100 



much appreciated, and he had bred from her for three or four seasons. 

 Pretending to be struck by the particularly high tint of cerulean blue 

 which circulated through this mare's blood, I took out my pocket- 

 book as if to copy it, but in reality to take down what I thought 

 of her shapes. Here is the entry : " Big head, ewe neck, straight 

 shoulders over long cannon-bone legs, pretty good ribs and centre 

 piece, narrow across the loins, her propelling power being from hind 

 quarters short from hip to hock, and long from hock to heel. Though 

 ten years old, her feet are some of the smallest I ever saw, and very 

 shelly. She looks half starved." I was told this mare won great 

 races in good company, and I took it for granted she did. 



I need not say that I did not hold the opinion of this breeder in any 

 way. I am very sure that an ill-shaped yearling would command only 

 a poor price at either private or public sale, no matter how full of running 

 blood its pedigree might be. No doubt the matron described had won 

 good races, and I am aware that leggy horses are often the speediest, 

 and that length from hip to hock is not necessary over short cuts. 

 Racehorses that are moulded on hunter lines, which stand on short legs, 

 are sometimes slow, but nine good racehorses out of ten are certainly 

 good-looking, though what is known as a " three-cornered devil " will 

 occasionally win races. 



This breeder would have been correct if he had said that in no breed 

 of horses is there to be found so much bone in proportion to flesh as 

 in the English or Irish thoroughbred, and that horses of every class 

 and size won races. Look at Watercress, a great raking horse 

 nearly seventeen hands high, and likely to grow into an animal capable 

 of carrying any weight ; he is able to win a five-furlong sprint in the 

 best company, and can get away from the slips as fast as can his tiny 

 but tidy stable-companion, the gazelle-like La Fleche, the best mare we 

 have seen in England for many a year. 



To the Royal Dublin Society are we indebted for the Dublin Horse 

 Show held annually, in August, at Ball's Bridge. I shall, therefore, 

 give a short history of the Institution. The better to effect my purpose 

 I reproduce from the IrUh Times, some of what it says when dealing 

 with the Show held on the 22nd to 25th August, 1893 :— 



The Royal Dublin Society is the oldest institution of its kind in the 

 Avorld, having been established as far back as 1731, in which j'ear fourteen 

 citizens of Dublin met in the rooms of the Philosophical Society, Trinity 

 College, to consider in what way they could "best promote improvements 

 of all kinds." Those who attended at the meeting were Judge Ward, Sir 

 Thomas Molyneux, Thomas Upton, John Prall, Richard Warburton, Rev. 

 Dr. AVhitcomb, Dr. Stephens, Dr. Magnaten, Dr. Madden, Dr. Lehunte, 

 Thomas Prior, Arthur Dobbs, William Maple, and William Walton, and on 

 June 2oth, 1731, which was the date of their meeting, it was agreed to form 

 a Society, to be called "The Dublin Society for improving husbandry, 

 manufactures, and other useful arts and sciences." To trace the history 

 .of the Royal Dublin Society from its inception down to the present day, 



