THE IMPROVED ART OF FARRIERY. 235 



of this publication, for by these means they have been 

 able to have recourse to stallions and mares that ap- 

 proached the nearest to the original blood, for the 

 purpose of breeding, and thereby to preserve the breed 

 from degenerating. 



" Such is the state of breeding-horses in England, 

 where they pretend that they have no occasion to re- 

 turn to Arabian horses ; an opinion which appears to 

 be founded rather on the estimation in which the Eng- 

 lish hold their own breed, or the fictitious value which 

 they wish to put upon them, than upon fact." 



It were needless to dwell any more in this portion 

 of the book on the superior excellence and the numer- 

 ous merits of the English horses ; the subject is dis* 

 cussed at length toward the close. Suffice it to say, 

 that our racers have beaten those of any other country 

 in the world, whether at home or abroad. That famous 

 animal Flying Childers ran over the Newmarket course, 

 which is better than three miles and three-quarters, in 

 the short space of six minutes and forty seconds ; and 

 Eclipse beat every horse that was ever opposed against 

 him, and produced more than three hundred winners. 

 Draught-horses have been known to draw three tons 

 of dead weight ; and in the northern districts the pack- 

 horses usually carry a burden of four hundred pounds. 



It may not be inadvertent to our matter to close 

 this subject with a few anecdotes of this animal. In- 

 deed we find both ancient and modern records equally 

 lavish in their praise of the horse. 



The great naturaUst, Pliny, relates a marvellous ac- 

 count of the nation of the Sybarites training their horses 

 to dance. When the inhabitants of Crotona went to 

 war with the former, the Crotonian trumpeters were 

 instructed to learn the tunes to which the horses were 

 accustomed to dance ; when these were acquired, they 



