ON THE HACKNEY AND HUNTER. 169 



ment. An old farmer, was making bitter 

 complaints of the high price of cart-horfes, 

 and the heavy tax it laid upon hufbandry. I 

 aiked him why he did not breed his own 

 Horfes, fince they paid fo well. " Aye, aye," 

 faid he, " but you know this is not a breeding 

 county." The good man, rented fifteen hun- 

 dred acres of land, full half of which was fit 

 for little elfe but pafturing of cattle. 



Even Mr. Marfliall, before quoted, althbugh 

 he has made many very judicious obfervations, 

 relative to Horfes, has not been, or rather was 

 not, at the time of writing his Rural Oecono- 

 rny of Yorkfhire, able to fleer clear of the con- 

 tagious influence of eftablilhed prejudice; 

 doubtlefs becaufe it related to a fubjec~i, upon 

 which he had not bellowed a thorough exami- 

 nation. He obferves; " In Norfolk, the breed- 

 ing of faddle-horfes has been repeatedly at- 

 tempted without fuccefs. Yorkfhire ftallions 

 have been, and (till are, fent into Norfolk in 

 the covering feafon. The foals may be hand- 

 fome, but they lofe their form as they grow 

 up. On the contrary, in Yorkshire, let the 

 foal which is dropped be ever fo unpromifmg, 

 it will, if any true blood circulate in its veins, 

 acquire fafhion, ftrength, and activity, with its 

 growth/' He feems to refer thefe advantages 

 to " the influence of climature on the conftitu- 

 tion;" and adds, that no man has yet been able 



to 



