166 THE HORSE 



few instances in their support which can have occurred since 1855-6, 

 when they were written, I should add little to the mass of evidence which 

 I have already collected. An appeal to the past can only be answered in 

 the way which I have recorded ; for the evidence of repeated success in 

 resorting to the practice of in-breeding is too strong to be gainsaid. We 

 will now consider whether the effects of an out-cross are of superior or 

 equal value. 



OUT-CROSSING 



BETWEEN IN-AND-IN BREEDING, which I have defined as the pairing of 

 animals within the relationship of second cousins, and the opposite 

 extreme of uniting those which are not at all allied in blood, there are 

 many degrees ; but as, in the thoroughbred horse, there are scarcely two 

 in the Stud-book which cannot be traced back to the same stock in one 

 or more lines, we do not generally understand " a cross " to demand absolute 

 distinctness of blood. For instance, Teddington is generally considered 

 as the result of as marked a cross as we ever meet with in the modern 

 Stud-book. For five generations, the same name never appears in the 

 pedigree tables of his sire and dam ; but in the sixth, we find the name of 

 Sir Peter occur three times on the side of his sire, and twice on that of 

 his dam, besides six other lines of Herod blood on the part of the sire, and 

 eight on that of the dam. Here, therefore, there was a return to the 

 original lines of blood, which had been in-bred twice each, after five succes- 

 sive departures from them as far as could be effected in this particular 

 kind of horse. These last are called " crosses," though not being exactly 

 the reverse of in-breeding, for the reason, as I before remarked, that an 

 absolute freedom from relationship is not to be found, or, if so, extremely 

 rarely. Breeders very often fancy that they put two animals together 

 which are without any corresponding lines or strains of blood in their 

 composition ; whereas, in point of fact, the relationship exists only four 

 or five degrees off. The horse and mare are, perhaps, fourth or fifth 

 cousins, often second or third ; but, in examining the Stud-book, the blood 

 of the sire, grandsire, and great-grandsire is apt to be forgotten, because 

 it is not given, the name only being mentioned. In the book to which I 

 have already alluded, I have inserted a long series of pedigree tables, 

 drawn out to the sixth generation, with a reference also to the earlier 

 pedigrees ; by which, at one glance, the breeder may see how constantly, 

 in going back, the same names occur in every table. Eclipse, Herod, and 

 Conductor, the three contemporary descendants of the Darley Arab, the 

 Byerley Turk, and the Godolphin Barb, or one of their immediate descend- 

 ants, will be seen in the fifth, sixth, or seventh remove of all our thorough- 

 bred horses, and often the names of all three will be found repeated four, 

 five, or six times apiece; yet the horse itself whose pedigree is being 

 examined, as in the instance of Teddington, is considered to be the produce 

 of a cross, and is not, therefore, said to be in-bred. 



