Breeding of Hunters and Roadsters. 
341 
power and stamina should form the leading features in their 
character, I am in no way inclined to dogmatise on the exact 
amount of pure blood which affords the best promise of combining 
all the essentials in the clever hunter. 
The meaning which the words " half-bred " and " three parts 
bred " commonly convey, whether used technically or literally, 
is most inexact and vague. We may instance " The Lawyer," a 
horse still in training, which has proved himself to be one amongst 
the very best horses of his year; yet he is called a half-bred horse, 
though he has descended from the choicest of blood-sires for six 
or more generations, and on the dam's side to the remotest point 
to which the pedigree can be traced. The first ancestress 
named is the renowned " Jenny Horner," considered the best 
cocktail of her time, and that some sixty or seventy years ago. 
It would seem that Sir Tatton Sykes bred from " Jenny Horner's " 
descendants, and at an earlier period used them as hunters. The 
question is thus opened whether some of the most promising 
amongst the intermediate line of produce might not have proved 
successful racers, as it was only through the accident of his 
being trained that " The Lawyer " was found out to be the 
speedy animal he is. 
I believe that to place horse-breeding on a secure basis the 
pedigrees of more than one recognised class should be kept for 
public reference, in the same way as the General Stud-Book 
has been for the blood-horse during more than a century and a 
half. The word " difficulty " stands in the way of all new mea- 
sures ; but the way to set about establishing such a register was 
never so plain as now. The Royal Agricultural Society of 
England, the Royal Highland Agiicultural Society of Scotland, 
and an analogous Institution in Ireland could together accom- 
plish more good in the direction indicated, within a few years, 
than could formerly have been effected in a much greater length 
of time by a long series of trials. 
The example set in the establishing of herd-books, and regis- 
trations of the produce of greyhounds and other dogs, encourages 
me to think that the difficulty in the more important case of the 
horse is more imaginary than real. Indeed, the longer period 
during which the horse lives and continues to propagate, and the 
relative slowness with which changes are eflected in the race, 
render registration in their case more easy as well as more 
imperative. If the question be raised, how shall we get a 
satisfactory starting-point? our past history will give the best 
answer. 
The important step taken under the auspices of, and by 
command of Charles II., in the 17th century, with reference 
