BREEDING. 7 



There are many fubftantial rcaions to be 

 adduced, why the breeders of the northern 

 counties exceed all other parts of England, 

 in the conpflency, jlrength, fajhion, and fym- 

 metry of their ftock ; for, exclufive of their 

 natural advantages of the mofl luxuriant 

 pafture and temperate climate for fuch pur- 

 pofe, they are rigidly attentive to every 

 component minutiae of the whole ; not only 

 to the fliape, make, bone, ftrength, and uni- 

 formity of both fre and dam, but likewife 

 to' hereditary defedts, blemiflies, and defor- 

 mities, rejecting every probability oi Jla'm or 

 injury, divefted of the paltry penurious con- 

 fiderations by which the condudl of many 

 are regulated, who have been breeding all 

 their lives^ without the fatisfadtion of hav- 

 ing ever once had a horfe or mare of figure, 

 fafhion, or value in their pofieffion. 



This is a fad: fo clearly eftabliflied, it will 

 come home to the remembrance of every 

 reader, when taking a mental furvey of his 

 rural neighbours, amongft whom he will 

 perfecftly recoiled: fome one or more fo invin- 

 cibly attached to the merits of a blind f^al- 

 Hotly or the virtues of his own Jfider-legged 



B 4 nrare, 



