S33 



informed, there was plenty of galloways and ponies of his get, running 

 about Windsor forest, the covering fee for Avhich did not exceed half-a- 

 guinea; yet Lord Abingdon advertised old Marske, in his latter days, 

 to cover, at two, or three hundred guineas a mare. Sprightley, although 

 a winner at Newmarket, was not fortunate enough to win the good 

 opinion of his proprietor, and was ordered from the training to the hack- 

 Hej'^ stable, and afterwards for sale, to the best bidder. The groom, 

 however, judging probably differently of him, kept the Horse on, under 

 the pretence of mending his condition for sale, and taking him to Ches- 

 ter, won a plate with him ver}'^ easily ; after which, he won a great 

 "number, losing his last hard-contested race, only from extreme lameness. 

 After being tried in vain as a stallion, until seventeen years of age, 

 Sprightley was sold to a miller, at Sedgfield, near Durham, for ten 

 guineas, where he carried the sacks, as Cadging-horse; but Pyrrhus soon 

 after appearing at Newmarket, the old Horse Avas in consequence re- 

 deemed from slavery, at the price of twelve guineas, and almost imme- 

 diately afterwards. Lord Bolingbroke offered five hundred for him. I 

 have always rather -suspected the judgment of Mr. Swinburne, than the 

 goodness of this Horse, whether as a racer or a stallion. He got two 

 good winners, Pyrrhus and Tremamondo, the latter of which I recollect 

 seeing take his canter at Newmarket, with the arched crest and lofty 

 action of a managed Horse. The boys called him the proud Horse. 



Far be it from me to deny the real difficulties existing in the above 

 case; on the contrar}^ I have seen them apparently insuperable, of 

 Avhich nothing can be a more pregnant proof, than the total dissimila- 

 rity between full brothers. Most truly, then, as the old jockies said, 

 " the blood does not nick." But I must beg permission also to remark, 

 that very frequentl}% the breeder's judgment does not 'nick.' As in 

 common breeding, so in our racing studs, sufficient attention is not paid 

 to the form of the mare, and fashionable blood and the supposed neces- 

 sity of a cross, have, perhaps, generally too decided a preference to cor- 

 rectness of shape. I think we arrive here, at the jet of the business; 

 although it be by no means a certainty, yet we derive our best assur- 

 ance of success from a junction of the best shapes, or the greater 

 number of good points we can combine, both in the Horse and the 



2 H mare ; 



