88 THE HORSE 



four miles. The six-mile post in my time stood about two hundred yards 

 from the present railroad station, Six Mile Bottom, and the eight-mile post 

 was due south from the station on the rising ground ; but the cruelty 

 of the distance, and interest of the horse-owners, shortened the course 

 in corresponding ratio with the civilization of the country. Two jades 

 may run as fine a race for eight miles as for half-a-mile — it is no proof 

 of endurance. You may match any animals for what distance you please, 

 but it is no proof of great capacity. We have no reason to suppose 

 that the pure Arabian of the desert has degenerated ; his pedigree is 

 as well kept, his admirers in the East are as numerous, and his value 

 in that market has not been depreciated. In 1700 the first cross from 

 these horses were the heroes of the turf. Look at the portraits of 

 Flying Childers, Lath, Regulus, and other celebrated horses, including 

 the Godolphin Arabian. If the artists were correct in their delineations, 

 they had no appearance of race-horses ; they of course were good enough 

 to gallop away from the miserable English gai-rans of that era, as a 

 good Arab or a Barbary horse, like Vengeance, would run away from 

 a common hackney in the present day. Amongst the blind, a one-eyed 

 man is a king. 



"My belief is, that the present English race-horse is as much superior 

 to the race-horse of 1750, as he excelled the first cross from Arabs and 

 Barbs with English mares, and, again, as they surpassed the old English 

 racing hack of 1650. 



" The form of Flying Childers might win now a £30 plate, winner 

 to be sold for £40 ; Highflyer and Eclipse might pull through in a 

 £50 plate, winner to be sold for £200. This may be a strong opinion; 

 it is founded on the fact that whereas, one hundred and fifty years ago, 

 the Eastern horses and their first cross were the best and fastest in 

 England, at this day a second-class race-horse can give 5 stone to the 

 best Arabian or Barb and beat him, from one to twenty miles. I 

 presume, therefore, that the superiority of the English horse has improved 

 in that ratio above the original stock." 



Granting, as demanded by the Admiral, the premises he assumes, 

 namely, that the Arab of the present day and that of 1750 arj 

 identical in speed and stoutness, the argument is closed, because it is 

 proved that with the exception of Markham's Arabian, who was a 

 failure, the imported Arabs, Turks, etc. of the former period, and more 

 especially their immediate stock, were able to beat the native horses 

 of that day, whereas now an imported Arab is wholly unable to cope 

 with ours. But what right have we to assume that the Arab of 1700 

 or 1750 is identical with his descendant of 1850? Certainly there 

 is no proof to the contrary, but we must remember that during the 

 intervening period Great Britain, France, Germany, Russia, Hungary, 

 America, India, the Cape of Good Hope, and Australia, have all been 

 draining the East, and vieing with one another in their endeavours to 

 procure specimens of her best breeds. 



It is asserted that the Arab cannot be induced to part with his 

 best mares, and can seldom be tempted to sell his most highly prized 

 horses ; but when money and the pressure of political influence are both 

 brought to bear, we much question his powers of resistance. Besides, 



