300 years of history!

limebrook1 · #1 04-23-2006, 11:08 AM

I have been lent an ORIGINAL copy of a book published in 1751 about the 'Diseases and Ailments of Horses'. I feel very priviledged to even be handling a book this old which you don't normally see outside of a museum (and very worried in case I damage it - it must be worth a fortune!). Will be spending my Sunday trying to write some stuff from it - advise, for example, on what to look for when buying a horse doesn't seem to have changed at all during the years - although 300 years ago buying a horse was probably more like buying a car today, and it was more important to get it right!

All the 's's in the book are written as 'f's, which makes it very hard to read - took me a while to get into it, for example, horses are all horfes!

Amazing where doing a website leads you, isn't it? Never thought I would see a book this old, let alone have it open in front of me on my desk! It was found in someone's loft by the way.

Has web site building led anyone else into strange territory?

Have a good Sunday all!

SChajin · #2 04-23-2006, 01:39 PM

Hi Trish,

That is really cool, being a horse lover myself; I would love to hear some of the unusal stuff.....Maybe a website?

limebrook1 · #3 04-23-2006, 02:33 PM

I have already gone through the 1751 advice on buying a horse - still works today! I have put up the first page at http://www.limebrook.com/1751horselore.html which has some pages scanned in from the book. Can't scan too much as I'm afraid it will fall apart in my hands!

It is a real piece of history - they wrote so beautifully in those days!

ddstiles · #4 04-23-2006, 03:19 PM

Love old books and this is a great one. One small typo, Trish: the phrase "like buying..." is repeated in your commentary section.

Your site keeps getting better!

DDS

limebrook1 · #5 04-23-2006, 05:29 PM

Thanks for the email - and for pointing out the repeated words. Strange how you miss these things!

Cheers

Mariposa · #6 04-23-2006, 05:37 PM

That is so fantastic! I love history. I love old books too, history is so fun. I'm the kind of person who drives through old sections of towns and cities (NH) and looks for where someone might have kept a horse. In old cities people were allowed to keep a horse within city limits, after all, one needed to get around.

One time I visited my mother's in-law's uninhabited homestead and the water has been shut off for years, so we had to use the outhouse out in the barn. This particular (deceased) aunt was very old fashioned, was so set in her ways, wore long flowing skirts well after they were out of fashion. She cooked on a wood burning cookstove 365 days a year. Her family had given her an electric cookstove, she wouldn't allow anyone to install it for years, "new-fangled and useless"! Finally she let them install it out in the hall. You walk in, there is this long beautiful farm hallway with doors to the outside on each end and a working mustard colored electric stove installed in one wall. She apparently enjoyed the running water, however, but would only have a bathroom installed upstairs where no one would see it who came to visit. Lovely yellow bathroom linens, left as it was.

I never met her, but I can't help but admiring her. My mother gave me all her sewing notions, there were some neat antiques in there.

Trish, my husband says to tell you that he is installing a kitchen for a woman named Trish, who has a horse farm, owns horses, boards horses, and gives riding lessons.

Mariposa

ddstiles · #7 04-23-2006, 09:18 PM

Forgot to mention - William Gibson also did a pocket sized version of veterinarian info for farmers and horse(men) people.

DDS

limebrook1 · #8 04-24-2006, 07:13 PM

You know your stuff! And thanks for the info about the price - we thought it would be worth a lot more. Might be able to persuade the owner to sell for a reasonable amount. Especially as I found 6 pages missing.

Thanks again

ddstiles · #9 04-24-2006, 07:39 PM

There are 2 o3 for sale with damage ie. torn pages, possibly missing pages for $50 or less. I can get you the details or you can google author and title: the rare book dealers will come up before the universities that preserve this type of material. Some are in the UK.

If you can get the book cheap you might just salvage the plates for use in your next great site.

DDS

limebrook1 · #10 04-24-2006, 08:44 PM

thanks David - what sites are you looking at? couldn't find much when I googled it!

Mariposa · #11 04-25-2006, 12:29 AM

Trish,

My friend Trish wants to know if the publisher is Calvary. She said they put out a lot of books at that time. Calvary sounds more American though, it's probably a different publisher.

I had to go with hubby and work in Trish's kitchen today, ripped up tile. I'll give her your URL tomorrow, as he wants me to go with him. My real job is the web store, which is where I'd rather be.

I'll give Trish your URL tomorrow, you two have a lot in common. She's very nice.

Two weeks ago one of her boarders had to have her horse put down because of a delaminating hoof, the poor thing. I understand it had gotten quite bad and there would not been any recovery.

Cindy

limebrook1 · #12 04-25-2006, 09:00 PM

It was printed 'for A Millar', so presuambly that's the publisher. The top part of the title page is missing unfortunately.

Tell Trish about my other post - a pony who was given next to no chance because of laminitus but who Limebrook wouldn't put down as they loved her so much has made a full recovery! It has taken 2 years, and the first of that was an awful lot of love, care and attention when she could hardly bear to stand, needed special ***** etc, but it has really paid off and she was ridden for the first time today. They never expected this - when they put her out in a very small field at the end of last summer that was the most anyone ever expected! Now she is wonderful. Such a lovely story, and by all means the exception - they don't end like that, so all my sympathies to her for her loss.

Love to know what she makes of my site - horse keeping is so different your side of the Atlantic - you have so much more space! I'm very jealous.

Cheers

Mariposa · #13 04-26-2006, 02:34 AM

Thank you so much for looking it up in the book. I meant to type cavalry, but it sounds like American military. That's why I didn't think it would be the same since we are so far apart.

That's exactly what Trish said it was. It was her boarder's horse, but Trish lost a horse this year to something else this year as well. The hardest part is watching someone else's horse suffer for so long when the owner can't bear to go through with putting it down, I can understand her reason's for waiting. But Trish said the hoof had come off and I'm sure you know how horrible it must be. The woman trailered the horse home for one more night and back the next day to Trish's to be back home. It cast a sad pall over the farm.

There's not really endless fields, there doesn't seem to be that much land to it. I'll see if I can get my husband to remember to ask how many acres there is, it's comparatively small. But yes, you should see Vermont! You would just die to see all the cows on endless green fields. Where we are is more suburban, farm like, but heavily built up.

That is such good news about the horse. What a miraculous recovery! And from the sounds of it the pony is enjoying every minute out in the field.

I forgot to give the links to her today, and fortunately my work week is over! Two days construction is all I can bear :) At least this time my husband is planning to pay me, I used to work for room and board! LOL
I'm sure she will be touched about the pony - and she likes the internet too.

She also likes Discovery Health Channel, which I'm crazy about.

Cindy

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