BREEDING OF HUNTERS. 233 



heard the huntsman calling to him all day, and I've 

 never seen him yet," would not be more baffled if 

 he had to take Charles Payne's place, than breeders 

 of racing stock have been in their most cherished 

 fancies. Breeding for the turf has in fact become 

 such a mere lottery, that many racing men trouble 

 themselves very little as to whether a sire is perfect 

 in the points where their mares are deficient ; but if 

 they fancy a horse or his running, they take a sub- 

 scription, and leave the rest to fortune. "Everything 

 can gallop a bit," was an old hunter-breeder's con- 

 fession of faith to us, * f with your eight stone seven 

 of saddle and satin on his back ; but it's not every- 

 thing that can cheek hounds with twelve stone of 

 scarlet !" One of them also assured us that he could 

 never get the exact cut of a hunter he had set his 

 mind on, till in despair he put his short-legged cart 

 mare to a thorough-bred horse. Her first filly foal 

 was laid up in lavender till she was rising five, and 

 then crossed with a thorough-bred ; and this union 

 inaugurated a long line of fast, weight-carrying hun- 

 ters, which have been the apple of his eye for years. 

 Others, while they think that to carry weight nothing 

 can beat the cross of a blood-horse with an active, 

 high-shouldered cart mare, as firmly maintain that 

 the second remove is never so good as the first. And 

 on we might go through a perfect bede-roll of breed- 

 ing specifics, alike plausible and speculative. The 

 best instance of the first cross that we remember was 

 a mare called Poll of the Vale, by Great Britain, 

 who was bought at four years old out of a team for 

 28, with hair enough on her legs to stuff a mode- 

 rate sized pillow. After carrying a seventeen-stone 

 man for two or three seasons, she was sold for 300 

 guineas to the Hon. Wellesley Pole, with a promise 

 that she should be given back when she could hunt 

 no longer ; and although she passed through several 



