24 



THE RACE-HORSE. 



This statement is borne out by one of the articles 

 of the Auckland Cup, the annual gift of the Gover- 

 nor of Bengal, in which, for the year 1840, English 

 horses were weighted at 2 stones 7 pounds beyond 

 that carried by Arabs. 



Breeding the Race-Horse. — Amongst the manv 

 things in the history of Ancient Greece that have 

 called forth the admiration of mankind, the cele- 

 brated games of Olympia claim the foremost place. 

 Independently of their religious association, and 

 advancement of literary spirit, they were highly 

 serviceable to the country ; and none proved more 

 so than those at which horse-racing was introduced, 

 which appear to have been completely established 

 in the 25th Olympiad. That the improvement of 

 the native breed of horses was the chief object of 

 the Government, is beyond all doubt, as it has 

 been that of all others who have mven encouras'e- 

 ment to racing ; and it is equally apparent, that 

 the Thessalian courser, so highly extolled by Pin- 

 dar, and likewise so terrible in war, was the result 

 of a foreign cross. So essential, indeed, was this 

 object considered in Greece, where horses were very 

 scarce even after the time of Pindar, that it is 

 stated, on the authority of Aretius, in a note on 

 Pindar's second Isthmian Ode, that there was a 

 general law in Greece, requiring all who were able 

 to breed horses. The state of perfection their horses 

 had approached at this early period is beyond the 

 power of conjecture ; but in Great Britain, from 

 the hiohlv cultivated knowleds^e of the mechanical 

 structure of living bodies, with the junction of best 



