COMPARATIVE STOUTNESS 89 



even supposing that be retained his best mares, if be sold his most 

 valuable stallions the breed would still be more likely to degenerate 

 than if he kept both, as he had always previously done. No one can 

 contend that we are quite as well off in this country without Glencoe, 

 Ion, The Baron, Priam, The Emperor, and other valuable stallions which 

 have been exported to other countries ; and if this is admitted, then, 

 by a parity of reasoning, the Arab has suffered in the same way. I 

 cannot, therefore, quite see the force of the argument adduced by Admiral 

 Rous, which depends upon the admission of the identity of the Arab 

 of 1700-1750 with his descendant in the present day. Nor do I think 

 much of that which is grounded upon the unracing-like appearance of 

 " the portraits of Flying Childers, Lath, Regulus, and other celebrated 

 horses " (of that date), " including the Godolphin Arabian." Most of 

 those now extant are mere daubs, and of the better executed pro- 

 ductions of Stubbs I confess that I have no great opinion as correct 

 portraits. They are all deficient in that kind of minute fidelity which 

 alone gives unmistakable evidence of a truthful imitation of nature ; and 

 if we were left to this evidence alone, I should certainly be unable to 

 make up my mind on the subject. But there is one point in corrobora- 

 tion of Admiral Rous's opinion, though not, I think, warranting him 

 in setting down Highflyer and Eclipse as common platers. I have 

 already alluded to the time in which Childers is said to have run the 

 B. C. at Newmarket, and Matchem four miles at York; but it may 

 be as well to recapitulate here the best recorded times of four miles 

 run near the middle of the last century, and contrast them with those 

 of the English and American horses of our own day. I must, however, 

 first show that the latter should be included in the same boat with our 

 own, and I confess that I should be reluctant to do so but that it is 

 impossible to find on our tui'f any recent examples of four-mile races 

 run from end to end. Moreover, we have no reason to suppose that 

 they are stouter than their English relations, though, as is admitted 

 by Admiral Rous, Prioress was, in 1859, "the best four-mile mare in 

 England." To avoid any chance of misrepresentation, I will extract 

 the passage entire. 



" Our American friends have improved their race-horses in an equal 

 degree to our own, by sticking to the same blood. They have had 

 the good sense and discrimination to buy the cream of our best 

 stallions, — Precipitate, Diomed, Priam, Trustee, Glencoe. They adhere 

 to the principles which our fathers adopted, of breeding only by stallions 

 which could stay a distance ; and very naturally, when all their great 

 prizes and matches vary from two to four miles. We played the same 

 game until the commencement of this century ; but when great stakes 

 were made for shorter distances, it was soon ascertained that the sons 

 of the stout old stallions could not win a 2000 guineas stake against 

 the blood of Rubens, Castrel, and Selim. For the last titty years we 

 have been breeding from our stoutest horses, but principally from large 

 powerful horses with extraordinary speed. The Americans have bred 

 for stoutness ; both parties have succeeded. I cannot shut my eyes to 

 the fact that the American Prioress was the best four-mile mare in 

 England, and that one-half of the American horses brought over to do 



