitude. In the church of this town, on Sunday, the 20th day of December, (being the day previous to the baiting of the bull,) 1801, a sermon was preached by the Rev. Doctor Barry, which sermon is since published, and where the following passages may be found.

"Gracious God! benevolent Parent of the universe, what a prodigy must he be in a Christian land, who could thus disgrace his nature by such gigantic infamy, at which the blood of a heathen, of a very Hottentot, might curdle! Two useful animals, the bull, who propagates our food, and the faithful dog, who protects our property, to be thus tormented! and for what purpose? Does it tend, as some have said,[2] to keep alive the spirit of the English character? In answer to this we must remark, that the barbarous sport (if sport it can be called) was unknown to the ancient bravery of our ancestors; was introduced into this country in the reign of a bad king; and earnestly do I pray to Almighty God, that in the reign of a most pious and benevolent Prince, it may be for ever set aside! Cowards, of all men the least unmoved, can both inflict and witness cruelties."

"The heroes of a bull-bait, the patrons of mercenary pugilists, and the champions of a cock-fight, can produce, I should think, but few, if any, disciples brought up under their tuition, who have done service to their country either as warriors or as citizens; but abundant are the testimonies which have been registered at the gallows of her devoted victims, trained up to these pursuits of BULL BAITING!!!"

Thus much upon its morality: now to a description of its practice. The bull being chained to the stake, which chain extends to about fifteen yards in length, and terminates in a very strong leather collar passing round the neck of the bull; and his horns having been previously muffled at the points (by the professional amateurs) with a composition of tow, tallow, and melted pitch, the ceremony thus commences. Those gentlemen best calculated to appear in the character of desperados begin the attack by the most dreadful noises of different kinds, bellowings, hootings, and hissings, consisting of a complication horrid beyond description. Whilst the abandoned crew of raggamuffins are in this way, with their hats and huzzaings, endeavouring to irritate him before, if the poor animal, partially submissive to his fate, remains unmoved, seeming (in the "mind's eye" of rumination) to say "I stand here an object more sinned against than sinning," it rouses the infernal malice of the multitude to a certain degree of indignation, which is instantly displayed by the confederates behind, who being mostly provided with sharp-pointed sticks, proceed to those pleasing punctures, and provoking twists of the tail, which rouse him from his state of humiliation to a temporary madness; when, in the midst of this horror and confusion, the first dog is suddenly let loose: and this, to the treble refined and inexplicable sensations of a bull-baiter, is the most extatic moment of his life; his very existence is absorbed in the magnitude of the concern; his whole soul is engaged; the mind or memory is no longer itself, and the tormentor is as completely mad as the unfortunate object of his persecution.

The scene now advances to a state of confusion exceeding all humane conception; the howling of the dogs, still in hand, anxious and eager to be let loose; the roaring and dreadful bellowings of the bull, (particularly if pinned by the nose to the ground;) the dangerous pressings, and incessant hollowing and huzzaings of the mob; the galloping tramplings of the enraged animal; all constitute a scene from which the thinking mind retreats with horror, and claims a chasm to renew the description. The first dog, perhaps, inadequate to the wishes of his adherents, and not being able to succeed farther than to increase the rage of the bull, is assisted by a second, which instantly rousing the victim at the stake to an encreased exertion of rage and self defence, as evidently increases the horrid happiness of the multitude to a degree beyond all power of imagination, and to which the descriptive pen must bow obedience, and acknowledge its inability.

Should the poor persecuted animal, by every strenuous effort in its own defence, collect sufficient strength to keep its two inveterate foes at bay, and preserve its nostrils from the blood-thirsty fangs of its opponents, delay does but increase the determination of those previously determined; in which case resentment is seldom long without a remedy. Stimulated to a greater degree of cruelty by tedious disappointment, a third dog (should it be necessary) is let loose, as it were by accident, to assist the other two; when, under so severe a weight of accumulated oppression, exhausted nature sinks; the poor pitiable object is pinned to the ground by the most irritable and tender part about him, bleeding and bellowing amidst the shameless shouts of a shameful victory, where five hundred greater brutes have brought a lesser to the ground.

Not to prolong so shocking a description beyond the length unavoidably necessary to its perfect comprehension, it must suffice to say, the cruelty is extended by every means that can possibly assist the cause. Prizes are annually advertised for the best dogs, thereby inducing the owners to bring them any distance, not only to increase and lengthen the sport, but that the object of misery may not die too easy a death! In the midst of his sufferings, if the minds of his hellish tormentors have not been sufficiently satiated with repetitions of what has past, collateral aids are called in to rouse his powers (already by an unwearied scene of persecution lulled to an apathy) of defence and resentment once more into action. Instances are common where fires have been made under the very body of the bull, when too much worn down, and exhausted by the jerks of the chain, longer to exert himself; patiently he stands, with the blood streaming from his nostrils, totally insensible to the twistings of his tail even to dislocation, the continued goring with sticks pointed with nails, and a long list of experiments equally to be abhorred, only tend to strengthen, most incontrovertibly, the dreadful effect such scenes (exultingly enjoyed) must have upon the rising generation, whose minds must, by a familiarity with the frequency of the scene, be rendered totally callous to every sensation of tenderness and humanity, even in the very hour of infantine infatuation.

[2] Mr. Windham in the House of Commons.

BULL RUNNING

—is a pursuit of the bull in a way no less cruel and disgraceful to the humanity of this enlightened country than what has been before described. By custom in the manor of Tutbury, in Staffordshire, as mentioned at almost the head of the last article, a bull was given by the prior to the minstrels. After undergoing the torture of having his horns cut off, his ears and tail cropped and docked to the very stump, his nostrils filled with pepper, and his body besmeared with soap, he was turned out in such a pitiable state to be hunted, (this was called bull running;) and when taken, or held long enough to pull off some of his hair, he was then fastened to the stake, and baited. To the great honour, however, of the Duke of Devonshire, (Steward of Tutbury,) and not less so of the people who petitioned against it, the BULL RUNNING at Tutbury was entirely abolished in the year 1778.

BURROWS

,—are the holes or cavities in the earth of a rabbit warren, where they bring and breed up their young, as well as where they instantly retire to for safety, upon the approach of danger.

Clyx.com