THE HORSE. 197 



and Hungarian horses were good ; and lastly, 

 that those of India were very diminutive and 

 feeble. 



Such are the different accounts we have of the 

 various races of horses in different parts of the 

 world. I have hitherto omitted making mention 

 of one particular breed, more excellent than any 

 that either the ancients or moderns have pro- 

 duced j and that is our own. It is not without 

 great assiduity, and unceasing application, that 

 the English horses are now become superior to 

 those of any other part of the world, for size, 

 strength, swiftness, and beauty. It was not with- 

 out great attention and repeated trials of all the 

 best horses in different parts of the world, that 

 we have been thus successful in improving the 

 breed of this animal ; so that the English horses 

 are now capable of performing what no others 

 could ever attain to. By a judicious mixture of 

 the several kinds, by the happy difference of our 

 soils, and by our superior skill in management, 

 we have brought this animal to its highest per- 

 fection. An English horse, therefore, is now 

 known to excel the Arabian in size and swift- 

 ness ; . to be more durable than the Barb, and 

 more hardy than the Persian. An ordinary racer 

 is known to go at the rate of a mile in two 

 minutes ; and we had one instance, in the admi- 

 rable Childers, of still greater rapidity. He has 

 been frequently known to move above eighty-two 

 feet and a half in a second, or almost a mile in a 

 minute : he has run also round the course of 

 Newmarket, which is very little less than four 



