OF FARRIERY. 



335 



be-low the linee the legs are perfection : you 

 find quite as much bone as in the largest sized 

 English blood-horse, and the tendons are in 

 your grasp like iron. His carcase, without 

 being very full of substance, is round and 

 tolerably deep ; liis quarters what we express 

 by vulgar. His thighs are very thin and 

 sinewy, his loins narrovv^, the hocks perfectly 

 clean, and slightly inverted ; he is what we 

 call ' cat-ham'd.' The tail is well set on, the 

 dock small, the hair fine and scant, giving it 

 the appearance of a mule's, more than that of 

 a Horse. His shanks are short, and hard as 

 adamant, the pasterns flexible, the hoofs 

 singularly hard, but healthy, and the feet open 

 and roomy. You read his temper in his eye ; 

 he is a light-hearted animal, without the 

 slightest taint of vice. 



" The other stallion, a bright bay, is de- 

 scribed almost in the same words. His head 

 is less perfect, and his bone smaller, but his 

 quarters are fuller and more softened down by 

 the swell of the muscles. His back, which, 

 like the other, is rather inclined to be hollow, 

 is not more than eight or ten inches from hip 

 II shoulder : I never saw a poney's so short. 

 His height is as near as possible the same as 

 the black ; in middle piece he has the advan- 

 tage. They were both brought out for me, 

 and I saw them in all their paces. In their 

 action, as in their lean spare forms, you detect 

 nothing superfluous : it is quiet and graceful, 

 and entirely without any expression of exube- 

 rant exertion. Utility is the characteristic of 

 the Arab Horse. I can imagine them going 

 for days together without fatigue : Nature in- 

 tended them, and she has fitted them for 

 endurance. The impression of their extraor- 

 dinary speed was long a vulgar error, which 

 IS now fast exploding. No Arab that ever 



trod the sand could live in company with an 

 English race-horse, weight him for inches, or 

 after any fashion you will : with the size of a 

 galloway you cannot have the stride essential 

 to great velocity. Speed, regular and long 

 sustained, no doubt they possess : our bli<j-ht 

 of degeneracy is yet unknown to the Desert- 

 bred. Before I part with these Horses, I 

 cannot but regret that one or two of the 

 mares at Hampton Court were not put to 

 them. Surely nowhere could the experiment 

 have been so properly made. That their 

 stock in the first or tenth generation could 

 compete with Emilius or Sultan no one sup- 

 poses : still they are chrystal streams, fresh 

 drawn from the spring whence it is acknow- 

 ledged we derived the fertilization of our 

 Turf. If only to trace its progress, it might 

 be a u.seful le.sson, probably a guide of great 

 importance." 



In giving the description of these two very 

 extraordinary high-bred Arabians, selected 

 by a l*rince who spared no expence, afnd 

 brought from his own dominions, which is a 

 country also renowned for the breed of Horses, 

 we cannot but suppose these Horses to be of 

 the very liighest caste, and to be perfect 

 gems (if we may be allowed such an expres- 

 sion in speaking of Horses) of their kind. 



The gentleman to whom we are indebted 

 for the description of these two beautiful small 

 Arabs, says that there is no resemblance 

 whatever between them and the portraits of 

 Godolphin and the Darley Arabians. This, 

 no doubt, is very true ; for they were Horses 

 of considerable size and power, and their im- 

 mediate descent became racers, and to whom 

 the English breed of racers is so much in- 

 debted to, that under the head of the Englisl-' 

 racer, we shall have much to say. 



