BKEEDING NOT ALWAYS PROFITABLE. 209 



from having a favourite mare that they have used as 

 long as she was fit for work, or has perhaps met with 

 an accident that makes her no longer pleasant to use. 

 They do not like to sell her to be subject to ill usage 

 — which she certainly would be if sold to that de- 

 scrij)tion of person who buys worn-out horses. This 

 induces them to breed from her, and is certainly the 

 most humane and best reason a gentleman can give for 

 doing so. If he studied economy, he w^ould shoot her. 

 Another person has also a favourite — we will say she 

 is a remarkably good animal, very fast, and a very 

 fine goer. Because she is so, he determines to lay 

 her by in her prime, and breed from her, making 

 certain, that, because she is all I have mentioned, her 

 progeny wall be so likewise. No idea is more erro- 

 neous. It sometimes turns out so, but it no more 

 follows as a matter of course, or a thing to be in any 

 way depended on, than that the son or daughter of 

 an opera-dancer should inherit the grace or elasticity 

 of the parent. This is well known in the breeding 

 of race-horses. Many mares, which w^ere themselves 

 excellent runners, never produced one ; and others, 

 which never could run themselves, have produced 

 superior race-horses. Some men breed for amuse- 

 ment. Fortunately for others, many men of large 

 fortune do this, and take the greatest interest in the 

 pursuit. Such men do a great deal of good, and de- 

 serve the thanks of the community. It is a pursuit 

 worthy a man of fortune, as tending to keep up a 

 breed of superior horses in the country ; but such 

 men do not do it, or expect to do it, with profit to 

 themselves. 



Respecting the second question, as to what persons 



VOL. I. p 



