198 TALES AND TRAITS OF SP0RTI:NG LIFE. 



lines on the way in wliicli tlie ^' packhorse' ' answered to 

 the superior cross, that I must give here : " The true pack- 

 horse is extinct, and has been ever since my horse recol- 

 lection, that is, for about the last twenty years. The 

 animals then going, in 184.0, called ^pack,' were out of 

 pack mares, but their sires had crosses of blood or York- 

 shire. Old Gainsborough, the thorough-bred of house- 

 hold notoriety in Devonshire, one who flourished some- 

 where about 1830, is generally credited with 7iever having 

 got a had one. I attribute this to his being the first cross 

 with the true old pack mares ; and I believe that any mo- 

 derately good thorough-bred would have produced a 

 similar result, could he have had a chance with the same 

 sort of mares. The animals resulting from Gainsborough 

 and these pack mares— -and I have several in my mind's 

 eye — were perfection in make, shape, and action, weight- 

 carriers, everlasting, perhaps scarcely speedy enough for 

 tlie present fashion of sjnu'ting across the grass countries, 

 although safe to shine through a severe thing and be in at 

 the finish. This Gainsborouo-h oreneration of ridino- horses 

 has also gone, and no young Gainshorough cocktail stal- 

 lion ever got a good horse. It is a public misfortune that 

 the line of the old packhorse has not been continued in a 

 pure stock, both for his own excellent inherent qualities, 

 and for the value of the first cross with the thorough- 

 bred. The big half-bred mares of this cross put again to 

 a good sound thorough-bred sire produced the animals to 

 go the pace and carry the weight brilliantly in any coun- 

 try, and this is my pet process for a breeding line. " 



Of late years the West Country farmers appear to have 

 been crossing" and re-crossin^' out of allrhvme and reason, 

 until they have nothing left but the horse of all-work, 

 whicl], as was amusingly demonstrated at the Truro 



