their  Breeding  and  Management. 
7 
birds  singing  on  the  bushes,  with  various  insects  flitting  about, 
and  with  worms  crawling  through  the  damp  earth,  and  to  reflect 
that  these  elaborately  constructed  forms,  so  different  from  each 
other,  and  dependent  upon  each  other  in  so  complex  a manner, 
have  all  been  produced  by  laws  acting  around  us.  These  laws, 
taken  in  the  largest  sense,  being  Growth  with  Reproduction  ; 
Inheritance  which  is  almost  implied  by  reproduction  ; Varia- 
bility from  the  indirect  and  direct  action  of  the  conditions  of 
life,  and  from  use  and  disuse  ; a Ratio  of  Increase  so  high  as  to 
lead  to  a struggle  for  Life,  and  as  a consequence  to  Natural 
Selection,  entailing  Divergence  of  Character  and  the  Extinction 
of  less-improved  forms.  Thus,  from  the  war  of  nature,  from 
famine  and  death,  the  most  exalted  object  which  we  are  capable 
of  conceiving,  namely,  the  production  of  the  higher  animals, 
directly  follows.  There  is  grandeur  in  this  view  of  life,  with 
its  several  powers,  having  been  originally  breathed  by  the 
Creator  into  a few  forms  or  into  one ; and  that,  whilst  this 
planet  has  gone  cycling  on  according  to  the  fixed  law  of  gravity, 
from  so  simple  a beginning  endless  forms  most  beautiful  and 
most  wonderful  have  been,  and  are  being  evolved.” 
And  now,  courteous  reader,  in  regard  to  what  the  elder 
D’Israeli  might  have  called  these  curiosities  of  equine  litera- 
ture, I have  taken  you  fully  into  my  innermost  confidence.  I 
have  only  further  to  premise  that,  except  Messrs.  Tattersall,  no 
one  writer  has  seen  the  other’s  work  ; all  have  written  freely 
and  independently. — You  will,  I am  sure,  readily  credit  me 
when  I say  that  it  delights  me  to  step  aside  to  present  to  you 
my  very  able  and  most  practical  friends. 
I 
Mr.  Lumley  Hodgson. 
Should  a stranger  ask  me,  Who  is  Mr.  Lumley  Hodgson  of 
Highthorne  ? the  idea  would  instantly  flash  across  my  mind — this 
person  who  so  inquires  is  not  a Yorkshireman.  Mr.  Lumley 
Hodgson  is  a Yorkshire  squire  born  and  bred  ; a noted  sports- 
man ; one  who  has  had  a long  lifetime’s  practical  experience  as 
a successful  breeder  of  horses.  The  ‘ Report  of  the  Royal 
Commission  on  Agriculture  of  1881’*  describes  him  in  highly 
complimentary  terms  : — “ Mr.  Lumley  Hodgson  of  Highthorne 
is  a close  observer,  and  a shrewd  practical  man  ; he  has  been  a 
landlord  for  sixty  years,  during  forty  of  which  years  he  has 
also  been,  as  he  is  at  present,  a large  tenant-farmer.”  I am 
personally  indebted  to  this  kindly  gentleman,  who  immediately, 
Report  of  Mr.  Coleman,  Assistant  Commissioner,  p.  160. 
