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t.1762.

Thompson's rules for bad horfemen.

with a knife, than to trust a farrier are it in the least.)

f this method was practifed, horfes ild be lefs liable to corns, as the hoof hat cafe would efcape the preffure it xpofed to in the ufual manner of shoe and preffure feems undoubtedly to the cause of corns. This would fecure m too against wounds from pointed Is, which cannot pierce the flesh of the t, through a frog in its natural ftate. han one is of a still farther ufe; it ps the two divifions of the heel broad afunder. Yet farriers do just the trary, and pare the frog very thin, in er to open the heel, as they term it; which it is plain they fee the neceffiof keeping the heel broad and open, ugh they prevert the very effect they hat. They alfo make another mistake, driving nails very backward toward the el, where the horn is foft and fenfible; d none at the toe, where every horfe s a fubftance of horn fufficient to bear em.-Few, except ftoned horfes, have gh heels; when they have, the whole ot must be pared flat, but the frog by means hollowed out. If a horfe has a w heel, that is, fuch a one as lets the hy part of the heel come too near the ound, let him be pared only at the toe. horfe with fhort pafterns requires a orter fhoe, because a long fhoe brings is heels more back than the unpliableefs of his pafterns will admit, without me degree of pain. In general, a thort Joe may poffibly fometimes expofe a horfe > little accidental lamenefles, but a ng fhoe with the nails far back near is heels, will in the end contract and uin them. It is plain from experience, hat all low-heeled horfes go beft when they have been long fhod; that is, when the foot is grown longer, and the fhoe in confequence is become proportionably horter, and fits more forward on the foot.

Very few, although practised in riding, know they have any power over a horfe, but by the bridle; or any ufe for the fpur, except to make him go forward. A little experience will teach them a farther ufe. If the left fpur touches him, (and he is at the fame time prevented from going forward), he has a fign, which he will foon understand, to move fideways to the right; in the fame manner to the left, if the right fpur is clofed to him: he afterwards, through fear of the fur,

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obeys a touch of the leg; in the fame manner as a horfe moves his croup from one fide of the ftall to the other when any one strikes him with his hand. In fhort, his croup is guided by the leg, as his head is by the bridle. He will never dif obey the leg, unless he becomes reftive. By this means, you will have a far greater power, over him; he will move fide ways if you clofe one leg to him, and ftraight forward if both. Even when he stands ftill, your legs held near him will keep him on the watch, and with the flighteft, unfeen motion of the bridle upwards, he will raife his head, and fhew his fore-hand to advantage.

On this ufe of the legs of the rider, and guidance of the croup of the horse, are founded all the airs (as the riding-masters express themselves) which are taught in the manage; the paffage or fide-motion of troopers to clofe or open their files, and indeed all their evolutions. But the convenience of fome degree of this difcipline for common ufe, is the reason of mentioning it here. It is chiefly useful when a horfe ftarts. When he is begin ning to fly to one fide, your leg on the fide he is flying to, ftops his fpring immediately. He goes paft what he started at, keeping ftraight on, or as you chuse to direct him, and he will not fly back from any thing, if you prefs him with both legs. You keep his haunches under him, going down a hill; help him on the fide of a bank; more easily avoid the wheel of a carriage, and approach more gracefully and nearer to the fide of a coach, or horfeman. When a pampered horfe curvets irregularly, and twists his body to and fro, turn his head either to the right or left, or both alternately, (but without letting him move out of the track), and prefs your leg to the oppofité fide: your horfe cannot then fpring on his hind legs, to one fide, because your leg prevents him; nor to the other, because his head looks that way, and a horse does not ftart and fpring to the fide on which he looks.

Thefe rules and obfervations may perhaps convey fome idea, though but an imperfect one, to bad riders, of that fleight, which makes horfes obedient, when they would refift force; and may ferve to thew them, that fomething more than what the horfe learns from his breaker, is neceffary to make him traftable.

Colts at first are taught to bear a bit,

and

and by degrees to pull at it. If they did not prefs it, they could not be guided by it. By degrees they find their necks ftronger than the arms of a man; and that they are capable of making great oppofition, and often of foiling their riders. Then is the time to make them fupple and pliant in every part. The part which of all others requires moft this pliancy, is the neck. Hence the metaphor of stiffnecked for difobedient. A horfe cannot move his head but with the muscles of his neck: this may be called his helm; it guides his courfe, changes and directs his motion.

To fhew the use of this pliancy in every part and limb of the horfe, would be beyond the defign of these few leflons, directed only to the unexperienced horfeman. His idea of fuppleness need only be, that of an ability and readiness in a horfe to move every limb on a sign given him by the hands or legs of his rider; as alfo, to bend his body, and move in a fhort compafs, quick and collected within himself, fo as inftantly to be able to perform any other motion.

If the few rules laid down here, feem infufficient to the end propofed; at least let me hope they will convince the young horfeman that fome rules are neceflary: and thus convinced, let him apply to a bler masters in the art for more fufficient inftruction.

Anecdote of the Count de LAUZAN. THis nobleman being fufpected of fome correfpondence detrimental to the intereft of the French court, was thrown into the Baftile. Here he was confined for a confiderable time; but at length obtained liberty to receive the vifits of his friends. With them he confulted about the means of making his escape. They accordingly provided him with cords, files, and every neceflary implement for the purpose, which they gave to his valet, a very trufty and fenfible fellow, in whom they could confide. But being unhappily difcovered in the execution of their defign, the Count was feized, and carried down to a difmal dungeon under the citadel, and there directed to be confined till further orders. A feverer fate, however, attended the unfortunate valet; he was tried before the lieutenant of the police, and fentenced to be hanged before the window of the prifon in his mafter's view; which fentence was accordingly execured.-We must naturally fuppofe that this

circumftance gave the greatest uneafin to the unhappy Count, lying upon a of straw, fupported by bread and wat and never seeing a foul but the inhum keepers of the prifon. In this fituatis without books, or pen and ink, to an himself, the only way the Count had of p fing his hours was in teaching a little der, that hung over his head, to run do from the cobweb to pick crumbs of bre from his hand. One day, while he diverting himself in this manner, a tu key, who usually brought him his unco fortable pittance, came in: the Co informing him of the amusement he difcovered, the brute inftantly ran, killed the fpider, faying, Criminals, the Count, were unworthy of any ents tainment or diverfion.

The Count was afterwards restored favour, and created a duke; but whet he thought it beneath him to punih t keeper, or no, is not certain: th much may be depended on, that he co fefled, no circumftance ever so strongly fected him as the lofs of his little fpice not even excepting the execution of t trufty valet-de-chambre.

[Similar to this is an anecdote related Sir walter Raleigh. When that gre man was committed to the tower, friends, apprehenfive of the effects an u merited confinement might have over mind like his, procured leave for a phys cian to attend him. The doctor at fr found his patient gloomy and thoughtfu His brow was clad with terror, and the lineaments of his visage feemed to for bode fomething very dreadful. By grees, however, his countenance gre more ferene; and the kind inquiries began to make concerning the state of friends without, gave room to expect approaching change for the better. T matters went on for about a week; whe one day, the physician entering a lit haftily into his apartment, found t great Sir Walter, the terror of Spain, glory of England, and the reproach of L monarch under whom he fuffered. bufily engaged by himfelf at push-p The doctor was not a little pleafed w the discovery, After ftaying a prope time, he went home with transport to friends; and, telling them what he ha feen, affured them there would be r further occafion for him to repeat his vi fits.]

Sept.1762.

Winders's palliative in gouty cafes.

A new palliative in GOUTY cafes. THE following remedy is now communicated to the public, by the candour of a gentleman of great humanity, Mr Jofeph Winders, lieutenant of invalids in the caftle of Chefter, who has been fo obliging to permit his name to be inferted, as an authority, and a living inftance of the efficacy of it.

His method is as follows. When he perceives the leaft fymptom of the gout upon him, he has immediate recourse to the Jefuits bark, which he takes in red port, and repeats it till all his gouty complaints are vanished.

The reafon he gives for first using the cortex in the gout was, his frequent confideration of its great efficacy in the cure of an ague. As this diforder hath its intermiflions, fo he obferved the like intermiffions in the gout. Thus confidering their near affinity, he imagined the bark would have partly the fame operation in the one diforder as the other. He took the cortex a few days, and fpeedily reco vered. For these two years paft, he has not had one fit which required confine ment, as he hath always recourfe to his remedy as foon as he perceives the leaft gouty fymptom upon him.

a

Perhaps the question may be afked, How he could reafon himfelf into an opinion that the gout intermitted? The faculty will tell you, that when a perfon is confined to his chamber for three weeks, or a month, and often many months, by fit of the gout, it cannot with propriety be called one fit, but a feties of fmall fits fucceeding each other, every one of which have their stated periods, and commonly end in forty-eight hours. These are followed by other fits, according as the blood and juices are charged with gouty matter. I mention the blood and juices en paffant; for the medical gentlemen are not clear with respect to the true feat of this matter. If they were, we might foon expect more found reafoning on this diforder, than has hitherto been made public, which would of courfe be followed by a specific remedy.

Early in life (fays Mr Winders) I was attacked with this fevere complaint, and had feveral fits before I knew of this grand palliative. At length, induced by the perfuafion of the above gentleman, I tried the cortex, and to my very great furprife, fpeedily recovered. In the autumn following I was again attacked with all The fymptoms of a fevere fit, and by

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the fame remedy recovered in a few days. I now thought this medicine the greateft palliative for the gout hitherto known, (for a certain cure is not as yet found); therefore made no fecret of communica ting it to fuch valetudinarians as were willing to be speedily relieved; and I can affure the world, with the utmost fincerity, that out of the many who have taken the bark in gouty cafes, there is not any one fevere pains having always been alleviabut what is pleafed with the medicine; the ted, and the fit feldom continuing longer than a few days.

The febrifuge quality of the cortex is now univerfally known in the various kinds of intermitting fevers; it strengthens the ftomach, excites the appetite, and helps digeftion; it difcuffes wind, ra refies the blood, and enlarges the pulle.

I fhall only obferve to my brother-fufferers, that lofs of appetite, weak dige ftion, frequent breaking of wind upwards, and a low pulfe, are the fure attendants of a fevere fit of the gout; therefore, as the cortex Peruvianus is an effectual remedy for the above fymptoms, I hope this confideration alone will induce the valetudinarians to rely entirely on the bark.

If there is any gentleman who has made a trial of this medicine in this diforder, I hope he will be fo candid as to communicate it to the world, in order to induce others to try this excellent palliative, and bring it into a more general practice. A few necessary rules to be observed by fuck

as take the bark in gouty cafes.

I. It will be unneceffary for dram-drinkers, or fuch as make very free with their conftitutions, to take any remedy at all; thefe people we leave to their folitary me ditating couch, to much patience, and new

flannel.

II. To thofe who have fense above the

degree of the brute creation, we recom mend, that as foon as the first symptoms are perceived, they take half a drachm of fresh powdered bark twice a-day in a glass of red port, thus continuing daily till the fymptoms difappear.

III. As almost every fit of the gout is attended with an obftinate coftiveness, the bark, for the first day or two, will act as a purgative, and take away this complaint, particularly with those who are of a lax conftitution.

IV. It speedily brings on the crisis of the diforder, which will be known by a thick fediment in the urine.

CESTRIÆ.

To

might be most effectual for this purpose; I will not pretend to fay, what method but furely it will require fomething more than has hitherto been done. A volun tary resolution, however generally a proved, but without any standing fanction to fupport its influence, muft become daily weaker through length of time; e fpecially when the arts and intereft of numerous body are engaged on the opp fite fide, and the breach of it by indi duals is fo imperceptible. Until fomethin better, however, be advanced by abler ju ges, I prefume to hint, how far this point of public utility falls under the cognifance and merits the attention, of the Sele Society at Edinburgh; and if it mig not be proper for that refpectable body, whose labours do honour to themselves and to our country, to advertise, as the fub ject of a ftated meeting, "The beft me thod of rendering perpetually effectual the late general refolution of abolithing vale to fervants." If they thought fit, ther might add, "That they do at the fa time invite and call upon every gentle man, to keep his eye upon any breacha of that refolution he may happen to o ferve; intreating them to intimate the fame to their fecretary, who will be d rected to keep a record of the offender's name and tranfgreffion, to be laid before the fociety, and to be made public by them, if they fee caufe." I truly am opinion, fome fuch threatening feafonably repeated, though it thou never need to be executed, might of itfelf prove not a bad expedient, till a bes ter be devited, and would help to rende unfashionable and ungentile a practice in felf really Gothic, and long the peculi reproach of our island.

To the author of the SCOTS MAGAZINE. SIR, Renfrewshire, Sept. 19. I Think I do fome fervice to the public, when I give warning of an evil lately abolished, but now again likely to invade us with double mifchief.- It was great ly to the honour of our country, that it took the lead in reforming that mean and barbarous cuflom of giving vales to fervants, to the difgrace of hofpitality, and the corruption of the whole tribe of domeftics. The example was applauded, and almost generally followed, by our fifter kingdom [448.]. One bad effect however, though unavoidable, of this reform, was foon felt in the extravagant rife of wages among houfe and country fervants of both fexes. How far the just medium was exceeded, I shall not pretend to fay; but if thefe wages continue, as undoubtedly they will, and the vales again creep in, it is plain we had better never have abolished them; and yet, I am forry to fay, we feem to be in imminent danger of finding it fo. [xxii. 13.] I fpeak from experience. In a circuit I had lately occafion to make through fome of thele western fhires; though I found, amongst gentlemen of figure, the fcandalous custom entirely difcontinued; yet I frequently had occafion to fee the middle and lower rank of vifitants guilty of it. For which indeed I could eafly account. This laft clafs of folks, while vifiting their fuperiors, are either perhaps foliciting favours, where the good word even of a fervant may often be of ufe, or they are receiving hofpitalities which they feldom or never repay, and are apt to confider their entertainment as a debt due to the fervants, when it is not repay able to the mafter. Nay, I have found, where the party-coloured gentry were not under better than ordinary difcipline, an honest homely ftranger obliged to reflect on the rifk his horfe ran of being ftarved in the ftable, or himfelf half choked at dinner. But whatever caules give rife to the odious custom, the evil I point at, is its getting once more a beginning among people of fashion: for, without all question, it wants but a beginning, to become again univerfal.

I therefore humbly apprehend, it is not below the ferious confideration of the greatest amongst us, or the most eminent focieties for improvement, to endeavour, if potlible, to prevent an evil, that only can be prevented in its first approaches.

as this

I am perfuaded you will find this feafonable warning, which if timeou attended to, will have falutary effects. I am, &c. A. B.

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Sept. 1762. The mifchiefs arifing from vales-giving confidered.

ome fymptoms of avarice. Mafters in England, fay they, feldom pay their ferants, but, in lieu of wages, fuffer them o prey upon their guests. It is to be Feared this happens fometimes to be the afe. But whatever may have been the origin of this practice, its confequences re very pernicious, as it creates an indeendence amongst fervants, contrary to ll good order.

The mafter, who feeds, cloaths, and ives wages to another, who is not in a ondition to maintain himielf, is, by the aw of nature, intitled to the refpect, oedience, and service of that perfon; and, n order more effectually to bind fervants o the performance of thefe duties, it may e laid down as a general maxim, that hey should be made to depend folely on he bounty of their mafters for their enouragement. On the other hand, it is duty equally incumbent upon the mater, to cherish a diligent and faithful ervant, to have him properly tended in is fickness, and, above all, punctually to ay him his wages.

This formerly was wont to be the cafe, when fervants used to be confidered, n fome measure, as children of the fami y: They continued many years in the ame houfe: they fometimes took farms, and became tenants to their former mafters; or if they remained in the family, were fure of being comfortably fubfifted in their old age; and frequently their children fupplied their places, whilft they themfelves paffed the remainder of life, void of care, in eafe and tranquillity. Such was generally the condition of fervants fince this century begun. But now there are few inftances where one can meet with a lower fervant of five or fix years ftanding in the fame house; from hence it follows, that people of this clafs are oftentimes reduced to great mifery: for having frequently fhifted places, their mafters can have no attachment to them, as they fhew but little or no regard to their mafters; and no mafter will think himfelf under any obligation to put himelf to any extraordinary expence or trouble on account of a fervant, who, perhaps, has not been in his family above one or two years, and who, agreeable to the prefent practice, he cannot expect will continue long in his fervice. It would therefore tend more to the advantage of fervants, if their condition rendered them more dependent upon the bounty of their mafters than they are at

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prefent, and that they had not fuch temp tations to a vagrant life.

Wages are pretty much a stated thing, but vales are altogether imaginary: this prompts them to be frequently shifting places; makes them heedlefs, faucy, and expenfive; and when they have got into fuch loofe habits, if they happen, in running the changes, to engage in a family where there are not many vales going, or where the number of fervants reduces the quota of each, they then feel the pinching of those wants which themselves had created, and are tempted to practices which end in their ruin. Thus it appears, that the prefent cuftom of giving vales is in general hurtful to fervants themselves. It is effentially fo to masters, and to the public.

Even thofe of the greatest rank and fortunes are become a kind of property; they are kept concealed, or expoled to view by their fervants, at fuch rates as they are pleased to impofe; and by this means great men are often fufferers by being debarred the privilege of seeing thofe who might be of real ufe to them.

It excludes many acceptable guests, whom a perfon is often afhamed to invite to his houfe, when he knows they must pafs a file of rapacious fellows, who are all ranged, expecting to touch money, and where the most worthlefs and moft impudent are always moft fuccesful in extorting it. What an unealy fenfation must this give to any man of a generous difpofition! He wants to enjoy the focial converfation of his friend, but that friend muft either be fleeced, or refute to accept of the invitation, from his inability to gratify thofe canaille. Every one who reflects, must know the truth of this oblervation from experience.

It would fwell this paper to a large bulk, were all the mifchiefs arifing from vales to be specified; therefore we shall only confider how it affects the public in general; and the reader will be astonished, when he is informed, that the vales of different kinds diftributed in England, amounts to a fum perhaps not le's than two millions a-year; whilft of those who receive vales, hardly one in a hundred are benefited by them, as they are alinot always fquandered in unneceffary articles of luxury.

Here is a fum which would go a great way towards defraying the annual expense of a war; and fuch a faving to thofe vho are fubjected to this heavy unconftitution

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