190 A TREATISE ON HORSE-BREEDING. 



ish production the result of the characteristic 

 love of the sports of the turf and the chase in- 

 herent in the English people. At a very early 

 period the attention of the rulers of Great Brit- 

 ain was earnestly directed to the work of im- 

 proving the breeds of horses of that kingdom. 

 These horses were notoriously deficient in size, 

 and the earliest efforts were directed toward 

 improvement in that particular by the impor- 

 tation of heavy horses from Normandy, Flan- 

 ders and Germany. It would be interesting to 

 trace, step by step, these efforts, but our space 

 will not admit of such detail. The era of im- 

 provement commenced with the conquest of 

 the islands by the Saxons; but it was many 

 years before there appears to have been any 

 clearly-defined or well-settled purpose, the ob- 

 ject at one time appearing to be an increase of 

 size by large importations of the heavy horses 

 of Flanders, and again, to give speed, graceful- 

 ness of motion and beauty of form, by the in- 

 troduction of what is known as Oriental blood 

 that of the Arab, the Turk and the Barb. It 

 is evident that from a very early period the 

 blood of the Barb and of the Turk was held in 

 higher esteem than that, of the Arab, the latter 

 having been regarded as undersized, and es- 

 teemed rather for beauty of form and graceful 

 action than on account of any real superiority. 

 For several years preceding the reign of 



