Till-: TURF UXDKR ./.IJ/A'.V /."THE MARKHAM ARABIAN.' 



45 



of the two strains in which we are most interested, the English, so far, is the result 

 of a vast number of accidents more or less historical, and rather less than more 

 ilc-libenue. Of the imported stock, on the other hand, it is almost equally difficult to 

 speak in anything that approaches precise terminology, for the obvious reason that, 

 until the real value of breeding from an Arab was discovered, the purity of his 

 ancestry was not a matter of very absorbing interest, provided he was described as 

 "of Eastern descent," a slightly mystical phrase which might mean, and was no 



The Skeleton of a Horse. 

 By G. Stuttt. 



doubt frequently intended to mean, anything or nothing. What real purity in Arab 

 descent involves I shall be better able to indicate in another chapter. Yet so many 

 written records are in existence, of which a few have been selected in the previous 

 chapter, that no doubt can any longer exist as to the certain arrival of the Eastern 

 breed in this country many centuries before 1617, and as to the equally certain 

 benefits he (or occasionally she) conferred upon the native breed. 



When I am asked to give ocular demonstration of these facts I am confronted 

 with a difficulty which does not entirely pass away till the advent of such an artist as, 



