30 BREEDING. 



tant commiffions, where expenfe and trouble 

 proved only inferior confiderations : but the 

 trial afforded by time, and experience by ob- 

 fervation, have fully fhewn the improbabi- 

 lity of adding to the perfeftions of the true 

 Englifli blood horfes by the importation of 

 theirs. 



This rage for improvement with a crofs 

 from the blood of Arabia, was near half /a 

 century paffed very fajhionably predominant ; 

 but has fo gradually declined for the laft 

 twenty years, that they are held in no kind 

 of eflimation by any fyftematic fportfm^i or 

 breeder in the kingdom. The original ad- 

 vantage expected in the crofs, was fome ad- 

 dition in fpeed, even to our fleeteft mares; 

 this, when obtained, w^as totally counteracfled 

 by a want of bottom, for after repeated trials, 

 the moft exad: and difinterefted , they were 

 found in (^apable of keeping thi^i?^ rate, for 

 much more than a mile, and conicquently 

 became ot lo little confequence to a racing 

 jtud^ that a fhort time will, in all probabi- 

 lity, render them of no other utility than to 

 conftitute part of the retinue in the trium- 

 phant return of an Englijb Nabob, or an ad- 

 I dition 



