20 INFLUENCE OF THE TURF 



so long enjoyed a most enviable reputation. 

 Indeed, we may go so far as to assert that, 

 but for the extraordinary fascination of the 

 sport of horse-racing, such animals as we can 

 ride and drive to-day would still have been 

 extremely rare in our midst. Not a hunter, 

 hack, or harness horse, scarcely so much as 

 a butcher's cob or greengrocer's pony, but 

 owes the best of his qualities to some one 

 or other of those pure-bred sires, with whose 

 more or less illustrious names and pedigrees 

 the British " Stud Book " teems. 



It is indeed most instructive to trace the 

 gradual improvement of the British horse 

 from the inception of this sport to the present 

 day. What horse was indigenous to the 

 British Isles, or whence he was first imported 

 hither, it is not needful here to discuss. It 

 is an accredited fact that when the Homans 

 invaded this country they found the horse 

 in general use both for chariot work and 

 riding purposes. Beyond this we have no 



