298 ANNALS OF THE TURF. 



qualities (whereby a remote cross was taken up,) a stock was ob- 

 -tained in which was blended a sufficiency of the requisite quali- 

 ties of both to make first rate running horses. There w^as another 

 distinct stock in England, which crossed well upon the Herod 

 and Eclipse branches ; I allude to the Matchem or Godolphin 

 Arabian Stock ; and it may here be remarked, that there has not 

 been in England a first rate running horse on the turf for the last 

 70 years, without more or less blood of this valuable horse. How- 

 ever necessary a remote cross may be considered, yet exceptions 

 have arisen to it as a rule, as some of the most distingui-shed horses 

 in England were bred considerably in and in — Flying Childers for 

 instance, considered the fleetest horse in the world. Old Fox, also 

 a celebrated racer and valuable stallion, had an affinity of blood in 

 his pedigree, as well as other high formed racers and stallions. But 

 these exceptions arose in Great Britain in her early days of breed- 

 ing, when that country was enriched by the importation of par- 

 ticular Barb, Turk, and Arabian horses that had peculiar and ex- 

 traordinary properties as stock getters, as their immediate descen- 

 dants constituted the best racers of those days, and demonstrated 

 that the character of the English race horse had attained its utmost 

 perfection at that early date. 



At a later period, but little success had attended the effi^rts of 

 those who have bred in and in. The Earl of Egreniont has occa- 

 sionally tried it, as well as Lord Derby (the owner of Sir Peter 

 Teazle,) but with little encouragement. Still the British writers 

 are divided on the subject : Morland, in his treatise on the gene- 

 alogy of the English blood horse, expressly says, that incestuous 

 crosses should be avoided, viz : putting horses and mares together 

 of the same class ; while on the other hand Lawrence, in his 

 splendid work on the " History and delineation of the Race Horse," 

 makes the following remark of an opposite tendency : " An adhe- 

 rence to the practice (of remote crossing) cannot be held indispen- 

 sably necessary on any sound theory ; nor need any disadvantage 

 be apprehended from coupling horses and mares of the same breed 

 or family, even the nearest relative, upon the principles above and 

 hereafter laid down. I have often heard of, and indeed seen, mis- 

 erable legged and spindled stock resulting from such a course, but 

 other very visible causes existed for the result. 



" According to the adage, " like produces like," we ought to 

 follow form and qualifixation ; and if a brother and sister, or father 

 and daughter excel in those respects all others within our reach, 

 we ought to enjoin them with good expectations, for aught I know 

 to the end of the chapter : and the prejudiced fear of adopting this 

 practice, has often led our breeders into the error of adopting an 

 inferior form from the presumed necessity of a cross." The present 

 remarks are peculiarly applicable to the breeders of the race horse 

 in Virginia, for they are at this very time making the experiment 

 of breeding " in and in," or from the same family of horses, as it is 

 well known that all the turf horses now and for the last ten years 

 past, produced in that state, are pf the " Sir Archy stock." It were 

 to be wished that there was a greater variety of the race blood m 

 that state to give breeders a wider field for selection ; a descendan* 



