TELE SCARCITY OF GOOD HOKSES. 155 



There is no doubt that when the turf was first created 

 it exercised an admirable influence over the breed of 

 saddle horses ; but when we contrast the present breed 

 of race-horses with those of a century *ago, we shall 

 cease to wonder at the scarcity of good hacks, because 

 the breeding of these has, to a great extent, always been 

 influenced by the turf, as proved by the difference in 

 substance of present steeple-chasers and hunters with 

 those of former years. Bace-horses are now bred for 

 speed alone, and not for that union of qualities pos- 

 sessed by our former racers, whose produce for a time 

 were the best saddle-horses in the world ; and much as 

 has been said and written against Arab horses, we have 

 it recorded that on the first creation of the turf con- 

 siderable numbers of them were imported into this 

 country ; but these were carefully selected by competent 

 judges, not for their speed alone, but for compactness of 

 form, and strength of loins, with endurance and bottom 

 to run the distance, and carry the weight imposed upon 

 them by the rules of our predecessors in racing matters. 

 On reference to the racing of former years, we find 

 that the celebrated horse " Cartouche" was only fourteen 

 hands high, yet no horse was able to run with him in 

 his time, carrying from 8st. to 12st. In 1737, "Black 

 Chance" at five years old won a plate at Durham, car- 

 rying lOst ; with the same weight he won the Ladies* 

 Plate at York, in that year, distance four miles. After 

 this he won the King's Plate at Salisbury, then the 

 King's Plate at Lewes, and lastly, the King's Plate at 



