Like those horses, described by Mr. Milman in his version of the episode of Nala from the Mahábhárata, he was
fit and powerful for the road;
Blending mighty strength with fleetness,—high in courage and in blood:
Free from all the well-known vices,—broad of nostril, large of jaw,
With the ten good marks distinguished,—born in Sindhu, fleet as wind.
7 PULCI.
Like these horses he was,—except that he was born in Yorkshire;—and being of Tartarian blood it may be that he was one of the same race with them.
He was not like the horses of Achilles;
Ἐξ ἀφθίτων γὰρ ἄφθιτοι πεφυκότες
Τὸν Πηλέως φέρουσι θούριον γόνον.
Δίδωσι δ᾽ αὐτους πωλοδαμνήσας ἄναξ
Πηλεῖ Ποσειδῶν, ὡς λεγουσι, πόντιος.8
Like them therefore Nobs could not be, because he was a mortal horse; and moreover because he was not amphibious, as they must have been. If there be any of their breed remaining, it must be the immortal River, or more properly Water-Horse of Loch Lochy, who has sometimes, say the Highlanders, been seen feeding on the banks: sometimes entices mares from the pasture, sometimes overturns boats in his anger and agitates the whole lake with his motion.
8 EURIPIDES.
He was of a good tall stature; his head lean and comely; his forehead out-swelling; his eyes clear, large, prominent and sparkling, with no part of the white visible; his ears short, small, thin, narrow and pricking; his eye-lids thin; his eye-pits well-filled; his under-jaw thick but not fleshy; his nose arched; his nostrils deep, open and extended; his mouth well split and delicate; his lips thin; his neck deep, long, rising straight from the withers, then curving like a swan's; his withers sharp and elevated; his breast broad; his ribs bending; his chine broad and straight; his flank short and full; his crupper round and plump; his haunches muscular; his thighs large and swelling; his hocks round before, tendonous behind, and broad on the sides, the shank thin before, and on the sides broad; his tendons strong, prominent and well detached; his pasterns short; his fet-locks well-tufted, the coronet somewhat raised; his hoofs black, solid and shining; his instep high, his quarters round; the heel broad; the frog thin and small; the sole thin and concave.
Here I have to remark that the tufted fetlocks Nobs derived from his dam Miss Jenny. They belong not to the thorough-bred race;—witness the hunting song,