The Sport of Our Ancestors 



that follow them, have an intimate connection with each 

 other, if not with the march of intellect. Were not the 

 hounds of our day to go so fast as they do, they would not 

 be able to keep clear of the crowd of riders who are now 

 mounted on horses nearly equal to the racing pace. On the 

 other hand, as the speed of hounds has so much increased, 

 unless their followers ride speedy, and, for the most part, 

 thorough-bred horses, they cannot see out a run of any 

 continuance if the scent lies well. True it is that, at the 

 present time, every Leicestershire hunter is not thorough- 

 bred ; but what is termed the cock-tail, or half-bred horse 

 of this day, is a very different animal from that of a hundred 

 years back. In those days a cross between the thorough- 

 bred, or perhaps not quite thorough-bred, horse and the 

 common draught-mare was considered good enough to 

 produce hunters equal to the speed of the hounds then used. 

 There was not such an abundance of what may be termed 

 the intermediate variety of the horse in the country — ' pretty 

 well-bred on each side the head ' — which has of late years 

 been in demand for the fast coaches of England, in which 

 low-bred horses have no chance to live. Mares of this 

 variety, put to thorough-bred stallions, and their produce 

 crossed with pure bloody create the sort of animal that comes 

 now under the denomination of the half-bred English 

 hunter, or cock-tail. These are also the horses which 

 contend for our several valuable stakes, made for horses 

 not thorough-bred, though, when brought to the post, they 

 are sometimes so much like race-horses in their appearance 

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