858 



THE HORSE. 



parisons between the races of those old celebrities, and the sim- 

 ilar races of Americcm horses of the present day, because, through 

 the altered mode of public running lately adopted in England, 

 stoutness and bottom being there tested by heavy weights and 

 shorter distances, run nearly at the score from end to end, it is 

 impossible to measure them directly against the present win- 

 ners of English stakes. 



I do not wish to enter invidiously into any question of su- 

 periority or inferiority between English and American horses. 

 If there be aiiy advantage, it arises — can arise —only from the 

 influences of climate and the different modes of training, &c., 

 the blood being, as I have shown, identical. 



But I must — in order to show, what I believe to be true, 

 that the English no more than the American racer, of 1800, has 

 fallen below his ancestry, of 1700, in the ability to endure, and 

 to run long and repeated races, if it were required of him — en- 

 deavor to show briefly, wherefore I do not yield the palm of 

 bottom in running distances, any more than in carrying M'eight, 

 or in speed, to the improved modern race-horse of the United 

 States over the improved modern racer of England. 



In the first place, if the racing field no longer show blood- 

 horses under the same conditions of long distances, and those 

 repeated at intervals, the hunting field which, in fast countries, 

 is supplied altogether by thoroughbreds, since no others can go 

 the pace, or go the distance, with welter weights on their backs, 

 across fences and through dirt and clay often hock-deep — does 

 exliibit such horses, under precisely such conditions, in even 

 greater numbers and with more even results, than ever did four, 

 or even six-mile heat races, on either side the Atlantic. A 

 thoroughbred, which will carry 15 stone, or 210 lbs, through 

 two bursts of six or seven miles each — with an interval of an 

 hour between them, not devoted to rubbing down, drying off, 

 and recruiting, but to crossing the country slowly, while the 

 hounds are drawing — respectively in 25 and 30 minutes, taking 

 perhaps a hundred rasping fences, or large brooks in the course 

 of each burst, and going over every sort of bad and broken 

 ground, often hock-deep in greasy ploughland, or fetlock-deep 

 in what is worse, sticky turf, would, one might say, have little 

 difficulty in running over a sound hard course, with less tlian 



