66 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



writers, asserts that the race horse is of mixed 

 lineage, and says, "The basis [of the race 

 horse] was the ancient horses of the country, 

 which were modified after the Norman conquest 

 by progressive changes, and at length by a large 

 infusion of the blood of the horses of Africa 

 and Western Asia, The mixed progeny thus 

 formed being made to breed only with one an- 

 other, or with the races of the East, to which 

 they were already allied in blood, have assumed 

 the common characters of a race." While it 

 is certain that every modern race horse may be 

 traced back to some Arabian, African or Tur- 

 kish ancestry, or all three mixed ? (assuming 

 that they are sub-varieties of one and the same 

 race, — a doubtful point,) I am not satisfied 

 there is any evidence that Eastern mares were 

 imported with or soon after the first stallions, 

 so as to furnish an uncrossed breed. But I 

 do not intend to discuss the vexed questions of 

 the origin of breeds or the unity of species at 

 a very remote period or the beginning of time.* 

 The female progeny of an " old Cleveland 

 mare, r; — one at all events in which the native 

 blood of Cleveland, if not pure, is largely in 

 excess, — by a thoroughbred horse, Burton 

 breeds to a stallion, in whom the blood of the 

 race horse and that of the old Cleveland bay, — 

 the latter predominating, — have been well in- 

 termixed. The descendants formed in this or 

 a kindred manner are then bred with one an- 

 other for successive generations to produce the 

 breed of the New or Improved Clevelands, and 

 to establish and maintain constancy and per- 

 manency in their characters. In order further 

 to fix the type when the dash of blood is not 

 remote, breeding in-and-in is occasionally re- 

 sorted to, but to a very limited extent. I have 

 been thus particular 'in describing Burton's 

 practice, for, from the number of stallions he 

 owns and travels, he must exercise a marked 

 influence on the breeding of Yorkshire. 



Among Burton's New Cleveland horses, I 

 saw two stallions of high repute, both by Rim- 

 phon, (now the property of the King of Prus- 

 sia,) who was highly commended by the Royal 

 Agricultural Society of England in 1848, and 

 mentioned by the Inspector General of the 

 Agriculture of France in his letter to you. 

 They are magnificent animals, standing with 



in which the coaching horses 

 the various countries 



shortish legs sixteen hands 

 inches, — the favorite height, f 



and one or two 

 One of these 



* " England's breed" of men, now very distinct, 

 was formed "by the successive commingling of a 

 great variety of races. Its tongue owns a cross- 

 bred origin. 



f Some Mood horses get up to sixteen hands, 

 though in that case they are prone to be too slim 

 bodied and leggy, or, as the English say, too slen- 

 der timber. 



stallions, Aristocrat, particularly conformed to 

 a Yorkshire criterion of excellence, in being 

 short on top (that is in the back) and long 

 underneath. Your Cleveland horse's half bro- 

 ther on the dam's side, — Ic poulain enorme, 

 mentioned by M. Ste Marie, — was bought by 

 the Queen of Spain. Before the war, the Em- 

 peror of Russia annually purchased coaching, 

 as well as blood horses, in Yorkshire, chiefly 

 through Mr. Kirby, to whose stables Burton 

 has succeeded. It is universally admitted in 

 Paris that all the finest horses for the carriage 

 (carrossiers) and for vehicles, from the 



Emperor's down, of every description, — except- 

 ing our American trotting wagons, — as well as 

 for the saddle, the chase and the turf, and for 

 the service of the officers of the army, come 

 from England. These facts in connection with 

 the importations of the French government for 

 the stud (haras) sufficiently attest the pre- 

 eminent esteem 

 of England are held 

 of Continental Europe. 



I was exceedingly struck with the certain 

 and harmonious result of mixing the blood of 

 the racer with that of the Cleveland Bay in 

 any proportion, — a result which may be owing 

 to the fact, if Low's supposition be correct, 

 that the two breeds have been for a long time 

 allied, and may, therefore, be further brought 

 together without any violence in crossing. I 

 found that the Hunters in the neighborhood of 

 Ripon (where some of the most prized horses 

 in England are reared) owed their stoutness 

 and power to a dash of the Cleveland blood f 

 on the part of the dam more commonly.* 



* "While the more general practice in crossing in 

 Yorkshire is to have the superior size of race on 

 the side of the mare, on the doctrine that there 

 would not otherwise be sufficient room for the un- 

 cramped development of the -foetus and for facility 

 of parturition, Spooner prefers the converse course 

 in breeding, as tending more to refinement; and 

 Stephens, if my memory serves' me, likewise dis- 

 credits generally the theory of the dependency of. 

 the size of the f etus on the size of the sire, instead 

 of its depending exclusively on the capacity and 

 functions of the organs containing and nourishing 

 it, by a provision of nature, (as in the case of an 

 over-fat and, therefore, inwardly contracted female,) 

 while he admits that, after it has come into the 

 world, it tends in growing to approach or attain the 

 dimensions of the larger parent. It does not follow 

 that a small foal will be a small horse; and fre- 

 quently animals of great size are the issue of small 

 females by large sires, and were small, compara- 

 tively, at 'the date of their birth. M. Malingi<3 

 Nouel * who founded the celebrated French race 

 of sheep, De la Cha-rmmsc, by crossing heavy im- 

 ported Kentish (Romney Marsh) tupa^ on ew^ i of 

 mixed indigenous breeds, less than a fourth of. the 



* Dep Botes h. iaine, p. 42. 



