104 THE SPORTING WORLD. 



It may be said we always had racing at the 

 time when carriage horses with their docked 

 tails, like the old waggon horse, was in use ; 

 and when portmanteaus and ladies were carried 

 on pads or pillions behind the horseman. It 

 may therefore be objected, that as noblemen 

 kept race horses in those days, it is not to 

 racing we are indebted for the line breed of 

 horses we now possess. This reasoning seems 

 plausible, particularly to the non-racing world; 

 it is not, however, tenable. That we possessed 

 race horses in those days is indisputable ; but 

 they were of a very different stamp to the 

 Velocipedes, Bay Middletons, Flying Dutchmen, 

 and West Australians of the present day. It 

 would, I suppose, be profanation to say a word 

 against Eclipse or his reported performances, 

 which were very few. But if we may trust to 

 Mr. Stubbs' portrait of him he was, compara- 

 tively speakj-ng, about as mutton-shouldered, course 

 headed a brute as we need wish to look at ; 



