SWELLING in the Sheath or Groin
,—of a horse externally in good health, and without any predominant symptoms of pain or disquietude, is sometimes of little consequence; denoting no more than a general plethora, or distension of the vessels, which immediate bleeding, followed by gentle friction, and moderate evacuants, may be expected to remove: but if it makes its appearance at the crisis of any inflammatory disorder, of either liver, lungs, or kidnies, it may be considered a very unfavourable prognostic, and the worst is yet to come; though the writer has seen many cases of extreme danger, where the patients have recovered by persevering in the medical means which were previously known to be right.
SWAN
.—The swan, as the most majestic and distinguished of all water fowl, is honoured with royal protection: those who disturb their nests, destroy their eggs, or injure, wound, or cripple the swans, are liable to imprisonment for twelve months, and a fine at the pleasure of the King. The corporate body of the City of London, as CONSERVATORS of the River Thames, have an annual aquatic excursion to Staines, (which is the western extremity of their boundaries,) in the most pleasant and most plentiful season of the year, with colours flying, music playing, and all the appropriate parapharnalia of the first and most opulent city in the universe. All the swans upon the Thames, within their district, are under the protection of the Conservators; and this display of civic grandeur is perpetuated from one generation to another, by the appellation of "Swan-hopping day."
T.
TAIL
.—Upon the uniform shape and setting on of a horse's tail, his good or ill appearance greatly depends. When the spine is continued in a curvilinear direction beyond the rump, and the basis of the tail is formed too low in the quarters, the horse is termed "goose-rumped;" and no nicking, or setting, will ever give him the figure of a handsome horse behind. It has been a long-standing maxim, that "a good horse can't be of a bad colour;" and there may probably be some who think a good horse can't have a bad tail; but a little experience, in buying and selling, will convince them, that the difference between the two will be little less than ten or fifteen pounds in a horse of no more than fifty pounds value. Great losses are sometimes sustained for want of a little circumspection at the moment of making a purchase; and this may sometimes proceed from the horse's having some peculiar points of attraction, in the fascinating survey of which the defects are totally absorbed; hence arises the pecuniary deficiency when the subject becomes again to be sold, particularly if to a more prudent and less hasty purchaser. The old sportsman, when going to buy, looks at the horse as if it was really his own, and he was going to sell; in doing which, he estimates his saleable value with an eye of greater accuracy, makes a tolerably fair calculation what he ought with consistency to bid, that he may sustain no great loss, should he have future occasion to sell.
TARTAR
—was an excellent racer, and the most celebrated stallion of his time. He was bred by Mr. Leedes, foaled in 1743; was got by Partner, out of Meliora, who was got by Fox, out of Milkmaid. Tartar was sire of the famous King Herod, Beaufremont, Miner, and Colonel O'Kelly's mare the dam of Maria, Antiochus, Venus, Jupiter, Mercury, Volunteer, &c. &c.
Tartar, called Wildman's Tartar, was a horse of some note likewise; he was bred by Sir J. Moore, foaled in 1758, and got by the above, out of Miss Meredith, who was got by Cade out of the little Hartley Mare.