THE RACE-HORSE. 71 



rapidly grew worse and WQrse until he was a very uncertain foal-getter, and the 

 value of his progeny was more than suspected. He died in February 1789, at 

 the age of twenty-five years. Of the beauty and yet the peculiarity of his form 

 there has been much dispute. His lowness before was evident enough, and was 

 a matter of objection and reproach among those who could not see how abun- 

 dantly this was redeemed by the extent and obliquity of the shoulder, the broad- 

 ness of the loins, the ample and finely-proportioned quarters, and the swelling 

 and the extent — the sloping and the power of the muscles of the fore-arm, and of 

 the thighs. 



A little before the death of Eclipse, M. St. Bel, the founder of the Veterinary 

 College in St. Pancras, had arrived from France. In teaching the French 

 pupils the general conformation of the horse, and the just proportions of his 

 various parts, it had been necessary that reference should be made to some 

 horse of acknowledged excellence. It occurred to St. Bel that this extraor- 

 dinary and unbeaten horse would be the proper standard to which the English 

 student might be referred for a similar purpose, and with considerable trouble 

 he formed an accurate scale of the proportions of this noble animal. The 

 reader is presented with it in the sujoined note *. 



Although it is perfectly true, as stated hy Mr. Blaine, in his " Outlines of the Veterinary 

 Art/' that " for racing, we require that the greatest possible quantity of bone, and 

 muscle, and sinew, should be got into the smallest bulk, and that, in addition to great flexi- 

 bility and some length, the limbs must be strongly united, the chest deep and capacious, 

 and the hinder extremities furnished with powerful muscles; for hunting, wo must have a 

 similar yet somewhat bulkier horse, with powerful loins, and more powerful quarters, and for 

 the hackney, while we undervalue not the strength of the loins and the quarters, we look 

 more to the elevated withers, and the deep and muscular shoulders, and the straight and 

 well-formed leg ;" yet there is a nearer and a truer proportion between the several parts of 

 these kindred animals than many persons are disposed to allow ; and this sketch of them in 

 Eclipse will not only be interesting, but useful, to the general horseman. 



The length of the head of the horse is supposed to be divided into twenty-two equal parts, 



which are the common measure for every part of the body. 

 Three heads and thirteen parts will give the height of the horse from the foretop to the ground. 

 Three heads from the withers to the ground. 

 Three heads from the rump to the ground. 

 Three heads and three parts the whole length of the body, from the most prominent part of 



the chest to the extremity of the buttocks. 

 Two heads and twenty parts the height of the body, through the middle of the centre of 



gravity. 

 Two heads and seven parts, the height of the highest part of the chest from the ground. 

 Two heads and five parts, the height of the perpendicular line which fells from the articulation 



of the arm with the shoulder, directly to the hoof. 

 One head and twenty parts, the height of the perpendicular line which falls from the top of 



the fore-leg, dividing equally all its parts to the fetlock. 

 One head and nineteen partB, the height of the perpendicular line from the elbow to the 



ground. 

 One head and nineteen parts, the distance from the top of the withers to the stifle. The same 



measure also gives the distance from the top of the rump to the elbow. 

 One and a half head, the length of the neck from the withers to the top of the head. The 

 same measure also gives the length of the neck from the top of the head to its insertion 

 into the chest. 

 One head, the width of the neck at its union with the chest. 

 Twelve parts of a head, the width of the neck in its narrowest part. 

 The same measure gives the breadth of the head taken below the eyes. 

 One head and four parts, the thickness of the body from the middle of the back to the middle 



of the belly. 

 The same measure gives the breadth of the body. 

 Also the rump from its summit to the extremity of the buttocks. Alst 



