CURIOUS BREEDING STUD. 393 



largest in England, and must alone have cost him a 

 great fortune, whilst it could have afforded him little 

 pleasure, as he only saw his mares once a week, and 

 that generally on Sunday afternoon. He had more 

 horses than he had room for. His mares were badly 

 bred and worse attended. They were crammed into 

 small paddocks which they trod to a mud-pond in 

 wet weather, whilst the sun made them like brick- 

 fields in dry. In some paddocks there was no 

 shelter at all ; but in others there were open sheds to 

 which the mares could retire in inclement weather. 

 But here, from overcrowding, many got kicked, and 

 sometimes fatally injured by the vicious propensities 

 of the others. In this way many a foal has been 

 destroyed or rendered useless for racing purposes. 

 He had cribs placed in most of the enclosures — they 

 could hardly be called paddocks — ranging from one to 

 two acres each, though it is true some were more 

 extensive. He separated the foaling from the 

 barren mares as soon as he knew, or thought that 

 he knew, those that were in foal. Their food in 

 summer consisted of grass, vetches, or trifolium — in 

 fact, they lived on soiling ; and in winter, mangel 

 wurzel and swedes, given whole in large quantities, 

 with field hay, mostly made on his own farm. 

 Latterly, I think, he gave his mares with foals by 

 their side a little corn, which the latter had no 

 chance of getting the benefit of under such unfavour- 

 able circumstances. But after they were weaned he 



