94 THE HORSE 



to me to be a patent fact. Wherever speed is considered to be A 1, such 

 horses as Sultan, Partisan, and Velocipede will be used in the stud, the 

 breeder flattering himself that a cross of stout blood will put all right. 

 And so it frequently does for one or two generations, and then the strain 

 comes out, and the stock shows sometimes the speed without the stoutness, 

 and at others neither one quality nor the other. Thus, Venison was got 

 by that speedy but flashy horse. Partisan ; but the stout PotSos, Sorcerer, 

 and Gohanna strains enabled him, as well as his son Kingston, to perform 

 the tasks of endurance for which they were each so celebrated. It is also 

 well known that Lord Winchelsea had great difficulty in finding three 

 horses on the turf able to stay four miles, but this is explained by the facts 

 to which I have already alluded, and therefore does not so much bear upon 

 the argument before us. It is a very difficult matter to prove, because the 

 circumstances of the two periods are so different ; but I am quite of opinion 

 that, taking any number of race-horses at random in the year 1860, they 

 will not on the average bear comparison, in point of stoutness, with a 

 similar number, either of the year 1800 or of the year 1760. 1 



EARLY MATURITY 



IT is AN UNDENIABLE fact, as I believe, that preternaturally early 

 maturity is incompatible with lasting qualities of any kind ; but, though 

 the same rule generally holds good throughout nature, there are some 

 exceptions. Thus, the oak is more lasting than the larch, and the elephant 

 outlives the horse, but the goose and the duck, which arrive at maturity 

 in the same number of months, do not live through a corresponding series 

 of years. The forcing process in gardening is always productive of tender- 

 ness, whether the produce be the cucumber or the sea-kale, and this 

 tenderness is only another name for imperfect formation to resist decay. 

 In the days of Eclipse and Childers they were permitted to attain their 

 full growth without forcing, and, not being wanted till five years old, their 

 ligaments, tendons, and bones had plenty of time to be consolidated before 

 they were submitted to the strains and jerks of the extended gallop. 

 There is also reason to believe that they were not nearly so much or so 

 soon stimulated by large feeds of oats, as is now invariably the custom, 

 and that they were allowed to remain at grass, with the shelter of a hovel, 

 during the first three or four years of their lives. All this is now changed ; 



1 At the present date, when the century is nearing its close, we have only too many 

 proofs of that prophetic vision for which the author was remarkable. Weedy roarers, 

 capable of carrying feather-weights over five or six furlongs, having brought so much 

 disgrace upon the thoroughbred horse, as to be a principal cause of the diversion of the 

 money formerly given as Queen's Plates to purposes more in accordance with the original 

 intention namely, improvement of the breed of horses. 



Whether the deterioration has been recent is a debatable question, but that we are on the 

 road to improvement cannot be doubted, now that hereditary defects are so generally recognized 

 by many princely owners having the real interests of the turf at heart, and not lending 

 themselves to the propagation of mere " gambling machines." 



The Hunter's Improvement Society has shown the way to help the farmers to the use 

 of good sound stallions at moderate fees, and the Royal Agricultural Society and the Royal 

 Commissioners on Horse-breeding have wisely pursued the same sound and hopeful policy. 



The races known as the Queen's Guineas have been abolished, and the money devoted 

 to the more useful purposes of Queen's Premiums. 



