88 The En or lis k Horse. 



<i> 



system, that all horses of Eastern blood were found to 

 be superior to the old English breed, and little or no 

 distinction made between them, many or most being 

 called or considered as Arabs, although unworthy of the 

 name ; and although the immediate good result of the 

 Darley Arabian, as shown by his sons (the only true 

 Arabian so far as we can be certain), alone ought to 

 have convinced us, if other data were wanting (which 

 they are not), of his superiority, no efforts were made to 

 collect more of that pure blood. 



At the present time, in spite of the numerous engraft- 

 ings of inferior strains upon the Darley Arabian line, 

 notwithstanding the loss of the blood in direct male line 

 from his best son. Flying Childers, and the advantage 

 the Turk's line derived from the blood of Flying Chil- 

 ders, the descendants in direct male descent from the 

 Darley Arabian may be unhesitatingly pronounced to 

 keep their heads in front. If any data I have given, or 

 any notes made, may tend to the support of a greater 

 cultivation of this blood, I shall be amply rewarded. It 

 may be said the blood of the three lines may be so in- 

 termingled, that even if we were to relinquish the two 

 inferior ones we should never get rid of the blood. 

 Granted, the mischief has been done ; we shall no more 

 quite get rid of it than we have of some particles or 

 some of the characteristics of the old native breed ; but 

 from breeding from descendants of the Darley Arabian 

 line alone, wc might to a very great extent hold tJic 

 inferior strains in abeyance. 



Were this tried, and to a certain extent it has — and 



