REVIEW. 
26 i 
by the patrons of the turf and by their agents during the reigns of 
James I, the two Charleses, and James II, and the Commonwealth ; 
and whether they were brought from Barbary, Turkey, or the con- 
tinent of Europe, they were considered as the true sons and 
daughters of the Desert. The first Arabian ever seen in England 
was imported by Mr. Markham, in the reign of James I ; and the 
first foreign mares of any note were brought over by the agents of 
Charles II, under the denomination of Royal Mares.” 
Transplanted out of his native desert upon British soil, ungenial 
as the climate he has come to inhabit, by nature, is to him, yet is 
the Arabian horse made, in the course of years, to produce an ani- 
mal superior in every racing or useful point of view even to him- 
self. As by careful culture the grape and the pine of the hot-house 
of England has surpassed in flavour the same fruits grown in their 
native countries, so has the race-horse of Britain surpassed in speed 
and endurance any thing in horse-flesh Arabia could ever boast of. 
And this has been brought about by what 1 Not by “ the change 
of climate,” as Captain Rous thinks, — for climate of itself is an 
impediment to improvement, — but by 
“The pasture, and extreme care and attention in breeding 
by (from) the best stallions (and never forgetting the maxim that 
fortes creantur for libus et birds ); it being generally believed by 
the most learned (experienced) men of the turf, that a first-class 
English race-horse would give six stone to the best Arabian which 
can be found, for any distance under ten miles. In 1828 a match 
was made at Calcutta between the English horse Recruit, 10 st. 
8 lb., and the best Arab at that time in India, Pyramus, carrying 
8 st. 3 lb., two miles. Recruit had been a very short time in India, 
and had tender feet, which disabled him from taking strong work ; 
notwithstanding which, he won in a trot!' 
“ The clearest proof of the improvement which has taken place 
in the English race-horse is the fact that no first or second cross 
from the imported Arab, with the exception of the produce of one 
mare by the Wellesley Arabian (Fair Ellen), is good enough to 
win a £50 plate at the present day; whereas, in 1740, our best 
horses were the second and third crosses from the original stock : 
and we have no reason to assume that the Arabian horse of 1850 
has degenerated from his ancestors of 1730. The most distin- 
guished primogenitors of the English race-horse are, the Byerly 
Turk, the Darley Arabian, Curven’s Bay Barb, and the Godolphin 
Arabian ; and no horse of any eminence has appeared in England 
in the last hundred years which does not inherit their blood. Of 
the two former we know very little ; they were sires of Basto and 
