BREEDING. 17 



guinea each, but upon the production of 

 Eclipse, (a horse whose ahnost unprece- 

 dented quaUfications and performances will 

 in all probability never be forgotten) his 

 price was enhanced to fifty guineas, and 

 that only for a certain number in the season, 

 out of which (though much advanced in 

 years) he produced many winners, when the 

 selection of mares became so much in his fa- 

 vour. 



Such fluctuation of popularity still de- 

 pends upon the uncertainty of events, an 

 additional proof of which deserves to be re- 

 corded as worthy the attention of sportsmen, 

 to whom it is not very generally known, 

 thouo'h too well authenticated to admit even 

 a shadow of doubt, and reduces to a certainty 

 the former observation, that Chance alone 

 is often entitled to the merit so constantly 

 attributed to judgme?it ?ind penetration. 



The dam of Eclipse having been covered 

 in that season by both Shakspeare and 

 Marsk, it remamed a matter of doubt for 

 some days with his late Royal Highness the 

 Duke of Cumberland and his stud groom, 



VOL. II. c 



