In this there is little variety. In a square or circular apartment, the stalls may be ranged on each side, or all round. There is one at Edinburgh in a circular form. When full and lighted from the roof, it looks well, but no particular advantage is gained by this arrangement. The circular and the equilateral form leave a good deal of unoccupied room in the centre. An oblong is the best, and the general form for a stable. The stalls may be arranged on both sides or on one only. Each mode has its advantages and disadvantages.

Double-headed [double-rowed] stables, as those are called in which the stalls occupy each side, require the least space When the gangway between the horses is not too narrow, they are sufficiently suitable for coach or boat-horses, or any others kept at full work. But many accidents arise from the horses kicking at each other when they grow playful, as they are apt to do while half idle. For this reason, a livery stable should not be double-headed, without a very wide gangway, perhaps of eight or ten feet; they are quite unfit for valuable hunters or carriage-horses. Indeed, no width of gangway is sufficient to prevent some horses from attempting to strike when another is placed directly behind. Those that are disposed to mischief have frequent opportunities, as others are leaving or entering the stables; mares especially are generally very troublesome in these stables. For all kinds of horses, that stable is decidedly the best in which the stalls are ranged on one side only. These are termed single-headed.

The Walls may be composed of wood, stone, or brick. In this country they are seldom made of wood. Stone is the most permanent material, and is usually employed wherever it can be cheaply procured, or the building likely to be long required. Stone walls are said by some to be apt to sweat, to keep the stable damp and cold; but this objection, I apprehend, is applicable only to a new stone wall, to one composed of particular kinds of stone, or to that which is sunk in clay. Brick walls, however, are most esteemed. [Dampness of stone or brick walls may be entirely obviated in the drier climate of America, and warmth gained in winter, and coolness in summer, by running the roof over the gable ends and sides of the building about two feet, as in the Italian or old French style. Dampness may also be prevented inside, by furrowing out from the walls, and lath and plastering; but this is too expensive for stables; nor does it accomplish the same objects as jutting roofs; and, moreover, the hollow space makes a harbor for vermin, which is a very great objection to it.] In towns or other places where the ground is likely in a short time to become too valuable for stables, brick is the least expensive material, and it brings the highest price when pulled down.

A brick wall is usually recommended to be hollow, and thirteen and a half, or eighteen inches thick. Thus built, it is said to exclude the heat of summer and the cold of winter. Few, however, are made thicker than nine inches, and none hollow. It is a long time ere either cold or heat pierces a nine-inch wall; but a thick wall affords recesses for racks, cupboards, and shelves, and, in exposed situations, it certainly keeps the stable comfortable through a severe winter.

The inside of the walls is sometimes left bare, but most frequently it is either plastered or boarded. All the stalls ought to be lined with wood, boarded at the head for about three feet above the manger; and the wall forming one side of the end stall should be boarded as high as the partitions. Sometimes the back wall is boarded all round to the height of four or five feet. A few of the more costly kind, which are built of freestone, are polished on the inside as on the out. As far as the horse is concerned, it is sufficient to have the wall neatly and smoothly dressed off. Plaster is apt to break, to blister, and fall away. The wooden lining round the lower part of the wall is more durable, and when the upper part is plastered, the stable has a cleaner, more finished, and more comfortable appearance. The parts against which the horse is likely to come in contact when rising, lying down, or turning, ought to be smooth and soft, not calculated to bruise or ruffle his skin.