THE HORSE. 265 



prejudice seems to have existed against the Arabians ; 

 perhaps derived from the ill success of an individual 

 of that country, both as a racer and a stallion, for 

 which James the First paid 500/. At that period, 

 the curious fact was not so well known, but as it has 

 long since been proved, that no foreign horses can 

 compete with the descendants of their own blood, 

 bred in this country. Dismal may seem somewhat 

 like an exception to this general rule, being of entire 

 foreign blood, but then he was bred in this country. 

 He was got by the Godolphin Arabian, his dam by 

 the Alcock Arabian, grandam by the Curwen bay 

 Barb, out of a natural Barb mare. He ran at New- 

 market with the first horses of his day, and was 

 never beat ; but was not equally successful as a stal- 

 lion. I knew some fine hunting-like horses of his get. 

 Early in the last reign, the experiment was made of 

 training foreign horses, and there was an Arabian plate 

 run for at Newmarket, but the horses ran in so me- 

 diocre a style, having little speed and less game, that 

 the plan was immediately abandoned. But the case 

 of these horses, from which our unparalleled breed of 

 thorough bred stock has been derived, as referable to 

 the breeding stud, is still more singular, in truth, not 

 easily explicable. Of the immense numbers imported 

 since the Godolphin Arabian, under the guise of be- 

 ing real mountain Arabians and Barbs, selected, at a 

 vast price, very few, compared with those of earlier 

 periods have got racers, whence arose half a century 

 since, a nominal distinction between the old and new 

 blood. Does this arise from the improvement and 

 superiority of our modern racers, from a deteriora- 



N 



