ESTABLISHMENT OF THE ENGLISH TURF. 101 



ners, before any unknown, teclinicallj speaking, darlc^ Arab or 

 Barb liorse, however beautiful, that slionld now be imported. 



The same was, then, the opinion of a great breeder and 

 greater rider in his day, founded as it seems on experience, for 

 any thing except race-horses, if not for race-horses — in speaking 

 of breeding especially for the turf, he afterward gives the pre- 

 ference to the Barb. 



Now, it seems to me more than possible, more even than 

 probable, that there was in those days, in Spain, a breed of the 

 best Spanish horses, which might trace directly, or as nearly 

 directly as the best English horses now do, to oriental dam and 

 oriental sire ; and that, consequently, there may have been as 

 just a reason for preference of the then Spanish to the then 

 Eastern stallion, as there is for that of the present English 

 thoroughbred to the present untried courser of the Desert ; and 

 that, therefore, there may be in the present pure blood-horse of 

 Great Britain and America, yet another unsuspected cross of 

 pure Desert blood, from an unsuspected source. 



In the reign of which the Marquis of Newcastle writes, that 

 of Charles 11., the English Turf was for the first time fairly 

 established. That king sent his master of the horse to the Le- 

 vant especially to import both mares and stallions, and it is 

 through these females, kno^vn as the royal mares, that our pre- 

 sent race-horse draws his claim to pure blood, since it is evident 

 that, but for these, there must have been in all, as there is 

 undeniably in some, of the best English thoroughbreds, an 

 infinitesimal taint of common, or at least of improved blood. 

 Eor, though one were to cross the pure blood of the Desert ten 

 thousand times on the produce of a common-bred dam, one 

 fraction of a drop of the impure blood must remain there ad 

 infinitum. 



Perhaps it may appear paradoxical in me to say so, but I 

 must say, that I believe the undoubted superiority of the 

 thoroughbred English and American blood-horse to come from 

 the very existence of this mixture of various crosses with the 

 oriental blood. 



A remarkable calculation has been entered into by a very 

 clever and observant modern writer on the horse, " Cecil," to 

 whom I gladly record my obligation, to prove how extremely 



