TRAINING AND BREEDING. 



4'5 



flashy breed. The maxim that " a good big one is better than a good little one" is 

 not always sound either in racing or in breeding. In the first half of the nineteenth 

 century we found such good little ones as Little Red Rover 14.3, Perion not quite 15, 

 Middlcton 15.1, Camel under 15.2, Mulatto the same, Lamplighter 15.1, Gainsborough 

 15.2. Touchstone was about 15.2, and the size came out in his blood with those pretty 

 little horses Flash in the Pan and Heidelburg, while his great-grandson, Hampton, was 

 another instance of his useful size, and it is significant that the smaller Hampton 

 mares have proved the most successful, as in the case of Perdita II. The truth, 

 as so often happens, lies between the two extremes ; but it is at least certain 

 that height cannot be 

 accepted as a sure indi- 

 cation of merit, and 

 that even if a constant 

 increase in average size 



o 



could be accurately 

 pr.oved it would not 

 alone be sufficient evi- 

 dence of an all-round im- 

 provement in thorough- 

 bred stock. The value 

 of a blood-horse cannot 

 be calculated at so much 

 a yard. Nor is it pos- 

 sible to make any 

 comparison between the 



performances of the animals we know and of those in earlier days, 

 for the simple reason that the requisite records do not exist. I have 

 seen it stated that Eclipse did the Beacon Course of 4 miles 365 yards in 

 under eight minutes, and that the horse which can cover the Liverpool Grand 

 National Course, which is 897 yards longer, "obstacles" and all, in ten 

 minutes, must therefore be a better animal. The conclusion may very possibly 

 be correct, but I take leave to doubt the accuracy of the premises by which it is 

 reached. General Peel, in giving evidence before the same Committee I have 

 already named, thought that the bloodstock of 1873 was just as good as any ever 

 bred, >' but there are more bad ones bred in proportion to the total number in conse- 



Lord Jersey's "GSencoe" (1831). 



