Few have much choice of situation. When any exists, that should be selected which will admit of draining, shelter from the coldest winds, and easy access. The aspect should be southern. Training stables should be near the exercising ground. The surface should be sloping, and the soil dry. Stables built in a hollow, or in a marsh, are always damp. When the foundation is sunk in clay, no draining will keep the walls dry. Some of the means usually employed against dampness in dwelling-houses, might be adopted in the construction of stables. These, as every builder knows, consist in a contrivance for preventing the wail from absorbing the moisture of the soil. In some places a course of whin, or other stone, impenetrable to water, joined by cement, is laid level with the ground; in other places, a sheet of lead, laid upon a deal board, is employed; and in the neighborhood of coal-pits, the foundation is sometimes laid in coal-dust, which does not absorb water, and is much less expensive than either lead or stone.

It is not right to suppose that precautions of this kind are superfluous.

A damp Stable produces more evil than a damp house. It is there we expect to find horses with bad eyes, coughs, greasy heels, swelled legs, mange, and a long, rough, dry, staring coat, which no grooming can cure. The French attribute glanders and farcy to a humid atmosphere; and in a damp situation we find these diseases most prevalent; though, in this country, excess of moisture is reckoned as only a subordinate cause. In London, and in other towns, there are several stables under the surface; they are never dry, and never healthy. The bad condition, and the disease, so common and so constantly among their ill-fated inhabitants, may undoubtedly arise from a combination of causes; but there is every reason to believe that humidity is not the least potent.

When horses are first lodged in a damp stable, they soon show how much they feel the change. They become dull, languid, feeble; the coat stares; they refuse to feed; at fast-work they cut their legs in spite of all care to prevent them. This arises from weakness. Some of the horses catch cold, others are attacked by inflammations of the throat, the lungs, or the eyes. Most of them lose flesh very rapidly. The change produces most mischief when it is made in the wintertime.