Modern farrieu. 161 



' The fifth has no particular character, being the 

 result of accidental crossing among the rest. Still, 

 notwithstanding this mixture, the influence of the 

 Arabian blood may be traced in some degree even 

 among the most common sort. 



* The English have procured Arabian horses, and 

 have devoted the greatest attention and care to their 

 system of breeding, particularly by publishing the 

 genealogy of those wh.ich they considered as their 

 best produce. They have well understood the im- 

 portance of this publication, for, by these means, 

 they have been able to have recourse to stallions 

 and mares that approach the nearest to the origi- 

 nal blood, for the purpose of breeding, and thereby 

 to preserve the breed from deoeneratino;. 



' Such is the state of breedinp-horses in England, 

 where they preteiid that they have no occasion to 

 return to Arabian horses, an opinion which appears 

 to be founded rather on the estimation in which 

 the English hold their own breed, or the fictitious 

 value which they wish to put upon them, than upon 

 fact. 



' The race-horse, is, in England, a grand object of 

 luxury and expense. Many rich families have been 

 ruined by the enormous wagers which take place at 

 their races, as well as the expence of keeping the 

 horses. It v/ill hardly be believed that they have 

 carried their system to such an excess as to cover 

 whole fields tv'dh sand, in order to produce a more 

 delicate herbage, and more assimilated to that wdiich 

 grows in Arabia, from v/hence the blood of these 

 race-horses originated, from the apprehension that 

 the coarser sort of grass would affect their wind ; 

 and that five or six grooms, at six guineas per 

 month each, a're employed to take care of one horse; 

 and that they warm the water for the horse to drink 

 in winter, Avith other ridiculous customs, unknown 

 even to the Arabs.' 



X 



