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 œconomy, 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."
BRAN
—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.