BADGER
.—Though this animal cannot be said to afford sport to the superior classes, he is entitled to notice here, in conformity with the original intent and title of the Work. Former writers have, with a greater attention to the fertility of invention, than any respect to truth, held forth a seemingly plausible description of BADGERS of two distinct and separate kinds, under the different appellation of a dog-badger and hog-badger; the former having feet resembling a dog; the feet of the latter cloven, exactly similar to those of the hog. To strengthen this assertion, they tell you they subsist on different food; that the one eats with eagerness any kind of flesh and carrion as a dog; the other, roots, fruits, and vegetables, as a hog. This, however, may be justly considered the effect of fiction, or of a too enlarged imagination, as the existence of only one kind of badger is admitted amongst us, with such trifling difference in size or colour, as may happen from age, the peculiar soil of any particular county, or other such collateral circumstance as may add something to the size in one part of the kingdom, or vary a shade or two in the colours of another.
Hunting the badger is no more than an occasional sport with rustics of the lower order, and can only be enjoyed by moonlight; the badger, from his natural habits, being never to be found above ground by day. In this sport they are obliged to oppose art to cunning, and obtain by stratagem what they cannot effect by strength. At a late hour in the evening, when the badger is naturally concluded to have left his kennel or his castle, in search of prey, some of the party (as previously adjusted) proceed to place a sack at length within the burrow, so constructed that the mouth of the sack directly corresponds with the mouth of the earth, and is secured in that position by means of a willow hoop, which, from its pliability, readily submits to the form required. This part of the business being completed, the parties withdrawn, and the signal whistle given, their distant companions lay on the dogs, (either hounds, terriers, lurchers, or spaniels,) encouraging them through the neighbouring woods, coppices, and hedge rows, which the badgers abroad no sooner find, than being alarmed, and well knowing their inability to continue a state of warfare so much out of their own element, they instantly make to the earth for shelter, where, for want of an alternative, and oppressed with fear, they rush into certain destruction, by entering the sack, where being entangled, (by the rapidity with which they enter,) they are soon secured by those who are fixed near the spot for that purpose.
If he escapes by the ill construction or accidental falling of the sack, (which is sometimes the case,) and enters the earth with safety, digging him out is not only a certain laborious attempt, but with a very precarious termination; for the badger possessing instinctively much art, ingenuity, and perseverance, has generally formed his retreat with no small strength resulting from natural fortification; to render which the more probably tenable against the premeditated attacks of constant and implacable enemies, it is most frequently formed amongst the roots of some old pollard, in the banks of moors, or unfrequented ground, or underneath a hollow tree, from amidst the large and spreading roots of which the burrows run in such remote and ramified directions, that his assailants are compelled, by loss of time and labour, (after digging fifteen or twenty feet,) to relinquish the pursuit, and abandon the contest: corroborating the opinion of countrymen in general, that, in a light or sandy soil, badgers can make way as fast from their pursuers, as the latter erroneously conceive they are gaining ground upon them, and to this perhaps it is owing that there are so many drawn battles between the pursuers and the pursued.
Badger baiting is a different sport, and exceedingly prevalent in both town and country, particularly with the butchers, and lower orders in the environs of the metropolis, for whom a constant supply of badgers, from the woods of Essex, Kent, and Surry, were sure to be obtained. To so great a pitch of celebrity had this sublime amusement attained in the neighbourhood of Tottenham Court and Islington, that the magistrates most laudably exerted themselves to put an end to a pleasurable business, which brought together an infinity of the most abandoned miscreants, with their bull dogs and terriers, from every extremity of the town. To the dreadful and inhuman scene of baiting bears and badgers (with the most ferocious dogs) till nature was quite exhausted, succeeded dog fights, boxing matches, and every species of the most incredible infamy under sanction of the knights of the cleaver; till, by the persevering efforts of the more humane inhabitants, and the spirited determination of magistracy, the practice seems totally abolished, and likely to be buried in a much-wished-for oblivion.
BALLS
,—medicines so called when prepared in that form, as they now mostly are, for the mitigation and cure of almost every disease to which the horse is incident. There are purging balls of various kinds, prepared of proportional strengths, and compounded of different ingredients, with or without the impregnation of mercury, according to the state, disease, or condition of the subject. Mild and strong diuretic balls, for cracked heels, swelled legs, fluctuating humours, and grease. Pectoral cordial balls, for colds, as well as to be given after severe chases, or long journeys: they are also useful when a horse is off his appetite, as well as an excellent preventative to cold when a horse has been long out of the stable, in sharp winds or chilling rains. Pectoral detergent balls, for obstinate coughs, and thick-winded horses. Likewise balls for flatulent and inflammatory cholic, as well as for strangury and other disorders. Articles of this description are usually prepared from the prescriptions of those authors who have written upon farriery and veterinary medicine; but, for the accommodation of the public at large, and to prevent the abuses sometimes attendant upon the casual preparation in shops, by the inattention of servants, or the privilege and practice of substituting one article for another, the Author, immediately after the publication and success of his "Stable Directory" prepared his own advertised medicines, which have now been fourteen years honoured with public patronage, a list of which, with the prices, will be found annexed to this Work.
BALSAMICS
,—in medicine, is a kind of indefinite term, upon which the most eminent writers have hardly agreed: but however they may have differed in respect to derivation, there can be no doubt but the true sense of the word must appertain to such nutritive emollients, and gelatinous restoratives, as heal without, and invigorate within. The term is more generally applied to medicines administered in disorders of the chest and lungs.