Again, is it intended for country use and long
expeditions, to run morning and evening several
miles to and from a railway station, or to
convey a quartogenarian fox–hunter fifteen or
sixteen miles to cover? Is it a general practitioner
going his mill–horse rounds in Peckham or Clapham,
or the physician in whom duchess–mothers
put their trust? When this point is settled, the
choice can be made with more or less difficulty,
in proportion to the degree of perfection
required. Useful animals, strong, slow, and
steady, with no pretensions to beauty,
sufficiently sound for all practical purposes, and
other useful animals active and fast but without
that action which is in horses what style is in
women, are always plentiful, and to be
purchased by those who know how to go to
market at somewhere between thirty and sixty
pounds apiece. For a horse may be serviceable
in harness without being sound or even
safe in saddle. A one–eyed horse may go very
grandly, and a horse touched in the wind will
not always make a noise in his trot; besides,
harness hides many blemishes and original
defects. A pig–eyed coffin head or a rat tail and
mangy mane will seriously depress the price of
an animal otherwise perfect.

A brougham horse should be long and low, full–
barrelled, and from fifteen hands two inches to
three at most, with a broad chest, lofty crest, a
broad back—if rather hollow it is no objection—
a flowing mane and full tail well carried, showing
altogether a combination of breeding and power,
and, above all, with grand, stately, regular,
machine–like forward action all round, each foot
keeping time as truly as Signor Costa's bâton.
Not flourishing his fore–legs about in mock
movement like the black brutes that draw hearses;
but while champing the bit, arching the neck,
and bending the knees at seven or eight miles
an hour, able to do twelve at a pinch. For
although the brougham is not intended, when
drawn by one horse, to be rattled along like a
hansom cab, there are times when an appointment
has to be kept, or a railway train caught,
or a dinner–party delayed, and then it is very
provoking to have your coachman whipping,
and your two–hundred–guinea animal see–sawing
like a rocking–horse, up and down, "all action
and no go."

A fine brougham horse is worth from a
hundred to two hundred guineas; anything beyond
being a fancy price, paid either for a very
extraordinary animal, or more likely by a very rich
man to a great dealer who happens to have the
sort of animal he at that moment fancies. It is
a great mistake to dwarf a brougham by a too
large horse continually pulling the fore wheels
off the ground.

Carriage–horses of the highest class, not
less than sixteen hands high, well matched
in size, shape, colour, and action, perfectly
broken and seasoned to town, will fetch from
three hundred to six hundred guineas, and
barouche horses not quite so powerful, and very
highly bred, and an inch less, will fetch about
the same prices.

Bays, browns, and dark chesnuts are the
favourite colours; greys are out of fashion, and
scarcely to be found of the first class. Indeed,
there are only two grey thorough–bred stud–
horses, and the majority of first–class carriage–
horses are bred from thorough–bred sires. Grey
is generally a jobmaster's, not a gentleman's
colour.

In all expensive harness–horses, the first
qualification is action. Without action, the
greatest symmetry is of little value; and with
perfect action, many defects may be passed
over. But this rare and costly quality—which
is seen in its highest degree in a select number
of pairs returning from a royal Drawing–room,
and in Paris, whence a few orders to English
dealers come every year, requires for its preservation
almost as much care as a tenor singer's
voice or a tea–taster's palate. It is essentially an
ornamental luxury, which will be entirely spoiled
by anything like useful work. To develop it in
perfection, the coachman must be a genius in
his way, with fingers as delicate and sympathetic
as Monsieur Sainton, or whoever is the violinist
of the day; so that as his high–couraged horses
rush forward, at each step he imperceptibly
suspends them in the air. Having, then, the artist
in the cauliflower–wig, the instruments must be
always in tune, and therefore above their work,
stuffed with corn and beans, and just enough
exercise to keep down fever. A very short
season of steady, regular, day–by–day morning
concerts, afternoon visits, and Park drives, will
reduce five hundred guinea action down to two
hundred. This is a fact it is very difficult to
make ladies understand. The best illustration
will be found in the system of an Anglo–
Hungarian count, who was a few years ago
celebrated for the magnificence of his equipages
and the beauty and action of his harness–horses.
His secret was not only in buying horses of splendid
action, that many of greater wealth could do,
but in always having his pairs above their work:
for that end he had six horses to do the duty of
three. The pair that excited murmurs of
admiration in the Park or at a Chiswick or Sion
House fête one day, rested the next, with one
hour's exercise in a break; and if any one horse
showed the least symptom of flagging, he was at
once sent off to holiday in a loose box at a
Willesden farm.

To return to the brougham. Builders
have of late years produced carriages light
enough for small blood–horses; but, as a rule,
for comfortable riding without noise, a very
light brougham is a mistake, and power, always
with action, should be the characteristic of the
single brougham horse. When a brougham
is required to travel long distances and fast,
a pair of quick–stepping blood–horses of from
fourteen hands two inches to fifteen hands,
look best, work best, and need not cost more
than one full–sized animal. They are equally
suited for a Stanhope phaeton or waggonette in
fine weather, and, if well chosen, may also be
ridden.

In the old times, when carriages were as