132 THE ARAB THE HORSE OF THE FUTURE 



An article in the South Atistralian Register^ 

 September 9, 1898, after quoting various favourable 

 opinions, observes that in February, 1862, at Cal- 

 cutta, the Arab Hermit, though defeated, gave 

 Voltigeur's daughter such a stretching that the 

 following day the mare had to be kept at home, and 

 the Arab proved the winner. Their hardiness was 

 such that many an Arab has continued year after 

 year to add to his laurels in spite of a thickened 

 suspensory ligament. 



Mr. De Vere Hunt cites with approval an 

 authority which asserts that none but a people long 

 possessed of numerous and well-trained chargers 

 could have planted the victorious banners of Islam 

 on the Pyrenees as well as on the banks of the 

 Ganges. He might have added — ' and carried them 

 to China.' He then sets out a letter from Lord 

 Gifford, who was for twenty years a master of fox- 

 hounds, wherein the writer says that his little Arab 

 was worth fifty of the gray, he rode him cub-hunting 

 with Mr. Greaves, and he was active as a cat, and 

 could put a leg anywhere. The horse was apparently 

 not an Arab. 



In the South Australian Advertiser, it was lately 

 stated that the Arabian horse has been used in 

 developing the military horses of all the European 

 countries, and that the thoroughbred had deteriorated 

 to a mere shadow, while the Arab had remained the 

 same and was increasing in popularity in Great Britain. 

 ' Cecil,' whom I have mentioned above, while 



