OUR SADDLE-HORSES. 47 



that highly factitious animal the greyhound. 

 I am old enough to remember when this form 

 in our race-horses was much less developed 

 than it is at present; and if we may judge of 

 the older race-horses by their portraits, this 

 form, as now seen, was unknown to them. 

 For a hack this form is uncalled for, and 

 would soon disappear on our turf if the old 

 tasks were renewed. In now, however, select- 

 ing a hunter, it may be right to choose one 

 with this form, because it proves that the 

 animal has much good blood in his veins, and 

 that he is in consequence speedy. But our 

 hunters had not formerly this shape, and did 

 not require it. Some say that the hunters of 

 the last century would not have been speedy 

 enough for modern fox-hounds, but this is 

 assertion only, and opposed to two important 

 facts. The first of these is, that the speed of 

 modern fox-hounds was given to their race in 

 the last century by Mr. Meynell, and no one 

 pretends that our horses in his time could not 

 keep up with his hounds. Our hunters had 

 not their present form until some years after 

 the commencement of the present century, 

 while nearly all our fox-hounds had before 



