PRESENT ENGLISH BREED. 17 



union of strength with lightness, so essential to the 

 endurance of fatigue in all quick motions. He thus 

 moves quicker and with more force, by reason of 

 the lightness and solidity of the materials of which 

 his frame is composed ; and when, to these qualifi- 

 cations, are added the peculiar and deer-like ele- 

 gance of his form, and extraordinary share of mus- 

 cular power for his inches, he appears to furnish all 

 the requisites of the race-horse on a small scale. 



We have already accounted for the present breed 

 of English race-horses being no longer susceptible 

 of improvement from any foreign blood. But it is 

 worth inquiring into the reason of the improvement 

 of the horse of the Desert, and indeed of all the 

 countries of the East, not advancing towards per- 

 fection, as that of our own breed has done. No 

 doubt, it was intended that we should improve 

 upon animal nature, as we improve our own, and 

 nowhere has the attempt been so successful as upon 

 our varieties of domestic cattle ; but the horse of 

 the Desert now, if he have not retrograded in his 

 good qualities, is the same animal that he was 

 nearly two centuries back. With the exception of 

 the Wellesley Arabian, said to have been bred in 

 Persia, (but the assertion is unaccompanied by 

 proof,) who measured fifteen hands two inches 

 high, all the rest that have been imported have 

 been little better than Galloways, which must be 

 attributed to two causes ; first, the want of being- 

 forced, as our own horses are, in their colthood, by 

 high keep ; and secondly, by adhering too closely 

 to the indigenous breed, or that whose blood is un- 



