1 62 A HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH TURF. 



flaw in descent is eradicated by eight subsequent generations of pure blood. On the 

 contrary the Desert Tribes hold to the theory that once a stain has been admitted, it 

 goes on until it has been imparted to many more individual animals by its original 

 possessor. It is therefore probable that, though Englishmen must have found a 

 natural difficulty in buying the best mares, or even the finest stallions, the animals 

 they did secure were fairly pure examples of the various good Eastern breeds. 

 Those breeds came, no doubt, originally from the cradle of human history, even if it 

 was not also the original habitation of the human race ; those parts, I mean, about 

 Arabia, the Nile Valley, and North-Eastern Africa which are associated with the 

 earliest records we possess. The gradual development of the horse that we know 

 from the small, five-toed creature of pre-historic ages is not within the province of 

 this work. But it is evident from many traces in the oldest literature and the most 

 ancient carvings of the world that he was early used as a saddle-horse, and had in 

 equally early ages reached very nearly the perfection of the Arab breed, a perfection 

 which was easily achieved by careful treatment, and more especially by that constant 

 association with his master which is a matter of life and death to each in such places 

 as the Saharas of North Africa. His size at the time when Phoenicia and the 

 Southern coasts of the Mediterranean were in contact with Greece is proved by the 

 Elgin Marbles. He has grown since then at a much slower ratio than that suggested 

 by Admiral Rous for English bloodstock. At the time of Mohammed's death, 

 Mecca, which is in the district of Nejed, was the great centre of the purest breed of 

 horses ; and when we see their true descendants to-day (one of whom, Lord Roberts' 

 famous charger, I reproduce in a later volume), it is easy to believe that they have 

 remained pure ever since the Prophet's death ; nor is it hard to imagine that when 

 any native breed in other parts of the world needed reinvigoration, this primitive 

 stock was the best that could be used, for to this horse had strength been given of 

 old time, and his neck was clothed with thunder. 



The perfect arch of the true Arab's neck is a point I have already illustrated 

 in the first pages of this book. His throat is particularly large, loose, and pliant. 

 His shoulders slope a great deal, and are deep and strong at the base by the 

 withers. Standing in front of him you see the swell of his barrel expanding 

 beyond his breast and shoulders, and this has been noticed also in the case of 

 Eclipse, whereas it is strangely different to my own experience of the look of a 

 modern stayer. I have seen many fast ones for five or six furlongs with big 

 heart-room ; but it is curious that this has not been a characteristic of those 



