BRITISH TURF. 41 



both. The barb possesses a superb and high 

 action ; is an excellent trotter and galloper, and 

 very active when in motion. Although gene- 

 rally not so strong as other breeds, when well 

 chosen I do not know a more noble horse ; and 

 I have read strange accounts of their courage, 

 for example, when so badly wounded that their 

 entrails have protruded, they have carried their 

 riders safe and sound out of danger, with the 

 same spirit with which they entered it, and then 

 dropped dead." 



He gives the preference to barbs, though, as 

 he observes, he may be prejudiced in their fa- 

 vour by having had and seen more of them than 

 of any other sorts of horses. The best sorts he 

 observes come from Cordoue, in Andalusia, 

 where the King of Spain has a stud. Endea- 

 vouring to establish the superiority of his fa- 

 vourite sort of horse, he mentions that an old 

 nobleman, who served under Henry IV, told 

 him in France, that he had often seen barbs up- 

 set the heavv Flemish horses in a tilt : '* and I 

 have taken," he continues, ^' the bone of the 

 leg of a barb, and found it to be almost solid, 

 having a hollow scarcely large enough 

 for a straw ; while, on the other hand, in the 

 same bone of a Flanders horse, you may almost 

 insert your finger." He further recommends 



