104 The Horse-hreeding Industry in Yorkshire. 



obliterated since the establishment of the stud-book led 

 to the fusion of these two branches of the breed. This is 

 the case at any rate so far as concerns the stud-book Hackney. 

 Both branches played their part in the evolution of the last 

 mentioned, the intermingling of the two streams of blood 

 having been attended with very successful results, but it is 

 essentially from the Yorkshire lines of blood that the modern 

 breed, as exemplified in the show-ring, has gained its quality 

 and stylishness. As compared with the old-fashioned Norfolk 

 type, the Yorkshire strains were always noted for their quality 

 or breediness, a feature they derived from the plentiful 

 admixture of " blood " present in the foundation stock of 

 nag and roadster mares from which the Yorkshire Hackney 

 was originally evolved by grafting on to it the Norfolk 

 Trotter cross. Even subsequently, when the breed was 

 fully established, an infusion of thoroughbred blood took 

 place occasionally, if not frequently. For instance, the 

 thoroughbred stallion Bay President, who stood in the county 

 between the fifties and seventies of last century, was in several 

 cases mated with Hackney mares, his name cropping up in 

 several of the old Yorkshire Hackney pedigrees, and other 

 similar instances could be cited from the early stud-book records. 

 Two breeds exclusively claimed by Yorkshire — for practi- 

 cally speaking they are not bred in any other part of the country, 

 saving perhaps in a few isolated instances — are the Cleveland 

 Bays and the YorksJiire Coach Horses, the former a very 

 old indigenous breed established in the county as a pure type 

 for a good many centuries, and the latter a comparatively 

 modern ofPshoot of the Cleveland, evolved in the early part of 

 last century by crossing that breed with a thoroughbred. 

 Although, in theory, these breeds are reckoned as quite distinct 

 from one another, and possess separate stud-books and breed 

 societies, no such complete separation as would appear to be 

 implied by these facts has really been maintained in practice, 

 and there are many points of contact between them. They have 

 in fact been a good deal interbred, and the trend in modern times 

 always has been and continues to be towards a closer approxi- 

 mation between the two types, at any rate as regards pedigree- 

 bred stock. Arising out of this, the question, as is well known, 

 has before now been tentatively mooted of amalgamating them 

 for stud-book purposes, but the genei'al body of breeders, and 

 especially so the supporters of the Cleveland, are strongly 

 opposed to any proposal of this kind, Avhich would so radically 

 interfere with cherished and old-established traditions ; and 

 sentiment is a factor not to be lightly regarded in this con- 

 nection. On the other hand, some breeders who are identified 

 with the interests of these two breeds do not hesitate to give 



