272 THE HORSE. 



Hawthorn has given to the turf a race-horse in the shape of 

 Onlston ; now if the pedigrees of his sire and dam are examined, 

 it will be seen that Melbourne, the sire, is a grandson of Cer- 

 vantes, whilst Alice Hawthorn is also a great-granddaughter of 

 the same horse — Cervantes being a grandson of Eclipse and 

 Herod, from which latter horse he also receives two other infu- 

 sions, and Alice being descended from Eclipse, through Orville, 

 Dick Andrews, Mandane, and Tramp. A very similar case of 

 in-breeding with the same strains occurred in Sir Tatton Sjkes, 

 who was the produce of a mare, great-granddaughter of Comus, 

 and also great-great-granddaughter of Cervantes. She was put 

 to Melbourne, a grandson of both these horses, producing that 

 extraordinary horse which I am now adducing as an instance of 

 success in this mode of breeding. The pedigree of the dam of 

 Sir Tatton Sykes should be carefully analyzed, as exhibiting a 

 curious reunion of strains. First, Muley is in-bred to Whiskey, 

 he is then crossed with an Election mare, producing Margrave ; 

 the dam of Muley being Eleanor, a daughter of Young Giantess. 

 JS^ext, Margrave, an out-cross, is put to Patty Primrose, con- 

 taining in her pedigree two infusions of Young Giantess through 

 Sorcerer, and one of Cervantes; and, finally, the Margrave 

 mare, the result of one in-breeding and one out-cross on the 

 side of both her sire and dam, is put to Melbourne, composed 

 of the blood of all three ; being descended from Sorcerer, a son 

 of Young Giantess, and also from Cervantes. 



If the whole of the pedigrees to which I have here alluded 

 are attentively examined, the breeder can have no hesitation 

 in coming to the conclusion that in-breeding carried out once, 

 or twice, is not only not a bad practice, but is likely to be at- 

 tended with good results. Let him ask what horses have been 

 tlie most remarkable of late years as stallions, and with very 

 few exceptions he Avill find they were considerably in-bred. It 

 has been remarked, that the Touchstone and Defence blood al- 

 most always hits with the Selim ; but it is forgotten that the 

 one was already crossed with that horse, and the other with his 

 brother Kubens. On the other hand, the Whisker blood in the 

 Colonel has not succeeded so well, it being made up of much 

 crossed and more distantly related particles, and therefore not 

 hitting with the Selim ami Castrel blood like his cousins. Touch- 



