432 THE HORSE THOROUGHBREDS 



of Admiral Rous, who wrote in 1860, that the English race- 

 horse had increased an inch in height in every twenty-five 

 years since i/oo. 1 



In-and-in breeding, apart from that modified form of in- 

 breeding which has been defined "line-breeding," being 

 thought derogatory to pluck, is not successfully practised 

 among thoroughbreds, but there is no breed in which the 

 advantages of a good pedigree are more seen. 



The first or early crosses with Turkish, Arabian, or Barb 

 horses did not prove a success as regards the production of 

 winners, but the improvement due to the distinct impetus 

 given by the cross became apparent in later crosses in the 

 form of animals superior to either the imported or the 

 English horse of an earlier date. Though this is admitted, it 

 is generally accepted in relation to racing, that no advantage 

 could now be gained by crossing with any alien blood not 

 descended from the English Thoroughbred. Arab horses, for 

 example, are supposed to have remained at much the same 

 stage of advancement for the last two hundred years, while the 

 English Thoroughbred racer has been vastly improved. 



Professor Ridgway's work, introduced on page 388, 

 created a new interest in this subject The chief objects 

 of the book have been stated to be two. "The first, to 

 set out the evidence to show that the generally received 

 notion of the Arab horse being the ultimate source of our 

 Thoroughbreds has no historical foundation ; that the Arabs 

 only got their fine breed of horses from North Africa at a 

 period later than the Christian era ; that a thousand years 

 before they ever bred a horse there existed a fine breed in 

 Libya, in North Africa, and that from this North African 

 stock, a variety distinct from the clumsy, thick-set, slow 

 horses of Europe and Asia, have sprung all the best horses of 

 the world. The second, to trace the important part played 

 in history by this Libyan horse and its descendants." 



Much of the evidence advanced in support of Ridgway's 

 contentions was freely criticised by Wilfred Scawen Blunt, 2 

 who possesses a wide personal acquaintance with Eastern 

 countries and Eastern horses. The Libyan horse Blunt 



1 Preface to The Arab the Horse of the Future, by Sir James Penn 

 Boucaut (Gay & Bird, London, 1905). 



2 In The Nineteenth Century for January 1906, No. 347. 



