'ECLIPSE" AND THE MODERN THOROUGHBRED. 



315 



kept in this country, but to be fairly treated, as what it used to be called nearly 

 sixty years ago, " the touchstone of merit." 



It was said, not longer ago than the days of Admiral Rous, that eight animals of 

 the highest class were bred each year in England. We are now almost half a 

 century later, and if matters had been' improving, we should have had more "of the 

 highest class" in 1901 than was the case in 1854. But what are the facts ? The 

 total number of annual produce is indeed very greatly increased, but to find our 

 " eight animals of the highest class " we should have to look through no single season, 



The Duke of Graf ton's " Penelope." 



but a decade. One great reason, that we breed when both sires and dams are too 

 young, has already been suggested. But the opportunity to enforce it a little more 

 plainly is a good one. At least the probabilities of future excellence may be 

 accumulated, and I shall be very much mistaken if all the probabilities and most 

 of the facts as well are not against a pair of too-juvenile parents. 



In the matter of sires, StockmeU and Voltaire were twenty-one when 

 Doncaster and Voltigeur were foaled. The sires of Blink Bonny, Fisherman 

 and Minting were twenty. I have already said that Dr. Syntax was 



