Report upon the Exhibition of Horses at Kilhurn. 567 
the moment it will suffice to notice two animals, each of them 
being members of what may be called the equine aristocracy, 
which were seen at their worst, although in many other classes, 
even of the coarsest type, the same phenomenon was observable. 
In the class of "thoroughbred stallions suitable for getting 
hunters," the first prize was awarded to Mr. Clare Vyner's 
beautifully formed, but somewhat delicate, chestnut horse, " Due 
de Beaufort," bred in sunny France. That so light a sire should 
have been deemed likely to get good hunters was probably due 
to the fact that, as is often the case with little horses, his stock 
are credited w ith being larger and more robust than himself. 
But two or three days at Kilburn produced in the " Due de 
Beaufort" a manifest alteration for the worse; while, simul- 
taneously, the heavv mud through which he was called upon to 
show his paces developed in him symptoms of what seemed to 
some to be incipient stringhalt. Again, in the class for weight- 
carrying hunters — a very creditable class, too, both for number 
and quality — M. Cecil Legard's " Blacklock," by " Toreador," 
dam by " Robinson," was not onlv a very inferior animal as 
compared with his appearance at Alexandra Park, but also it 
was patent to those who watched him closely and heard him 
cough that, despite his magnificent action in galloping, the 
horse was pining and ill at ease. 
It has often been debated whether the subjection of horses to 
a kind of competitive examination in the show-yard advances 
the genuine interests of agriculture and affords compensation 
for the outlay incurred by the award and distribution of prizes. 
Many notable breeders of stock, both equine and bovine, are 
proverbially opposed to the habitual exhibition of their animals, 
being unwilling to pander to what they regard as the idle 
curiosity of the urban public, who, being for the most part as 
ignorant about a horse's points as, in the late Sir Tatton Sykes' 
phrase, a cow is of conic sections, flock eagerly to every show 
at which hacks and hunters are to be seen, and are especially 
delighted if — a lady being preferentially in the saddle — jumping 
be added to galloping and trotting. There is undoubtedly 
something to be urged in support of the view that hunters, 
hackneys, roadsters, and thoroughbreds have only an indirect 
connection with farming operations, and that agriculture, strictly 
speaking, derives no benefit from the exploitation and perfection 
ol any class of equine quadruped other than the draught horse. 
But it must not be forgotten that one of the avowed objects of 
the Royal Agricultural Society is to improve the live-stock of 
the United Kingdom, and therefore the Society's Council may 
be excused for opening widely the doors of their show-yards to 
animals which, viewed with an eye to agriculture, may be of 
