52 LIGHT HORSES: BREEDS AND MANAGEMENT. 



it, it is one which received his sanction, and with which his 

 name is inseparably connected. This theory is that the 

 Cleveland Bay is the result of an elaborate system of crossing 

 between the thoroughbred stallion and the cart mare. It is 

 singular that such a theory should have received a moment's 

 credence, either from practical breeders or from scientific men. 

 In the first place, the shape of the Cleveland Bay points to 

 the improbability of such a descent, the length, and particu- 

 larly the long level quarter being such as is never found in 

 any descendant of the cart horse that I have seen. If Dr. 

 Knox is correct in assuming that man " cannot even produce 

 and maintain a new and permanent variety of a barn door fowl, 

 of a pheasant, of a sheep or of a horse," this theory of a cross 

 between a thoroughbred stallion and a carting mare falls to 

 the ground at once, and though I am bound to admit that 

 Dr. Knox' seems a somewhat sweeping assertion, yet un- 

 doubtedly physiology points out to us that cross-bred animals 

 do not breed regularly to type, and that the produce of such 

 animals is sure in the third or fourth generations, if not earlier, 

 to revert to the type of one of the original parents. Singularly 

 enough, too, this atavism generally shows the worst instead 

 of the best characteristics of the original parent. It may be 

 said that the fact of the Yorkshire Coach Horse breeding with 

 such trueness to type and character is a practical refutation 

 of this proposition. But if the circumstances are examined 

 they would seem to be a strong confirmation of it. In many 

 respects, from an anatomical point of view, there is a great 

 similarity between what is known as the thoroughbred horse 

 and the Cleveland Bay. There is the same clean flat bone 

 and well-defined sinew, a similar density of bone, such as is 

 possessed by no other breed of horses save the thoroughbred 

 and Arab ; the same level quarters and elegant appearance, 

 and the same liberty of action, and though in a different 

 degree, the same hardy constitution and staying power. The 

 fact that the Yorkshire Coach Horse breeds true to type 

 and colour, tends to prove in the main that there is some 



