tion, a poor gentleman; he lived in the reign of Elizabeth. His works, which were published in three treatifes, were all separately dedicated to the famous Earl of Leicester. They comprize the whole of the fubject, that is to fay, breeding, management, diet, and physic. In his time, and the preceding, his countrymen (however advantageoufly the cafe has been fince reversed) were in the conftant habits of obligation to foreign countries, as well for the amelioration of their breed of horses, as for instructions on every point relative to their management. The military manége was the prevailing taste of the time, and the instruction of it in England, almost entirely in the hands of foreigners, either Italian or French; a confiderable number of whom were constantly entertained by the court, and encouraged by the nobility and gentry, either as riding-masters, or ferrers.

Blundevill appears to have had a competent fhare of learning, and to have been himself the tranflator of thofe foreign works, whence, as from the fountain head of knowledge, he drew the chief of his rules. He gave the first English names to feveral implements of Horfemanship, then introduced; as well as to a variety of diseases, until his time not described in the English language; and many fucceeding writers availed themfelves not only of his translation

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translation of the foreign veterinary writers, but of his own proper knowledge and experience of the fubject. With respect to the merits of Blundevill, as a veterinary writer, he undoubtedly poffeffed a thorough practical knowledge of the animal on which he treated, as far as the lights of the time, in which he lived, extended. Englishmen had not yet learned to reafon for themselves, and the barbarous practice of the Continental Manége, by which the most generous and docile of all animals was driven to obedience by torturing bits, and cruel ufage, inftead of being gently reduced by foothing means, and by the help of implements uninjurious to his tender flesh, was in full force among them. Thus we are presented in Blundevill's book with plates of near fifty different bits; with an account of fpoons, gags, ring fhoes, trammels for pacing, and a variety of inftruments of torture, altogether as useless to any good purpose, as they were senseless and cruel. But, however, generally a flave to authority in these matters, we fometimes find the Englishman getting the better of this author, and prompting him to question the real utility of fuch rigorous measures to force obedience; a remarkable inftance of which we have in his declaration, that notwithstanding the variety of patterns for bits which he had exhibited, he really thought

thought three of them only (and they are of the mildest) fully fufficient for all purposes of horsemanship; which is reducing the matter pretty near to the ftandard of our present practice. One however cannot help being disgusted at his repeated advice, to beat the horse about the head with a cudgel. There are no doubt many useful obfervations in his book; but from fucceeding improvements in the veterinary art, Blundevill's work has long fince ceased to poffefs any other recommendation, than that of curiofity.

About the fame period, and somewhat later, arofé divers other writers on horses; as Morgan, Mascal, Martin, Clifford, and others, of whose books I at prefent know nothing beyond the names of the authors; and it is highly probable their works contain little else than a transcription of the veterinary practice of the ancients, and a repetition of the same system of management which we find in Blundevill; had they made any improvements in the art, they would, in all probability, have been handed down to us, and their works in confequence preferved from the fatal gulph of oblivion.

But there is another writer of nearly the fame period, if not of greater merit, at least of more good fortune, than thofe I have juft now mentioned. It is the redoubtable Gervafe Markham, for more than a century, the oracle

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of fapient grooms, the fiddle of old wives, and the glory of booksellers. After having pain-, fully laboured through his works, it remains with me a doubt, whether this famous writer ever poffeffed any real knowledge of the horse, or of the art veterinary, from his own practice and experience. He was, in my opinion, nothing better than a mere vulgar and illiterate compiler; and his works (fome few things excepted) are stuffed with all the execrable trash that had ever been invented by any writer, or practised by any farrier, ancient or modern, on the fubject of horses. It is neceffary, however, that we do juftice to the character of Gervafe Markham; he certainly poffeffed a fpecies of merit which has not defcended to all his fucceffors, the copiests and plagiarists: he very honestly gives the names of thofe authors from whom he derives his knowledge.

Markham's works were printed and reprinted, to the twentieth, and for aught I know, to the fortieth edition. At least, the celebrated name of Gervafe Markham was made use of by the bookfellers to a vast number of compilations, not only upon the subject of Horses, but of husbandry, gardening, and housewifery.

The mischiefs which have been occafioned by the extenfive circulation of this man's books, are incalculable. They brought almoft

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as many evils and cruel inflictions upon poor helpless animals, as the opening of Pandora's Box did upon the human race: and notwithstanding the author lived till after the restoration, and published an edition of his works, in which he boafts of fifty years practice; we find no improvement refulting from his long experience, but that the work which received his laft hand, is but a mere repetition of the barbarous and unmeaning abfurdities of ancient practice.

From the works of Gervafe Markham, and his famous receipts, all the old grooms and farriers, who (unfortunately for the animals committed to their care, and the proprietors of them, were able to write and read) obtained all their veterinary knowledge, their skill in operations, and their wonderful tricks; nor is the fame of this great writer altogether unknown to fome of our elder fages of the stable, even at this day: and I must beg leave to advise every owner of Horses, who regards their welfare and his own intereft, as foon as he fhall be apprised that his groom or farrier is in poffeffion of Markham's works, or indeed any of that stamp, to purchase fuch dangerous commodities out of their hands; and to put them to more harmlefs and necefsary purposes, than those to which ignorant people would most probably apply them.

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