HUNTERS 87 



very possible that a great part of the success of Ascetic was 

 more due to the elements of Melbourne in his composition 

 than to his descent from Hermit, for in their day the Touch- 

 stones and the Newminsters were by no means remarkable 

 as natural jumpers, while the Melbournes were especially 

 apt pupils. In the same way Gordon, who was a successful 

 hunter sire, was very closely related to Ascetic, the one 

 being by Hermit out of a mare by Young Melbourne, and 

 the other by Hermit out of Lady Alicia, by Melbourne. The 

 Voltigeurs were not noted as cross-country experts until 

 Speculum took up the line, but he had a near strain of 

 Birdcatcher, and such is invaluable for animals intended 

 for crossing a country. The great tap-root. Sir Hercules, 

 is a fine example of hereditary aptitude. If anything had 

 occurred to prevent his arriving at maturity, and procreat- 

 ing his kind, the loss to Ireland alone would be quite 

 incalculable, as well as to the world in general, for his 

 flat-racing descendants have been as distinguished as his 

 jumpers. There are few families which have not been 

 strengthened by an admixture of his blood, though in 

 direct descent the innate gift of jumping has been more 

 strongly developed in some of his sons and their offspring 

 than in others, notably Birdcatcher, Lifeboat, and Gunboat. 

 The badge of the family, "the Sir Hercules crest" as it 

 used to be known, the grey hairs at the root of the tail and 

 scattered over the body, has latterly become more associated 

 with Birdcatcher in the minds of the public, though it was 

 formerly properly attributed to his sire, in whose progeny 

 it was a very characteristic distinction. These " birth- 

 marks " are very curious as well as interesting. The black 

 patches in the chestnut coats of the Pantaloon tribe, and 

 the "hammer marks" on the quarters of the bay "New- 

 minsters," continually show themselves, generation after 

 generation ; while the " marks of the Prophet's thumb " are 

 generally to be found somewhere in thoroughbred horses, 

 relics of their descent from Arabian ancestors. 



It is often remarked that hunters are chance-bred animals ; 

 but is not this the result of many persons leaving the mating 

 of their animals, and the selection of the dam, to chance, 



