is, in fact, a factitious breed. That it is mostly derived from the Arab, 

 however, will probably be inferred from its corresponding with it very 

 perfectly in colour. With the Arab, the prevailing colours in the order 

 of their frequency, are, grey, bay, and chestnut. It is never sorrel, 

 roan, or piebald, and very rarely black, and such also is the case with 

 the English blood-horse. 



The superior speed of the English racer over the Arab has been 

 frequently determined, as might well be expected from an animal on 

 an average by two hands higher, with every racing point at least equal. 

 In 1814 a second-rate English horse, Sir Solomon, ran a race of two 

 miles on the course of Madras against an Arab, which, giving heavy 

 weights, had beaten every other Arab in India. This was the Cole 

 Arabian afterwards brought to England. He was under fourteen 

 hands high, and received a stone weight. The English horse, an ill- 

 tempered one, ran sulkily during the first part of the race, and there 

 was every appearance that he would be distanced, but in time he ran 

 kindly, overtook the Arab and beat him handsomely. His success 

 was followed by the acclamations of thousands of Natives who were 

 assembled on the course. This statement I had from an eye-witness. 

 In 1828, the English horse Recruit beat easily the Arab Pyramus, 

 the best at the time in India, giving him two stones nine pounds. The 

 distance, ran on the race-course of Calcutta, was two miles. 



A few years ago a match was run between an English blood-mare 

 and the best Arab in Egypt. The race was ten miles long over the 

 Desert. For the first mile the horses went neck and neck, after 

 which the mare ran a-head, and before the race was over the Arab 

 was left behind and out of sight. In fact, the difference in speed 

 between the English racer and the Arab is something like that between 

 the hare and the antelope. 



The European cavalry horse of the Middle Ages was of necessity 

 a powerful animal, since he had not only to carry a rider covered with 

 armour, but had armour of his own to bear. The same kind of horse 

 seems to have been continued even down to the Revolution, as we see 

 it represented in the equestrian statues of Charles the First and William 

 the Third. Sir Walter Scott, in his " Crusaders," gives a very graphical 

 account of the war-horse of the Middle Ages, as contrasted with the 

 Arab, in his imaginary duel between Coeur de Lion and Saladin in the 

 Desert. Sir Walter, by the way, was himself a cavalry officer, having 

 attained the rank of full major in the East Lothian Yeomanry. Gibbon, I 

 may here add, was also a military man after a way — a major of militia — 



