102 FORM AND ACTION. 



consequently, was a tall horse and a long horse, a horse higher 

 behind than before, and, withal, a horse possessing a very small 

 head. 



Either, therefore, there is something fundamentally erroneous in 

 the standard of the French schools, or else Eclipse must have been, 

 in his head or other parts, out of proportion. Considering that he 

 stood sixteen and a half hands high, and that his head measured no 

 more than twenty-two inches, we need feel no surprise that, while 

 other horses, according to the scale, were but three heads' length in 

 height, he measured three and a half heads. I say this will account 

 for his apparent out-of-proportioned tallness, but it will not account 

 for his neck measuring thirty-three inches, or being equal to one and 

 a half head's length. The regular proportion of the length of the neck 

 being one head, we can in nowise account for the eleven inches in 

 excess by supposing that the head was two or three or even four 

 inches shorter than heads in general ; and therefore the inevitable 

 deduction is that Eclipse had a long neck, certainly a most desirable 

 formation in a race-horse. His neck, as well as being long, was 

 likewise well-proportioned ; for it measured in width twenty-two 

 inches at its junction with the shoulders, and yet was but a foot 

 across at its union with the head, shewing how beautifully it must 

 have tapered upward : whether it was of the rainbow shape, or 

 was straight, is not quite evident. 



The head of Eclipse must have partaken a good deal of the 

 Arabian character ; and no wonder, since, on the side of his dam, 

 he is only the sixth remove from the pure Arabian : his dam being 

 got by Regulus ; his grandam by a full brother to Wildman's 

 Squirrel; his great grandam by Lord Darcey's Montague; his 

 great great grandam by Hautboy ; his great, great, great grandam 

 by Brimmer, son of the Oglethorp Arabian. 



Below* the eyes, St. Bel informs us, it measured, across, one 

 foot ; but from one eye to the other only seven inches ; shewing 

 that along with this extraordinary breadth of forehead his eyes 

 were well placed, towards the centre of his head : points not only 

 of utility, but of beauty likewise. 



The breadth of the lower or posterior part of the neck (twenty- 



* This must be an error. The measure must have been taken above the 

 eyes, from one orbital arch to the opposite. 



