548 THE HISTORY OF THE HORSE 



tralian, Surplice, Voltigeur, Kingston, Chanticleer, and Fisherman the 

 tenth; Cossack, Ignoramus, Pelion, Tadmor, Ellington, Longbow, are the 

 eleventh generation." Florizel II, Persimmon, and Diamond Jubilee, three 

 brothers by St. Simon out of Perdita II, bred by His Majesty King Edward 

 VII, are among the living rej)resentatives of these famous sires. On the 

 female side the royal mares consisted chiefly of importations of Barbs from 

 the north coast of Africa when Tangiers was under the British flag, but 

 many of them were English bred, and were selected because they had been 

 successful performers on the turf. The late Admiral Rous was of opinion 

 that the English race -horse has descended from "pure -bred Arabs", 

 untainted by English blood, and whose pedigree might be traced for two 

 thousand years — the true offspring of Arabia Deserta, — and the greater 

 size and height that the produce of these animals attained to he ascribed 

 to the climatic influence of " these damp, foggy islands ", assisted by 

 judicious management and good " pasture". But does our knowledge of 

 the past history of the horse warrant us in accepting this assertion as 

 a fact? Do not the writings of the Duke of Newcastle advise crossing 

 with a fine English " mare " ; and do not other sentences show that 

 intermingling with different breeds was resorted to by our forefathers as 

 the best means by which to improve the then existing British race-horse? 

 The admiral attributes the superiority that the race-horse of the Stuart 

 era obtained to our " damp, foggy climate ", combined with good pasture 

 and judicious management; and although he speaks of the first cross as 

 producing our primary first-class race-horse, in the next sentence he asserts 

 that the Turks, Barbs, and royal mares were pure Arabians, " pure Eastern 

 exotics, without a drop of English blood in their veins". 



If climate and good pasture caused all the improvement which it is 

 allowed did occur, how was it that previously to the days of the Stuarts 

 the benefits derived from climatic inffuence had not been recognized by the 

 Tudors ? If environment alone was capable of producing greater size in our 

 equine races, what need had Henry VIII to pass a law ordering the destruc- 

 tion of small horses and " all unlikely tits ", when the same " fog and 

 damp" was ready to promote the same increase of size which we are 

 asked to believe was the sole cause of the change? Every physiologist 

 knows the benefit that arises from a " good cross of fresh blood ". Almost 

 all the breeds of domestic animals have been brought to their present excel- 

 lence, not by continuous breeding in a direct line in the same family, but 

 by judicious out-crossing, and it was by the adoption of this system at the 

 outset that the British thoroughbred has been produced. 



In 1618 Michael Barrett had noticed the benefit that arose from cross- 

 breeding. He writes: "Although the Spanish jennet, and Irish hobby and 



