l80 ON RUNNING HORSES 



certain and probable baftard crofles here, wc 

 can have no fuch thing, ftri6lly fpeaking, as a 

 thorough-bred runner in this country. It is 

 highly probable, that we have had few real 

 Mountain Arabians in England, excepting the 

 Darle'y and Godolphin Arabians, which have 

 been generally fuppofed fuch. The fuperior 

 excellence of their ftock feemed to counte- 

 nance, or rather confirm, the opinion. of the 

 primary and unmixed breed of thofe ftallions, 

 and in my judgment nothing can come nearer 

 to the idea of a wild mountain horfe, than the 

 portrait of the Godolphin Arabian. 



The far greater part of thofe horfes brought 

 over to this country, under the general appel- 

 lation of Arabians, have, I believe, never feen 

 Arabia, or have been of its inferior breeds 

 They are ufually purchafed in the Levant^ 

 Barbary, or the Eaft Indies, by perfons totally 

 unacquainted with horfes, or at any rate with 

 the peculiar purpofe for which fuch horfes are 

 defigned ; hence a number of inferior and 

 half-bred Arabians have been brought over at 

 a ufelefs expence, to deteriorate inflead of 

 amending our Arabian breed, and to bring Ara- 

 bian blood into difrepute. I may have ken 

 about a fcore fouthern horfes, called Arabians, 

 at different times, not one among which ap- 

 peared to me to be a true mountain horfe. 

 Thofe which were lately at the Veterinary Col- 

 4 ' lege. 



