CLEVALAND BAYS. 245 



yclept a "swop." The fact of the snuilarity in 

 appearance which existed between the Devon- 

 shire Pack Horse and the Cleveland Bay jDoints 

 out clearly that there must have been a similarity 

 of origin, and lends an air of probability to what 

 can after all be nothing; but surmise. 



But whatever may have been the origin of the 

 breed it is pretty conclusively proved that it has 

 existed and been recognised as a pure breed for a 

 great number of years, indeed for a longer period 

 than the thoroughbred horse in its modern 

 development. 



Unfortunately, however, for the historian who 

 takes in hand the Cleveland Bay, pedigrees of 

 that breed have been preserved in a slovenly and 

 perfunctory manner, and the only means by which 

 a record of the horses which are now looked upon 

 as the fathers of the breed has been preserved, is 

 the somewhat scanty and nor-at-all-times reliable 

 information which is to be obtained from the 

 cards and bills of stallions. 



It has been suggested by some, whose interest 

 it is to doubt the purity of the Cleveland Bay,'"' 



■■' Purity of breed is, of course, used as a comparative, not as 

 an abstract terna. Absolute purity of breeding in any donaesti- 

 cated animal cannot possibly exist. For instance — How was the 

 Bald Galloway bred ? But we take it that a breed that has existed 

 for a century or upwards without the admission of any foreign 

 blood is to all intents and purposes a pure breed, and on a very 

 different footing to one in which foreign crosses are continually 

 introduced. 



