BREEDING. 57 



powerful horse then in the neighbourhood, 

 and booked the leap, accordinor to custom : 

 but having made no calculation of the calen- 

 dar months, I kept her eleven lunar mouths 

 and a fortnight (by the almanack), and not 

 perceivijiig her to spring in the udder, or grow 

 larger in the carcase, I returned her (after 

 taking the opinion of almost every farmer 

 and breeder in the country), upon an univer- 

 sal decision that " slie had no foal within 

 her." The Ultimate event proved /or 07ice 

 the ei'r->r of gf^ueral judgment ; for the owner 

 (Mr, Johnson, then one of the keepers of the 

 Gr^at Park) taking a morning's waik among 

 his -tock, found her with a line colt at her 

 foot in about ten days after her return, which 

 proved a vaUiabie horse to him at live years 

 old, that I had lost entirely by my inadver- 

 tency and impatience. 



The mare having taken the horse but once, 

 and that under my own eye (a trust I never 

 delegated to another), added to the strictest 

 attention m point of time, formed a com- 

 bination to give proof, that a mare carries 

 her young twelve lunar or eleven calendar 



