I04 TJie English Horse. 



and what becomes of the thoroughbred of modern 

 days ? 



Those who assert that our horse's excellence is owing to 

 our consummate skill in breeding rather than to procura- 

 tion of original stock of good description (the Eastern 

 stock), and which was supported by Mr. William Percivall 

 in his address at the University College in 1834, seem to 

 be forgetful of the fact that it was immediately after the 

 introduction of Eastern blood, not before, that the Eng- 

 lish became celebrated for their horses. Youatt, who 

 quotes Mr. Percivall, says, ' and although, perhaps on 

 the whole, the English were not far behind their conti- 

 nental neighbours, yet at no period until within the last 

 century and a half has Great Britian been at all distin- 

 guished on this account' — that is, the excellence of its 

 horses. Youatt made the remark in 1850 ; so the cen- 

 tury and a half from that date takes us back not only to 

 when Eastern blood had been acknowledged as superior, 

 and had wrought great changes in our native breed, but 

 to the very days of the Leedes and Darley Arabians, 

 when there were actually horses and mares of entirely 

 Eastern blood ; and only just before Flying Childers, in 

 whose days our horse arrived at the zenith of his excel- 

 lence. The fallacy of such an assertion can hardly fail 

 to be apparent. Common sense, let alone consummate 

 judgment and skill in breeding, ought to have dictated 

 the advisability of perpetuating such blood as Flying 

 Childers' and other horses also of entirely Eastern blood, 

 and principally of Arabian, instead of allowing it to 

 become degenerate b}' resorting to mares of common 



