THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



6? 



Some tenant-farmers in Yorkshire keep two or I 

 three mares of the old or new Cleveland race 

 as animals of all work, and at the same time 

 with a view to profit in rearing horses for Lon- 

 don use, or mares for which there is a great 

 demand, under the general denomination of 

 " Yorkshire mares," for breeding purposes, in 

 most parts of the Kingdom. 



2. Hunters at this day do not exist as a 

 distinct breed. All stallions exhibited at the 

 Lincoln Country Meeting of the Royal Agri- 

 cultural Society, as adapted to get Hunters, 

 according to the terms of the special prizes of- 

 fered, were thoroughbred. 



3. The third class embraces Roadsters, whose 

 merits I was perhaps not in the best condition 

 to appreciate, having just seen the much more 

 stately and imposing Clevelands, and Flying- 

 Dutchman, Chanticleer, and other renowned 

 thoroughbreds^ at the RawclifFe Paddocks. 

 Roadster, in Yorkshire, is the synonyme of 

 Nag; and I infer from an account of the last 

 Yorkshire Agricultural Society's meeting, from 

 what Burton told me, and from other sources, 

 that it is likewise the synonyme of Hack or 

 Hackney, as the term is frequently used in that 

 part of England by the tenant-farmers. It is 

 alleged that the Roadsters constitute a distinct 

 breed. The trotting horses of the county of 

 Norfolk, I should judge from the specimens I 

 saw, are a family or sub-variety of this Road- 

 ster race, which is probably a modification and 

 improvement of the best character of the old 

 English pack horse. The Roadster is a plain, 

 strong, compact and rather low horse, not ex- 

 hibiting in his appearance indications of any 

 share of oriental lineage, and very frequently 

 having cloven quarters {croupe double) like the 

 Cart Horse. His only smart action is a trot. 

 He bends his knees and lifts up his feet, throws 

 them out and puts them down well in this gait. 

 I saw none of this breed except stallions and 

 mares, at York, stallions at the Royal Agricul- 

 tural Society's meeting at Lincoln, and a mare, 

 called a Roadster, of the Messrs. Hall at Dud- 

 weight of the tups, .states that in over two thousand 

 eases but one .single accident was occasioned in 

 yeaning by the size of the lambs, and yet after 

 their birth they grew so rapidly that before they 

 were weaned they had become larger than the 

 ewes. No one who visits the great market of Eng- 

 land of live stock for the shambles, — Smithfield, — 

 can fail to be struck with the vast preponderance 

 of cross-bred animals. Their male parents are, in 

 most instances, of the very largest races, for exam- 

 ple, Short-Horn bulls and Cotswold and Leicester 

 tups. This, compared with the reverse method in 

 breeding, has superior economy, for a breeder can 

 keep more good small animals on the same ground 

 than large ones, and the breeding females are in 

 the proportion of sixty to one of the males. 



c 3 



ding Hill, used by them for Wiving to cover, 

 in the hunting sekson.* This last animal is q 

 capital trotter and a good iC stepper," but ex- 

 ceedingly plain in appearance. The Roadster 

 was formerly and is still chiefly used as a te- 

 nant-farmer's (not a landed proprietor's) sad- 

 dle horse, but not without being called upon 

 occasionally to do light work in harness, — for 

 example, in a gig, drosky, or light marketing 

 vehicle. He is a degree above the Cob, {dou- 

 ble poney^ who, I suppose, is the accidental re- 

 sult of crosses between sturdy pony staBions 

 and small cart mares, or mares of the old Pack 

 Horse English race. The Roadster I take to 

 be the substitute of the old Road Horse, of 

 whom Low spoke in 1840 as follows: "Not 

 only has the system of public conveyance by 

 coaches called forth a lighter and more agile 

 race of horses, but it has acted in another way 

 on the saddle horses of the country. By al- 

 tering the mode of performing journeys it has 

 diminished the inducement to cultivate parti- 

 cular kinds of horses. Few persons now make 

 distant journeys on horseback, and are willing 

 to travel at the rate of five miles an hour when 

 they can be carried forward at the rate of ten 

 or more. A horseman with his load of saddle 

 bags is nenv almost as rare a sight as an ele- 

 phant. A class of saddle horses, accordingly., 

 formerly used for journeys, has now almost 

 disappeared. They were termed Road Horses. 

 and were suited to their employment. They 

 were strong, useful and safe, but had little or 

 no breeding. Their paces were the walk and 

 trot; and the canter and the gallop were nearly 

 as much out of place with them as with the 

 Cart Horse. The Cob, too, a little squat horse 

 fitted for drudgery, is with some difficulty to 

 be procured. For the shorter journeys now 

 in use, and for all the usual services of the 

 equestrian, animals of lighter form and more 

 easy paces are preferred, and few habitual rider* 

 are satisfied with horses that have not more or 

 less of breeding." 



I also quote below what the same author 

 says of the Hackney,f expressing, however,, my 

 dissent from his description, if it were intended, 

 to apply at the present day, unless he means 

 the tenant-farmer's Hackney, alias Roadster, 

 alias Nag, for now the pleasure hack or the 

 park hack has generally fully as much breeding 

 as the Hunter, (if not more,) and height also 

 frequently, and would probably be used as a 

 hunter or harness horse if he had sufficient 

 "stoutness," which is strength coupled with 



* The more usual custom is to ride " Hack*'' I© 

 cover. 



t This word is doubtless derived from the Frft»o8i 

 Htupiene.i 



