por cuyas ondas crueles

este baxel animado,

hecho proa de la frente,

rompiendo el globo de nacar.
desde el codon al copete,

pareció entre espuma y sangre,

ya que baxel quise hazerle,

de quatro espuelas herido,

que quatro vientos le mueven.

He did not either in his marks or trappings, resemble Rabicano, as Chiabrera describes him, when Rinaldo having lost Bayardo, won this famous horse from the Giant to whose keeping Galafron had committed him after Argalia's death.

Era si negro l'animal guerriero,

Qual pece d'Ida; e solamente en fronte

E sulla coda biancheggiava il pelo,

E del piè manco, e deretano l'unghia;
Ma con fren d'oro, e con dorati arcioni.
Sdegna tremando ogni reposo, e vibra
Le tese orecchie, e per levarsi avvampa,
E col ferrato piè non è mai stanco
Battere il prato, e tutte l'aure sfida
Al sonar de magnanimi nitriti.

Galafron had einployed

Tutto l'Inferno a far veloce in corso
Qual negro corridor.

Notwithstanding which Rabicano appears to have been a good horse, and to have had no vice in him; and yet his equine virtues were not equal to those of Nobs, nor would he have suited the Doctor so well.

Lastly, he was not such a Horse as that goodly one " of Cneiüs Seiüs which had all the perfections that could be named for stature, feature, colour, strength, limbs, comeliness, belonging to a horse; but withal, this misery ever went along with him, that whosoever became owner of him was sure to die an unhappy death." Nor did the possession of that fatal horse draw on the destruction of his owner alone, but the ruin of his whole family and fortune. So it proved in the case of his four successive Masters, Cneiüs Seiüs, Cornelius Dolabella, Caius Cassius and Mark Antony, whom if I were to call by his proper name Marcus Antonius, half my readers would not recognize. This horse was foaled in the territory of Argos, and his pedigree was derived from the anthro

pophagous stud of the tyrant Diomedes. He was of surpassing size, haud credibili pulchritudine vigore et colore exuberantissimo,—being purple with a tawney mane. No! Nobs was

not such a horse as this.

Though neither in colour nor in marks, yet in many other respects the description may be applied to him which Merlinus Cocaius has given in his first Macaronea of the horse on which Guido appeared at that tournament where he won the heart of the Princess Baldovina.

Huic mantellus erat nigrior carbone galantus,
Parvaque testa, breves agilesque movebat orecchias;
Frontis et in medio faciebat stella decorem.

Frena biassabat, naresque tenebat apertas.

Pectore mostazzo tangit, se reddit in unum
Groppettum, solusque viam galopando misurat,
Goffiat, et curtos agitant sua colla capillos.
Balzanus tribus est pedibus, cum pectore largo,
Ac inter gambas tenet arcto corpore caudam ;
Spaventat, volgitque oculos hinc inde fogatos;
Semper et ad solam currit remanetque sbriatam,
Innaspatque pedes naso boffante priores.

That he should have been a good horse is

not surprizing, seeing that though of foreign

extraction on the one side, he was of Englishbirth, whereby, and by his dam, he partook the character of English horses. Now as it has been discreetly said, "Our English horses have a mediocrity of all necessary good properties in them, as neither so slight as the Barbe; nor so slovenly as the Flemish; nor so fiery as the Hungarian ; nor so aery as the Spanish Gennets, (especially if, as reported, they be conceived of the wind;) nor so earthly as those in the Low Countries, and generally all the German Horse. For stature and strength they are of a middle size, and are both seemly and serviceable in a good proportion. And whilst the seller praiseth them too much, the buyer too little, the indifferent stander-by will give them this due commendation."*

A reasonably good horse therefore he might have been expected to prove as being English, and better than ordinary English horses as being Yorkshire. For saith the same judicious author, "Yorkshire doth breed the best race of English horses, whose keeping commonly

* FULLER.

in steep and stony ground bringeth them to firmness of footing and hardness of hoof; whereas a stud of horses bred in foggy, fenny ground, and soft, rotten morasses,―(delicacy marrs both man and beast,) have often a fen in their feet, being soft, and soon subject to be foundered. Well may Philip be so common a name amongst the gentry of this country, who are generally so delighted in horsemanship."

Very good therefore there might have been fair ground for hoping that Nobs would prove; but that he should have proved so good, so absolutely perfect in his kind and for his uses, was beyond all hope-all expectation.

"I have done with this subject, the same author continues, when I have mentioned the monition of David, 'an Horse is but a vain thing to save a man,' though it is no vain thing to slay a man, by many casualties: such need we have, whether waking or sleeping, whether walking or riding, to put ourselves by prayer into Divine Protection."

Such a reflection is in character with the