THE DRAG. 333 



think we can show pretty clearly that in his day they must have 

 had hounds nearly, if not quite, as fast as fox-hounds are now, 

 in tliis way. Take the Arab as the standard, and let us, for 

 argument's sake, suppose that he is as good now as he was in 

 those days, though many aftect to think that he has deteriorated. 

 We find that against our thoroughbred horses he has no chance, 

 even when running at an advantage of weight ; but, at the same 

 time, I think all will admit that he would gallop away from 

 ordinary horses. In lact, we have it recorded that one of 

 Mr. Cliilde's, of Kinlet Hall, best hunters was an Arab called 

 Skim, and he was the quickest man of his day over Leicester- 

 shire ; so that amongst hunters, and many rode full-bred ones 

 even then, he must have been fast. Admitting, then, that the 

 Arab is useless amongst our race-horses of any class now, let us 

 go back and see what was the state of the case in the reign of 

 James the First. We know that he gave 500/. for an Arab, but 

 he was thought little of, and the breed fell into disrepute, because 

 he was easily beaten at Neivmarket. Five hundred pounds was 

 a very large sum in those days, and would not have been given 

 by the canny Scotchman unless the horse had a pretty good 

 reputation ; so I think we should err very little in assuming 

 that he was equal to Monarch, who ran against the Hero for the 

 Goodwood Cup. Now, although Monarch was beaten easily 

 when receiving a lot of weight, he was in the very best company 

 in England. On this showing, the JN'ewmarket nags must have 

 gone a very fair pace to beat a picked Arab easily in those early 

 days, and then, as I shall show from Gervase Markhani, horses 

 were used indiscriminately for hunting matches and races on the 

 course, in very much the same way that we see them timber- 

 topping one week and flat-racing the next now. Let us see what 

 he says on the subject : — 



" The true English horse — him, I mean, that is bred under a 

 good clime, on hrm ground, in a pure temperature — is of tall 

 stature and large proportions ; his head, though not so fine as 

 eitlier the Larbaries' or the Turkes', yet is lean, long, and well- 



