TRAINING AND BREEDING. 



437 



(12 strains) is placed second, the Tregowwell Natural Barb Mare (4 strains) is placed 

 first. Yet these authors wish us to believe that Persimmon is what he is because of 

 his one strain of the D' Any Blacklegged Royal Mare, whom they place seventh in 

 order of value. But this is not all, for animals so differently bred as West Australian, 

 Donovan, and Flying Fox, can also be traced back to the same tap-root as Persimmon, 

 so that Mr. Allison would have us believe that this same Blacklegged Royal Mare has 

 (for instance) influenced the line which goes from Blacklock to Voltaire, to Voltigeur, 

 to Vedette, to Galopin, to St. Simon, and to Persimmon, as much as the line from Counts 

 to Humphrey Clinker, to Melbourne and to West Australian ; apart from the further 

 hypothesis that in the 



breeding of Perdita II. 

 the Blacklegged Royal 

 Ma re h a cl m ore 

 influence than Touch- 

 stone, Neivminster, 

 Lord Clifden. or 

 Hampton. Surely it is 

 putting too high a 

 value on a single 

 female strain to suppose 

 that its influence is 

 paramount (after a 

 good deal more than 

 two centuries) over 

 such strong and such 

 varied combinations of male influences, and in days when the conditions of breeding 

 and racing are entirely different to those enjoyed by the original ancestress thus 

 selected. 



And lastly let me turn to an example taken from the other end of Mr. Allison's 

 list of matrons. I have quoted the first six or seven, and I will now look 

 at No. 38, Thwailes' Dun Mare. She, I find, is the tap-root of PotSos, whose 

 fortunes and family (in tail-male) we have followed in previous pages. 

 He was supposed, let me repeat it, to be the best horse of the eighteenth 

 century, by competent judges. Whatever their opinion may be worth, we have 

 the facts of his own record and of his produce to guide us. Taking horses of 



VOL. II. 3 M 



" Blue Bonnet " (1839) by " Touchstone.'' 



