BREEDING. 19 



continued with fashionable crosses to the 

 end of time. 



It is hardly possible for one little acquainted 

 with the customs and manners of the turf 

 to conceive, how the decision of a single 

 match- or sweepstakes alters the properties 

 and value of a stallion, whose reputation 

 is placed (in blood and performance) upon 

 the summit of eminence; for should some 

 of the first of his get that start fortunately- 

 become winners, such circumstance instantly 

 enhances his superiority to a degree of en- 

 thusiasm, and *hore business being marked 

 out for him in the act of procreation than 

 nature is equaj to, his number of mares are 

 consequently limited, and he becomes imme- 

 diately an object of great annual emolument, 

 several instances having occurred in the last 

 twenty years where different stallions liave 

 produced to their owners five-and-twenty 

 hundred pounds in one sc-ason. 



But in this state of acknowledged ex* 

 cellence and superiority, they are still sub- 

 ject to the versatility of chance, and one 

 *' unlucky step for ever damits their fain^ \^ 



c 2 ^ ^ 



