BREEDING. 57 



•powerful horfe then in the neighbourhood, 

 and booked the leap according to cuftom ; but 

 having made no calculation of the calendar 

 months, I kept her eleven lunar months and a 

 fortnight (by the almanack) and not perceiving 

 her X.0 fpring in the udder ^ nor grow larger in 

 the carcafe, I returned her (after taking the 

 opinion of almoft every farmer and breeder 

 in the country^ upon an univerfal decifion, 

 that '* ihe had no foal within her." Thic 

 ultimate event proved for once the error of 

 general judgment, for the owner (Mr. John- 

 fon, then one of the keepers of the Great 

 Park) taking a morning's walk among his 

 ftock, found her with a fine colt at her 

 foot in about ten days after her return, which 

 proved a valuable horfe to him 2X five years 

 old, that I had loft entirely by my inadver- 

 tency and impatience. 



The mare having taken the horfe but once, 

 and that under my own eye (a truft I never 

 delegated to another) added to the ftrideft 

 attention in point of time, formed a com- 

 bination to give proof, that a mare carries 

 her young twelve lunar or eleven calendar 



months, 



