essenger of spring" generally arrives in this
country by that day.

J. B. WHITBORNE.

* * * * *

{287}

"GIVE HIM A ROLL."--A PLEA FOR THE HORSE.

We learn, from the comedy of the _The Clouds_, that the Athenians were
accustomed to refresh their horses after a race by allowing then to roll on
the ground; for Pheidippides, the wild young man of the play, who spent
much of his own time and of his father's money on the "turf," and who is
shown in the opening scene fast asleep in bed, dreaming of his favourite
amusement, says very quietly,

"[Greek: Apage ton hippon exalisas oikade] [32]--

an order which he had probably often given to his groom at the Hippodrome,
the Newmarket or Ascot of Athens.

I have often seen racing, I have often seen hunters brought home after a
hard day's work, and I have read of forced marches, &c. made by cavalry and
artillery; but never yet have I heard of an English Houyhnhnm, either at
home or abroad, who was invited to refresh himself after his labours, civil
or military, classically, with a _roll_.

Dobbin, that four-footed Ofellus,

"Rusticus, abnormis sapiens, crassaque Minerva,"

whenever he has the luck to spend his summer Sunday's _otium cum dignitate_
in a paddock, invariably indulges in a baker's dozen, without waiting for
an invitation to do so, and without saying "with your leave" or "by your
leave."

They ordered this matter better in Africa some fifty years ago, and I hope
they still continue so to order it.

By one of the stipulations of the hollow Peace of Amiens, the colony of the
Cape of Good Hope was restored by Great Britain to the Batavian Republic,
which immediately appointed Mr. J. A. de Mist its Commissary-General, and
despatched him to receive the ceded territory from the hands of the
English, to instal the new Governor, General J. W. Janssens, into his high
office, and to reorganise the constitution of the colony.

Having fulfilled these duties, Mr. De Mist determined to make a tour of
inspection, and he accordingly travelled _on horseback_ nearly 4500 English
miles through the interior. Among his suite was a Dr. Lichtenstein, the
physician and _savant_ of the party, who afterwards published an account of
the expedition.

The extract that I am about to make from his work may at first sight appear
unnecessarily long; but I wish the "courteous reader" to bear in mind that
I do not cite it for the sake of parading