75 
plenty of thoroughbred blood in their veins, 
and it remained for breeders to select 
stallions of the right stamp. Hence the 
demand from all continental countries for 
Hackney sires which began sixty years 
ago and which has continued ever since. 
How urgent was the necessity for atten- 
tion to this department of horse-breeding 
was very fully demonstrated by Earl Cath- 
cart in a paper’ which was published in the 
Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society 
of England about ten years afterwards. 
Lord Cathcart adopted the practical method 
of obtaining from friends who had long 
experience, their opinions on the condition of 
the breeding of horses other than thorough- 
breds ; and the communications sent by these 
gentlemen make up the bulk of the paper 
referred to. 
There was but one opinion among Lord 
Cathcart’s correspondents who, it must be 
noted, wrote quite independently of one 
another. To briefly summarise their state- 
ments, they deplored the disappearance of 
the old-fashioned thoroughbred with bone 
1 « Half Bred Horses for Field and Road; Their 
Breeding and Management,” Yournal of the R. A.S.E. 
vol. xix., part 1, No. xxxvil. 
