—is an appointment of much honour in the home department of His Majesty, under the sole direction of the MASTER of the HORSE. There are FIVE EQUERRIES in this official situation, one of whom is called the first: of the other four, two are always in waiting to attend upon His Majesty in every equestrian excursion, whether on the road, to the field, or in the chase, with whom His Majesty most graciously condescends to converse familiarly. His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, the Dukes of York, Gloucester, and other branches of the Royal Family, have likewise attendants of this description.
EQUERRIES
—apply equally to those in a more subordinate situation, who personally officiate in the STABLES of the Crown, and to whom is entrusted the breaking, managing, and preparing saddle-horses of every description for the King's use. Some of the out-riders who attend upon the family, pass also under the same denomination.
ESCAPE
,—the name of a horse of great beauty, excellent symmetry, and much celebrity. He was bred by Mr. Franco, and got by Highflyer out of a Squirrel mare; he was foaled in 1785; and in the First Spring Meeting at Newmarket, 1789, he beat the Prince of Wales's Cantoo Baboo, from the ditch-in, for 200 guineas. He was then purchased by his Royal Highness, and in the Second Spring Meeting he received forfeit from Alexander, and Clown, 100 guineas each. In the First October Meeting of the same year, he beat Nimble across the flat 200 guineas. The Craven Meeting, 1790, he beat Grey Diomed over the Beacon 500 guineas; and won the great subscription purse at York, beating Actæon, and Gustavus. The Craven Meeting, 1791, he beat Skylark, Highlander, Glaucus, Halkin, Meteor, and Buffer, a subscription of 50 guineas each: two to one on Skylark. First October Meeting the same year, he beat Grey Diomed over the Beacon Course 8st. 7lb. each for 1000 guineas. Two days after, he beat him again for the renewed 140 guineas. In the second October Meeting he won a subscription purse (twelve subscribers) over the Beacon, beating Chanticleer, Skylark, Grey Diomed, Harpator, and Alderman, with the odds four and five to one against him. When taken out of training, he covered at Highflyer Hall at ten guineas a mare, and half a guinea the groom.
ESCHAR
—is the prominence remaining upon the cicatrix of an ill-cured wound, or the scab frequently seen to form a projecting apex upon a broken knee; or where some injury has been left to cure itself by an effort of nature, without the least interposition of art. If it is a scab only, and not of long standing, it may in general be brought away spontaneously, by occasional softenings with small quantities of camphorated spermacæti liniment; if, on the contrary, they are rigidly seated, and have acquired a degree of callosity in the nature of a sitfast, there is no other mode of cure, but by extirpation with the knife and forceps.
ESTRAY, or Stray
,—appertain equally to horse, mare, bull, ox, cow, sheep, or, in fact, any head of cattle, who having strayed from its own home, common, waste, or lair, into a strange MANOR, or LORDSHIP, and there found without an owner, is then called an ESTRAY, or stray: in which case it is an established custom, sanctioned by LAW, and founded in EQUITY, that such stray is proclaimed, and his or her marks described, by the common crier, in the three next nearest towns on the market-day; and if the stray is not claimed within a year and a day of the time on which it was publicly cried, and fully described, it then becomes the property of the LORD of the MANOR where it was found. If the owner makes the claim within the time limited, he is liable to pay reasonable charges for finding, keeping, proclaiming, &c. An estray must be kept without labour, uninjured, and properly fed, till reclaimed, or the time above mentioned is expired.