THE COVKR-SIDK. 41 



Had there, however, been many thoroughbred stallions cov- 

 ering here, it could not account for the similarity ; since the pe- 

 culiar points of the Irish hunter, in which the similarity resides, 

 are not those of his thoroughbred sire, but of his Irish dam. 



It does not seem likely that Irish hunting mares should, at 

 any period, or in any part of the United States, ever have been 

 largely imported, as there has not, at any time, been a demand 

 for such animals ; and it is next to a certainty, that common 

 Irish farm horses never have been brought hither, as they are — 

 those of the native and indigenous type, I mean, unimproved by 

 mixture with the Cleveland bays, the Punches, or the Lincoln- 

 shire blacks — as wretched a race of raw-boned, straight-shoul- 

 dered, ewe-necked garrons, as a man had need to beliold. 



Still, the resemblance is so striking, that I am certain the 

 first impression of an American horseman, on seeing the gather- 

 ing at an Irish coverside, would be that two-thirds of the field 

 were mounted on American trotting horses ; while, at a similar 

 scene in England, he would be half inclined to set down the 

 highly-blooded and highly-groomed two and three parts bred 

 cock-tails^ as gigantic thoroughbreds, until corrected by a fuller 

 estimate of their bone and weight. 



And I could instance scoi-es of trotting horses here, such as 

 old Top-Gallant, Columbus, Paul Pry, and in later days, Tacony, 

 Lancet, and otliers, which have precisely the cut, to the life, of 

 an Irish hunter in a very high form, and which, I have no doubt 

 whatever, if they had been trained to leap and gallop, instead 

 of to trot, would have won their laurels as decidedly on that 

 field, as on this which they now occupy with so much distinction. 



I now come to the American application of the facts collected 

 above, in regard to the different races, or families, of English 

 horses, which do, or did recently, exist in that country, entirely 

 pure and unmixed ; although it is not usual to apply the word 

 " pure " to any stock or breed except that of the thoroughbred 

 race-horse. 



It will, of course, have been observed and understood, by 

 any one who has read attentively what has gone before, that 

 the effect of the improvements, brought to pass in horses of 

 every caste, intended for every purpose, in England, has been 

 to destroy and abolish distinct races, other than that of tlie 



