PLTIUa OHILDEKS. 



thorough-bred horse is of foreign extraction, improved and jier- 

 fected by the influence of the climate, and by diligent cultivation. 

 There are some exceptions, as in the case of Sampson and Bay- 

 Malton, in each of whom, although the best horses of their day, 

 there was a cross of vulgar blood ; but they are only exceptions 

 to a general rule. In our best racing stables, and, particularly 

 in the studs of the Earls of Grosvenor and Egremont, this la 

 an aclaiowledged principle ; and it is not, when properly con- 

 sidered, a principle at all derogatory to the credit of the country. 

 The British climate, and British skill, made the thorough bred 

 horse what he is. 



The beautiful tales of Eastern countries, and somewhat re- 

 moter days, may lead us to imagine that the Arabian horse pos- 

 sesses mar^'ellous powers ; but it cannot admit of a doubt, that 

 the English trained horse is more beautiful, and far swifter and 

 stouter than the justly-famed coursers of the desert. In the 

 burning plains of the East, and the frozen climate of Russia, he 

 has invariably beaten every antagonist on his native ground. A 

 few years ago Reckuit, an English horse of moderate reputation, 

 easily beat Pyramus, the best Arabian on the Bengal side of 

 India. 



It must not be objected, that the numoer of Eastern horses im- 

 ported is far too small to produce so numerous a progeny. It 

 will he recollected, that the thousands of wild horses on the 

 plains of South America descended from only two stallions and 

 four mares, which the c"-'" Sr>?.;ii?h o'l^""tiirov= 'oft tVior« 



