BREEDING. S9 



of the impropriety and danger of breeding 

 from horses of this description, was in the year 

 J 773, or J 774, when a great number of mares 

 in that neighbourhood had been covered by 

 a very popular '^ blind stallion'' (for that 

 was really the appellation under which he 

 passed) of the Hon. T. King's, near Ripley, 

 in Surry, whose pedigree, shape, make, 

 figure, and qualifications, were so effectually 

 fascinating with the multitude, that the 

 waut of eyes did not seem at all to impede 

 the daily progress of his procreation. The 

 infection of fashion was then (and ever will 

 be) as predominant as at present ; for the 

 slaves to that gew-gaw continued to bring 

 their mares in unremitting rotation, and 

 never discovered their cm n want of sight, ov 

 common comprehension, till the third or fourth 

 year, when the major part of the produce be- 

 came as blind as the sire. 



Still anxious to ascertain to some state of 

 certainty, an object of so much consequence 

 (not only to the sporting people, but the 

 world at large) as the hereditary transmis- 

 sion of this defect, I was constantly upon the 

 watch to enlarge my inquiries to some de- 



