STUD BOOK. 59 



desirous to perpetuate the fine qualities of this stock, 

 he ordered the horse to be kept at Windsor for public 

 covering, provided the mares should be of the first 

 quality ; and in order to insure a sufficient number of 

 these, directed the head groom to keep him exclu- 

 sively for such, and to make no charge, with the 

 exception of the customary groom's fee, of half a 

 guinea each. The groom, anxious to pocket as many 

 half guineas as possible, published His Majesty's liber- 

 ality, and vaunted the qualities of the horse, in order 

 to persuade all he could to avail themselves of the 

 benefit. The result was, the horse being kept without 

 his accustomed exercise and in a state of repletion, 

 and serving upwards of a hundred mares yearly, the 

 stock, although tolerably promising in their early age, 

 shot up into lank, weakly, awkward, leggy, good-for- 

 nothing creatures, to the entire ruin of the horse's 

 character as a sire ; until some gentlemen, aware of 

 the cause, took pains to explain it, proving the cor- 

 rectness of their statements by reference to the first 

 of the horse's get, produced under a proper system of 



