258 THE ENGLISH RACE-HORSE. 



Now — now — the second horse is pass'd. 

 And the keen rider of the mare, 

 With haggard looks and feverish care. 

 Hangs forward on the speechless air, 

 By steady stillness nursing in 

 The remnant of her speed to win. 

 One other bound — one more — 'tis done ; 

 Right up to her the horse has run, 

 And head to head, and stride for stride, 

 Ne%\Tnarket's hope and Yorkshire's pride. 

 Like horses harness'd side by side, 



Are struggling to the goal. 

 Ride ! gallant son of Ebor, ride ! 

 For the dear honour of the North, 

 Stretch every bursting sinew forth, 



Put out thy inmost soul, — 

 And with knee, and thigh, and tighten'd rein, 

 Lift in the mare by might and main." 



DoNCASTER St. Leger, hy Sir Francis Doyle. 



In shape, the race-horse, if we except his supe- 

 rior stature, is very like the noblest Arab; with 

 similar eyes, ears, and head gracefully set on the 

 neck, long oblique shoulders, high withers, power- 

 ful quarters, hocks well placed under their weight, 

 vigorous arms and flat legs, short from the knee to 

 the pasterns, these long and elastic ; t!ie tail placed 

 liigh, not superabundantly furnished with long hair, 

 and the mane likewise rather thin and drooping : 

 the colours of the blood-horse are bay, chestnut, 

 brown, black, and grey, but never dun, Isabella, or 

 roan: the black itself being a residue of ancient 

 foreign alloy, derived either from the old English, 



