Explore "Here and there in London" by James Ewing Ritchie on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
Is there a finer sight in creation than a horse? I don't speak of the wild horse of the prairie, as seen at Astley's -- nor of the wearied animal by means of which the enterprising greengrocer transports his wares from Covent-Garden to the Edgware-road -- nor of the useful but commonplace looking cob on which Jones trusts himself timidly as he ventures on a constitutional ride, while his groom, much better mounted, follows scornfully behind -- nor of the broken-down, broken-knee'd, spavined, blind roarer, all the summer of whose life has been passed in dreary drudgery, and for whom nought remains but the knacker's yard, and the cold calculations of the itinerant vendors of cat's-meat; but of a horse such as a monarch might pet, and the very queen of beauty might deign to ride -- a horse such as Gamarra.
"A noble steed, / Strong, black, and of the desert breed, / Full of fire and full of bone, / All his line of fathers known, / Fine his nose, his nostrils thin, / But blown abroad by the pride within. "