146 QUEEN'S PREMIUM SIRES. 



Avill do to breed from yet obtaining in this 

 as in other localities. But, as Mr. Albert 

 Muntz has well remarked in a useful little 

 paper on this subject, it is difficult to over- 

 rate the importance of good mares in 

 breeding. Scarcely any offer, travellers have 

 frequently assured us, will tempt an Arab 

 to part with his brood mare, so that mares 

 of the highest caste are very rarely in the 

 market at all. 



"We English have been less wise in this 

 respect than certain Continental nations. 

 Though a really good brood mare should be 

 a small mine of wealth to her OAvner, nearly 

 every one is tempted by a good price, and 

 in consequence foreigners have for years been 

 draining this country of its very best. Of 

 those which remain we must make the utmost 

 use ; and with the object of producing, first, 

 a high-class hunter, or, failing this, a good 

 charger or general purpose horse, the breeder 

 who possesses a mare of the right stamp — 



