to the king's balcony, and then went in procession round the square the elegant singularity of their uniforms produced a very pleasing effect. After them came the four knights in the old Spa. nish dress, with plumes in their hats, mounted on fine horses : each held in his hand a slender lance, and was attended by two men on foot dressed in light silk of the colour of his livery, with cloaks of the same; these never forsake his side, and are his principal de. fence. The cavaliers then disposed themselves for the encounter, the first placing himself opposite to the door of the place where the bulls were kept, and the other at some distance behind him.

At a signal given by the king the doors opened, and the bull ap. peared, to the sound of martial music, and the loud acclamations of the people, when seeing one of the attendants of the first cava. lier spreading his cloak before him, he aimed directly at him; but the man easily avoided him, and gave his master the opportunity of breaking his spear in the bull's neck. In the same manner the bull was tempted to engage the other cavaliers, and always with the same success, till having received the wounds with their lances, he was encountered by the other men on foot; who, after main. taining a sportive conflict with incredible agility as long as they thought proper, easily put an end to him by thrusting a sword either into his neck or side, which brought him to the ground, and then they finished him at once, by striking a dagger, or sword, behind his horns into the spine, which is always immediate death. After this the bull is hurried off by mules,. finely adorned with trappings.

After the knights were sufficiently tired with these exploits, the king gave them leave to retire; bulls were then let out, one at a time, from another door; these were of a more furious nature, and were encountered entirely by men on foot, who were so far from fearing their rage, that they strove to increase it, by darting at their necks, and other parts, little barbed darts orna. mented with bunches of paper; some of which were filled with gun-powder, and were no sooner fastened to the bull than they went off like serpents. Nothing can be imagined more tormenting than these darts; but the amazing dexterity with which they are thrown, diverts the attention from its cruelty. They also dress up goats' skins, blown up with wind, and increase the fury of the bull by placing them before him, which makes a very ridiculous part of the entertainment. Many of the bulls, however, would

more fear in that onset, than in encountering his most sturdy antagonist. They also baited one bull with dogs, and these animals shewed as much courage as any of the bull-dogs in England.

"My apprehensions," says our author, "were at first prin. cipally excited for the men on foot; but the knights are in much more danger, their horses being too full of fire to be exactly go. verned; they cannot therefore so well avoid the aim, and are li able to be every moment overthrown, with their horses, if their attendants by their side do not assist them. Two beautiful horses were gored; one of which was overthrown with his rider, but fortunately the man received no hurt from his fall. The courage of these horses is so great, that they have been often known to advance towards the bull, when their bowels were trailing on the ground."

The bull-feast in the Plaça Mayor is never exhibited but upon some extraordinary occasion, as the accession or marriage of their kings, and is attended with very great expence, both to the king and the city. But there is a theatre built without the walls, where there are bull-feasts every fortnight, which to connoisseurs are greatly preferred to the others, the bulls being more furious, and the danger greater to those who fight them; but there is little dif ference in their manner of engaging them.

SECTION IX.

Horse.

Equus caballus.-LINN.

[Pennant. Payne.

THIS well known and most useful animal is cultivated with care in most parts of the earth; but is found in its natural state in the de. serts of Great Tartary; sometimes in Africa: timid, swift, vigilant; moves in flocks, having a leader before, with his ears thrown forwards, and a centinel behind, with his ears bent back, to guard against surprise both ways. It varies much in size and colour; feeds on grain and herbage; generous, proud, spirited; drives away flies and insects with its tail; carefully guards its hind parts; calls after its companion by neighing; and scratches its shoulder with its teeth; rolls itself when hot; is without gall-bladder, but has large gall ducts to answer the purpose; does not vomit or eructate; its dung heats and smokes; changes its fore-teeth in the second, third,

and fourth years; acquires tusks in the fifth; gravid two hundred and ninety days.

The breed of horses in Great Britain is as mixed as that of its in. habitants the frequent introduction of foreign horses has given us a variety, that no single country can boast of: most other kingdoms produce only one kind; while ours, by a judicious mixture of the several species; by the happy difference of our soils; and by our su perior skill in management, may triumph over the rest of Europe, in having brought each quality of this noble animal to the highest perfection.

In the annals of Newmarket, may be found instances of horses that have literally outstripped the wind, as the celebrated M. Condamine has lately shewn in his remarks on those of Great Britain. Childers, is an amazing instance of rapidity, his speed having been more than once exerted, equal to 82 feet in a second, or near a mile in a minute: the same horse has also run the round course at Newmarket, (which is about 400 yards less than four miles,) in six ininutes and forty seconds: in which case his fleetness is to that of the swiftest barb, as four to three; the former, according to Dr. Maty's computation, covering at every bound a space of ground, equal in length to twenty-three feet royal; the latter only that of eighteen feet and a half royal.

Horses of this kind, derive their origin from Arabia; the seat of the purest, and most generous breed.

The species used in hunting, is a happy combination of the former with others superior in strength, but inferior in point of speed and lineage: an union of both is necessary: for the fatigues of the chace must be supported by the spirit of the one, as well as by the vigour of the other.

No country can bring a parallel to the strength and size of our horses destined for the draught; or to the activity and strength united, of those that form our cavalry.

In our capital there are instances of single horses that are able to draw on a plain, for a small space, the weight of three tons; but could with ease, and for a continuance, draw half that weight. The pack-horses of Yorkshire, employed in conveying the manufactures of that county to the most remote parts of the kingdom, usually carry a burden of 420 pounds; and that indifferently over the highest hills of the north, as well as the most level roads; but the most remarkable proof of the strength of our British horses, is to be

load thirteen measures, which at a moderate computation of 70 pounds each, will amount to 910; a weight superior to that which the lesser sort of camels will bear: this will appear less surprising, as these horses are by degrees accustomed to the weight; and the distance they travel no greater than to and from the adjacent bamlets.

Our cavalry, in the late campaigns, (when they had an opportunity) shewed, over those of our allies, as well as of the French, a great superiority both of strength and activity: the enemy was broken through by the impetuous charge of our squadrons; while the German horses, from their great weight and inactive make, were unable to second our efforts; though those troops were actuated by the noblest ardour.

The present cavalry of this island only supports its ancient glory; it was eminent in the earliest times: our scythed chariots, and the activity and good discipline of our horses, even struck terror into Cæsar's legions: and the Britons, as soon as they became civilized enough to coin, took care to represent, on their money, the animal for which they were so celebrated. It is now impossible to trace out this species; for those which exist among the indigenæ of Great Britain, such as the little horses of Wales and Cornwall, the hobbies of Ireland, and the shelties of Scotland, though admirably well adapted to the uses of those countries, could never have been equal to the work of war; but, probably, we had even then a larger and stronger breed in the more fertile and luxuriant parts of the island. Those we employ for that purpose, or for the draught, are an offspring of the German or Flemish breed, meliorated by our soil, and a judicious culture.

The English were ever attentive to an exact culture of these animals; and in very early times set a high value on their breed. The esteem that our horses were held in by foreigners, so long ago as the reign of Athelstan, may be collected from a law of that monarch prohibiting their exportation, except they were designed as presents. These must have been the native kind, or the prohibition would have been needless; for our commerce was, at that time, too limited to receive improvement from any but the German kind, to which country their own breed could be of no value.

But when our intercourse with the other parts of Europe was en larged, we soon laid hold of the advantages this gave of improving our breed. Roger de Bellesme, Earl of Shrewsbury, is the first that is on record: he introduced the Spanish stallion into his estate,

in Powisland, from which that part of Wales was for many ages cele brated for a swift and generous race of horses. Giraldus Cambrensis, who lived in the reign of Henry II. takes notice of it; and Michael Drayton, contemporary with Shakespeare, sings their excellence in the sixth part of his Polyolbion. This kind was, proba bly, destined to mount our gallant nobility, or courteous knights for feats of chivalry, in the generous contests of the tilt-yard. From these sprung, to speak the language of the times, the flower of coursers, whose elegant form added charms to the rider; and whose activity, and managed dexterity, gained him the palm in that field of gallantry and romantic honour.

Notwithstanding my former supposition, races were known in England in very early times. Fitz-Stephen, who wrote in the days of Henry II. mentions the great delight that the citizens of London took in the diversion. But by his words, it appears not to have been designed for the purposes of gaming, but merely to have sprung from a generous emulation of shewing a superior skill in horsemanship.

Races appear to have been in vogue in the reign of queen Eliza beth, and to have been carried to such excess as to injure the fortunes of the nobility. The famous George, Earl of Cumberland, is recorded to have wasted more of his estate than any of his ancestors; and chiefly by his extreme love to horse-races, tiltings, and other expensive diversions. It is probable that the parsimonious queen did not approve of it; for races are not among the diver sions exhibited at Kennelworth, by her favourite Leicester. In the following reign, were places allotted for the sport: Croydon, in the south, and Garterly, in Yorkshire, were celebrated courses. Camden also says, that, in 1607, there were races near York, and the prize was a little golden bell.

Not that we deny this diversion to be known in these kingdoms in earlier times; we only assert a different mode of it, gentlemen being then their own jockies, and riding their own horses. Lord Herbert, of Cherbury, enumerates it among the sports that gallant philoso pher thought unworthy of a man of honour. "The exercise," says he, "I do not approve of, is running of horses, there being much cheating in that kind; neither do I see why a brave man should de light in a creature whose chief use is to help him to run away."

The increase of our inhabitants, and the extent of our manufactures, together with the former neglect of internal navigation to