SMITHFIELD
—is the name of a most celebrated spot in the Metropolis, from which a SPORTSMAN is not likely to derive either pleasure or emolument; unless it is in the purchase of diseased or emaciated subjects for his HOUNDS. To those in remote parts of the kingdom, it may not be inapplicable to be informed, that Smithfield is the great CATTLE MARKET for the consumption of the infinite body of inhabitants in the cities of London, Westminster, their suburbs, and the environs for some miles round. The principal days are Monday and Friday in every week; on which some hundreds of OXEN, in a state of perfection for slaughter, and thousands of SHEEP and LAMBS, are constantly transferred to supply the immense demand. The afternoons of those days are principally appropriated to the purchase and sale of aged, crippled, and worn-out horses; the greater part of whom are only fit to receive sentence from the INSPECTOR, previous to their being delivered to the nacker, (or slaughterman,) unless it is some few, with still remaining strength enough to drag the carts of the industrious about the inferior streets, with a supply of vegetables in the summer, and potatoes in the winter, for the accommodation of the lower classes of society.
SNAFFLE
.—The simplest and plainest BRIDLE-BIT is so called: it consists of only a single mouthpiece, having a joint in the middle, with a cheek of different lengths at each extremity, and an eye annexed to receive the reins; when which are added, it is then called a SNAFFLE (or single-reined) BRIDLE. When snaffle-bits are made very large in the mouth for breaking colts or fillies, they are then called MOUTHING-BITS.
SNAP
,—the name of a horse, as a STALLION, formerly held in high estimation: he was bred by the late Earl of Sandwich; foaled in 1750; got by Snip; dam by Fox, grand-dam by Bay Bolton; from which the blood of both sire and dam may be traced to most of the Barbs and Turks ever brought to this country. There were also three others of this name, distinguished by different appellations; as Lord Chedworth's Snap; Wildman's Snap; and Latham's Snap. The first was got by Old Snap; his dam by Dormouse, grand-dam by Mixbury. The second by Old Snap; dam by Regulus, grand-dam by Bartlet's Childers; going on both sides directly into Arabian blood. The third by Snap, dam by Cade, grand-dam by Old Partner.
SNIPES
—are well known to the sporting world in winter shooting, and are of two sorts; one nearly as large again as the other, though precisely the same in shape, make, feather, and formation. They frequent the same places, subsist on the same food, and are frequently found near to each other. The larger is called a whole snipe; the smaller, a Jack; the latter of which is not very easily killed, at least by an indifferent shot; of which some proof was recently given by a gentleman of Easthampstead, in Windsor Forest, who very warmly entertained his friend with a description of "a Jack snipe he had found upon the heath, which had afforded him sport for six weeks; and he did not at all doubt but he would serve him for sport during the season, if he was not taken off by a frost; and what was still more convenient, he always knew where to find him within a hundred yards of the same place." They are birds of passage, supposed to breed principally in the lower lands of Switzerland and Germany, though some (particularly the Jacks) remain and breed in the fens and marshy swamps of this country, where their nests with eggs and young are frequently found. They arrive here sooner or later in the Autumn, regulated in respect to time by the wind and weather, but never appear till after the first rains; and leave this country in the spring, so soon as the warmer sun begins to absorb or exhale the moisture from the earth, and denote the approach of Summer.—See Shooting.
SNORTING
.—is a cartilaginous propulsion of sound from the nostrils of a horse, which he avails himself of at different times, to signify sensations seemingly opposite to each other. Upon being led from the light, through a gloomy passage, to a still more gloomy stable, he is frequently observed to SNORT either from fear or surprize; meeting or coming suddenly upon a new, strange or unnatural object, he snorts from absolute dread of injury; taken into a stable or out-house smelling musty, from foul dung and confined air, he snorts with dislike, and enters with reluctance: but snorting in the field at exercise, or in the CHASE with HOUNDS, may each be considered a proof of pleasurable gratification.