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CORNELL UNIVERSITY.

THE
Roswell P. Flower Library

THE GIFT OF
ROSWELL P. FLOWER
FOR THE USE OF

THEN. Y. STATE VETERINARY COLLEGE
1897

2767

Cornell University Library
SF 291.A24

wi
3 1924 000 305 023 vet

Cornell University

Library

The original of this book is in
the Cornell University Library.

There are no known copyright restrictions in
the United States on the use of the text.

http://www. archive.org/details/cu31924000305023

HORS E-BREEDING

MANAGEMENT

*‘souof ueupy Aq 3urjured © wo14 ‘LIABNUL

HORSE-BREEDING

MANAGEMENT

BY

FREDERIC ADYE

AUTHOR OF
““THE QUEEN OF THE MOOR”
ETC.

WITH NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIONS
FROM PHOTOGRAPHS; AND SKETCHES MADE
BY THE AUTHOR

LONDON
R. A. EVERETT & CO., LTD.
42 ESSEX STREET, STRAND, W.C.

1903

[AU rights reserved]

~

No. 25%3
PRINTED BY

MAZELL, WATSON AND VINEY, L).,
LONDON AND AYLESBURY.

SF
o4f
Aat

PREFACE.
THE ground being, as it were, already
occupied by several standard works upon
the general subject of the Horse, the writer
of the following pages does not seek to vie
with these, but merely to record some
observations and experiences of one who
has loved and studied the noble animal
from his youth up, in the hope that
they may prove acceptable to that large
portion of the British public which shares
in his admiration of the same, as well as
to those more particularly interested in

the breeding and management of young

stock.

viii PREFACE

His thanks are due to those owners who
have kindly lent him portraits of animals
representing various breeds.

The chapter (IV.) upon “ Breeding Army
Horses’? was first published the year pre-
ceding the outbreak of the South African

War.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.

PAGE

GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF BREEDING AND REARING * 1
CHAPTER II.

INFLUENCE OF THE TURF ON HORSE-BREEDING a. a
CHAPTER ITI.

Stub Books, AND THEIR EFFECT ON BREEDING. J g we
CHAPTER IV.

BREEDING ARMY HORSES ‘ é ‘ * 55

CHAPTER V.

HEAVY AND LIGHT DRAUGHT HORSES . 7 “1 .

ix

x CONTENTS.

CHAPTER VI.

BREEDING PONIES

CHAPTER VII.

QUEEN’S TREMIUM SIRES.

CHAPTER VIII.

MULES, AND THEIR ADAPTABILITY TO
AGRICULTURAL AND GENERAL

CHAPTER IX.

THE BRoop MARE

CHAPTER X.

ON THE REARING OF THE FOAL

CHAPTER XI.

HANDLING AND BREAKING

CHAPTER NII.

ON ARTIFICIAL INSEMINATION

ENGLISH NEEDS—

PAGE

123

148

169

191

210

240

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER NITI.

ON CoLouR

CHAPTER XIV.

On RACING

CHATTER XY.

ON STEFPLE-CHASING

CHAPTER XVI.

SOME GENERAL REMARKS

266

289

308

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

PAGE

TRUEFIT . : : 5 : 2 . Frontispiece
From a Painting by Adrian Jones.

SHEBINE ‘ a a 3
Pioperty of Wilfrid Scawen Blunt, Esq.

“A NATURAL AND THEREFORE HEALTHY LIFE” s 15

MERRY MATCHMAKER é 3 ‘ : ‘ . 385
Hunter Stallion. Property of Sir Walter Gilbey.,

RoyAL DANEGELT . ‘ : ‘ ¥ - 3
Property of Sir Walter Gilbey.

HEDON SQUIRE . ‘ : ‘ . 43
Property of Sir Walter Gilbey.

KNOWLE BELINDA : . 49
Two-year-old Hackney Filly, Property of W. A. Oppen-

heimer, Esq.

A USEFUL TYPE OF LIGHT CAVALRY TROOP-HORSE « 09

By a Yorkshire trotting hoise, out of a thoroughbred
mare.

NEJIBA . ‘ s ‘ 4 F : ° ‘4 : > 62
Property of Wilfrid Scawen Blunt, Esq.

MESAOUD . é 7 r ; ’ 2 63

Property of Wilfrid Scawen Blunt, Esq.

xili

xiv LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

ARABIAN THOROUGHBRED
BLYTHWOOD CONQUEROR . .
Shire Stallion. Property of Sir Walter Gilbey.
SILVER Cup
Clydesdale Stallion. Propeity of Seaham Harbour Stud.
SATURN a : <
Suffolk Stallion. Property of A. Smith, Esq.
NyN HITcHIN DUKE : ‘ ‘
Two-year-old Stallion, Property of J. . Kidstone, Esq.
BOADICBA

THE EARLY BRITISH HUNTER .
Statuette by Boéhm.

ROSEWATER (late JOHNNIE Day)
Property of Sir Walter Gilbey.

“THAT VERY USEFUL ANIMAL, A COB-PONY ”
COMET. : : :
Welsh Pony Stallion. H.M. Convict Prison, Princetown,
Dartmoor.
Don JUAN .

A noted Pony Sire. Property of the late Sir Frederick
Knight, of Exmoor.

“SPUN LIKE CLOCKWORK ROUND THE RING”

HOTSPUR :
Pony Stallion. Used on Prison Farm, Princetown,
Dartmoor.
ERSKINE .

A Thoroughbred Sire. Property of the Compton Stud
Co.

PAGE

89

93

100
101

103

107

111

115

122

127

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. xv

MARIONI ¥ é ‘ : é ‘ 131

By Macaroni out of Queen Marion by King Tom.

YARD ARM. : : ; » 135
A celebrated Hunter Sire. Property of the Compton
Stud Co.
Scot GUARD. , ‘ ‘ . 139

By Strathcona.

PANTOMINE : ; e : , a . . 148
Property of the Compton Stud Co.

MvuTE or HINNY ri i . x , 4 154

Produce of Stallion Pony and Jenny Ass.

THE MULE PROPER : . 4 . 163
From Spanish Jack and Cart Mare.

A THOROUGHBRED MARE AND FOAL. Fi 168

SAXON KITry . . : . . 175
Shire Mare. Property of Sir Walter Gilbey.

ARAB MARE ‘ , ; « ABT
GIDRAN XXXIX. 3 i ‘ , ; r . 201
LUNGING THE COLT . ‘ 7 : ‘ . ~« 213
KIsBER ; j , ; ; . i . 221
“A BIT TOO EAGER OVER THE STONE WALLS” ‘a 239
THE IMPROVED CALIFORNIA SERVICE HOBBLES ‘ 242
VERNEUIL . x i 3 r “ F ‘ . 245
SANDFLAKE P i 4 x . s » 251

By Trenton—Sandiway.

AMPHION . : 7 5 é -
A celebrated Sire at the Compton Stud,

XVI LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

SLIPPING THE FIELD ror THE Run IN
Corrie Roy and Chippendale.

$v. GATIEN

From a Painting by Emil Adam.

“TURNED A COMPLETE SOMERSAULT”

From a Drawing by John Sturgess.
“THE FENCES WERE BIG ENOUGII iN ALL CONSCIENCE”
A Lapy’s Horse

Strong, fast, and clever.

FAITHFUL FRIENDS AND COMRADES

CHAPTER TI.

GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF BREEDING AND
REARING.

VastLy as the various breeds of domestic
animals have been improved since the
establishment of the many agricultural and
other associations which exist for this
purpose, it is extremely improbable that we
have reached finality of excellence in any
particular species. The Smithfield Club,
which celebrated its centenary at its show
at Islington, found itself, some years after
its inception, in financial low water, and
the Duke of Bedford, one of its most
distinguished promoters, is said to have ex-
pressed his opinion that the society might
as well be allowed to drop, since it had

accomplished the purpose for which it was
1 1

2 GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF

instituted. If this meant that the public
interest in the matter had been so effectually
kindled that it was unlikely again to languish,
the remark is intelligible; but, if it implied
that perfection in the type of agricultural
stock had been already attained by it, such
an opinion must be received to-day with
sheer amaze, since it is in the highest degree
improbable that the prize animals of that
date would be looked at by modern judges
beside the highly developed specimens which
are the result of nearly a hundred years of
further systematic breeding. Whether as
great an improvement is to be expected
in the future as has been achieved in the
past is another thing; only, let us beware
lest the desire to excel in the show ring
lead us in a wrong direction—viz., towards
the production of a costly exotic, rather
than the multiplication of the types of
animals best suited to the various purposes

for which our various kinds of stock are

BREEDING AND REARING. 3

maintained. The general principles of breed-
ing are of course the same with stock of
all kinds; but, since this work has for its

theme the breeding of horses, we shall

SHEBINE.
Property of Wilfrid Scawen Blunt, Esq.

naturally apply them with sole reference
to that interesting animal.

The most important point in breeding, as
it seems to me, and the most essential to
insist upon at the present time, is to go for
quality rather than for mere size. Quality
is not a thing easy to be defined, but it is

4 GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF

as obvious to the initiated as size is to the
general eye. If size is wanted we can get
size (nay, we are getting it, for all kinds of
stock are bigger now than they used to be),
but we should aim to get it gradually, not _
all at once.

This is true of other things: in ship-
building for instance. The Great Eastern
was a costly and gigantic failure, and for
the reason that she was an anachronism.
Gradually we have worked up to vessels
of her size (the Oceanic is somewhat larger)
but they have not been failures, because
strength and speed have advanced in equal
ratio with size and tonnage.

Now, if we breed horses for mere size, we
make just the same mistake, and the result is
a huge overgrown brute, soft and clumsy
as a rule, and nearly always deficient in that

bf

quality and “character” which alone make
the horse a desirable companion, or pleasant

to use. We must, of course, breed carefully

BREEDING AND REARING. 5

for what is required, and a certain amount
of bulk is essential for heavy draught work ;
_ but for every other purpose activity and
endurance are of far greater importance
than mere size and weight.

For omnibus and tramcar work, perhaps the
hardest to which horses are put, a horse of
moderate size, say from 1000 to 1100 lb. in
weight is always to be preferred; for, if too
light, the exertion of constantly starting the
great weight of such vehicles is too much
for them, and keeps them in poor condition ;
while, if too large, the continual battering
upon hard roads wears out their feet and
legs, and they do not last.

On farm lands too, except perhaps on
heavy clay, the moderate-sized animal answers
best for general purposes. On a large arable
farm I know, where many horses are em-
ployed, a former tenant, besides several
teams of moderate-sized animals, used always

to work one team of very large horses, and

6 GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF

another of quite small ones. When questioned
as to their respective merits, he would reply
that they each did about the same day’s work,
but that the small ones lasted longer, and
were less expensive to buy and keep.

It will, I think, be almost always found that
whenever any special achievement involving
high courage, speed, or endurance, has been
performed by either horse or man, it has
been by an individual of small, or at most
of average size, and very rarely by a large
specimen of either race. The popular pre-
dilection then for great size would seem to
be a mistake. We are continually being
told that “a good big horse will always
beat a good small one,” though even this
I am rather doubtful of, if the test be a
long one; but one thing I feel positive of
is, that he would not beat the good middle-
sized one. In this, as in so many other
things, in medio tutissimus ibis.

A very interesting consideration in breeding

BREEDING AND REARING. at

is the respective influence on the progeny of
either parent. It is, I believe, the opinion
of all breeders of wide experience that no
rule of absolute, or even approximate cer-
tainty can be laid down, so much seeming
to depend upon the comparative vigour and
strength of constitution of the parent of
either sex. It has even been stated that
there have been more instances than one
of own brothers being used in the stud, in
which one has got stock resembling himself
in all particulars, even in the non-essential
matter of colour; while the other, for some
unknown reason, has begotten descendants
so unlike as to be rarely recognisable as
his offspring. My own experience, so far
as it goes, is to the effect that the produce
is apt to resemble the sire more nearly
in temper, spirit, and, perhaps, in outward
configuration; the dam in size, stamina,
and constitution.

For this reason we should be the less

8 GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF

reluctant to breed from an unsound sire
than from an unsound dam, on the expecta-
tion that any hereditary infirmity would
be more likely to be transmitted by the
latter than by the former. On the vexed
question of ‘roaring’ being hereditary, I
am strongly of such opinion, for whereas I
have frequently seen this infirmity inherited
from the dam, I am aware of no case in
which it has been derived from the sire.
There is in my possession at the present
time an animal which, so far as an in-
dividual case can, strongly supports this
theory. The mare in question is by a son
of Governess (an Oaks and One Thousand
winner, but a rank roarer, which failing she
transmitted to her son) out of a very good-
winded mare. The offspring was a decided
success, winning some sixteen steeplechases,
many of them under heavy weights, and
throughout her training never showing the

slightest tendency to her sire’s family failing.

BREEDING AND REARING. 9

On the other hand, she had not the best of
hocks (though they stood long and severe
work), and these, I regret to see, are re-
produced in her foal, by a horse perfect in
respect of his. Thus, in one particular
animal, we find a double proof of the cor-
rectness of the theory that the dam is more
likely to transmit defects of this kind than the
sire. But this must be accepted rather as a
general than an absolute rule, subject, as all
natural rules are, to occasional variations.
Happily, it is seldom necessary to breed
from any but constitutionally strong parents,
but in the case of light horses we
must bear in mind that the country is at
the present time flooded with infirm and
comparatively useless sires, prematurely
broken down by injudicious treatment at
a tender age. Still, many of those which
come from a good old stock may be worth
using with thoroughly sound mares of ex-

ceptional stoutness, but care should be taken

10 GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF

in their selection. The main principle in
stock-breeding is to insure that any defective
point in one parent shall be compensated
by a corresponding excellence of that point
in the other; and it should be remembered
that a deficiency is more likely to be made
good when not only the alternative parent,
but the strain from which it comes, has
excelled in that particular point.

With regard to the age at which horses
should be allowed to breed, it stands to reason
that the most vigorous, and therefore the
most useful, foals are to be expected from
parents in the prime of life; but what this
is depends very much upon the way in
which they have been treated, particularly
when young. The general impression as to
horses’ ages is, I cannot help thinking, an
erroneous one. How often do we hear of
horses alluded to (generally, it must be
admitted, by the inexperienced, but some-

times by persons who, one would think,

BREEDING AND REARING. 1]

should know better) as being old at ten or
twelve! True, many are practically made
- so by injudicious treatment before reaching
maturity; otherwise a horse of such age
should be in the very zenith and fulness
of his powers—in the prime of life, as we
say of mankind. For the span of years
allotted to this animal, in ratio with the
three score years and ten of man, is, I
maintain, thirty, or at least twenty-five,
rather than twenty, as seems generally to
be supposed; while even were it the latter,
it would surely be a mistake to reckon such
an animal as the horse, which retains its
vigour till so late in life, old when he has
completed but half his normal existence! I
do not account mine old at fifteen, and was
until lately riding as hack a little thorough-
bred mare, which went with all the spring
and fire of a four-year-old at sixteen,—but
she had, of course, done no work when

young to hurt her. Also, I remember a

12 GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF

pair of well-bred chestnut leaders working
a fast coach out of London, one of which
was twenty-one, and the other twenty-four
years of age!

In breeding, therefore, we need not
consider a matron of the stud at all
elderly at, say, from twelve to seventeen,
since many mares have produced good foals
when well past the latter age; as, for
instance, Priam, Crucifix, and Brutandorf,
whose dams were all past twenty when
they were foaled. Wary, again, begat his
almost equally famous son Whisker in
his twenty-second year; Melbourne, Blink
Bonny, dual winner of Derby and Oaks, at
nineteen ; while the sire of the flying
Voltigeur was twenty-one. We cite race-
horses, be it understood, because it is only
of them that reliable records have for any
length of time been kept; but the principle
is naturally the same with all breeds—except

that we should bear in mind that the horse’s

BREEDING AND REARING. 13

longevity is said (and there is a certain
amount of truth in it) to be in proportion to
his rate of speed. Thus the carthorse would
be quite old at twenty, the half-bred at
twenty-five, and the thoroughbred at thirty.

Two very young or very old animals should
not be mated together, the progeny in such
cases being apt to be weakly and undersized.
Both vigour of youth and full maturity
should be on one side or the other in all
unions. Thus, if a young mare is chosen,
say three or four years old, her mate should
not be less than from eight to twelve; while
if the mare is of mature age, she may be
sent with advantage to a fresh young horse ;
and in this way the services of any animal
it may be wished to breed from can be
safely utilised at almost any age.

In the rearing of young horses two ex-
tremes would seem to suggest themselves
for avoidance—namely, too much coddling

and too little care. It must never be lost

14 GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF

sight of that the horse, as we use him, is
required to live under quite artificial con-
ditions. In his original state he lives
entirely out of doors, finds his own shelter
or does without it, and ranges over a wide
extent of country to pick up his living as
he can—lives, in short, a natural and there-
fore a healthy life. Subjected to the re-
straints of civilisation all these conditions
are changed. He is confined in stalls or
boxes, put to fast, or heavy and continuous
work, and fed on a diet of highly stimulating
character. He must therefore be reared
accordingly.

Exposure to weather of all kinds I
regard as an essential to the general har-
dening of his constitution, so the more
he is out of doors the better; but at the
same time this exposure should not be too
severe, lest his growth and development
be thereby checked. The modern custom
with young horses likely to be of any value

BREEDING AND REARING. 15

is rather to over-feed them than otherwise,
with a view to increase of size, and appear-
ance, at any rate, of early maturity; but
I am strongly of opinion that the forcing
of any young thing is the reverse of judicious,

and that the animal is likely to be stronger

“(A Natural and therefore Healthy Life.”

in constitution and of greater vigour when
in full age, if allowed to develop in a
gradual and therefore more natural manner.

Do your colt well by all means, but do not
overdo him, remembering that large supplies

of stimulating food, and the vitiated air of

16 PRINCIPLES OF BREEDING AND REARING.

close stabling are not his native regimen.
If to stint a colt for the sake of saving
expense is bad economy, I consider the
opposite extreme little wiser. It may pay
to force a colt, as every young thing is
now forced, for an early market; but if
the object be, as it should be, the rearing
of a sound, seviceable horse, which shall
perform his work in life well, and retain
his wondrous native vigour and spirit till
well on in years, I believe an observance
of these few broad and general principles
which I have here attempted to indicate,

to be highly advisable.

CHAPTER II.

INFLUENCE OF THE TURF ON HORSE-
BREEDING.

THe Turf! What visions of delight the
term conjures up to the lover of horses!
Newmarket Heath, with its vast expanse
of galloping ground ; its labyrinth of courses ;
its historic Ditch; its memories of mighty
equine heroes of the past, and their almost
equally famous owners, trainers, and jockeys ;
its strings of modern racers, pacing with the
inimitable lounging gait of the thorough-
bred through its ancient streets to their
spacious training tracks on the Race or Bury
side; Epsom Downs, scene every year of the
most remarkable and characteristic gathering
of the British people, and equally interesting
to the student of Turf lore for its historic
17 2

18 INFLUENCE OF THE TURF

associations; Doncaster, where the clans of
the north foregather to witness the struggle
for the “Coop”; or the great St. Leger,
where the Derby form is triumphantly vindi-
cated, or, with equal frequency refuted by
some flying filly in the mare’s month, or
colt which has wonderfully “ come on ”’ since
the summer contest; Royal Ascot too, and
*‘ glorious’ Goodwood, with many another
arena of the national sport, less renowned,
yet equally dear through personal association,
or that glamour which enshrines the memories
of famous horses and men. Despite number-
less sketches and memoirs of its past glories,
the full romance of the Turf has yet to be
written, and when it is it should be a work
of absorbing interest to a large proportion
of the British public.

But what is to be said for the great argu-
ment which the apologists of the Turf have
from time immemorial advanced on _ behalf

of a sport which, intrinsically a noble and

ON HORSE-BREEDING. 19

beautiful one, has yet served more than any
other to display the uglier side of human
nature, and affords constant opportunities for
the exercise of some of the basest chicanery
of which the mind of man is capable—that
its object is the improvement of the breed
of horses? We believe this to have been
the honest desire of those who introduced
and first practised the sport of horse-racing
in this country; but that any such com-
mendable motive animates and inspires any
considerable proportion of those now engaged
in it, and particularly the ignoble army of
welshers, gulls, loafers, touts, and tipsters
which frequents almost every racecourse in
the kingdom, is manifestly incredible. Yet
is the claim that such has been the effect
of the introduction of horse-racing in these
islands by no means an idle one, for it is
entirely to the importation of stock fit for
this purpose that we owe the superiority in

all kinds of light horses, for which we have

20 INFLUENCE OF THE TURF

so long enjoyed a most enviable reputation.
Indeed, we may go so far as to assert that,
but for the extraordinary fascination of the
sport of horse-racing, such animals as we can
ride and drive to-day would still have been
extremely rare in our midst. Not a hunter,
hack, or harness horse, scarcely so much as
a butcher’s cob or greengrocer’s pony, but
owes the best of his qualities to some one
or other of those pure-bred sires, with whose
more or less illustrious names and pedigrees
the British ‘Stud Book” teems.

It is indeed most instructive to trace the
gradual improvement of the British horse
from the inception of this sport to the present
day. What horse was indigenous to the
British Isles, or whence he was first imported
hither, it is not needful here to discuss. It
is an accredited fact that when the Romans
invaded this country they found the horse
in general use both for chariot work and

riding purposes. Beyond this we have no

ON HORSE-BREEDING. Q1

reliable authority, but are left to grope
pretty much in the dark, from the time when
Vegetius wrote in the fourth century on the
veterinary art until the days of the Stuarts,
in which that serious attention first began
to be paid to horse-breeding which has since
become so decided a national characteristic.
Circumstances had long directed the attention
of the Crown to this important matter. In
the reign of Henry VIII., by which time we
had acquired some knowledge of what was
done by other nations, the need of a better
horse supply was so much felt that an Act
was passed forbidding the turning out of
any entire horse that was over two years,
and was less than fifteen hands high, on
any common or waste land in certain counties,
presumably those considered the best adapted
for horse-breeding, which included Yorkshire,
Lincoln, Cambridge, Suffolk, Northampton,
Cheshire, Salop, Hants, Wilts, and Somerset,

with some fifteen others, as well as the

22 INFLUENCE OF THE TURF

Principality of Wales. In the counties not
specified in the schedule the limit was fixed
at a hand less. Weedy and ill-grown mares
and foals were by the same Act (27 cap. 6,
1535) ordered to be destroyed; and owners
of turned-out horses infected with any con-
tagious disease were made liable to a fine
of ten shillings.

Notwithstanding this and similar Acts,
the scarcity continued so great that at
the threatened invasion of the Spanish
Armada we learn that no more than three
thousand horses could be procured, and even
this small drain upon the equine resources
of the country involved some disturbance of
the internal traffic of the kingdom, then
carried on mainly by means of pack horses.
Fortunately on that memorable occasion no
cavalry was required, and, indeed, so far
from depleting our miserable horse supply,
the Armada proved actually a means of

improving it; for on board the huge Spanish

ON HORSE-BREEDING. 23

ships were carried a considerable number of
Andalusian stallions, then deemed the best
in Europe, many of which, being saved, were
of service in improving the native breed.

These Andalusians were horses of fine ap-
pearance and spirit, not very large, but
compactly built, with lofty crests and action,
but wide of chest and probably slow. Almost
any importation of fresh blood must have
been at that time of value; but though
the rescued Andalusian, so far as he went,
may have improved the appearance of the
miserable garron probably in ordinary use
at that period, it was not until the succeed-
ing dynasty that any considerable advance
was made in the speed of the native pro-
duct. We are, in fact, indebted to the
Stuarts for the foundations of our thorough-
bred stock.

The first clear account we have of an
Eastern, or pedigree horse being brought to

this country was in the reign of James I.,

24 INFLUENCE OF THE TURF

when a Mr. Markham, a London merchant,
imported an Arab stallion from Constanti-
nople, which he sold to the king for £150,
a large sum for those days. The Duke of
Newcastle, considered the best judge of a
horse at the time, describes it as a “ little
horse, of a bay colour and no rarity of
shape.” He proved a great disappointment,
neither he nor his progeny being fast enough
to race. Matters more absorbing than horse-
breeding now supervened to engage the
attention of the Stuart kings, and nothing
more was done until the Protectorate, when
Mr. Place, who was stud-groom to Oliver
Cromwell, introduced an Eastern horse, which
appears in the stud book as Place’s White
Turk, but history records no more of him.

A real start was made, however, a few
years later, when Charles II. imported four
Barb mares from Tangiers. These Royal
Mares, as they were called, crossed with

horses belonging to the Duke of Buck-

ON HORSE-BREEDING. 25

ingham, and known as Fairfax’s Morocco
Barb and the Helmsly Turk, laid the
foundation of our English thoroughbred
stock ; and with their produce nothing else
was used for many years, until in fact
nearly the end of the seventeenth century,
with the exception of three mares of pure
breed, known as the Hamburg Mares, which
were taken at the siege of Vienna and sent
to England in 1684.

But a few years later three very notable
entire horses were imported, which exerted
an extraordinary influence upon the English
blood stock as already established. These
were :—

The Byerley Turk, 1689, said to have
been ridden by his owner, Captain Byerley,
at the battle of the Boyne, and which, being
afterwards put to the stud, became in time
the ancestor of Jatch’em, and thereby of
the numerous descendants from that famous

sire.

26 INFLUENCE OF THE TURF

The Darley Arabian, 1705, was sent to
his brother in England by Mr. Darley, a
merchant at Aleppo. This horse, said to
have been the most beautiful ever imported,
was probably a pure-bred desert Arab, and
was reputed to have come, with a marvellous
pedigree, from Palmyra. He became the
sire of the Devonshire, or ‘ Flying’? Childers,
as he was subsequently called from his
tremendous pace, being reputed the fastest
horse known in this country before the
mighty Lelipse.

The Godolphin Arabian, 1724, supposed
by some to have been a Barb and not an
Arab at all, though of course the two were
very similar in type and character. The
romantic history of this horse is well known
—how he was presented by the Emperor of
Morocco to Louis XIV., but was so little
valued by that monarch that he was presently
degraded to the shafts of a Paris water-cart,

wherein he was cruelly overworked by his

ON HORSE-BREEDING. 27

proprietor, but watched over the while by
his faithful attendant till he was rescued
and brought to England by Mr. Coke. Even
here he was thought little of, and given no
chance at the stud till he took one for him-
self, as is portrayed in Rosa Bonheuyr’s last
great picture, “The Duel,” a fine copy of
which has by a coincidence reached me
from Messrs. Lefevre while engaged on this
chapter. The influence of this horse upon
our thoroughbred stock, transmitted chiefly
through Lath and Cade, the offspring of his
unions with Roxana, has equalled, if not
surpassed, even that of the Darley Arabian.

From these three founts of pure blood
all our best stock has been derived, and
there has hardly been a racehorse of any
eminence which could not directly trace his
descent from one or more of these illustrious
fathers of the stud. ‘The Godolphin Arab,”
“Stonehenge,” one of our most reliable equine

authorities remarks, “is very commonly

28 INFLUENCE OF THE TURF

supposed to have been the last Eastern horse
of any note to be used in the stud, with the
exception of the Wellesley Grey Arab in the
last century.” This notion he controverts,
and cites the names of the Damascus Arab,
1756, Bell’s Grey Arab, 1765, and others.
Any horse of pure blood from the Kast is, it
should be understood, very properly admitted
at once to the “‘ Stud Book” as thoroughbred.

Having thus briefly, but according to the
best authorities, reliably traced the influence
of the Turf from the first importation of
Eastern blood, we cannot but have arrived
at the conclusion that such influence has
been of the most beneficial character, so far
as regards the improvement of our native
breed of horses. When we reflect that every
hack that has given us a_ pleasant ride,
every hunter that has carried us safely and
comfortably with hounds, as well as all the
harness horses that, through the long period

which elapsed before the adaptation of steam

ON HORSE-BREEDING. 29

to purposes of locomotion, afforded the sole
means of transport through the length and
breadth of the land at a quicker rate than
four or five miles an hour, has owed the
best of its speed and stoutness to this im-
ported blood, and that this never would
have been imported but for racing purposes,
we must necessarily admit that the modern
horse supply of this country is very deeply
indebted to the Turf as an institution.

The question next arises, Is its influence
as beneficial now, or likely to be so in the
future? We are compelled reluctantly to
admit that on this point we are unable to
return so favourable an answer. The great
extension of our modern practice of two-
year-old racing, and the introduction of
multitudinous sprinting scrambles for large
stakes, with the absence of long distance
races from the cards of most meetings,
have naturally resulted in the development

of a flashy, speedy sort of horse, which can

30 INFLUENCE OF THE TURF

fly for five furlongs, but which has no
stamina or staying power, and breaks down
through unfair pressure at an age when his
predecessor on the Turf was just running
into his best form. The vexed question
whether the modern racer would prove as
stout as his progenitors, if he were given
the chance to mature, is one we need not
discuss, since he seems unlikely ever to be
given that chance. It is no exaggeration
to say that nine-tenths of our racehorses
are hopelessly and helplessly used up before
reaching maturity. Then they are sent to
the stud, which is flooded with speedy
broken-down crocks and jades, nervous and
irritable in temper, their constitutions im-
paired, and joints and ligaments strained
and injured by the severity of their early
training.

Greed and gambling are, of course, re-
sponsible for this. So long as racing

was indulged in by the noble and

ON HORSE-BREEDING. 31

wealthy as a sport, its effects upon horse-
breeding for general purposes seem to have
been distinctly advantageous, but now that.
it has become a_ business, and often a
lucrative one, the Turf as an_ institution
appears to have ceased to be of use in this
direction. Lord Durham spoke very strongly
on this subject at a recent Gimerack dinner,
and that such is the opinion of the Royal
Commission we infer from the significant
fact that the Queen’s Plates, so long estab-
lished for the purpose of improving the
breed of horses in these Islands, and once
competed for by the very cream of our
racing studs, but of late years contested
only by inferior horses (hence the term,
most uncomplimentary to Her Majesty’s
patronage of the Turf, of “a mere Plater’’),
have been recently abolished, and the money
voted for these plates applied to another
purpose, which we shall come to discuss

in a later chapter.

CHAPTER III.

STUD BOOKS, AND THEIR EFFECT ON
BREEDING,

THE most notable feature in the modern
cult of live stock has undoubtedly been the
institution of the system of registration of
certain lines of pure blood, which is now
applied to so many breeds and kinds of
domestic animals. While we should bear
in mind that very considerable improvement
was effected by pioneer breeders without
such aid, we cannot but perceive how great
must have been the need of some system
of registration, and how beneticial is likely
to be its effect upon the stock of the new
century. One of the most certain predictions
we can make in regard to it is, that it will

inevitably witness the extended application
32

STUD BOOKS. 33

of the system to all such breeds as it does
not yet embrace. Indeed, the ever-increasing
demand for specimens of the purest strains
in all branches of agricultural and “fancy ”
stock renders such extension a logical out-
come of the present age.

The advantages of such a system are
obvious. Our Stud, Herd, and Flock Books
are of the greatest possible assistance to
breeders; alike in directing them to the
source of the purest blood, and enabling
them to test by an infallible process the
pretensions of animals offered to supply their
needs. This depends, of course, upon the
absolute fidelity with which such books are
kept, and the strict exclusion of all animals
which cannot trace their derivation from
registered parents. That such rigour will
cause the occasional rejection of animals
superior in every respect, save that of un-
blemished or proven descent, to some of those

admitted is a matter of course;: but, being
3

34 STUD BOOKS.

the only safeguard, it is one which must
be scrupulously observed.

The Stud Book (I use the term generically,
to include all Flock and Herd Books, as
well as those devoted to the registration
of horses) once established, such animals
only must be admitted into its sacred
pages as derive their origin from parents
already entered: otherwise there can be no
guarantee of purity of blood.

In matters equine we have been most
consistent. For more than a century and
a half we have carefully preserved the
pedigrees of our own pure-bred horses, and
the single exception to this rule has been
the admission to the volumes which contain
them of imported Barbs and Arabs of ac-
credited race. That our authorities are
justified in admitting an imported horse of
approved race to the Stud Book without
demur is shown by the extraordinary pre-

cautions taken by the breeders of high caste

MERRY MATCHMAKER.

Hunter Stallion.

Property of Sir Walter Gilbey.

STUD BOOKS. 37

Arabians to ensure purity of blood. Certain
ceremonies are observed at the covering of
the mare, and on the birth of the foal a
certificate is made out by the local authority,
which must be done within seven days of
its being dropped. ‘It has been asserted,”
“Stonehenge” remarks, ‘‘ by Oriental travellers,
that pedigrees exist which may be traced
back for five hundred years!” When the
Godolphin Arab, whose original name by the
way appears to have been Scham, was pre-
sented, with eight other horses, by the Bey
of Tunis to the King of France, his attendant,
a Moor named Agba, wore about his neck
an embroidered bag of camel’s hair containing
the illustrious history and pedigree of his
precious charge. It was no doubt from the
importation of these Eastern horses into this
country that we learned the value of a
reliable pedigree, and to record the descent
of our own thoroughbred stock.

Should the present interest in the breeding

38 STUD BOOKS.

of live stock, and especially of horses,
continue, our other most cherished breeds
will soon be similarly provided for, for of
making many Stud Books there is no end.
Besides the time-honoured volumes known as
the “* Stud-Book’”’—.e., the General Stud Book
for thoroughbred horses, published by Messrs.
Weatherby and Sons—we have now the
following institutions for the preservation
and continuance of our various breeds of
horses, many of which have their own duly
entered and authentic pedigree records :—A
Royal Commission on Horse-breeding (of which
more in another chapter), The Shire Horse
Society, The Suffolk Horse Society, The
Clydesdale Horse Society of Great Britain
and Treland, The Cleveland Bay Horse
Society of Great Britain and Ireland, York-
shire Coach Horse Society, and the London
Cart Horse Parade Society. Then for the
lighter breeds there are The Hunter's Im-

provement Society, The Hackney Horse Society,

‘AaqID IYEM WS jo Az1ad01g
“LIADANVA TVAOU

STUD BOOKS. 41

and The Trotting Union of Great Britain
and Ireland; while on behalf of ponies
exist The Polo Pony Society, The Association
for the improvement of New Forest Ponies,
and The Shetland Pony Stud Book Society.
From this goodly list, which is taken from
the latest Almanack of the Live Stock
Journal, we gain some idea of the care
which is being bestowed upon the main-
tenance and development of the various
breeds of horses in greatest use and favour
at the present time. The only two important
varieties not provided for would seem to
be the Welsh and Moorland Ponies, for
which two estimable breeds I would certainly
like to see some similar provision made.
Somewhat, indeed, has been done for them.
The Polo Pony Society Council arranged
with the Royal Agricultural Society of
England for classes for Polo ponies at
their Show at Maidstone in 1898, towards
which the Polo Pony Society contributed

42 STUD BOOKS.

the sum of £210. In addition to these
prizes the Council agreed to offer gold
and silver medals for Polo pony stallions,
mares, and geldings exhibited at shows,
giving a specified amount in prizes for
Polo ponies, and in addition to the section
for Polo ponies, to open separate sections
for ponies of the Mountain and Moorland
breeds. Committees of inspection are being
formed to whom will be relegated the task
of approving ponies for these sections.

The grand result to be expected from the
establishment of these numerous stud books,
is, of course, a nearer approach to certainty
in breeding what one aims to breed. Such
has unquestionably been the result of the
general “Stud Book,” now so long established
that its effects have had time to be fully
experienced. Many blanks to one prize are
no doubt the practical result in breeding
thoroughbreds ; but the disappointments are

due rather to failure in performance than

‘Kaqio JEM MWS jo Ayr9d01g
‘auINoOS NOGHH

STUD BOOKS. 45

to defect of type. If the value of the horse
depended upon his general aggregate of good
qualities rather than on his individual and
special power of achievement—that is to
say, if the test to which he is subjected
were a qualifying one, and not a competitive
(since in a race, though all the horses may
be good horses, only one of them can win)
—then the breeding of thoroughbred stock
would be reduced to as great a certainty
as can be experienced in any such enter-
prise. For though a thoroughbred horse
that is not quite speedy enough to win
any of the short distance scurries, which
seem now to constitute the popular notion of
the noble sport of horse-racing, is generally
(though, I think, erroneously) considered an
almost worthless animal; yet, no matter how
often a breeder draws a blank in this respect,
he always gets what in effect he breeds
for—viz., a horse of the thoroughbred con-

figuration and character, since no animal

46 STUD BOOKS, AND THEIR

breeds more true to type. Now, it is just
this breeding true to type which one is apt
not to get in other breeds, unless it be with
the mountain and moorland ponies aforesaid,
which, left to run in a semi-wild state and
breed according to natural selection, seem
to retain their type from generation to
generation. After due care and time the
results attained in the case of the thorough-
bred may be looked for in other breeds,
which are now supplied with their respective
“Stud Books.” Time; it must be remembered,
is quite as essential as care wherever nature
has to be dealt with; the most that man
with all his powers of precaution and God-
given judgment can effect being to guide
natural effort into the desired channel.
The best results, brief as is the time in
which the system of registration has been
applied to them, have already shown them-
selves in the case of the Clydesdale and other
breeds of cart horse. Even the Cleveland

EFFECT ON BREEDING. 47

bay and the Yorkshire coach horse, which
as types had, since the disappearance of fast
public traffic from our roads, been nearly
lost, are now in process of being revived
and perpetuated by the same means; though
that there will be very much demand for this
class of horse in the future I rather question.
They are undoubtedly unapproached by any
breed in this country for fast yet heavy
road work; but with lighter carriages and
only short-distance driving (since in these
railway days very few long road journeys
are undertaken), the set of public favour
seems rather towards the modern hackney
type, short, smart, and quick, than those
lengthy and upstanding, yet well-coupled
horses, which would have so delighted our
coaching ancestors could they have fore-
gathered at some of our Northern and
Eastern show rings in recent years.

It is in the breeding of this modern

hackney that the greatest uncertainty seems

48 STUD BOOKS.

to prevail; but the reason of this is plain,
for not only has this horse had little time
yet to develop, but he is himself a very
composite animal. The hackney, or roadster,
as he was more commonly called, of the
preceding and early part of the last century
was a very different, and probably more
useful horse than the present fashionable
animal. He had no uniform characteristics,
nor indeed, was he specially bred for his
work. Before railway days it is obvious
there must have been an immense deal
more hacking work in this country than
there is now, or will ever be again. Men of
various classes rode ‘ post,” or on their
own nags, on business or pleasure habitually,
who now perhaps never cross a horse at
all, save some few in the hunting season.
And the nags they rode were as diverse in
character as their riders. Yet I have not
the least doubt but that where one safe
and comfortable hack is to be found to-day

‘bsg

‘sannayqueddg “y “M Jo 4ys0d01g—"seziid Auew yo sump, “Ay Aeuqoepyy plo-re0A-omL
‘VGNITEG AIMONA ;

STUD BOOKS. 51

there were ten then. The best probably
were obtained from a cross between descen-
dants of the old English packhorse (said
to have been a stout, well-shaped, and most
serviceable animal) and the thoroughbred ;
or of the latter with the Welsh cob or
Northern galloway, than which nothing
could be better for a hackney. The modern
candidate for the ‘‘ Hackney Stud Book” and
prizes is no doubt a more showy and symme-
trical animal, but rarely with anything like
the endurance or easy natural paces of his
predecessor. Made up of so many different
strains of blood, with an unknown ancestry
comprising horses of all shapes and _ sizes,
it is not surprising that he should, notwith-
standing all the care taken on his behalf,
not infrequently disappoint his breeder.

A horse, like every other creature, is a
conglomerate of all or any of the points and
characteristics of a long line of progenitors,

and no one can tell in what proportion any

52 STUD BOOKS, AND THEIR

of these may be produced in a remote
descendant—which or what of them the
latest representative will, as our country
folks say, most favour. This, as we have
suggested, is especially the case with the
modern hackney, because of the greater
variety of, so to speak, his constituent
parts. In any individual specimen may
predominate the points of his great-great-
ereat-grandsire, an immediate descendant
of some famous old English entire pack-
horse, or of his great-great-granddam, a
simple cart mare of the period; or again
he may show most of the somewhat thick
forehand and lofty action of the Norfolk
trotter, or in a bad nick a coarse head and
upright loaded shoulder combined with the
slender bone and calf-knees of some weedy
thoroughbred. The Stud Book will in time
correct this tendency, and the hackney will
presently breed more true to type. Then

he will have more admirers than he

EFFECT ON BREEDING. 53

commands at present; though, personally, I
fancy I should always prefer a short-legged
thoroughbred, or nearly thoroughbred, horse
for any kind of hacking work.

The main use of Stud Books, we may
say, then, in conclusion, is to preserve an
infallible record by which the breeder may
clearly trace the descent of his stock from
the purest sources ; and if this register could
be supplemented by a scale of points, and
the degree in which these existed in the
several animals whose names and numbers
figure therein, it would be of greater value
still. Myr. William Housman, in an article
entitled “Aids to Judgment in Stock-breed-
ing,’ which appeared lately in the Live
Stock Journal Almanack, makes this sug-
gestion, with the remark that ‘“ pedigree
and certificate of personal character should
go together.”” The obvious difficulty would be
in the dimensions to which the Stud Book

volumes, already sufficiently bulky, would

54 STUD BOOKS.

attain. If condensed forms of pedigree, with
completion by means of reference, could
make room for this further information, the
innovation would be a great improvement.
For the amplification and working out of
this idea may also be commended a most
valuable paper upon “ Photographic Records
of Pedigree Stock,” by Mr. Francis Galton,
F.R.S., read before the Zoological Section
of the British Association a few years ago,
at Bristol.

CHAPTER IV.

BREEDING ARMY HORSES.*

We have little idea in times of peace,
when it is often difficult to dispose satis-
factorily of any light animal not of the
highest class, how great would be the demand
for any kind of horse during and after an
European war. Possibly before the next occurs
motor-power will have become fully estab-
lished; but even then the demand for horses
for the army would not be much diminished,
and the supply even more difficult, since
fewer would be bred. I well remember
buying some ponies on Dartmoor some six
or eight years after the Franco-German war,
which so sent up the price of horses for

* This Chapter was written the year preceding the

outbreak of the South African War.
55

56 BREEDING ARMY HORSES.

several years that at that date a fair-shaped
moorland pony, previously to be bought for
a very small sum, fetched unbroken, almost
unhandled, at three or four years old, from
fifteen to twenty pounds. If, therefore, a
great Continental war exerted for several
years after its conclusion an influence even
upon the small-pony market of Great Britain,
what might not the effect be of a similar
war in which this country was an actual
combatant?

There is perhaps a popular impression
that the British cavalry is the best horsed
in the world, but the impression, if it exists,
is @ very erroneous one. Few regiments
have a full complement of horses—that
is to say, each has a considerable proportion
of unmounted men, while the quality of
the horses they have is nothing to boast of.
The military manceuvres recently conducted
on the spacious downs of Wilts and Dorset,

in which a_ larger cavalry force was

BREEDING ARMY HORSES. 57

employed than had ever been collected in
England before, afforded an admirable oppor-
tunity for one interested in the matter to
judge for himself. Some 50,000 troops of
all arms were encamped in my immediate
neighbourhood, and it was the unanimous
opinion of such of the country residents
(many of them fair judges on such points)
as remembered the autumn manceuvres
held in this same district in 1872, that
the physique of both men and horses had
greatly deteriorated from that of those
employed on the previous occasion. Being
able to remember something of the ma-
neeuvres held on Dartmoor in 1873, I was
disposed to agree. Without committing
myself to the opinion of a buxom house-
wife, who, standing with her arms akimbo,
as company after company of Her Majesty’s
Militia and Infantry of the Line filed past
her cottage gate, exclaimed, “ What a lot

of dirty little boys!’’—their dirtiness at

58 BREEDING ARMY HORSES.

least was honourable testimony of a long
day’s work under a broiling sun on our
parched chalk downs and in dusty lanes—
I will confine my criticism to the horses.
Sitting one August afternoon on my pony
at the centre of village cross-roads, in
company of a farmer friend who is an
excellent judge, I watched squadron after
squadron of British cavalry file past at the
conclusion of the day’s work, and not a.
good horse, according to our views, could
we discover among them (some of the
officers’ mounts of course excepted). There
was great uniformity, it must be admitted,
but it was an uniformity of bad points—
all seemed to be both light and _ coarse,
with plain heads, upright shoulders, no back
ribs to speak of, and drooping quarters. It
may be that, trained in the canons of the
show ring, and used to our own admirably
horsed Dorset Yeomanry, in which a large

proportion of troopers used to ride serviceable

areUl pIIqysnosoy} & JO yo VsIOY 3ur4301} oIYysHIOX e Aq ‘asioy-doory Aspeaed jysIT Jo dé} [njosn vy

x = =)

Us

BREEDING ARMY HORSES. 61

hunters of greater or less value, we were
over fastidious; but, be that as it may,
the average British troop horse of the
present era seemed to us about fit for a
country carrier’s cart, or to go to plough
on very light land. Nevertheless, they did
their work, long hours of manceuvring under
heavy weight and a blazing sun, and I
believe did it well, so it may fairly be
asked, What more would you require in
horse or man P

Still, I fancy, and I believe it is the opinion
of many cavalry officers who have served
in that country (though esprit de corps
might render them reluctant to admit it),
that our Indian cavalry, at any rate in a
long campaign, would ride round the British,
mounted as the latter are; their horses,
though smaller, being so much better shaped
—and bred. To carry weight for long dis-
tances day after day, with perhaps occasional

sharp bursts at nearly full speed, you must

62 BREEDING ARMY HORSES.

have breed. It is the possession of this
subtle quality which explains the wonderful
efficiency of the Indian cavalry,* whose
little horses, mere ponies as we should con-

sider them, carry men quite as long, and

NEJIBA.

Property of Wilfrid Scawen Blunt, Esq.

probably often as heavy as our own, with

such wondrous ease and endurance. Size in

* The native trooper, too, is an admirable horse-master.
It is the opinion of many experienced officers, that, could
Indian cavalry have been used in Africa, the war would

not have lasted half as long as it did.

BREEDING ARMY HORSES. 63

hands and inches, it must be always remem-
bered, is no criterion of ability to carry
weight at high pressure, any more than
volume of flesh is, though it is the com-

monest of errors to suppose this. As a

MESAOUD.
Property of Wilfrid Scawen Blunt, Esq.

matter of fact, in the hunting field in a long
or very quick run you often see overgrown
brutes, soft as they are big, for which the
owners have given perhaps well over a
hundred guineas, stopping and blowing and

tumbling about, while some little well-bred

64 ‘BREEDING ARMY HORSES.

thing, which the thirteen-stone rider would
suppose just fit to “carry his boots,” goes
on with ease and safety to the finish.

We are of course aware that the officers
charged with the important duty of se-
lecting cavalry remounts are men of the
best experience in their profession, and
very often good judges of a horse to boot,
but they are of necessity limited as to price,
and perhaps a little hampered by traditions
of the past, when cavalry service was very
different from what it is now, both as regards
the duties to be performed, and the stamp
of horses and men best suited to perform
them. No doubt those horses, which so
poorly satisfied our country critics at the
1898 manceuvres (but which, as we have
admitted, seemed to do their work so much
better than their appearance would lead one
to expect), were the best that in sufficient
numbers could be procured at the regulation

price; but need they be so, if Government

BREEDING ARMY HORSES. 65

would seriously take up the matter and
make provision for the future? The Horse
Artillery batteries were furnished with
animals of far more satisfactory appearance,
which is easily explained by the fact that a
larger price is allowed for them, and that
breed is by no means so essential for draft
as for saddle work.

The general supply of horses has not of
late years been equal, either in quality or
quantity, to what it formerly was. Ireland
has for long been our chief source of supply ;
and whenever you see a horse going par-
ticularly well with hounds, or an exception-
ally clever jumper in field’ or ring, it is
most likely an Irish bred one. But in the
agricultural returns for Ireland in live stock
for last year we notice a decrease of over
20,000 horses and mules; which, though
counterbalanced by a corresponding increase
in cattle, is by no means satisfactory from

our point of view. Should this decrease
5

66 BREEDING ARMY HORSES.

continue, how shall we be able to horse our
army in the future ?

Our insular position relieves us to some
extent from the necessity of being able to
place our cavalry on a war footing at a
moment’s notice, an ability which is rightly
deemed of the utmost importance by the
great Continental powers; and it has always
been considered that in a nation so fond of
horses as our own, the cavalry supply might
well be left to the general enterprise of the
country. We gravely question if, now that
almost everybody is declining horse-breeding
on the grounds that it does not pay, this
theory is quite so safe as it was formerly
considered. As a matter of fact no one in
this country ever did breed for the army;
it would never have paid to do so. The
army has had to buy whatever had not
sufficient quality or style to attract the
dealer or private purchaser. If breeders

then are inclined, as seems to be the case,

BREEDING ARMY HORSES. 67

to produce only a few animals of the choicer
sorts, and the supply from Ireland continues
to diminish, what will our cavalry do ?

It has been suggested that we could in
time of stress draw our troop horses from
the dominion of Canada. These horses have
lately been imported in considerable numbers
for omnibus and tramcar work, but judging
from those I have seen I should hardly
consider them very fit for cavalry remounts.
Colonel White, however, who commanded a
regiment of horse in that country, found
them hardy, active, docile, and surefooted,
a combination of virtues which should cer-
tainly commend them for this purpose ; while
Colonel Soane Jenyns, C.B., some years ago
confirmed this estimate by reporting to a
Lords’ Committee on Horse Supply that
Canadians made first-rate troopers, being
capital hacks, a little straight in the shoulder
(bad enough fault in a hack one would
think), and good fencers. He had bought,

68 BREEDING ARMY HORSES.

he said, 180 of them, and was well pleased
with them all; did not wish, in fact, for
better troopers. Such practical experience
must of course be allowed to outweigh any
private opinion upon the subject. Never-
theless, it must be borne in mind that such
supply could only be obtained after con-
siderable delay, and would depend upon
our uninterrupted command of the high
seas. This we hope we shall, humanly
speaking, always retain; yet under the
happiest circumstances the ocean passage
of troop horses must always be a precarious
enterprise enough.

All things considered J am strongly of
opinion that, whether or not we have to
follow Continental nations in the matter of
conscription, the time has already come in
which we should follow their example in
the establishment of Government breeding
studs. The time, moreover, is propitious.
Land is cheap, and the best—i.e., the most

BREEDING ARMY HORSES. 69

highly productive and therefore the most
expensive to purchase—is not required for
the purpose. My impression is that a better
stamp of horse could be thus produced at
less expense, than under the present system
of purchasing what is not good enough for
the private buyer. At any rate, I should
much like to see the experiment tried by
the establishment of eight of these haras,
or Government breeding studs—say two in
Treland, one in Wales, one in Scotland, and
one in each of the counties of Yorkshire,
Salop, Cheshire, and Hants or Wilts. For,
as matters are, the country is being con-
tinually drained of the best and most suitable
sires to supply the Continental studs. France,
Germany, Austria, Hungary, and Russia
have for many years been systematically
purchasing our best entire horses, none of
which, except indirectly—i.e., by chance
private breeding—have therefore contributed

to the army horse supply of the country

70 BREEDING ARMY HORSES.

which produced them. This surely is not as
it should be! We must confess that these
foreign powers have been wiser in their
generation than we, and by their superior
enterprise have gradually denuded us of our
best stock, till nearly all their cavalry are
better horsed than our own.

Germany probably has the best cavalry
in Europe, and has obtained it more economi-
cally than her great neighbour and rival across
the Rhine. France’s mistake has been to
give too large sums for the celebrated winners
of great stakes in this country; and Russia
seems disposed towards the same error—
i.e., if her recent purchase of Galtee More
at such an enormous price was intended, as
was reported, for the benefit of her Govern-
ment studs. The winner of the 1897 Derby
was a fine horse in every respect, but he
could never have been worth any such sum
for Government purposes. Instead of giving
£20,000 for a single horse, how much better

BREEDING ARMY HORSES. 71

would be the purchase of forty thoroughbred
sires, not speedy enough to win great stakes,
but sound, staying, useful horses, “likely to
get hunters,” at an average of £500 apiece.
The best racing action is not what is required
for cavalry sires; a somewhat higher and
less raking stride, with quicker turning power,
being safer over rough ground, and generally
more useful for manceuvring purposes.

But the efficiency of the German cavalry
is no new thing. Frederick the Great had
the best in his day, and won by means of it
some of his greatest victories, as Kesseldorf,
Rossbach, and Zorndoff. His light horses he
drew chiefly from Poland, but mounted his
heavy dragoons on stouter animals from North
Germany. The amount of horseflesh used
up when the great German army takes the
field is enormous. Its loss during the war
with France was computed at nearly a million
and a half. Yet their system seems always

to maintain a sufficient supply. It began

72 BREEDING ARMY HORSES.

with three breeding studs, originally designed
to furnish the royal stables with carriage
and riding horses, but which were subse-
quently employed to breed covering stallions
for country studs. Twelve such studs were
established (which have since been added to),
and prizes awarded, besides, to stallions kept
by private persons and approved by official
heads of depots, with subsidies also to good
brood mares and foals. Something like this
was doubtless the idea of the Royal Com-
mission in the establishment of Queen’s
premiums, which we hope may be productive
of good results. But what we want to see
is the Government stud for the direct supply
of the army.

What shall we breed when we have them ?
It is recorded that General Walker, our
military attaché to Berlin some years ago
(when probably our cavalry was better
mounted than it is now), was much exercised

to account for the superior endurance of the

ARABIAN THOROUGHBRED.

BREEDING ARMY HORSES. 75

Prussian troop horses over our own. He
was given as the chief reason, “ the nearer
affinity to pure Arab blood.” * This would
be sufficient explanation for me, but it is
not one probably calculated to satisfy the
military authorities at home, since the Arab
has never been properly appreciated in this
country. Some day perhaps, in some future
campaign in which he happens to be
brought into direct comparison with our
present trooper, and is found to be going
on for months after the latter is hopelessly
done up or dead, we may have our eyes
more widely opened to his extraordinary
merits. Arab blood we have not in any
considerable quantity, but we have what
might with careful selection be made equally

* A critic, an expert judge and breeder, here demands
of me, “ Why go back one hundred and fifty years; the
English thoroughbred is a perfected Arab?” My reply
is that the Arab is much hardier. The thoroughbred,

I believe, was a more useful animal one hundred years

ago than he is to-day.

76 BREEDING ARMY HORSES.

serviceable—the English thoroughbred horse,
which is nothing more or less than the same
thing, modified by our climatic conditions
and system of keeping. The ideal light
cavalry mount for modern warfare is a small,
active, well-bred mare or gelding, with a
dash of pony ea to make him hardy and
handy; and stich, by the establishment of
the haras, could be bred in considerable
numbers by crossing the slower and sounder
of our thoroughbred sirés with stout cob and
galloway mares, such as are still to be found
in Wales, Devonshire, and in some parts of
the north of England. Whenever a civilian
is so fortunate as to get hold of one bred
like this, he invariably tells you (no matter
his weight) it is the best he ever rode, and
I feel fairly confident that military experience
of such horses would be about the same.
Veterans would possibly complain at first of
their lack of weight and size for military

purposes ; but the conditions of cavalry service

BREEDING ARMY HORSES. 77

are so changed that what used to be termed
“ shock ” action may be regarded as obsolete.
This arm in the future will consist of light
horse, or very likely mounted infantry, for
either of which strong, active, and well-bred
horses will be wanted in larger numbers than

we produce them at present.

CHAPTER V.

HEAVY AND LIGHT DRAUGHT HORSES.

Despite the invasion of the automobile car,
the demand for draught horses of all kinds
steadily continues, and the home supply
being quite inadequate to meet it, the defi-
ciency has to be made up by the importation
of foreign-bred animals. This importation
is now very considerable. Forty years ago
the imports of horses to this country were
only 2,087: the return for 1897 is 49,519.
Our exports, however, show a corresponding
increase—34,471 for 1897, against 1,574 in
1857. Our imports thus exceed our exports
by 15,000, which does not necessarily imply
that we are out of pocket by the transaction,
since the value of the animals we export,

consisting largely of thoroughbred stock—
78

DRAUGHT HORSES. 79

Clydesdales and Shires, Clevelands and
Hackneys—should be far in excess of our
imports, which consist chiefly of Canadian
and South American horses; though how far
the newly developed trade with the Low
Countries in the “sausage” or “ extract of
beef” horse may lower the rate of exchange
is uncertain.

Still, when we consider the large sum of
money which these imported horses, at how-
ever low a figure they may sell, must repre-
sent, it seems a pity that our farmers and
breeders should not divert it into their own
pockets; but this seems impossible while
horses which have cost nothing to rear on
the wide prairies of the West can be offered
so cheaply in this country. We are con-
tinually being told that horse-breeding does
not pay, and it is, I suppose, true of all
but the very best quality. ‘I cannot say
that I have found that the case,” a farmer

said to me lately, to whom I had repeated

80 DRAUGHT HORSES.

the stereotyped remark; and the explanation
of his optimistic view was that he had bred,
with considerable judgment and a fair share
of good luck, a class of animal for which
there is always a good demand—namely,
weight-carrying hunters. That is just the
point: to make it profitable the breeder
must consider what sorts of animal are most
in demand, and must then use the very best
blood he can obtain. Apart from racehorses
and hunters, which require so much luck
that the breeding of them becomes almost a
lottery, nothing seems to promise better than
heavy draught horses. When we come to
study the price list of a modern sale of
Shires or Clydesdales, and reflect that such
prices are not realised just now and again
at the dispersal of some famous stud, but
whenever such animals can be put upon the
market in sufficient numbers to attract
buyers, it certainly seems as though the pro-

duction of this kind of horse, at any rate,

‘AQQND J9zTVM MS Jo A4yxado1g ‘uoyyeys amys
‘MOUANONOD GCOOMHLAITE

DRAUGHT HORSES. 83

must afford a fair margin of profit to those
who hold land suitable for the purpose.
Nor is there fear of this demand being but
a temporary one; the future is full of promise,
the demand for big, weighty, sound draught
horses, ready for street and wharf work,
having been steady and increasing for some
years. To say nothing of foreign buyers,
our railway companies and other carrying
agencies, merchants, brewers, and contractors,
are always on the look-out for strong, active
cart-horses, capable of moving great weights
and drawing them at a brisk pace on hard
roads; and from them prices ranging from
£60 to £100 and upwards are readily obtain-
able for genuine articles. Only they must
be of the right stamp, combining quality and
briskness of movement with size and weight,
Profiting by the object-lessons of the show-
yard, buyers can now judge and pick their
purchases, and in consequence the better the
horse the better the price. Our old friends

84 HEAVY AND LIGHT

Smiler and Pleasant, slab-sided and _fiddle-
headed, cumbrous and slow, impress no longer
by their mere bulk, and are not in it with
our Lancashire Lads and Lockington Beauties
of to-day. Whatever may be said, and pro-
bably there is much to be said, as to the
superior stoutness and cleverness of the old
steeplechaser, hunter, or hackney which
carried our forefathers on business or pleasure,
there can be no question as to the great
advance which has been made by scientific
breeding in the British cart-horse. The ser-
vices of improved Clydesdales in the north,
Suffolks in the eastern counties, and Shire-
bred stallions in almost every part of England
are now available to every breeder; and if
the farmer exhibits corresponding enterprise
and judgment in selecting his mares, he is
not likely to be disappointed in the result.

Thanks to frequent shows and illustrated
articles, the general appearance and points
of these three chief breeds of British cart-

DRAUGHT HORSES. 85

horse are now widely known, but we may
briefly note their main characteristics.

The Clydesdale, then, is reputed to have

SILVER CUP.

Clydesdale Stallion. Winner of Six First Prizes at National Shows.
Property of the Seaham Harbour Stud.

been the produce of an experimental cross
between the native Scotch mares and six fine
black stallions which the Duke of Hamilton

imported from Flanders in the seventeenth

86 HEAVY AND LIGHT

century, and kept at Strathaven Castle for
the use of his tenants. From this initial
cross in the county of Lanark the entire
breed of Clydesdales is said to have sprung.
We must own that this legend sounds a little
apocryphal, since it hardly seems credible
that the union of such heavy stallions as the
Flemish with the small Scotch garron would
have met with such signal success. Others
say that it was with the old English pack
mare, and, from all we have heard of the
merits of this animal, this is far more credible
a foundation of such a breed as the Clydesdale.
The typical descendant of this cross, which-
ever it was, an upstanding horse of great
power and utility, has for a cart-horse a fine
intelligent head with expressive eyes and
wide jaws, which, with his deep shoulder
and well-arched crest, gives him a very grand
appearance. For single cart work in a hilly
country he is unsurpassed, while in plough-

ing competitions a pair of Clydesdales will

DRAUGHT HORSES. 87

generally walk away from any opponents,
and the stiffer the soil the more they show
their superiority. The Clydesdale’s strongest
points in comparison with other cart-horse
breeds are his legs and feet, which are almost
invariably sound and strong. For work in a
hilly country, and especially in the steep
stone-pitched streets so often found in our
northern towns, a pastern more slanting than
is usually required in a cart-horse is desirable;
otherwise a sufficient grip of the ground is
difficult to obtain. The usual colour for the
Clydesdale is either a dark brown or black, —
with white blaze and stockings, a_ rich
dappled brown being a very favourite colour.

The Suffolk Punch, an_ old-established
breed of much merit, is now more rarely
met with than either the Shire or Clydesdale,
though of late years there has been a con-
siderable revival in this handsome and useful
cart-horse. The Suffolk is a long, low,

good-barrelled horse, almost invariably of

88 DRAUGHT HORSES.

lightish chestnut colour, or sorrel, as it used
to be called, often with a blaze and white
foot or two, though I have seen some hand-
some specimens of a whole colour, generally
then of a darker shade of chestnut. They
are very docile and willing, and extra-
ordinarily staunch in the collar, a whole
team of them having been known to
pull at a dead weight till they went on
their knees together. Their chief defects
are that they are apt to be rounder in the
bone than is thought desirable, to stand a
little back at the knee, and to have shelly
and brittle feet.

And now we come to the latest develop-
ment of the heavy draught horse—the cart-
horse par excellence—the so-called Shire-
bred, the chief characteristics of which
admirable breed are a smallish head, a
short, straight neck, with powerful shoulders
springing out of a short, broad back, great

depth of girth, full quarters, short cannon

rea vai ‘i . \ yh

DRAUGHT HORSES. 91

bone, and fetlocks fringed with long, fine
hair, the beauty or utility of which, by
the way, I could never perceive. Colour
immaterial, but black, brown, and the darker
shades of bay are most in favour. The
Shire should not be too big, but compact
and weighty, and should measure 10 to 11
inches below the knee, girth from 7 feet
9 inches to 8 feet 3 inches, and stand not
less than 16, but never more than 17 hands.
In breeding it should be remembered that
even in cart-horse strains the biggest mares
do not necessarily produce the best foals.
They cannot well be too broad, but may
easily be too high. Never estimate a horse’s
size by its height, for this often depends on
length of leg, which is not a sign of strength,
but more often of weakness. Strong muscular
development of the loin and straightish hind-
leg are desirable, that the horse may be able
to walk freely and well with a big load

behind him. Breeders, too, cannot be too

92 HEAVY AND LIGHT

particular about the feet of this horse, for
while the Clydesdale has generally a good,
sound foot with wide, open heels, it is often
in the Shire too small and contracted. A
good foot is of the utmost importance in
so weighty an animal destined for heavy
draught. So true is this that it is said
that a Scotchman, in judging a cart-horse,
begins invariably with the feet and works
upwards, and unless these are satisfactory
cares to go no further; while an Englishman
pays most attention to the top and general
configuration of the animal. By greater
attention to both points in selection and
breeding, we find now sounder legs and feet
in the Shire, and better middle-pieces and
stronger coupling in the Clydesdale.
Besides our heavy horse supply, there is
also an immense demand for light draught
horses, known to the trade as ‘‘ Machiners.”
Machiners comprise pretty well every kind

of harness horse, except those attached to

DRAUGHT HORSES. 93

private carriages, which we see in the

streets—i.e., omnibus, tram, and cab horses,

“vanners ”’ and trappers generally. Hansom

NYN HITCHIN DUKE.

First Prize for two-year-old Stallions, London Shire Horse Show, 1893.
Property of J. P. Kidston, Esq.

cabs are very often horsed by the cast-offs
of the training stable, but in the shafts of
the four-wheeler you see almost every kind

of animal that is too light or too old for

94 HEAVY AND LIGHT

heavy traffic. The London General Omnibus
Company owns about thirty-eight thousand
horses, purchased at an average of £28 per
horse, and the North Metropolitan Tramways
Company employs some sixteen thousand,
contracted for at £30 per horse. Considering
that these are but two, if probably the two
largest, companies of this kind in London,
and that similar companies exist in every
large town in the United Kingdom, and
bearing in mind also the comparatively short
period for which horses so employed last, we
gain some idea of the enormous number
which must somewhere be bred to keep all
these wheels going. To speak of “light”
draught horses in this connection may be
somewhat of a misnomer—the horses must
be light ones to get along at the pace re-
quired, but the work is heavy enough in all
conscience, and it is only by the most gener-
ous feeding they can perform it at all.

The kindly but inexperienced passenger

DRAUGHT HORSES. 95

(generally of the more compassionate sex),
who sometimes commiserates the lean-look-
ing cab or tram horse, fine drawn by severe
work, as “half starved, poor thing,” would
probably be much surprised to hear that the
same amount of stimulating food which such
a horse puts away daily would render many
of the sleek and aristocratic brethren, which
haply she admires in the park, dangerous
to ride or drive. The ’*bus horse is usually
a more bulky animal, who contrives to look
as well fed as he is, for a certain amount
of weight is absolutely necessary to start at
frequent intervals so heavy a load as a full
omnibus. Nearly all our omnibus horses
are imported. Formerly Flemish horses were
mostly used, and were very suitable for the
work, being strong-limbed and sturdy, with
particularly sound joints and feet, able to
stand prolonged battering on the paved stones
before the introduction of wood blocks and

asphalt. The grey Percheron mares, too,

96 HEAVY AND LIGHT

descendants of the stout stallions which,
before the days of La grande Vitesse, used
to trundle the heavy diligence along the
chaussées of La belle France at their round,
untiring trot, were well adapted to such
work. Nowadays, Canadians are mostly
used, and sonie of them seem useful animals
enough ; in besides being very plain, they
hardly look so well up to their work as the
French horses did, and drivers tell me they
are often soft. The tramcars can do with
a lighter animal, for though very large
they run comparatively lightly when once
started, and on rails a very moderate pair
of horses can pull a considerable weight at
a smart trot.

We can hardly talk of breeding these light
draught horses. You cannot rear a colt and
keep him till he is sufficiently matured for
street work, and make any profit on him at
a contract price of £380; it would be a

sorrier commercial enterprise than breeding

DRAUGHT HORSES. 97

for the army. The majority of the horses
thus employed must continue to come from
countries where food and pasture are suffi-
ciently cheap to allow of their being reared
at a profit. Such English bred animals as
you find engaged in cab and tramear work
must be either the frequent failures and
misfits which render horse breeding so un-
certain an enterprise, or else blemished or
superannuated horses of a superior class which
circumstances have degraded to this kind of
labour. It is obvious, at any rate, that no
one can deliberately apply himself to the
business of their production.

The only kind of light draught horse
which would seem at the present time to
pay for breeding are carriage horses of
superior class, and of these I would recom-
mend the Hackney in preference to either
the Cleveland bay or Yorkshire coach horse,
for the reason that the heavy barouches and
family coaches, which earlier in the century

7

98 HEAVY AND LIGHT DRAUGHT HORSES.

made so stately a show in park and square,
and which required big, upstanding horses
with breed and fashion, are now rarely seen;
but instead are multitudinous broughams,
victorias, etc., which are better horsed by
smaller and more compact animals with
quick and lively action. ‘These, when
possessed of the requisite symmetry and
style, are eagerly bought for town work
and exportation; the second class find a fair
market in the provinces; while the inferior
produce, the misfits and failures as I have
termed them, are very unlikely to be so
bad as not readily to find a place somewhere
or other in the ranks of the great army of
light draught horses which daily earn their
own and their owners’ keep on the busy
streets and roads of this great commercial
country. Nevertheless, for long, hard, or
fast work in light harness, horses of a
well-bred hunter type are much to be

preferred.

CHAPTER VI.

BREEDING PONIES.

OF all the charming animals in this world
none is more so than a well-bred and well-
mannered pony. He has so much _ pluck
and endurance, and that generous kindly
nature (not unspiced with a dash of mis-
chief) which so endears him to mankind, and
renders him one of the most useful and com-
panionable of all the creatures appointed
by a beneficent Providence to their service.

The pony proper is probably the horse
indigenous, so to speak, to these islands.
Not, of course, that it is at all likely that
any species of equus caballus is really
indigenous to them: I mean merely the

earliest variety of horse to be discovered in
99

100 BREEDING PONIES.

the annals of this country. The wild ponies

of Exmoor, Dartmoor, the New Forest, the

BOADICEA.

Welsh mountains, and the Shetlands, were
probably the horse of the British Isles, our
»

BREEDING PONIES. 101

modern variations being due to foreign im-

portations and graftings upon this original

a

THE EARLY BRITISH HUNTER.
Statuette, by Boehm.

stock. We read of no early British cavalry,

but we do of armed chariots, and it is pro-

102 BREEDING PONIES.

bable that the scythe-axled cars, which at
first spread terror and devastation, equal to
that caused by the elephants of Pyrrhus, in
the ranks of the invading Roman legions,
were horsed by these sturdy little creatures,
which, though too small to carry armed men,
were by their strength and spirit well adapted
to this method of warfare; wherefore I
imagine that Mr. Thorneycroft is incorrect
in horsing Boadicea’s war-chariot with a pair
of fairly good-looking landau horses, which,
as a critic lately suggested, would fetch £60
apiece at Tattersall’s to-day; and that the
mount of the early British hunter, an ad-
mirable statuette by Boéhm erected by General
Pitt-Rivers in the Larmer pleasure-grounds,
which he so generously maintains for the
public benefit near his seat in Wiltshire,
more accurately represents the horse of the
period. This isa beautifully modelled group
of a skin-clad Briton mounted on a sturdy,

well-shaped pony—‘“‘round-hoofed, _ short-

BREEDING PONIES. 103

>

jointed, fetlocks shag and strong ’’—which
stands with ears pricked, nostrils dilated,
the bronze almost instinct with life, alert,

keen as his rider, who, with one hand on

ROSEWATER (late JOHNNIE DAY).
Property of Sir Walter Gilbey.

his raw-hide rein, his short spear firm grasped
in the other, leans forward, scanning the
country for the first sign of his prey. Be

this as it may, the pony has been always

104 BREEDING PONIES.

with us; but never, of late years at any
rate, more valued than at the present time,
when there is a constant and regular de-
mand for ponies in all sizes of good shape
and action.

But what is a pony? ‘Oh, anything
under fifteen hands,” says the modern hunting
man, in his ill-judged contempt for little
horses. “ Anything below fourteen, from
which up to fifteen it may be called a cob,”
explains somebody else. Mr. Milward, again,
of Thurgarton Priory fame, one of the best
pony judges we have ever had (the Milward
Mondays at Tattersall’s in former days were
quite a feature in equine fixtures), disliked
the term ‘cob,’ and never used it, pony
with him covering everything under fourteen-
two; whilst once more the animals which
draw the Royal pony-carriages are well-
matched greys of fifteen-two. For my own
part I differentiate between pony and cob,

not entirely by size, but also by character,

BREEDING PONIES. 105

understanding by the latter a thick-set animal

of from fourteen to fifteen hands: by the

former a little horse with some breed in him,

for choice as much like

a miniature hunter

ia api a lenny

4 rye 1 ie 4 Fe Md 4.
ma ta ee aH | Xe ye inane a
Kh y ‘\ " ‘4 shania ne P one: a i 4
WY se’ ‘, a sae ne nian iin | HAS OM

1 Ly
a oN (hg NOEEY bn vy yYsir

“That very useful animal, a cob-pony.”

as possible; while a strongly built one of
smaller size—say, thirteen to thirteen-two

I should dub that very useful animal,
cob-pony.

a

106 BREEDING PONIES.

The qualities of a good pony are many
and remarkable: great power and speed in
proportion to his size, for instance, with a
general handiness which makes one say of
a larger horse of undeniable cleverness that
he “rides like a pony.” These qualifications,
coupled with wondrous powers of endurance,
and courage unsurpassed in the equine race,
make a really good pony a most desirable
acquisition.

India is the great country for ponies:
there he is most used and best appreciated.
Hear Major Shakespear, the old ‘ Shikayri,”
on this subject: ‘“ Action is power, it is all
in all; a horse without it may do to look
at; while standing still he may appear a
magnificent animal, but he is not worth a
shilling. Never buy anything but a high-
caste horse as a hunter. It is a common
and fatal error to suppose that it is not
necessary to have a blood horse for this

purpose; but you had better have a blood

BREEDING PONIES. 107

pony than a great, big, low-caste horse. Even

as to price, count not the money you give

COMET.
Welsh Pony Stallion. H.M. Convict Prison, Princetown, Dartmoor.

for a real Arab; go and sell all you possess,
and make him your own.” It is, of course,

the Arab descent of the little animal so much

108 BREEDING PONIES.

in vogue in that country which accounts for
his excellence; and truly wonderful were
the capabilities of the little hunters (some
so small as thirteen-two) on which this
redoubtable sportsman speared hog, bear,
and even leopards, over broken and rocky
ground, intersected by nullahs and other
obstacles, which render pig-sticking in certain
parts of India the most difficult and exciting
of all forms of hunting, from the horseman’s
point of view.

But we breed some good ponies in our own
country, too, and our native wild or semi-
wild stock, affords us a capital foundation
on which to build what we want. The
Welsh and Exmoor breeds have long been
improved by the use of small thoroughbred
sires; while of late the New Forest and
Dartmoor ponies have also largely benefited
by similar means. The original Exmoor
(the truest specimens of which are in

possession of the Acland family at Holnicote)

BREEDING PONIES. 109

was a tiny animal, seldom more than eleven,
at most twelve hands, but of great hardihood
and endurance. He has, however, been
greatly developed both in size and symmetry,
first by Mr. Smith of North Molton, and
then by the late Sir Frederick Knight, who
ran for years near his place at Simonsbath
a notable little stallion called Don Juan (I
think by the Leger winner, Don John by
Harkaway), as perfect a specimen of the
blood pony as one could wish to see, and
whose stock have achieved a great reputation.
The Welsh ponies, too, were largely crossed
early in the century with the thoroughbred,
the best being bred near Wynnstay, where
the farmers had the use of Sir Watkin’s
stallions for their mares. But unless we
have to go back to the famous but somewhat
mythical Katerfelto, the New Forest breed
was the earliest to be influenced by the all-
desirable strain of warm blood from the East;

for, more than a century ago, about 1766,

110 BREEDING PONIES.

no less a horse than Marske, the sire of
Eclipse, was covering in this district. The
Duke of Cumberland, who was Ranger of
the Forest, first obtained him from Mr. John
Hutton, of Marske in Yorkshire, after which
place the horse was named, in exchange for
a chestnut Arab. At the Duke’s death
Marske was sold at Tattersall’s with his
other horses, and bought for a trifling sum
by a Dorset farmer, in whose ownership he
covered country mares and Forest ponies at
half-a-guinea. The farmer after a few years
sold his unsuspected treasure for £20, re-
marking that he was glad to be rid of so
bad a bargain! The vicissitudes, however,
of equine fully equal those of human life,
and a few years later this horse’s fee as
advertised by his last owner, Lord Abingdon,
was £200, an enormous one for that, or
any day. After this lucky dash of warm
blood, pony breeding in the New Forest

declined again, until the Prince Consort

‘oouXA jo GySUy HIapasy mg 93x] aq} jo Ayradorg

‘(PIO stead £3114} Apread vaya waxe}) ag Auog pajou vy

BREEDING PONIES. 113

sont a grey Arab stallion, which was kept
at New Park, and wonderfully improved
the breed in this district, until the temptation
to sell the most promising young stock as
foals and yearlings again depleted the Forest
of its best ponies.

The deterioration at length became so
marked that some fifteen years ago a small
association was formed by the Verderers and
others interested in the matter, and a fresh
start was made. Her Majesty the Queen
graciously lent two Arabs of high caste,
Yirassan and Abeyan, the latter the gift of
the Imaun of Muscat; and besides these,
two stallions were purchased from the famous
pony stud of Lords Arthur and Lionel Cecil
to run in the Forest. The result is already
apparent in a _ considerable improvement
in the young stock. I rode, as a_ boy,
for several years a thirteen-two pony by
an Arab out of a Forest mare, a _ fast

and clever animal, and though I have
8

114 BREEDING PONIES.

been very fortunate in the matter of hacks,
I don’t know that I have been much better
carried since. But the average pony of that
period, though hardy and useful, was apt
to be bad-shouldered and cow-hocked. Some
young ones which I have again now show,
however, a marked improvement in these
and other respects.

Taking then our native stock of pony
mares for a foundation, and choosing such
as are well made, short-legged, of good bone,
and what is called “roomy,” we may proceed
to cross them in one or two ways—either
with a small thoroughbred or a “ Hackney
Stud Book” sire. Of the two, with the
intention of breeding ponies for my own
use, I should prefer the former, because I
not only so much admire the thoroughbred
shape and make, but also prefer the long
thoroughbred action, which steals over the
eround without perceptible effort, and can

be continued all day without fatigue to horse

BREEDING PONIES. 115

or rider, to the lofty knee action so greatly
desiderated for Show and Park purposes.
Such, does not, however, appear to be the
general taste, and it may pay better to use

the Hackney cross, there being a good

demand in London and our larger towns for

a SON pet iain es Caras aes a %

Shum like Clockwork reusnd hs. find,

good harness cobs and ponies which arch
the neck and bend the knee. A smart, quick
pony is nice to drive, but I am no great ad-
mirer of what is justly called “ extravagant ”
action. Still, that exhibited by certain well-
known cobs and ponies in the show ring

is, it cannot be denied, very attractive

116 BREEDING PONIES.

to the general public. Among many fine
performers of this class I recollect a pair of
small ponies driven tandem, which for several
years were quite a feature in the Bath
Horse Show, whose knee and hock action
were simply marvellous, and evoked roars
of applause as they spun with the precision
of clock-work round the ring. Nor do such
ponies, as very high-actioned horses were once
wont to do, now put down their feet pretty
much where they picked them up; many of
them, which can use the hind legs as well
as the fore, having considerable pace. They
are, of course, essentially harness ponies.
Extravagant action is not pleasant to the
rider, and the ponies which possess it
have not generally what we call “riding”
shoulders. Even in harness it is not
desirable for ordinary work: the legs and
joints soon give way on macadamised
roads; indeed, I believe that the owners of

our high-actioned show horses find about

BREEDING PONIES. 117

an hour’s work a day quite sufficient for
most of them. In a long journey, such
as the blood pony accomplishes with case
at a fast rate, the “‘ Show’ pony would
probably tire of it after a very few miles
in his show form.

The ‘‘ Hackney Stud Book ”’ horse, whether
of Yorkshire or Norfolk extraction, in spite
of his showy action and smart appearance,
has many detractors.* It is alleged that
he is soft and soon done with. This: may
be the case with some, especially with forced
and pampered show-case specimens, but 1 do
not quite see why it should be so, for modern
hackneys trace back almost without excep-
tion to thoroughbred stock. The first,
Fireaway, for instance, was by Pretender, a

chestnut horse by Marske, the aforementioned

* A fresh dash of warm blood has again become
desirable. Hackney owners would do well to cross their
mares with blood horses of great action, such, for

instance, as Chibiabos and Erskine.

118 BREEDING PONIES.

sire of Helipse, out of a mare by Bajaczet,
a son of the Godolphin Arab, thus tracing
directly back to two out of the three
great founts of pure blood in this country.
Shales too, foaled in 1755, was another
aristocratically descended trotting stallion,
his sire being Blaze by Flying Childers;
the dam of Blaze, known as the Confederate
Filly, having also Barb or Turkish blood
in equal proportions with English. Thus,
the Norfolk trotter at any rate, so far as
lineage goes, should have stoutness enough
for anything ; and, indeed, M. de Thaumberg,
for forty years connected with Government
breeding studs in France, declared in 1873
that the Norfolk sire had transmitted, not
merely good action, but high courage and
power of endurance as well. If, therefore,
the strain has deteriorated since then I should
be inclined to attribute it to the same cause
as the degeneration of the thoroughbred—

viz., injudicious treatment. Probably neither

BREEDING PONIES. 119

horses nor men are (in the average) so hardy
as once they were, and probably also through
the same cause, the softer way in which
both live.

In recommending the thoroughbred cross
I include as a matter of course the pure
Arab, since such is admitted without question
into the British “Stud Book”; and when you
can get him I know nothing better to use
with pony mares than this. Very few are
likely now to be imported into this country
for some time to come; the enterprise of
such lovers of this superlative animal as
Mr. Wilfrid Blunt and the Honourable
Miss Dillon, not having, I regret to say,
through lack of patronage and support, met
with the success it deserved. Nothing of
course, as Major Shakespear assures us,
can surpass the Arab blood for hunting, but
every light-weight imagines now-a-days that
he must ride a big horse; and the occasions

for distance riding being now so infrequent,

120 BREEDING PONIES.

there is little demand for fast and enduring
roadsters. Comparatively few people use
hacks at all, and those who do seem to think
more of the showiness of their action than of
the ease and comfort to the rider of being
mounted, as our forefathers used to say, on
a “bit of blood.” I know of no nicer hack
than a cross between a thoroughbred or
Arab sire and an English pony mare; while
a second cross of blood is always lkely to
produce that first prize of pony-breeding,
a first-class Polo pony. Some useful ponies,
it should be remarked, have been bred the
other way about, by crossing a small
thoroughbred mare with a Norfolk trotter.
Lord Calthorpe’s celebrated pony stallion,
Don Carlos, was bred in this way; but, from
his portrait, he looks more like harness than
saddle.

As to which of our native breeds your
pony mare should be chosen from, it is pretty

much a matter of individual fancy. The

BREEDING PONIES. 121

Exmoor, thanks to Sir Frederick Knight
and Mr. Smith, are now better than the
Dartmoor, and I rather prefer either to the
New Foresters.* If not quite so big, they
have prettier, brighter heads, and I think
are even hardier and more sure of foot, the
sheltered lawns and heath-clad slopes of
the Forest affording greater protection and
easier going than the steep tors and rock-
strewn combes of the wild western moors.
With the Welsh ponies I am less familiar,
but many think them better than any;
while the Scotch Galloway mare, if she
still exists in her integrity, must, I should
fancy, be very hard to beat. Young ponies
should be reared on as hilly and broken

ground as possible, lest they lose one of

* A South-country dealer with whom I talked lately
told me he considered the New Forest pony the best of
the three breeds, on the grounds that it had more fire
and spirit; and certainly the two I have now are full
of it, as were those I rode in my boyhood. Still, I fancy

he did not know the others so well.

122 BREEDING PONIES.

the most valuable characteristics of their
race, that marvellous cleverness, by which
they seem unable to put a foot wrong
when going at speed over a rough and

difficult country.

HOTSPUR.

Pony Stallion, bred by Lord Arthur Cecil, used on the Prison Farm,
Princetown, Dartmoor.

CHAPTER VII.
QUEEN’S PREMIUM SIRES.

Tue royal patronage of the Turf, which
extended over a period of some two hundred
and eighty years—i.e., from the reign of
James I. to that of Queen Victoria—may be
said to have terminated officially with the
substitution of Queen’s Premiums for the
Queen’s Plates. That our present King
continues to run horses (and has, indeed,
as Prince of Wales, to the general and his
own delight, actually twice won the chief
prize of the British Turf) the country
accepts as a welcome and very practical
proof that its great national sport still
enjoys the personal sympathy of the royal
house. Nevertheless, many persons, while

fully recognising the futility to which the
123

124 QUEEN’S PREMIUM SIRES.

contests for the Queen’s Plates as an
encouragement to the breed of horses in
this country (the purpose for which they
were instituted) had been reduced, are, I
suspect, somewhat regretful that the official
patronage of the Crown should be thus
entirely withdrawn from it; for the simul-
taneous abolition of Her Majesty’s breeding
establishment at Hampton Court must, we
suppose, be accepted as further proof that
such severance is to be final and complete
The circumstances leading up to this change
seem to demand a brief retrospection, which,
with apologies to the cognoscenti, I will
proceed to give for the benefit of those who
may be less conversant with such matters,
and yet not without interest in them.

The earliest prize for winning a horse race
in this country was a bell; but this was
soon superseded by cups, bowls, and similar
pieces of plate, of which those given by the

Crown for “the encouragement of the breed

QUEEN’S PREMIUM SIRES. 125

of horses ’’ were most esteemed, both for their
intrinsic value and the prestige which
naturally accrued to the winning of a royal
prize. These King’s Plates formed, there-
fore, the chief event at most race meetings.
They were run for at first in heats of four
miles, and with a minimum weight for
four-year-olds of ten stone four; five-year-olds
were given eleven stone six; while six and
aged had to put up no less than twelve
stone.

So long as these conditions were main-
tained there can be no doubt that the Royal
Plates were of considerable value, in eliciting
from the small number of racehorses then
in training those most likely to transmit
substance and staying power, no less than
speed, to their progeny. Unfortunately,
however, during the later reigns, weights
and distance were gradually lowered and
shortened till the Plates no longer served

their purpose, and, moreover, they came

126 QUEEN’S PREMIUM SIRES.

presently to be farmed by a very few
animals. The celebrated Fisherman was a
noted performer at the game. Walking, as
the custom then was, from meeting to
meeting, and being about the stoutest horse
of his day, he fairly swept the board,
winning in five years one hundred and
twenty races, including the Queen’s Plate
at almost every provincial meeting in the
kingdom, from York to Plymouth and Salis-
bury to Carlisle.

With the introduction, however, of the
classical races and valuable handicap stakes,
the esteem in which the Royal Plates were
held gradually declined. The owners of
the highest class horses kept them for more
important stakes, and only inferior animals
were entered. Of these, it was generally
known by collateral running which alone
had a chance, so only two or three came
to the post, and the race as often as not

resolved itself into a walk over, until at

‘Auedwod pnis
woydur0d 243 yo Ajradorq ‘sareur 30133033 Jo AeuHeY YB ssosd 0} pazMs ATJUaUIW ‘uOT}Oe snoTTaAreU Jo asIG pasqySnos0y} y

QUEEN’S PREMIUM SIRES. 129

last the expression “a mere plater’”’? came
to be applied as a term of contempt to a
fourth-rate racer, only fit to run for Her
Majesty’s Plate at a small provincial meet-
ing! With the subordination of the love
of pure sport to the vulgar greed of gain
which is gradually undermining the British
Turf, it seems as though the handicap system
were destined to carry all before it; and
there is reason to fear that, unless there
should be a _ reaction (a consummation
devoutly to be wished by all true lovers
of a noble sport), even such grand trophies
as the Ascot and Goodwood Cups will in
time go the way of the Queen’s Plates, and
the proud title of “cup horse” fall pre-
sently into the same obloquy as the ‘mere
plater.”’

The state of things thus indicated could
not, of course, be allowed to continue. It
was alike contempt of court, so to Speak,

and sheer waste of Crown money voted for
9

130 QUEEN’S PREMIUM SIRES.

a purpose it no longer subserved. Hence
the substitution, on the recommendation of
the Royal Commission on Horse Breeding,
of Queen’s Premiums for Queen’s Plates.
This constitutes a fresh departure in the
State encouragement of horse breeding. The
object of the new system is, of course,
identical with that of the old; only instead
of continuing to encourage third-rate racing,
of which there is enough and to spare,
it applies itself directly to the stud—that
is to say, it gives prizes to horses on their
entering the stud instead of during their
racing career.

In this way it was considered they would
go to a better class of animal than of late
years had been the case. It does not, how-
ever, necessarily follow that this will be
the consequence of the alteration. The
premiums are given entirely for “ points,”
neither the actual performances of the can-

didates nor the merits of their ancestry

‘WOL sury Aq vole usend JO JNO luOTeOeW Ag
‘INOINVIN

SS

==

QUEEN’S PREMIUM SIRES. 133

being allowed the slightest account. It is
not, of course, in any degree essential that
they should have run at all, though, as a
matter of fact, many of our finest premium
sires have been very fair performers in
their racing days. All experienced persons
know how very possible it is to have a
magnificent looking horse, which may yet
be deficient in the qualities which constitute
the chief value of the thoroughbred—viz.,
stamina, stoutness, and speed. A horse,
therefore, which has performed creditably
on the Turf, and particularly in races of at
least a mile and a half in length, has shown
that, at any rate, there is something in him ;
and, if to this capacity there be added good
points and approved soundness, we should
have a sire admirably qualified to fulfil the
purpose of all Queen’s Plates or Premiums—
a.e. (to avail myself once more of the original
phrase), the improvement of the breed of

horses in this country.

134 QUEEN’S PREMIUM SIRES.

An admirable specimen of such a_ horse
would have been the late Lord Bradford’s
famous Chippendale, who not only during his
illustrious Turf career ran with great stout-
ness under heavy weights (for these days)
in long-distance races, and won in his turn
in the best of company, but wound up by
gaining first prize at the Royal. Many dis-
tinguished foreign and other visitors came to
see this fine horse, and the most critical
judges could find no fault in him, so perfect
was he in make, shape, action, disposition, —
and all good equine qualities. Of course, so
fine a performer would have been far too
valuable a horse to send up for a Queen’s:
Premium, on winning which he would haye
had to cover at a low fee instead of the high
one which he naturally commanded ; but he
was just the type of horse I would myself
have chosen for a Queen’s Premium, because -
he united the attributes of almost a great ;

racchorse with the best points of the show

‘Auedurod pnjg uozdurod oy} Jo Ayrodo1g ‘saziid pue saoev1 Aueur jo JIUUIAA = ‘aIIG JajuNP pazesqajaos vw

QUEEN'S PREMIUM SIRES. 137

ring. As a sire of racing stock he was not
a conspicuous success, though many mares
of the highest class were sent to him; but
this does not in the least discount my opinion
that he would have been the beau ideal
of a Premium horse.

Superlative speed in the progeny of the
latter is neither expected nor desired; but
‘rather a combination of the recognised good
points of the sire with some of his pace and
stoutness. Many of our fastest and most
successful Turf performers of the present
day would be among the last I should choose
as Premium sires, albeit I should be equally
reluctant to confer a premium for fine
appearance only.

At the 1898 show and competition for
Premiums at Islington—the eleventh which
the Royal Commission has held for awarding
them (the first having been at Nottingham
in 1888), it being also the first year in which

the rule excluding horses over twenty years

138 QUEEN'S PREMIUM SIRES,

old came into force—there were 116 entries.
Forty-nine of these having been selected by
the judges in the preliminary inspection as
worthy to compete for the twenty-nine pre-
miums of £150 each, three only of their
number were rejected by the veterinary in-
spectors, which may be regarded as_ very
satisfactory, so many of our modern thorough-
breds being subject to “roaring,” and other
hereditary complaints.

No fewer than thirteen of the sires which
ultimately won premiums on this occasion
were successful also in 1897, while five others
had gained them on previous occasions. The
chief honours fell to IZuriont, who then won
his eighth consecutive premium. This is a
horse I know well, for he won his first four
in this district (D.), being then the property
of the Compton Stud Company. Sold by them
for £1000 (for Ruddigore, a similar class
horse and of the same colour, a very rich

dark chestnut, they obtained, I believe,

vit | \ ii,
Hf My

|

Meh wi
&

4 i

HA
A ;

ace

SCOT GUARD.

i ona

By Strathconan.

QUEEN’S PREMIUM SIRES. 141

£3000), he has since won four times in
District C., and now, with still seven years
before him (for he is but thirteen) before
reaching the age limit, he will have to move
elsewhere, since by the regulations drawn
up for their awards a Queen’s Premium may
be won only four times in the same district.
A horse named Homely runs him close,
having won six times, Button Park, a horse
which won some races for the Duke of
Beaufort, claiming the same score; while
several others are credited with five and
four wins apiece.

This Compton Stud, by the way, of which
Marioni was a chief ornament, is worth
describing, for the system on which it is run
is, I believe, almost unique. The Stud,
situated at Sandley, near Gillingham, Dorset,
comprises some eight or ten splendid stallions
—thoroughbred horses of superb appearance
and enormous power, chosen by Captain Fife,

Captain Phipps Hornby, and other promoters

142 QUEEN’S PREMIUM SIRES.

of the company, all first-class judges, as
likely to get hunters, and generally im-
prove the character of horses in this district.
Nearly all the horses thus selected have
won premiums; or, when they have not,
it was because they were too good to be
shown for them; for, since a premium
winner is bound to serve a certain number
of mares at a low fee, it is obviously
more to the owner’s interest not to enter for
these prizes a superlatively excellent animal,
which without such recommendation can
command a high fee. Thus those grand
horses, Yard Arm and Pantomime, both
the property of the Stud, do not compete,
though gaining the prizes, if they did,
would be a foregone conclusion. Besides
several other stallions of similar stamp,
including Scot Guard, now snow-white and
twenty-two years old, yet still perhaps the
handsomest topped horse in England, the

Compton Stud possesses that fine racehorse

‘Auedm0d pnjyg uozduo0d ay} so Ay1adorg—‘sauut~y dno1y vonpo1g uordmeys
“AWINOL NVd

QUEENS PREMIUM SIRES. 145

Amphion* (covering at 150 guineas), and
Crafton, as well as an Arab and a smart
little horse suitable for crossing with cob
and pony mares, to the service of which
he is restricted.

A most notable feature of this Stud is an
annual two days’ show of young stock sired
by their horses, past or present, with sales
each day by Messrs. Tattersall, held in
September. This is a great convenience,
both to local breeders and purchasers from
a distance, who have thus a large number
of promising colts and fillies from which
to make their selection. That intending
purchasers sometimes return disappointed is
owing to the dearth of good mares to send
to such horses as the enterprising directors
of this Stud Company have got together,

the time-honoured delusion that any mare

* Amphion’s fee is reduced to 45 guineas. Crafton is
dead, and his place is filled by Suspender: The services of

both these horses are restricted to thoroughbred mares,

10

146 QUEEN'S PREMIUM SIRES.

will do to breed from yet obtaining in this
as in other localities. But, as Mr. Albert
Muntz has well remarked in a useful little
paper on this subject, it is difficult to over-
rate the importance of good mares in
breeding. Scarcely any offer, travellers have
frequently assured us, will tempt an Arab
to part with his brood mare, so that mares
of the highest caste are very rarely in the
market at all.

We English have been less wise in this
respect than certain Continental nations.
Though a really good brood mare should be
a small mine of wealth to her owner, nearly
every one is tempted by a good price, and
in consequence foreigners have for years been
draining this country of its very best. Of
those which remain we must make the utmost
use; and with the object of producing, first,
a high-class hunter, or, failing this, a good
charger or general purpose horse, the breeder

who possesses a mare of the right stamp—

QUEEN’S PREMIUM SIRES. 147

long, wide, roomy, and low, with good bone
and sound constitution—can hardly do better
than send her to a King’s Premium sire,
when, if the new Government system be thus
properly supported, the result can hardly fail
to be satisfactory to all concerned. Much
must still be left to the individual breeder’s
enterprise and acumen; but His Majesty’s
Premiums may at least be expected to do
more for the breeding of superior horses in
this country than the Queen’s Plates can
have done, at any rate in the later degenerate

stage of their existence.

CHAPTER VIII.

MULES, AND THEIR ADAPTABILITY ‘0
ENGLISH NEEDS—AGRICULTURAL AND
GENERAL.

Ir is by way of being a remarkable fact
that the mule, which has been found so
useful for general purposes in almost every
other country, should have been so _ little
utilised in this, where horse labour has
been from time immemorial so extensively
employed. In France, Spain, and Italy, in
particular, the services of this hardy and
enduring hybrid have been largely used;
while in America the greater part of its
agricultural, and probably nearly the whole
of its street car and military transport
work, usually done by horse here, is per-
formed by it; the superior merits of the
148

MULES, AND THEIR ADAPTABILITY. 149

mule for most purposes in which appearance
is subservient to utility being generally
admitted. These merits are said to be
greater endurance, capability of labour, free-
dom from disease, longevity, and economy
of keep—a catalogue of virtues so con-
spicuous that it is believed by those best
acquainted with the animal that, were these
qualities better known to English employers
of horse-labour, the mule would very soon
be as generally used in this country as it
already is abroad.

The popular British idea of the mule is
that it is an animal of small size and power,
somewhat larger and better than a donkey,
but of course utterly inferior to the most
indifferent horse for any kind of work.
This appears to be a very mistaken estimate,
founded entirely upon insular inexperience
of an animal, our acquaintance with which
is usually limited to one or two chance-

bred specimens, which have been treated as

150 MULES, AND THEIR ADAPTABILITY

donkeys most undeservedly are treated in
this country—that is, with utter contempt
and neglect. I say usually, for there
are some high-class mules employed in
England, but they are very few and far
between.

To understand the merits of the mule
those of the donkey must be first appre-
ciated, and this of course cannot be until
that much abused animal is rationally treated,
since it must be apparent to every reflective
person that, were the horse treated as un-
generously as the ass has habitually been,
he would either cease to exist, or become
dwarfed to the size and capacity of the
scrubbiest pony. Now, the distinguishing
traits of the ass are hardihood, endurance,
sureness of foot, and immense strength for
his bulk, while for “gameness”’ at a dead
pull he is unsurpassed, if not unequalled,
by any breed of horse. JI had my eyes

opened to this conspicuous merit in the

TO ENGLISH NEEDS. 151

donkey many years ago by a remarkably
pig-headed and hard-mouthed specimen which
was my property as a small boy. Given
to me as a foal, he ran loose on uncom-
monly good keep for a donkey till he was
four or five years old, by which time he
pretty well defied the whole strength of
the establishment to break him. He was
not a particularly big donkey, though larger
than a Shetland pony which I had at the
same time, and enormously strong. He
taught us all to ride, and in so doing was
said to have imprinted an indelible mark
upon every juvenile member of the family.
But I remember well how once when I
had driven this donkey to the hayfield, it
was desired to move a loaded waggon while
the horses were gone with another load.
The donkey was attached by chain traces
to the end of the shafts, which were held
up by two men. Away went the waggon,

as though drawn by a team of Suffolks, till

152 MULES, AND THEIR ADAPTABILITY

the front wheels stuck in a grip. Then
thrice or four times did that glorious don-
key pull till he went on his knees, and
such was his staunchness that, though he
had never been asked to draw a_ weight
before, he stuck to it till at last with a
mighty effort he dragged the waggon out.
Now, it is this quality and others that
distinguish the ass, which it is claimed
are found in his offspring the mule, united
with the superior size, spirit, and speed
of the horse; and the union of these attributes
it is which makes him such an extremely
useful animal. Interesting information is
sometimes supplied to the painstaking in-
quirer. Thus a lady, whom I questioned
concerning the employment of mules in
South Africa, from which country she had
lately returned, told me that there were
mules, but that people did not ride or drive
them much, they were kept mostly for

breeding! The value of this information

TO ENGLISH NEEDS. 153

may be estimated in the light of the fact
that the hybrid is incapable of production,
notwithstanding alleged instances to the
contrary.

The mule, as most persons are aware,
is the offspring of the union between the
horse and the ass, and may be bred
either from stallion pony and female ass,
when it is called a mute or hinny; or from
the Jack donkey and mare, which is the
mule proper. The former is smaller and.
more pony-like, with longer mane and finer
ears; but it is of very little value com-
pared with the latter, and in consequence
is but little bred in Poitou, which province
is the headquarters of the mule-breeding
industry in Europe. Few persons in this
country, where the mule is so little esteemed,
have perhaps any idea of the extent to which
they are bred in this part of France. Mule-
breeding, as there carried on, forms a great

local industry. Ten years ago (we learn

154 MULES, AND THEIR ADAPTABILITY

on the authority of Mr. Sutherland, who
has had great experience of mules, and in

conjunction with the eminent naturalist,

Mute or Hinny—produce of Stallion Pony and Jenny Ass.
Mr. Tegetmeicer, has written an exhaustive
book on the subject) there were some two

hundred mule-breeding establishments in

TO ENGLISH NEEDS. 155

this province, mostly in the department of
Deux-Sevres, which comprised no fewer
than 50,000 mares, of which 38,000 were
devoted to the production of mules, the
remainder being used for maintaining a
breed of horses suitable for the purpose,
which is called race chevaline mulassiére ;
and probably, so great has been the demand
for large draught mules, these numbers
have considerably increased during the last
decade. The sum annually realised by the
sale of these mules has been estimated at
over eleven million frances, which would
amount to some £451,000 of our money.
The Poitou mare, la jwment Poitevine
mulassiére, used for the purpose, is a big
heavy cart mare, with large barrel and big
bone, bred mostly on the marshes of La
Vendée, land very similar to that on which
the nearly extinct black Lincolnshire dray-
horse was reared. The Poitevin breeders

(who by the way seem to labour under

156 MULES, AND THEIR ADAPTABILITY

many stupid and senseless prejudices in the
management of their stock) formerly imagined
that their mares had a special and unique
capacity for producing good mules—that
they were, as they phrased it, intérieurement
mulassiéres; Which was of course pure
imagination, since when a_ superior class
of mare from Normandy and Brittany was
introduced, the produce, as might be expected,
improved proportionately.

The Poitou Jack, or Bazdet, as he is called,
said to be of Spanish extraction, used for
crossing with these mares, is an animal
which would surprise those acquainted only
with the English donkey. With shaggy,
unkempt coat and heavy head, garnished
with enormous ears (often by reason of their
great length carried horizontally like those
of an ear-lopped rabbit) he presents an
uncouth and extraordinary appearance. More-
over, from long confinement in a dark and

dirty stable, and want of exercise, he is often

TO ENGLISH NEEDS. 157

extremely vicious. In height he is generally
from fourteen hands to fourteen-two, of great
girth and immense bone, frequently as much
as eight and a half inches below the knee,
the measurement of a big English thorough-
bred horse ‘likely to get hunters.” The
American-bred Jacks are often higher than
the Spanish or Poitevin, some attaining to
sixteen hands; but this is no advantage,
since increase of height means generally
only length of leg, which is not desirable
either in horse or ass. The tallest Jacks
it is considered (and it is just as one would
imagine) do not as a rule get the best
mules. The favourite colour for a Poitou
Jack is a dark brown, generally with a
white or mealy coloured belly and muzzle;
a grey-coated one, which is the most usual
colour of the ass in this country, being
less valued, though with no very apparent
reason.

Like the Arab with his mare, the Poitevin

158 MULES, AND THEIR ADAPTABILITY

is very reluctant to sell his bawdet, and
a really good one commands a large price,
generally from £100 to £400; a particularly
fine specimen having once, it is alleged,
fetched as much as £1000.

It is generally supposed that, in the cross,
the donkey influence predominates over that
of the horse, and this certainly seems to be
the case, both in appearance and _ charac-
teristics, in regard to the mule, but it is
not so apparent in the hinny, or jennet, as
it is sometimes called. One which I knew
was quite as much like a pony as a donkey.
Very few of these are met with in England,
but in Ireland they are more common,
especially in Tipperary and Mayo, where a
good Welsh pony was stationed a few years
ago for the express purpose of breeding
this animal. For trotting work in light
carts the jennet is more suitable than the
heavier-bodied mule, and being the offspring

of two such enduring animals as the pony

TO ENGLISH NEEDS. 159

and donkey, he naturally inherits this
quality, as well as that of longevity. He
is also extensively used, I believe, in the
Neapolitan district, and in the Island of
Sardinia.

The mule, Mr. Sutherland remarks, has
been aptly described as “‘an animal with
no ancestry and no hope of posterity.” For
-his mother’s sake, we trust not from pride,
he loves to consort with horses rather than
with members of his father’s family; so
much so that the presence of a quiet old
mare or pony will prevent a team from
straying when outspanned on veldt or
prairie. Nevertheless, when in the course
of that instructive conversazione of camp
animals, which occurred on a memorable
night of panic, and which was so faithfully
reported by Mr. Rudpard Kipling (who
evidently knows camels and mules as well
as he knows Thomas Atkins and the Com-

petition Wallah), the battery mule was

160 MULES, AND THEIR ADAPTABILITY

grossly insulted by being called the son of
a Malaga jackass, he valiantly defended
the reputation of his sire, who, he declared,
could “pull down, bite, and kick into rags”
any horse he came across. And what the
mule claimed for his sire he can do in-
different well for himself, as Billy was
about to demonstrate when the timely inter-
position of Two-tails with terrific trum-
petings silenced both disputants.

The general impression as to mules is
that they are incurably vicious and bad
tempered, but this their friends say is
a libel, the temper of the mule when
properly treated being quite equal to that
of the horse. He is said, however, to be
of extremely nervous temperament, and if
this be so it fully accounts for his evil
repute, since ner dusness is very commonly
mistaken for vice in the horse, at least by
persons not very conversant with that

animal’s idiosyncrasies.

TO ENGLISH NEEDS. 161

The chief use which the British Empire
makes of the mule is for military service
abroad. For this, as a transport animal,
whether in pack, saddle, or draught, he is
unsurpassed, while his utility in the screw-
gun, or “donkey” batteries, as they are
familiarly called, has been tried and proved
in many campaigns. Major Leonard thus
testifies to his merits: “The mule is about
the handiest and hardiest of all pack animals.
He can work in any country and under
every condition of climate, but is especially
suited for mountainous regions. He will
go over any ground, no matter how steep
or rocky. His toughness and endurance are
perfectly marvellous, and it is wonderful
how long and on how little he seems to
live and even to thrive.” This officer also
bears witness to his amiability when properly
treated. The pack mule, in his opinion,
should not be over thirteen hands, every inch

beyond rendering him more difficult to load ;
11

162 MULES, AND THEIR ADAPTABILITY

any saving of time in this respect being
obviously of great and frequent importance
in campaigning. For this reason the Razza,
or Italian Jack, is more suitable for getting
pack or battery mules than the Catalan or
Poitevin, the latter also being apt to give
his offspring too thick a coat, which is
undesirable in a hot climate.

With regard to the adaptability of mules
to agriculture, these are their chief qualifica-
tions. Their working life is longer, in the
ratio of five to three, than that of the British
cart horse. They will live and thrive and
do hard work upon food which would reduce
a cart horse of equal size to a skeleton.
They are indifferent to extremities of climate,
hot or cold. They are never sick or sorry
(this of itself should recommend them to
the British farmer, for the fatalities of a
large cart horse stable are often something
tremendous). They can, if required, work

much longer hours, and do not mind the

TO ENGLISH NEEDs. 163

dead, continuous pull of field machines, which

seems to distress so many horses. They are

The Mule proper, from Spanish Jack and Cart Mare.

both quicker walkers and, weight for weight,

stronger than cart horses. It is this point

164 MULES, AND THEIR ADAPTABILITY

of inferior weight, perhaps, which would
tell most against them with our farmers.
“ Weight,” they say, ‘‘is essential ; however
light our land, we have constantly heavy
machinery to move, and for this we must
have weight. We want one team at least
of horses which would turn the scale at a
ton apiece.” Now the Poitou mule, bred
from the Spanish Jack and the big cart
mare of that province, is very large, often
sixteen, and sometimes even seventeen hands
high, and bulky; and no doubt still bigger
mules could be bred from our Clydesdale or
Shire-bred mares,—but none would approach
this weight. Still, with one such team of
heavy draught horses for this special kind
of labour, it is probable that the rest of
the work on a large arable farm, or the
whole of it on a smaller holding, could
be more expeditiously, and certainly more
economically, performed by mules than by

horses.

TO ENGLISH NEEDS. 165

Mules have already been tried in this
country for heavy draught, and have, I
believe, in every instance, given satisfaction.
Many years ago one of our great brewers—
Messrs. Allsopp, if I remember rightly—
used a team of immense animals, of about
seventeen hands, for dray work; and at
Badminton teams of big mules have long
been employed in farm and general cart
work; while in Hampshire, Mr. Scott, of
Rotherfield, has also bred a number of
large mules from English cart mares with
distinct success. The only hindrance which
suggests itself to the general introduction
of this useful hybrid into this country is
the matter of expense, the big mule being
at present more costly to buy than the
average cart horse. Farmers, at any rate,
have very little spare capital at the present
time available for experimental purposes,
but if there once existed mule-breeding

establishments in this country, I believe

166 MULES, AND THEIR ADAPTABILITY.

that the gradual substitution of this animal,
for some at least of the horses so exten-
sively employed in farm labour, would
result, for the reasons above stated, in a

considerable saving of expense.

“TvOH GNV 3SYVN doodd aaudHOnoUoOHL V

CHAPTER IX.

THE BROOD MARE.

Tue future of horse breeding in this country
is a thing not easy to forecast. Mechanical
traction is certainly gaining ground, yet
still seems to cause no diminution in the
number of horses required for the various
uses in which the animal has been from
time immemorial employed. With each fresh
visit of the country dweller to Town he sees
more vehicles propelled by motor-engines
running to and fro through the streets of
the Metropolis, and more electric trams in
its suburbs; yet the thronging crowd of the
horse-drawn carriages appears denser than
ever. In a few years, we are constantly
assured, the horse will have disappeared from

London streets; in a few decades he will be
169

170 THE BROOD MARE.

kept for purposes of sport and amusement
only ; while in a century or so the last few
specimens of a moribund race will be pre-
served in the Zoological Gardens, in the
parks of wealthy noblemen, or conveyed
round rural districts in travelling shows, to
afford country folk an opportunity of seeing
for themselves what the beast of burden used
so extensively by their forefathers was
actually like.

Meanwhile, the horse is apparently as
much in vogue as ever. The railways, it
was once thought, would exterminate him
from the roads; and they certainly have
superseded him for long journeys, a day’s
ride or drive being now rarely under-
taken, save in certain wild and remote
districts; or very occasionally for mere
pleasure, where time is of no importance.
Yet, as a matter of fact and experience,
with the development of our railway system

more horses have been employed than ever.

THE BROOD MARE. 171

It is, however, difficult to imagine that the
same result can attend the development of
motor-traction upon the highways: though,
as we have suggested, it is impossible to
prognosticate with any certainty. It may
be there will be a reaction when the novelty
of the new mode of locomotion has worn off.
The bicycle seems already to be waning in
popularity as a pleasure conveyance, though
retained for use, and it may be the same
with the auto-motor. Travelling at an
extremely high rate of speed in a smelly
car, amid clouds of choking dust, and a self-
created whirlwind which necessitates an
almost Arctic outfit, may conceivably lose
its charm, and cause a reversion to the
pleasanter modes of our ancestors, who were
quite reasonably contented with a slower
pace, which was not incompatible with enjoy-
ment of the surrounding scenery, combined
with the superior comfort of a well-horsed

vehicle, or the springy paces of a good hack.

172 THE BROOD MARE.

So far as we can see, while motor-power will
be more extensively used for trade and
business purposes, horses will be for a long
while yet kept for sport, pleasure, ornament,
and warfare. Fewer will perhaps be bred:
those of superior quality. The ordinary
drudge and general-purpose animal, even
the as yet indispensable van and cart horse,
may largely disappear: but the race horse,
the hunter, the park hack, the smart pony,
and possibly another type or two, will be
with us for some time to come. The heavy
draught horse, which at the present moment
is one of the most (perhaps the most)
profitable animals to breed, may or may
not be almost immediately superseded by
mechanical traction on our farms and
roads.

It will be sufficient in any case to premise,
that any remarks made in this chapter in
regard to the late-foaling mares are intended

to apply as fully to the cart mare as to

THE BROOD MARE. 173

those intended for the reproduction of our
lighter breeds.

In the selection of the brood mare we shall,
of course, be careful to eliminate all animals
afflicted with any congenital or hereditary
disease, such as she may be likely to transmit
to her offspring; while remembering that
blemishes, being the result of an accident,
due more often, perhaps, to careless or in-
judicious management than to any natural
defect of the animal itself, do not count.
We have already expressed the opinion,
based upon observation and experience, that
of the two parents the dam is the more
likely to transmit such natural defect or
infirmity than the sire; though the prudent
breeder will of course do his best to ensure
that both parents shall be free therefrom.

As to shape and make, due regard must
of course be had to the stamp of animal
desired to be produced. The general charac-

teristics required in the brood mare are

174 THE BROOD MARE.

that she should be long, low, on short legs,
standing perfectly straight on her four feet,
and what is called ‘roomy ”’—that is, with
good barrel, well-sprung ribs, and plenty of
width across the loins. Bone also is essential,
but in the case of thoroughbreds less size of
bone is compensated by its superior quality.
As is well known to experienced horsemen,
the bone of the pure-bred horse is denser
and closer in substance than that of the
coarser-bred animal, more resembling ivory
in grain and texture. So well indeed is
this fact ascertained that bone-crushers have
affirmed that the machine works harder,
and they can tell by the sound of it when
the tibia or cannon bones of a thoroughbred
are passing through the mill. This does
not mean that we should not desire bone
in a thoroughbred, but that he can do with
less than we might be content with in a
horse of inferior breed. Any defect (and

few animals are equal in all their points)

“AIGTO JEM US Jo Ay19lo1g ‘aIeI ays
“ALLIN NOXVS

THE BROOD MARE. 177

in the dam, we shall seek to compensate by
corresponding excellence of that point in the
sire; bearing in mind that such compensation
is more likely to be obtained when such
superiority has been a characteristic in the
stallion’s family or tribe, than when it
happens to be an advantage more peculiar
to himself.

With regard to age, we consider this of
less consequence than constitution. The
horse, reasonably and naturally treated, is
a longer-lived animal than is popularly
supposed, and an individual so treated re-
tains its vigour often to a later period
than may generally be thought possible.
While it is a mistake, therefore, to conclude
that any aged and worn-out animal will
do to breed from when it can no longer
work; if one has an old favourite of the
right conformation, which was not over-
worked in her youth and has a _ good

constitution, she may be used for some years
12

178 THE BROOD MARE.

after her work is done, with profit at the
stud. Often a mare will breed when quite
old, in some cases over twenty, though we
do not say she will begin to breed at any
such age. From ten to fifteen she probably
will, so it is advisable to put her to horse
at that age at the latest. A modern custom
is to have a mare covered at three years old,
so that she may have bred a foal by the
time she is herself fit to be put into regular
work. This plan is often now adopted with
good results, the young mare thus helping
to pay for her keep before she can actually
earn it. Should this plan, however, be
adopted, she should be sent to a horse of
mature age, say eight years at least, since
it is not advisable to breed from two very
young or two quite old parents; one at
least of them should be in the full vigour
and prime of life.

Before being sent to the horse, the mare,

if in work, should be relaxed a bit in con-

THE BROOD MARE. 179

dition; while, if thrown up and turned out
to grass beforehand, the better chance there
will be of her proving in foal. With some
mares this precaution seems to be superfluous,
with others it is essential; but all should
be tried repeatedly through the season,
since the surest breeders may turn. I have
a thoroughbred mare at the present time,
which seems to make a point of having
her foal as late in the year as she can,
so that unless we had persevered with her
she might never have given us one at all.

Late foaling is a disadvantage when the
offspring is intended for racing, since the
thoroughbred, in whatever month born, has
to date his age from January Ist; so that
one born in June is considerably handicapped
in a weight-for-age race, either at two or
three years old; and the same applies also
to foals intended for showing, where so much
favour (a great deal too much probably)

is shown to mere size and early development.

180 THE BROOD MARE.

For others it does not so much matter.
Indeed, it is often more convenient that
the foal should not be born until there is
some grass for the dam; for, besides the
question of expense, he thrives best on this,
and soon begins to eat a bit for himself.
When a mare has so managed her affairs
as to foal very late in the year, it is some-
time advantageous (if she has plenty of
time before her) to let her miss out a year,
to come in early the next; and this is what
I have done with mine.

In a natural state the mare foals very easily,
and also in a domesticated condition, if judi-
ciously treated, she seldom encounters trouble.
It is desirable, in the latter case, that she
should have regular exercise (in the former,
of course, she takes it for herself), and a
moderate amount of work, if performed at
a slow pace and with no heavy haulage
necessitating muscular strain, even up to a

day or two of foaling, is distinctly beneficial.

THE BROOD MARE. 181

When her time arrives, she is best left
absolutely alone, and in a vast prepon-
derance of cases all goes well. When a
presumably valuable youngster, for whose
procreation a high fee has perhaps been paid,
is expected, there is naturally a degree of
anxiety on the dam’s behalf; but the less
this is manifested the better. Careful watch
may of course be kept, but it should not
be obtrusive, nor should the mare be
interfered with without the most absolute
necessity. For it often happens that the
greater care exercised, the less happy the
result, and vice versa.

A yvather recent experience affords a
remarkable confirmation of this opinion. <A
thoroughbred mare, winner of many steeple-
chases, though sent to a sire well known as
“a sure foal-getter,”’ had missed the year,
while her previous foal by an equally good
horse had proved a disappointment through a

bad attack of ‘“joint-evil,” a form of synovial

182 THE BROOD MARE.

inflammation, which sometimes assails well-
bred foals. It was contracted, we thought,
in this case by the foal being caught in a
heavy thunder shower the first time he went
out into the paddock from the box in which
he was born. Anxious to secure her next
foal from any similar mishap, the utmost
precaution was observed, and he was ap-
parently doing well; but about the fourth
day he suddenly began to “scour” and in
an hour or so was dead; cause unknown;
possibly something noxious in the grass sup-
plied to the dam. Next year she produced
a fine filly foal to the same horse, which
was dropped at a distance from home, in
an open run sheltered only by a coppice,
into which the animals could not actually
enter, amid drenching rain, which, with
cold nights, continued for days after its
birth. I was away at the time, and when
I heard that the foal had been born a day

or two before it was observed (for it was a

THE BROOD MARE 183

large enclosure) and exposed to such fearful
weather, I quite expected another case of
joint-evil, or worse; instead of which I
found the youngster as lively as a basket
of kittens, and she did as well as_ possible
through the wet summer. And such has
been my personal experience. Only three
foals have I ever had born indoors, of
which one died, and another got joint-evil ;
my others have all been foaled in the open,
and no harm has happened to any one of
them. Therefore I would advise that any
mare due to foal not earlier in the year
than May be left out and allowed to take
her chance; for I believe that chance to
be the best she can be given. Nature evi-
dently makes some provision to protect the
newly born creature from the effects so com-
monly produced by wet and cold upon those
subjected to artificial treatment. With
thoroughbreds intended for flat-racing, and

therefore foaled early in the year, the ela-

184 THE BROOD MARE.

borate precautions usually taken may possibly
be necessary ; nevertheless, my own opinion
is that the less any horse is regarded as a
tender exotic, and the more hardily (consis-
tently, of course, with fair and humane
treatment) he is reared, the more useful
and satisfactory an animal he is likely to
become.

The chief danger incurred during the long
period of gestation, which is normally eleven
months ‘(though the mare is very apt to
anticipate, or go beyond her time) is that
of slipping the foal. This mishap is most
apt to occur about the fourth or fifth month,
and when once a mare has met with it, it
is likely to happen again. The only pre-
caution which can be taken is to keep the
mare as free as possible from excitement
of any kind, particular care being also taken
to keep her from the proximity of any
other animal which may have miscarried ;

it being generally admitted that, either

THE BROOD MARE. 185

through sympathy, or some other cause,
such mishaps are practically contagious.

This not being, even in the slightest
degree, a veterinary work upon the horse,
we will leave the subject of parturition
entirely to the experts, merely remarking
that while the mare usually produces her
young with as little difficulty as any animal,
none seem to succumb sooner when anything
does go wrong. In any case, therefore, of
difficult or protracted labour, recourse should
be had promptly to qualified veterinary
assistance. One precaution should always
be observed. If the mare is to foal
within doors, care should be taken that
there shall be some other mode of ingress
than by a door which opens (as most doors
do) inwards. Otherwise, if the mare should
go down close to the door, her weight would
render it impossible to be opened in case
of need.

At the time of foaling the mare should

186 THE BROOD MARE.

not be too fat. Not only does excessive fat
interfere with the nutrition of the fetus,
but it renders the act of parturition more
difficult and precarious, while also it increases
the tendency to inflammation. Nevertheless,
she must, of course, be well nourished.
If the autumnal grasses should be scanty,
or innutritious, as they are apt to be in
certain seasons, a brood mare which has
been highly fed all her life will require a
feed or two of corn in addition; but in an
average season she will do very well till
near the end of the year, when carrots,
parsnips, or, when they come in, mangolds
(of which many horses are extremely fond)
may be allowed with her hay, and occasional
bran and linseed mashes. Brood mares
at work, too, are all the better for some
sort of green food; lucerne, when it can
be procured, being particularly suitable, and
sainfoin, but vetches are less to be com-

mended. By observing these precautions

ARAB MARE.

THE BROOD MARE. 189

two great ends are attained—the mare is
kept in a cool condition, while the fcetus is
well nourished.

Some care must be taken of the mare at
the time of weaning. This may be when
the foal is six months old, though, if the
latter seems at all delicate, or the mare
is not wanted, it may be left with its mother
a month or two longer; but not later than
this, if the mare is again in foal, since to
suckle the foal at foot and nourish the
foetus within at the same time will be too
severe a strain upon her. After the foal
is taken from her she should be milked a
little, but not too much, and less day by
day, when the milk will soon dry up. Ex-
perience teaches. The first mare I bred
from, as she had not been sent to horse
again and I did not want her to use, was
allowed to wean her foal at her own dis-
cretion. That answered all right, but the

second foal I weaned at six months, and

190 THE BROOD MARE.

put the mare into work. My groom, how-
ever, made the mistake of milking her too
long. He used to draw off the milk and
give it to the foal in a pail—treated her,
in fact, like a milch cow. In consequence,
getting one day overheated, for she was a
very free and fiery goer, she developed
mammalitis, by which the mammary glands
became hard and callous, and the ducts
being probably obstructed, it was deemed
inadvisable to breed from her again, the
vet. considering she would be unable to
suckle her foal. I had cause to regret my
inexperience when, some few years later,
this good mare met with an accident which
incapacitated her from further work, at a
time when her first foal was the most success-
ful steeple-chaser in the West of England,
and her second about the most useful all-
round animal I ever possessed. However,
no one has more surely to buy his experience

than the student of the horse.

CHAPTER X.
ON THE REARING OF THE FOAL.

Durine its suckling period the foal does
best at grass with its mother, care being
taken that it be in a suitable pasture, free
from holes, barbed wire fencing, and other
traps, to avoid risk of blemishes and worse
mishaps. In regularly laid out paddocks,
which as a rule are found only in breeding
establishments, it is usual to have a guard-
rail inside the actual fence, towards which it
is also a good plan to have the ground slightly
made up, to minimise the risk of the foal
running into it when he gallops about, which
a healthy one will do for hours at a time.

All grasses do not equally suit young
stock ; some seem even deadly. I remember

a very rich riverside meadow in the Midlands
191

192 ON THE REARING

into which to introduce the dam was said
to be certain death to the foal, though she
herself would be unharmed, and wax as fat
as a prize bullock. Limestone is considered
to be the best soil for young horses, as con-
ducive to the formation of bone. My ideal
run for a foal is a wild country like the
better parts of our western moorlands, the
slopes of the Welsh mountains, and lawns
of the New Forest, where the summer grass,
though short, is sweet and nutritious, while
the wide range affords abundant exercise,
and the broken nature of the ground makes
him quick and clever on his legs. On such
runs, particularly, of course, in the New
Forest, horses in bad weather find sufficient
shelter for themselves; but, if the mare is
confined in a small enclosure, she should
have a shed or hovel * to run under. Very

* The old-fashioned furze hovel, warm and dry, is as
good as anything, when some one can be found to build
it; for this, like many another old-world and simple

thing, is almost a lost art.

OF THE FOAL. 193

seldom, however, do horses avail themselves
of such shelter when it is provided for them,
the fact being that in a natural state they
are almost indifferent to rain. If you catch
a rough pony on a drenching day, when he
is fairly dripping and glistening with the
wet, you will find, on turning back his coat,
that he is warm and dry underneath, the
skin seeming to exude an oily scurf which
is impervious to wet; while no doubt, too,
the hoofs of animals are non-conductors of
damp, otherwise they could not stand about
in slushy or boggy ground with impunity,
as they do.

In enclosed runs for young horses the
white or Dutch clover should be assiduously
encouraged, and there should be a constant
supply of water, that they may drink when
inclined. Few grooms, by the way, seem
able to understand that a regular supply of
water is as essential to a horse’s well-being

as his daily food. A notable case in point
13

194: ON THE REARING

occurred in my neighbourhood some few
summers ago. An owner going abroad, his
horses were turned out in a good-sized park,
where was sufficient grass and good shelter,
but absolutely no water at all. This necessary
element was supposed to be taken to them
from a well worked by a gas-engine, which
supplied the whole establishment. Their
attendant, however, neglected to supply them
properly, and in consequence they were
reduced to a state of semi-starvation—to
skin and bone, in fact—though they had
enough to eat. The reader will be prepared
to hear that the person in charge had mean-
while by no means neglected to supply |
himself with sufficient liquid refreshment.
The practice of the age—we will not here
discuss its advisability—being to force all
young pedigree stock to the earliest possible
maturity, the foal is usually fed as soon as
he can eat. At the end of a month or six

weeks he will generally eat a few bruised

OF THE FOAL. 195

oats, chopped carrots, linseed mashes, ete. ;
and animals intended for either racing or
showing are thereafter usually fed three times
a day. First one, then two quarterns of oats
are allowed, and so on, with the result that
thoroughbred foals dropped early in the year
are sent up for the autumn sales as big and
furnished as yearlings were under the old
treatment. Half-breds, and cart horses also,
are no doubt sooner saleable for good feeding:
from the first; but, apart from market con-
siderations, we should perhaps do as well to
let Nature alone, and content ourselves with
doing the mare well, and leaving her to do
the foal. The more naturally a young animal
is treated the better chance there would seem
to be of its developing a sound constitution,
and thus retaining its vigour to a late period
of life. Mindful of the many game and
capable old horses I knew in my youth,
when they were more often than not left

unbroken till four years old, and seldom

196 ON THE REARING

worked till six; and seeing how many,
deserving a better fate, are now used up
and worthless before they are middle-aged,
I am no great advocate for the forcing and
pampering of young stock now so generally
in vogue.

After being weaned, whether or not he
has been so before, the foal should certainly
be fed, unless at such times as there may
be plenty of grass, than which nothing is
better to keep him growing. But to what
extent the youngster should be fed with corn
‘must depend a great deal on the quality of
the particular animal, and the purpose for
which it is intended. It is, with those who
breed to sell, a question of debit and credit
account. Two quarterns a day, which are
enough for any ordinary animal at grass,.
will cost £5 or £6 a year; and thus, by the
time your colt is four years old, he will
have cost you from £20 to £24 more than

he would have done had you just let him

OF THE FOAL. 197

pick up his living, with a bit of hay in the
winter, as was formerly the practice. Now
£30 to £35 is often about as much as you
can get for an average animal of that
age unbroken; and if there be added to
the bare cost of keep the expense of the
covering fee and his share of the wages of
his attendant, etc., it is somewhat difficult
to see where your profit in your colt is
coming in.

Great numbers of useful animals are
brought over by Irish dealers, and sold at
an average of perhaps rather less than this,
from which we are bound to infer that Irish
colts can rarely be corn-fed at all, or they
could not be sold at English fairs at the
prices the English breeder has to compete
against. In short, any English farmer who
is fond of a bit of horse-dealing (a thing
which personally I hate and detest) will tell
you that he can do better by buying a colt

out of an Lrish drove than by breeding him

198 ON THE REARING

himself. Anything very good will, of course,
make more money ; but the best quality Irish
horses no longer appear at our horse-fairs
as they used to do in the palmy days of
Horncastle and Barnet, Weyhill and Britford.
They are picked out beforehand by English
dealers, who run over several times a year
for the purpose. How the second- and third-
class horses can be bred up, even without
corn, to be sold at such prices as rule in
an English fair field, is a thing which no
English breeder can understand. All he
knows is that it cannot be done here. Yet
it was once. A Devon squire and master
of harriers assured me lately that his father
always used to say: ‘“‘ Whenever you can get
£1 a month for your colt, sell him; there
is fair profit in that!” All we can say is,
there could not have been much corn-feeding
there, and probably there was no need of it.
Devon grass is, like Irish, plentiful, and good

enough in itself. Yet what pleasanter or

OF THE FOAL. » 199

more useful animal is there than a good
Devonshire cob?

It may be assumed, then, that in the
future only horses of high quality and
special designation will be produced, or at
least aimed at; the day of the general
utility nag being apparently nearly over.
The practice of forcing the young stock
with large quantities of stimulating food
will, therefore, probably be continued, in
view of an early sale. The difference in
value of a racehorse, hunter, or polo pony
reared on corn, and one brought up without
it, would be tremendous; and the high
price which will be demanded (nay, which
is already demanded for the best specimens)
when, in the course of years, few horses,
and those of very high class, will be bred,
will doubtless recompense the outlay. At
present, except in the case of extraordinarily
good animals, the price does not.

With regard to the polo pony, an asset

200 ON THE REARING

in the horse business of ever-increasing
value, judicious feeding of the foal will be
of the utmost importance, since, while bone
and muscular development are essential, the
inevitable result of too much good keep
will be increase of size; and the standard
already is a difficult one to attain. Plenty
of exercise, preferably on broken ground to
make him clever, and not too much stimu-
lating food, will probably be the best treat-
ment. When a breed of the required stamp
(and the typical polo pony is one of the
sweetest and most delightful creatures in
existence) is fully established, he will,
nevertheless, continue to be a most expen-
sive animal to buy, from the fact that he
will have to be kept so long before he is fit
for his work. This cannot be till he is at
least five or six years old. Before that age
he will not be able to stand the strain of
starting for sudden and sharp bursts of speed

under weight, or the quick turnings and

GIDRAN XXXIX.

OF THE FOAL. 203

twistings involved in his ten minutes’ high-
pressure play. Nor must he be put to other
kinds of work until of the proper age, lest
he should lose that dash and verve which
are essential to the game. The polo pony
is, therefore, pretty sure to be a long time
in the breeder’s hands, and so must always
bring in a high price to prove remunerative.

The two animals which at present make
the quickest return for early feeding are
the throughbred and the cart horse, but of
the former scarcely five out of every hundred
foaled are good enough to win races, and
nothing is so unsaleable as a thoroughbred
which is not; while it seems quite an open
question whether the latter, flourishing as
he is at the present moment, will or will
not be, in the course of a few years, almost
or entirely superseded by mechanical traction.

Abundant exercise is of the utmost im-
portance to the foal, as to all young animals,

while the more hardily he is brought up,

204 ON THE REARING

consistently, that is, with his due develop-
ment and even (as opposed to forced) growth,
the better and more useful a horse he is
likely to prove. He should, therefore, where
it is possible, run out of doors all the year
round. If there is no hovel, he should in
winter time be brought into a loose box (not
situated in a hot stable, but in some out-
building or barn-end) at night. In frosty
weather, lest he should slip and injure him-
self in the paddock, he may be kept in, when
a straw yard (if it be not a liquid manure
tank, as straw yards sometimes are) with an
open shed, is an ideal place for him.
Horses, being gregarious in their natural
state, love company in a domesticated one,
wherefore two or three foals together do better
than one alone; and though when highly
bred they will often fight, as a writer in the
“ Badminton Racing Book” aptly observes,
“like bull-dogs,” it is seldom that any

serious accident occurs, though famous race-

OF THE FOAL. 205

horses have borne their ‘“ paddock scars ”’
throughout their career. Horses, fortu-
nately, are pretty tough. I have seen a
thoroughbred foal kick his mother in play
till her ribs resounded like a big drum, but
she only whisked her tail round at him, as
at a fly, and continued grazing. There
is risk, however, in letting a_ well-bred
foal be with heavy, older horses, though
sometimes these will be very good, and play
with the youngster as gently as a_ strong
man will play with a child. <A _ very
favourite old cob we have, a black gelding
of rare shape and character, is at present
performing the part of dry nurse to a
yearling thoroughbred filly. He keeps with
her wherever she goes, and runs open-
mouthed at any horse or other animal which
ventures to approach his precious charge.
Last summer, by the way, an extraordi-
nary scene occurred, which might have been

amusing had it been witnessed under less

206 ON THE REARING

anxious and exhausting conditions. I had,
perhaps incautiously, ridden into the place,
a large park-like enclosure of many acres,
where the foal was running with her dam,
the old black cob, and a lot of others
which did not belong to us, on a smart
little bay cob mare but lately broken to
saddle. Dismounting to look for the brood
mare and foal with my field glasses, the
bay cob broke away, and there was a
stampede of all the horses in the place.
Singling out the brood mare, of which
she had always been rather jealous, the
wicked little brute . went for her like
a fury, and a regular duel with their
heels ensued, the two mares backing,
squealing, and flinging, while the thuds,
as one or the other landed, resounded through
the field. The black cob, fast and clever
in his day, but now pretty stiff, who was
chaperoning the party, at once joined in the

fray, and getting between the combatants

OF THE FOAL. 207

drove off the little bay again and again.
The pony mare, being, of course, shod, and,
as I knew, a hard kicker, I was very anxious
for the foal, who naturally kept close
to her dam for protection in the scrimmage,
which was a sort of flying fight all round
the field amid a mob of excited horses.
Run as I might I could seldom get near
enough to help my good old black, who
chased the little bay about till he was
nearly blown. Once in his efforts to drive
her off he went heels over head, turning
over like a shot rabbit. Presently my little
groom, who was outside, came to my assist-
ance, but it was not for nearly two hours
that we succeeded in separating them and
catching the pony mare. It might have
taken us all night but for the gallant
assistance of my good old black. Nothing,
happily, was hurt, but it was rather stronger
exercise than one desires on a warm summer

evening. This old cob had _ previously

208 ON THE REARING .

attached himself to a cart mare and her
shire-bred foal, and I noticed that he kept
an eye on those also whenever the fight
drifted in their direction. If any one should
be in want of a thoroughly reliable equine
nurse, he may apply to the writer.

As to when is the best time for the
castration of the colt, opinions seem to
differ. The operation used generally to be
performed between the age of one and two
years, but the more modern practice is to
perform it before the foal is weaned, at
about five months old if sufficiently de-
veloped. It used to be contended that
early castration hindered the development
of the neck and crest; but even if this is
the case I do not know that a thick, stallion-
like neck is any ornament to a gelding in
either saddle or harness. It has long been
the custom in this country, as in most others
in Europe, to castrate almost every colt not

intended for the Turf, because of the extra

OF THE FOAL. 209

trouble the stallion gives. Perhaps the
custom is a little overdone. Certainly two,
at least, of the three or four geldings which
I have myself regularly used as hacks and
hunters (for I have mostly ridden mares)
well deserved, for their make, shape, charac-
ter, action, and soundness, to have been
left entire.

There is very little danger attendant
on castration, if it be performed (as it
always should be) by a qualified veterinary
surgeon, but it should not be done in hot
weather. In this, and in all other operations
involving pain, chloroform should be used.
The additional expense of an anesthetic is
not very considerable; and even if it were
much greater than it is, we surely owe all
the consideration we can show for an animal
which contributes so much to our pleasure

and convenience as the horse.

14

CHAPTER XI.

HANDLING AND BREAKING.

Tue foal should be accustomed to being
handled as early as possible; as soon in
fact as the dam, or the foal himself, will
allow. Care must be taken of the former
at the first few visits, since the best tem-
pered and most affectionate of mares are
sometimes transformed into perfect furies
by their all-absorbing solicitude for a new
foal. I have myself been driven out of a
stable by a mare, which at ordinary times
was as fond of me as my terrier is; and it
was perhaps lucky for me on that occasion
that an athletic training had made me
pretty quick on my legs. The maternal
is the strongest of all natural instincts,

and it is always a thing to be reckoned
210

HANDLING AND BREAKING. 211

with in approaching a young mother, ever
eager to protect her precious baby from
unpremeditated assault. Sometimes the mare
is violent even with her foal, more from
blind excitement probably than from any
wish to harm her offspring ; but I was present
once when a mare actually kicked her foal’s
eye out, and it was left sticking to the
side of her box, a gruesome sight! A very
dificult and risky task I once had, too, in
separating a high-spirited blood mare from
the body of her dead foal. Instinct unen-
lightened by reason is on such occasions a
truly pathetic thing to witness, and might
form a subject worthy the portrayal of
a stronger animal painter than the world
has yet seen, good as some have been. But
on this sad occasion the beautiful afflicted
creature was not savage; she would let me
pat her, and seemed indeed to find some
consolation in her master’s presence; but

leave her foal she would not; and it was

212 HANDLING AND BREAKING.

not until the next day that with great
difficulty we got her away, when in the
course of a few hours she seemed absolutely
to have forgotten her loss—si sie omnes !
At most shows and sales the youngest
foals are now required to be led, so it is
best to get them used to the halter or caves-
son as early as possible. But it is not always
easy. Some foals are very bold and will
come up to you, and let you touch them
almost from the first; others are shy as
fawns, and will dodge round the mother
(or she will interpose herself) whenever you
attempt to caress them. One we could never
eet near till it was weaned, and with the
utmost difficulty then. Great caution and
patience are needed; for foals have been
known to jump up into a manger in panic
on being approached, and there is always
risk of a nasty kick for yourself, or a broken
leg for the foal, if matters are unduly

pressed. When once the headstall has been

HANDLING AND BREAKING. 213

got on it is best to let the foal wear it,
when he can very soon be brought to hand.
It is easier, too, to teach him to lead while
with the dam, since he will naturally follow
wherever she is led.

The handling thus begun should be kept

Lunging the Colt.

up, continuously, or at any rate at intervals,
till the colt is over a year old, when he
may be bitted and driven about with long
reins, taught to stop, to go on, to back, to
turn and bend himself, etc.; but perhaps

the less lunging in a circle is resorted to

214 HANDLING AND BREAKING.

the better. This is useful enough in certain
cases, as for older animals which from being
stopped in their work are over-fresh, or from
any cause unfit to ride; as well as to teach
a young one to bend and flex his joints,
but in breaking the colt it should not be
resorted to merely to save the breaker trouble.
On the whole it is rather to be deprecated
than encouraged for youngsters, since while
bones and ligaments are still soft and tender
there is risk of strains and other injuries
resulting from the practice. In lunging
nearly every colt manifests a preference for
going one way or the other; but he must
be driven equally both ways, lest he should
acquire uneven paces by habitually going
shorter on the inside legs than on the outer;
also to prevent his mouth becoming duller
on one side. As a rule the colt should not
be mounted before he is two years old (unless
you have by chance a very light-weight

quiet lad who may be trusted with him),

HANDLING AND BREAKING. 215

though he may be accustomed to carry a
dumb jockey, or a lightly stuffed sack
securely girthed (for it must on no account
slip round), so as to become used to having
something on his back at an early age.
Riding for many years not much over
ten stone, I used to mount my own at two
years and ride them, but not out of a walk,
for a few weeks or months, as I had time,
and then turn them out again until they
were three. With a man to lead for the
first lesson or two, I never had any trouble ;
but then they always knew me so well that
they were never afraid of me. This I believe
to be the main thing in the successful
handling of young horses; you must not
be afraid of them, and they must not be
afraid of you; save with that salutary awe
and reverence as for a higher power. Mu-
tual confidence is thus established from the
first between horse and rider. You must not

expect him to do a thing properly until you

216 HANDLING AND BREAKING.

have taught him how; and then he will
have confidence that you will not ask him
to do anything which he is not able to do.
This mutual confidence is not of course to be
acquired very quickly, but it is very valuable
when established; if you retain the animal
for your own use, it continues through life;
while if you sell him it can readily be trans-
ferred to any new owner who will treat him
in the way he is accustomed to.

The more gradually and imperceptibly the
colt is broken, the nicer and better he usually
is for service in after life. In this consists:
the chief value of amateur, as opposed to
professional breaking. Formerly nearly
every colt was, as soon as he was of an
orthodox age, “ placed’ as a matter of course
“in the breaker’s hands,” nothing perhaps
having been done with him before; now
a considerable number are broken at home.
The professional breaker cannot, of course,

take years over the preliminary training of

HANDLING AND BREAKING. Q17

each animal, since no one would pay him
to do so. Ile has therefore to crowd into
a few days, or weeks at the utmost, during
which the animal, particularly when high-
spirited or nervous (as so many of the nicest
are), is frequently overtaxed, the work which
the owner (or his groom, if competent, which
few grooms are) extends over the whole
period of the animal’s infancy. The result
is often satisfactory enough if the animal is
to be sold as “ quiet to ride and drive,” or is
put at once into regular work at home; but
it is obvious that the mutual confidence, or
friendship as I may call it, which I consider
so valuable, has yet to be inspired and es-
tablished. This is why I hke home-breaking
best, if it be undertaken by a competent
person. Not that the most capable of
amateurs can do it one whit better than a
good professional colt-breaker (these are by
the way now few and far between), but that

he can do it more gradually; and, as all

218 HANDLING AND BREAKING.

skilled in the science of the Preceptor are
aware, the more gradually knowledge is
acquired the more constantly it abides, and
the better it is. The modern practice of
home-breaking was no doubt introduced,
or rather we may say suggested, by the
famous American breaker, Rarey, who, if I
remember rightly, visited this country some-
where in the late fifties, and revolutionised
our system of breaking. His tying-up and
laying-down tactics (useful as they may have
been in the reclamation of savage or in-
tractable horses) I have never had occasion
to resort to, but his ‘‘mutual confidence ”’
theory was perfectly sound, and is what every
breaker should seek to establish between
himself and his equine pupil.

A most excellent and kind-hearted Quaker
lady, who used to scold me a great deal
(vicariously, I suppose, for I was always
immensely fond of animals, and generally

supposed to be good to them) for the cruelties

HANDLING AND BREAKING. 219

practised upon “ poor dumb creatures” in
general, and horses in particular, insisted that
“breaking” was quite a wrong word to use,
and that we should rather say “training”
the horse to do what we want of him. In
idea she was quite right, but inasmuch as
it was already appropriated for quite another
thing, to wit, the preparing a horse for a
race, I had to explain that the term was
unavailable. Her notion apparently was
that breaking meant reducing a young and
generous creature to obedience, by the
tyranny of sharp bits, heavy cutting whips,
and lacerating spurs. Now, to break the
colt’s spirit by dominating him in such
severe fashion is the last thing any competent
-breaker desires to do: rather, he would direct
it, by the gentlest effective agencies, into
right courses, and teach the young animal
to control itself, which my sympathetic
Quakeress would certainly have admitted to

be essential in the case of the young of her

220 HANDLING AND BREAKING.

own species. Still we do want a better word
perhaps to differentiate our own methods
from those of the professional, who has to
break his charges to ride and drive in the
shortest possible space of time. The French
expression manége would do; but this again
is used to denote something else—the higher
branches of equine education, as practised
in the haute école.

While commending this ‘mutual con-
fidence”? doctrine to the amateur breaker,
and also to riders and drivers generally, I
would strongly deprecate any playing with
the colt. Playing with an animal means
as a rule teasing it, in a benevolent sense of
the term. Dogs enter into this and seem
to understand it; but they are perhaps the
only animals who quite enjoy it. All young
creatures, however, love play, pure and
simple; and the colt will readily learn a
game, and you may have some fun together

with impunity. But it is a dangerous game.

f
/
1M,
Wa

a

KISBER.

HANDLING AND BREAKING. 223

“ Horse” play is proverbial for rough sport ;
and it must be remembered that the horse
is a very much heavier and stronger animal
than his human playmate. Some day, perhaps,
when you are not thinking of it, he begins
a game, and though it is all in good part
and entirely devoid of vicious intention, you
sustain some injury, which causes you to
regret having initiated the practice. I
remember, for instance, the case of a man
who used to amuse himself by making his
horse rear in a roomy box, probably by way
of showing off and looking pretty (for rearing
is rather an elegant, though undesirable
accomplishment); but one day failing to
avoid a descending hoof, he got a nasty crack
on his head from his quite innocent, but
too formidable playfellow. <A stable boy
I remember being killed outright, through
a foolish habit he had of flicking with his
rubber at a horse’s quarters as he passed,

and adroitly avoiding the playful kick with

224 HANDLING AND BREAKING.

which this senseless practical joke w
acknowledged by the animal. One day t.
kick, a harder and longer one perhaps thi
usual, was not evaded, and there was
vacancy for a stable lad. Never go 1
beside your horse in the stall without
kindly word to warn him of your approac
While there, pat and caress him as mu
as you please, and he will be delight
with your attention; but make it a ru
from the first never to play with or tea
him.

When not teased, horses are, as a rul
as even and reliable in temper as any anima
I know; but I recall as I write a mo
ludicrous, though painful, instance to tl
contrary. Many years ago, down in Sou
Devon, I was showing Queen of the Mo
(a mare which afterwards became almost tl
idol of that sporting county), as a thre
year-old to a rather important gentlema

who was churchwarden of the parish in whi

HANDLING AND BREAKING. 225

I was staying, when he incautiously stooped
with his back to the manger, and in orthodox
fashion passed a critical hand down her fore-
legs. I ought, of course, to have racked
or held her head up, but she was so quiet,
and I had besides no idea of what he was
about to do, so omitted this precaution.
“ Nice filly,” he remarked; “ perhaps a lectle
light of bone”; when, at that moment, to
my horror, round came the filly’s handsome
golden head, with ears laid back, and an
expression in her luminous eye I had never
seen there before, and—great Scot! (the most
innocent ejaculation I am acquainted with)
there ensued an agonized yell, as her nippers
closed with a snap on the most salient portion
of her critic’s person, and the churchwarden
performed a standing broad jump towards
the stable door, which I am sure he could
never have accomplished with the best of
runs under less stimulating circumstances.

Whatever made the mare do such a diabolical
15

226 HANDLING AND BREAKING.

thing I can’t imagine. She had never
attempted to bite any one before; nor did
she, so far as I know, cver do so again.
Hither she must have been too thin-skinned
to endure the shghtly disparaging criticism
on her bone (she had 73, which wasn’t
so bad for a small thoroughbred one of
fifteen hands), or the opportunity was
absolutely too tempting to be resisted. It
was a painful experience for me, as well as
for my portly and august friend ; and ever
since, when showing a horse, I have taken
firm hold of his head.

Whether horses are ever positively vicious
unless made so by the injudicious treatment
of mankind, I do not know; all I can say is
that none I have had to do with have been
so. “Mad” Chillaby, Merlin, Cruiser, and
Fon Stroon seem certainly to have been
ferocious creatures, unsafe for any one to
approach ; but it is rather difficult to decide

whether they were made so by bad treatment;

HANDLING AND BREAKING, 227

or might, at any rate, if carefully handled
from foalhood (I don’t know if any of them
were or were not), not have developed the
savage tempers for which they were notorious.
Training, no doubt, renders some horses ex-
tremely irritable, and they have been known
to retaliate in a terrible manner for the
severities to which they have been subjected
in the course of it. Hllerdale, for instance,
would scream with rage when she heard
Tom Dawson’s voice; and Mentor would
manifest his wrath in equally unmistakeable
terms directly he beheld Matthew of that
ilk; while Muley Edris’s revenge upon Fred
Archer will still be fresh in our readers’
memory. A stud-groom named Lawson once
told me, too, of a mare, which so resented
something which had to be done to her foot,
that she waited for his father when he re-
turned from his dinner, and struck him dead
as he re-entered her box! The excessively

high feeding and severe work accorded to

228 HANDLING AND BREAKING.

horses under the old-fashioned system of
training, combined with occasional punishing
finishes on the racecourse, were naturally
calculated to act upon certain equine tem-
peraments, and provoke in extreme cases
results of this lamentable description, while
vicious tendencies so engendered may con-
ceivably prove hereditary ; but we may lay it
down as a general axiom that the temper of
the average horse is formed for good and ill
during the period of his early handling and
breaking. Further, it may be boldly asserted
that there is no animal in creation more
amenable to kind and gentle treatment.
Most young horses, like young people,
have a will of their own, which generally
manifests itself in their wanting to go their
own way instead of the rider’s, as soon as
they have become accustomed to the sensation
of having some one on their backs. At first
they are usually somewhat overawed by the

novelty of the situation; but after a ride or

HANDLING AND BREAKING. 229

two they generally begin to display this self-
will by trying to turn homewards, refusing
to pass some particular point, or insisting
on taking one road instead of another.
Generally a sharp pulling together, with a
touch of the spurs, or a smart stroke of
a cutting whip (only sit tight) down each
shoulder alternately, as rapidly administered
as possible, will correct this; but sometimes
a colt will be very persistent, twisting round
and kicking or plunging, sometimes rearing,
time after time, as you continue to urge him
forward. But, whatever he does, you must
never give way: stick to him, and keep him
there all night rather than let him beat you;
for, if he has done so once, he will certainly
expect to do so again. Nevertheless, I
believe it is best not to continue active
fighting after the first bout—i.e., not to
rouse the full combatant force of so vigorous
and high-couraged an animal as the blood

horse, but rather to possess your soul in

230 HANDLING AND BREAKING.

patience till he gets tired of it, when often
he will move off of his own accord in the
required direction.

No one who has not a fairly strong seat and
good hands should attempt the task of colt-
breaking; but, even though there may be
no misgivings on the part of the rider as to
the consequences, it is unwise to thoroughly
rouse the temper of an animal which, how-
ever gentle of disposition, can manifest
extreme violence on occasion, if it can pos-
sibly be avoided. If you absolutely cannot
from the saddle induce your colt to go the
way you wish, it is far better to get off and
lead him by it than to let him triumph over
you. It is certainly in a way a “climbing
down” on your part; but the point is that
he does not recognise his partial victory in
having obliged you to dismount, if he still
has to go your way and not his.

This, be it remembered, does not denote

vice, but mere coltish stubbornness; and

HANDLING AND BREAKING. 231

most horses give up these tricks entirely
after being ridden regularly for a little while.
There is sometimes at first great difficulty
in getting a young horse to go through water.
This arises chiefly from timidity and dread
of the unstable element, which the animal
sees will not support his weight. It is
generally to be overcome by a little tact
and patience. One man I knew, after re-
peated trials and a vast exercise of this
latter quality, actually attached a carthorse in
trace harness, and dragged the refuser through
a ford, thinking that having once been
through it he would go again; but I believe
this heroic measure did not have the desired
effect. One colt I have lately been break-
ing, which would at first make a fuss about
crossing a six-inch runnel across a road,
will now splash through anywhere; but it
took quite six months to overcome his
repugnance to water. There are seasoned

hunters too who will jump anything they are

232 HANDLING AND BREAKING.

asked except water. The best way, of course,
to get them to face this dreaded element
is to turn them out for a few hours daily,
when one has the chance, in a water meadow,
or any field across which runs a brook or
a wet ditch; when they will soon learn to
jump it, and henceforth cease to fear the
glint of water, which will stop many an
otherwise good one in his stride.

Colts are still broken to harness mostly
by the professional horse-breaker, though
farmers will often break their own by putting
them in trace harness between two steady
old horses, when they cannot do very much
damage, and soon learn to go up into the
collar. But horses broken in this way, if
they are ever to be nice to drive, require
also “mouthing” by being driven with long
reins about the roads; and it often happens
that there is no one on a farm with the time,
patience, or hands requisite for this. By far

the better plan is to have the colt regularly

HANDLING AND BREAKING. 233

broken in double harness beside a steady
break horse. We sometimes hear the opinion
expressed that the colt should be put into
single harness at once, since he must go
through this experience sooner or later.
In this opinion I do not concur, though
I have driven several horses for the first
time in this way myself, and have never
had any trouble with them; but have only
(wittingly) attempted it when I have been
without the appliances for breaking in double
harness, and had good reason to believe
from previous observation of his character,
that the animal was of a tractable dis-
position, not easily alarmed, and by no
means likely to give way to panic, whatever
happened. With an animal of the contrary
disposition I should consider such an experi-
ment a tempting of Providence.

I used the word “ wittingly ” with inten-
tion, for I once did this very thing without

any such assurance unknowingly. It hap-

234 HANDLING AND BREAKING.

pened in this wise. A farmer friend was
in the habit of kindly lending me a horse
if I was short of one, or had extra work.
One day meeting his groom I said to him:
“Ask your master if he can let me have
a horse to drive to-morrow.” Next day the
horse, a big weight-carrying animal which
I had never seen before, came over, was
duly put to in the dogcart (which was a
trifle small for him), and I drove two lady
visitors to a garden party. The horse was
perfectly quiet, but seemed to go a bit
“green,” particularly down hill, so I thought
perhaps he might not have been in for
some little time. What was my surprise
when I met my friend a day or two later
to hear him say: ‘Much obliged to you
for breaking my horse to harness the other
day; he had never been in before!” The
man had told him I wanted one to vide.
I quoted the title of one of Shakespeare’s

best-known plays; but it was a thing 1

HANDLING AND BREAKING. 235

would not wittingly have done, with ladies
on board, for untold gold.

But once I did pretty much the same thing
on Dartmoor, knowing what I was about.
A friend wanted to catch a train, the nearest
station then being at Horrabridge, seven miles
off. I said: “Well, I have only a pony
mare here which is very quict in saddle,
but so far as I know has never been driven ;
if you like to chance it, I don’t mind.”
Chance it he did, and we accomplished the
journey in safety, down some steepish hills
too. Still this is not a sort of thing I
should recommend; the results in either
case might easily have been very different.
I cite these instances merely to show how
readily some good-tempered horses, when
quietly handled, will adapt themselves to
unaccustomed circumstances.

So much depends upon the temperament
of the individual animal. Lately I had two

nice ponies, a black gelding and a bay mare,

236 HANDLING AND BREAKING.

from the same dam by different sires, to be
broken to harness. Having studied them
both from foalhood, I knew what might be
done with one, and what must not be done
with the other. The black I put to in
single harness and with my groom beside
his head drove him quietly off; he reared
once or twice in an ornamental way when
I had to pull him up, but did nothing else,
and in a few days went into regular harness
work. The bay, a Robin Hood, I knew
was quite another pair of shoes; so having
no double tackle I sent her to a professional
breaker on whom I could rely, with a
diagnosis of her character. She gave him
a lot of trouble; unable to do much harm
alongside a powerful break-horse, after kicking
all she knew (which was a good bit), she
sat down in the breeching and let him pull
her along. It was days before she would
go into her collar, and when put into single

harness she broke two shafts; but was not

HANDLING AND BREAKING. 237

so bad as a Basuto pony the breaker had
at the same time. He rushed, cart and all,
into the river and fell, and they had to go in
and hold his head above water, or he would
have been drowned. Yet both went beauti-
fully in time.

Too great care cannot, in short, be taken
in breaking horses to harness. In saddle,
things are somewhat different. A horse may
buck and plunge, get rid of his rider, gallop
off, and neither be a penny the worse; in
harness serious results may follow from the
same sort of manceuvre, while there is pretty
sure to be damage to something or other.
Moreover, a horse that has once given way
to panic in harness, even if he escapes injury
at the time, is hardly safe to drive again.
It is in harness that the advantage of having
established friendly and confidential relations
with your horse so often comes in. On many
occasions, with horses of the highest spirit

(and I do not care for any which are not so)

238 HANDLING AND BREAKING.

when we have found ourselves in difficulties
say on a dark night in a furious storm on
the Moor, a cheery word from the familiar
voice has kept them quwet while I have
got out to take our bearings. Horses almost
rival dogs in their reliance upon their masters,
and not only know their voice, but their
very footfall. In former days when I used
regularly to put up at the old Plough at
Cheltenham, where is one of the largest stable
yards in England, the ostler said to me,
“Wherever she is standing, your mare
knows your step, and whinnies the moment
you set foot in the yard.” It is not from
mere sentiment and love for the animal that
I would commend the dihgent cultivation
of these friendly relations, but for precautions
of safety as well. A horse will generally
avoid touching a fallen rider, if he can;
probably he will be extra careful if that
rider is his dearest friend. Only once have

I been kicked by a horse in getting up

HANDLING AND BREAKING. 239

after a spill in hunting, and then it was
not by my own, but by a big impetuous
young mare sent me to be ridden, who was

a bit too eager over the stone walls of the

Cotswolds.

aoe
We louey
GEE hes

feovd

CHAPTER XII.

ON ARTIFICIAL INSEMINATION.

Or the larger mammals domesticated in this
country the mare is perhaps the shyest and
most uncertain breeder, and this irrespective
of her breed. Cart mares, hacks, and
thoroughbreds (especially the last and first,
by reason of their superior value) con-
tinually disappoint their owners, by failing
to recompense the outlay in trouble and
expense incurred in sending them, perhaps
a considerable distance, to horse.

Few persons without actual experience
perhaps realise how uncertain an enterprise
horse-breeding for this particular reason is.
I, for one, did not for a while. I was so
lucky in my first venture, getting a fine

foal from a single service (the mare was
240

ON ARTIFICIAL INSEMINATION. = 241

not even tried again), and again with my
second, that I thought it was all quite easy,
and that failure must necessarily imply bad
management somewhere. It was, therefore,
a surprise to learn, as I did by some sub-
sequent disappointments, how precarious a
matter it really is. It has been calculated,
indeed, that a stallion has on the average
to perform at least three services for every
mare he gets in foal; while statistics com-
piled on behalf of the French Government
(France being a great breeding country
both of horses and mules), comprising the
entire number of mares covered by the
stallions in the National haras and _ its
various depdts, and extending over a period
of several years, show that these horses,
though kept and handled in the most ap-
proved way, only succeeded in getting about
half their mares in foal; the percentage
being, one year with another, from forty-
eight to fifty-two. Again, we are assured,
16

242 ON ARTIFICIAL INSEMINATION
in the United States any horse which suc-
ceeds in impregnating a like proportion of

mares is regarded as what we call a sure

J

THE IMPROVED CALIFORNIA SERVICE HOBBLES.

This is to show method of Hobbling for Service.

foal-getter. In this country the evidence
collected by the Royal Commission on Horse-
breeding showed a slightly better average,

some 60 per cent.

ON ARTIFICIAL INSEMINATION. 243

It is, of course, in all breeding establish-
ments maintained for profit, a matter of
the utmost importance that every mare
shall, if possible, produce a foal every year,
the loss being considerable with an animal
so long in gestation if she fails to do so.
If only half the inmates of the haras
breed each year, it is obvious that every
foal reared must repay the keep of two.
The attention of breeders was, therefore,
directed, through these ascertained facts,
to the theory of artificial insemination—
i.e., the introduction of semen into the
uterus by other means than that of natural
copulation.

Some opposition has, as might be expected,
been made to this practice of artificial insemi-
nation. Two or three of the objections
advanced against it we may briefly consider,
before pointing out the advantages claimed
for it by its supporters. It has been alleged

that it is an interference with the course

244 ON ARTIFICIAL INSEMINATION.

of Nature, and, therefore, an impious and
unholy thing. Against this is quoted the
old maxim, that “ He who makes two blades
of grass to grow where but one grew before
is to be accounted a_ benefactor to his
species”; the argument being that, similarly,
he must be a benefactor who by these means
gives us three so useful animals as the horse
where only two were produced before. As
a matter of fact, no one can really control
or alter Nature, though man would seem
to be allowed to direct its operations, so far
as he can, to his own profit and advantage.
At least, it may be alleged that there is, at
any rate, no inhumanity or cruelty involved
in this practice, which is perhaps more than
could be said of the opposite practice ; to
wit, the ruthless gelding of ninety-nine-
hundredths of our male horses, against which,
so far as I know, no voice has ever been
raised.

Then there was the objection that foals

“TINGANAAA

ON ARTIFICIAL INSEMINATION. = 247

thus artificially procreated would not re-
semble the sire, or be so strong as those
begotten by the natural process; but this,
of course, has proved groundless, the off-
spring being necessarily and obviously the
natural produce of the sire in the one case
as in the other, while it also appears fully
as robust.

Also there is what is called the “ biennial ”’
argument to be considered. This is based on
the assumption that, if a mare breeds only
once in two years, she throws a colt superior
to what she would be able to produce if
prolific every year. This sounds reasonable
enough, and it is undoubtedly the case that
animals (such as the dog), which can produce
twice in the year, may become exhausted
with such rapid production, and should there-
fore be discouraged in the exercise of such
fecundity. But this does not seem to be
the case with a slow-breeding mammal like

the mare. There is, at any rate, no re-

248 ON ARTIFICIAL INSEMINATION.

liable evidence to the effect that a foal
dropped after a year of idleness is in any
way better than another which was foaled
in the regular annual discharge of maternal
duty. Breeders, therefore, are naturally in-
clined to set aside the biennial theory and
breed a foal, if they can, from each mare
yearly.

It is claimed by the advocates of artificial
insemination that such desirable result is
largely facilitated by this process. The
operation is said to have been known in
Europe for a hundred years, and used by
the Arabs for an unknown period ; but it is
only of late years that practical experiments
have to any extent been made, and these
chiefly in the United States of America.
A farmer in Illinois undertook to thus
artificially impregnate twenty-two mares
which were alleged to be barren, and which,
at any rate, had been previously covered

for several seasons without result, and ac-

ON ARTIFICIAL INSEMINATION. 249

tually succeeded in getting sixteen of them
in foal by these means. Another breeder
gives as his experience that out of seven-
teen mares which had refused to stand to
a horse (some of them for several years)
nine fine and healthy living foals were pro-
cured in the same way.

The practice as yet is by no means general,
and only one case, so far, has come under
my own personal observation. This was a
mare named Brimstone, some few years ago
a noted winner of point-to-point steeple-
chases in Wilts and Dorset. After repeated
trials and disappointments, both with
thoroughbred and carthorse sires known as
sure foal-getters, she was at last successfully
impregnated, and produced in due course a
strong foal, by means of insemination. Most
of us who have bred at all have been at
some time or other disappointed, by the
repeated refusal of some valuable or favourite

animal, whose good qualities we desired to

250 ON ARTIFICIAL INSEMINATION.

perpetuate, to accept the attentions of the
horse, or her failure to ‘ hold” when she
has done so—which disappointments the use
of the inseminator, it is claimed, would in
most instances have obviated.

The most notable instance in this country
has been, so far, the Trenton—Sandiway
filly. This beautiful mare was bred by the
late Duke of Westminster. Sandiway had
been repeatedly served by Trenton, and as
often “turned.” As a last resource, the day
before she returned to Eaton, recourse was
had to the inseminator, and the mare imme-
diately took. In due time she was delivered
of this valuable youngster, which, though
a late foal (May 18th), made as a yearling
5,500 guineas under the hammer.

The operation, too, has occasionally an-
swered wonderfully in the case of aged
mares. <A cart mare, for instance, by means
of it, dropped her first foal at fifteen years.

Another advantage claimed for the system

SANDFLAKE, BY TRENTON—SANDIWAY.

ON ARTIFICIAL INSEMINATION. — 253

is economy of service in the horse, since by
the process two mares which happen to be
in “use” at the same time may often be
impregnated from one service. The genera-
tive powers of certain highly prized racing
sires might thus be conserved and _ utilised,
to the profit alike of owners and subscribers ;
and in this way an aged hero of the turf
' might still beget as many foals as a younger
and more vigorous sire.

There are many causes of sterility in mares,
which (this not being in any way a veterinary
work) we need not enumerate or discuss,
but will content ourselves with saying that
convincing evidence has now been collected
to prove that most of these can be remedied
by means of insemination, the percentage of
prolific mares being by artificial aid as ninety
to fifty before its adoption. Nor does it lie
within our scope to describe the operation.
Suffice it to say that it is not a complicated

one, though it must, of course, be performed

254 ON ARTIFICIAL INSEMINATION.

either by a veterinary surgeon, or one other-
wise thoroughly acquainted with the interior

anatomy of the mare.*

* For particulars alike of the methods of operation and
the instruments required, we cannot do better than commend
to the reader the pamphlets on the subjects issued by
Messrs. C. H. Huish & Co., of 12, Red Lion Square.

CHAPTER XIII.

ON COLOUR.

Av the completion of this little book on
the Horse, I was reminded that I had
said nothing on the subject of colour; but
this was rather as a matter of course, since
it has long been an accepted fact with
practical horsemen that colour has nothing
to do with either the animal’s temperament
or his merits.

In the older works upon the horse we
find an entirely contrary opinion prevailing,
and various attributes assigned to the animal
according to the colour of his coat. My
belief is that there was never anything in
it, and that the old saying that a good
horse cannot be a bad colour, is correct

enough. Most persons, however, have their
255

256 ON COLOUR.

favourite colours, while it cannot be denied
that some are more pleasing than others to the
eye; but no one, I think, is entitled to claim
any particular merit as a general attribute
of any especial colour, or to condemn any
colour on other than esthetic grounds.

A few remarks upon colour may, never-
theless, not be without interest. Bay, I
suppose, is still the commonest colour in
this country; but what infinite gradations
of tint do this colour, and chestnut, afford !
Of twenty bay, or twenty chestnut, horses
in a stud, you would hardly find two of
exactly the same shade of colour. Bay
ranges from a pale, or mealy bay, as it is
called, almost approaching a dun, through
a series of tints called bright, sherry, or
blood-bay to that which is perhaps the
most beautiful colour for a horse of al]—
a very dark bay, which is apt to be called
brown. <A mare of this lovely colowr I rode

for many years ; looking down from the saddle

ON COLOUR. 257

on her fine sloping shoulder was like gazing
into the wine-dark depths of an old-fashioned
mahogany dining-table, kept as such an article
of furniture was in the days of our youth.
A very rich bay I have now is exactly the
colour of a horse chestnut, more nearly
matching it, in fact, than any chestnut horse
I ever saw. The darkest bay is generally
to be distinguished from a genuine brown
by having black points, while a brown has
often, too, a tan muzzle, which again is some-
times the only thing to distinguish it from
a black. So nearly do these three colours,
through the range of tints in the two
former, blend, that it is common in racing
entries to describe an animal thus: b. or
br. colt So-and-so; or, br. or blk. filly
Something-else. I think the most diffi-
cult to determine that I ever knew was
a mare named Beatrice, which ran in some
hurdle races in the West of England many
years ago. What she really was was a light
17

258 ON COLOUR.

and brightish bay, with legs, mane, and tail of
the same colour, which made her look as much
like a chestnut as a bay, and as a chestnut
I remember she was entered. <A positively
black horse, except among the Shire and
Clydesdale breeds, is now somewhat rare.
A real black is distinguished by a bluish
tint in the higher lights; but what used to
be termed a “mulberry” black—z.c., a black
of warmer hue tending to deep ruddy brown
on the flanks, the colour in fact of a ripe
mulberry—is less uncommon, and is a very
handsome colour. The most noticeable thing
has been, during the last few decades,
the increased prevalence of chestnut, due
undoubtedly to the more general use of
pure blood.

In a show-yard class of hunters, or in
the field for a race, chestnut is now as often
as not the predominant colour. This again
has a most extensive gradation of tints,

ranging from sorrel, as it used to be called,

ON COLOUR. 259

through shades of paler or brighter gold, to
a deep rich liver colour, and a chestnut
that is nearly black. This colour is the
most of all subject to white markings, a
large majority of chestnuts having white
reaches, or blazes, with one or more white
stockings, the white often extending well
up towards the hocks or knees. Of greys,
too, there is a considerable variety; of which
the ticked or “ flea-bitten’”’ is perhaps the
breediest and most sporting-looking, it being
probably generally derived from Arab blood.
It is well-known, by the way, that the foal
which will by-and-by be white is born
black; but it may not be so well known
that the skin of a white horse is usually
black, while that of a dark-coloured animal
is light.

Another curious thing is the difference
in colour caused by clipping; the light
coat often becoming darker, and the dark

lighter through this process. Horses some-

260 ON COLOUR.

times will come out the most curious an
unexpected colour on being clipped. On
pony I was riding turned out a blue
while another, which the lady who later dis
me the honour to become my wife was drivin:
at the same time, became a pink one; th
latter in his normal condition being a ver
light dun, or cream colour; mine a du
of a deeper shade. Dun, by the way, i
not a bad colour for a cob or pony, an
it is said that when there is a list o
stripe along the spine of a darker shade
the animal is sure to be a good one
Greys are far less common in Englan
than they used to be, and have almo:
disappeared from our thoroughbred stock
which is a curious fact, since it was, an
is still, one of the commonest colours i
the Arab. It is still very prevalent i
France; in some parts you see scarcel
anything but greys, due, no doubt, to tl
Percheron and Poitevin breeds, which

ON COLOUR. 261

believe are almost universally of that
colour. Of late years in the streets of
Paris it has been less predominant, though
when I first visited that city it was the
prevailing colour in cabs and omnibuses.
At that time, too, there was a_ large
proportion of greys among the London
omnibus horses, the ranks of which were
then largely recruited from Flanders and
other parts of the Continent.

A blue or steel roan, or a red roan or
“ strawberry ” colour, looks handsome in har-
ness, and many very smart cobs and ponies
are of this colour; but it is not a
‘‘breedy ” one, being derived chiefly from
the Norfolk trotting blood. It used also
to be a prevalent cart-horse colour, though
it is seldom now found among pedigree
Shire stock, while I do not remember ever
seeing a roan Clydesdale.

Any “bizarre” colour, such as pie-bald,

skew-bald, or spotted grey (the best pony

262 ON COLOUR.

I ever was on was of this circus colour, and
he was a wonder over a country as well as
on the road, and a fine stayer to boot, having,
I suspect, Arab blood in him), is only suitable
for cobs and ponies, and any so coloured
should be well shaped and of fine action, since
they are sure to attract everybody’s attention.

Notions used to exist, as we have pre-
mised, even among experienced horsemen,
that different colours betokened different
temperaments. Thus a bay, brown, or grey
was considered to be generally sound, honest,
enduring, and temperate; while blacks,
though some of them might be game and
staying, were apt to be sullen and vicious ;
chestnuts, fiery and hot-tempered, and fre-
quently, if of a light shade, also soft. All
I can say about this is, that while the
very hottest animal I ever myself rode
was a beautiful dark bay, and the three
next most excitable I have known all

greys; the two most temperate and tranquil

ON COLOUR. 263

animals I have owned were both chestnut;
and the only two blacks I have possessed
were of a most affectionate and willing
disposition. So much for my own personal
experience of this instructive and edifying
theory.

But I think these antiquated ideas have
been exploded among horsemen for many
generations. Chestnuts are apt to be fiery,
no doubt, but it is because of their breed
rather than of their colour. When properly
handled, they give no more trouble than
horses of another colour. The general-
purpose horse, too, of former generations
was generally a bay, brown, or grey; and
so it became customary to attribute his
many excellent qualities to his colour.

The old prejudice against white markings
still seems to linger among a few old-
fashioned persons. Only the other day, on
my way to a large sale and show, I chummed

in with an agreeable elderly clergyman, who

264 ON COLOUR.

desired to buy a well-bred little horse of
14°2, which must be a chestnut, to match
another, and enlisted my assistance in his
choice. As I had never seen the other, it
wasn’t a very easy task; nor is selecting a
horse for another person an office I at any
time desire. There were lots of chestnuts
in the show, as there always are wherever
a number of well-bred ones are gathered
together; but my friend, it appeared, ob-
jected to white, and quoted antediluvian
maxims, I believe in verse, as to what was
to be expected of horses with one, two,
three, or four white stockings. I tried to
reason with him for his own good; but it
was of no use, and finally, I think, he
went home without buying, though there
were some useful animals there. The bays,
which were naturally freer from white, he
would not look at, being persuaded that a
pair of horses must necessarily be of the

same colour, though I essayed to convince

ON COLOUR. 265

him of what is certainly the case—that it
is of far greater importance that they should
be of similar stamp, action, and pace, than
either that they should match in colour or
be free from white markings. I rather like
a mixed team myself. <A bay, for instance,
generally looks well alongside a_ black,
brown, chestnut, roan, or grey, provided
both animals are of like character and step
well together.

In breeding, the foal is in a great majority
of cases the same colour as one or other
of its parents, but I do not think it is
more likely to resemble one than the other.
No instance, I believe, has been known of two
chestnuts producing anything but a chest-
nut; but it was perhaps unusual that a
dark bay mare of mine mated with a very
dark chestnut horse should have produced
a bright golden chestnut, much lighter than

either parent.

CHAPTER XIV.

ON RACING.

Few are the folk who do not in their hearts
love horse-racing. Many, from principle,
from prudence, or from circumstance, abstain
from sharing in the sport, but nearly all
have an open or secret sympathy with it.
It is indeed a fine sport, taken on its intrinsic
merits, and apart from the fraud and
chicanery with which the greed of man has
ever surrounded it, but which common-sense
obliges us to regard as its accidental, rather
than necessary, concomitant. The spectacle
of the most beautiful animal on this earth,
which I take to be the thoroughbred horse,
galloping with his free elastic stride, and
striving with generous emulation (as he will

when fairly handled) to surpass his fellows,
266

AMPHION.

A celebrated Sire at the Compton Stud.

ON RACING. 269

contains surely nothing in the least demo-
ralising ; but, on the contrary, is one which
should call forth the nobler, rather than the
baser, instincts of human nature. Indeed,
we could imagine the sport being so con-
ducted—say, in an ideal Platonic Republic—
as to be one of the purest and most healthy
of the numerous forms of recreation which
are so essential to the well-being of a
nation.

But, corrupt as the sport of horse-racing
has unfortunately become in general estima-
tion, the roguery practised is, I feel sure, very
far less universal than is imagined by that
highly respectable portion of the community
which, naturally attracted by the inherent
fascination of the sport, nevertheless holds
aloof from it through a righteous horror
and personal dread of the trickery with
which it is so commonly associated. There
are many rogues undoubtedly engaged in the

game, and many horses are not run to win.

270 ON RACING.

But few, save the initiated, realise the
inevitable uncertainty of the game. By no
means every case of in-and-out running is
to be attributed to dishonesty. One instance
will suffice to show what I mean.

A horse is backed by the public (possibly
by its owner as well, though of that they are
unaware), and the public naturally expects
that horse to beat others he has beaten
before, when meeting them again on the
same, or perhaps even slightly better, terms
than then. On this occasion he fails to
obtain a place, when unfair play is imme-
diately imputed to somebody, and the con-
viction remains with the disappointed backer
that he has been swindled. Yet he has no
real grievance at all. He had nothing
whatever to do with that horse, and was
under no necessity to back him: he chose
to do so at his own risk, and, as a matter
of fact, was not cheated. The horse could

not be got so fit as he was on the previous

ON RACING. 271

occasion; the race was run in a different
way; or (and this I suspect is the commonest
cause of such disappointments) it was run
on quite a different course. Few persons,
probably, are aware of the immense difference
this makes. A good horse, no doubt, should
be able to run well on any course; but, as
a matter of practical experience, very few
indeed are at their best alike on a level
course, one with more or less sharp gradients
in it, and one which finishes on an incline ;
or again when the ground is hard, and when
they have to gallop through mud. Once
more, the race-horse is one of the most
sensitive of highly organised creatures; like
human beings, he has his good days and his
bad ; and clever indeed would be the trainer
who could make sure of delivering him at
the post practically the same animal on each
oceasion he is called upon to run. In nine
cases out of ten in which a backer considers

himself to have been swindled, I believe

272 ON RACING.

his disappointment could be accounted for
in one or other of these ways.

One of the most remarkable features in
the development of the Turf as a national
institution is the tremendous increase in the
value of the stakes contended for; and the
question naturally occurs whether this has
been advantageous or prejudicial to the
Turf’s best interests? For my own part, I
should welcome, were it possible, a return
to its primitive simplicity in every depart-
ment of the sport. The more racing can
be kept to its proper function and métier,
sport pure and simple, and the less it is
allowed to become a business and specula-
tion (at present it partakes largely of the
character of both), the less inducement there
is to owners and managers of studs to cheat,
dissemble, and run cunning; and also the
less temptation to the credulous and over-
sanguine in the reports of fabulous fortunes

made, as it were, in a moment out of what

‘NI

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NOW AHL 4YOd ATHYId AHL ONIddIIS

18

ON RACING. 275

ought to be a mere pastime. But the time
seems unfortunately to be nearly past when
sport was sport, and work work, a liberal
dose of the former being the natural relief
and antidote to the over-pressure of the
other. It is manifestly a mistake (I believe
a very grave one) to import the absorbing
energy and mental strain which are essential,
in so competitive an age as the present, to
the successful conduct of business, into what
should be a pure and complete relaxation
from the cares and toils of life.

How many persons, again, now concern
themselves with this sport without the least
knowledge of or acquaintance with its noble
subject! The Englishman, we are assured,
always loves a good horse, and no doubt he
generally does when he knows him; but as
a rule he picks his fancy out of a printed
list, and often fails to recognise the animal
which “carries his money”? when he is able

to go and see him run. Generally, perhaps,

276 ON RACING.

he has never seen him at all. A trainer
friend of mine once told me that, while
waiting with a horse-box at a Midland
junction, an unoccupied porter sauntered up,
and asked what he’d got in there. “ Sally
Brass IT.,” was the reply. “What! good old
Sally? Let’s have a squint at her, young
man. She’ve a won me many a quid, but
I’ve never set cyes on her yet.” So the
great raking Sally, a frequent winner in her
day, standing near seventeen hands, and
covering more ground in her stride than I
think I ever saw a horse do, was exhibited
to her humble admirer to his immense satis-
faction and joy. Well, one likes the interest
the honest fellow took in his selected
favourite; but can it be a very wholesome
interest, that purely monetary one, which a
man in his position takes in a horse trained
so far away, and which, but for this casual
glimpse of her in a railway box, he would

probably never have seen at all?

ON RACING. Q7T7

The enthusiasm of the Yorkshire tykes
when on the Town Moor a Whitewall-trained
favourite ran home a gallant winner of the
great St. Leger or the Coop, was natural
and healthy enough; as was also the joy
when the locally trained colt of the old
Squire or Lord-Lieutenant of the county
carried off the Queen’s Plate at a provincial
meeting ; or when Mr. Tom’s, Captain Dick’s,
or Master Harry’s mare won the open steeple-
chase over a stiff natural course at the Hunt
races. But this systematic backing of the
unknown horses of unknown owners by post
and wire, or in the bar-parlour of the sporting
“public,” is another thing altogether, and
little likely to benefit those addicted to it.

The extraordinary advance during the last
few decades in the value of stakes has necessi-
tated the multiplication of gate-money meet-
ings. These, I imagine, are less enjoyable, as
well as less healthy, than when racing is held

upon open down or heath. Newmarket,

278 ON RACING.

Epsom, Ascot, and Goodwood, the Doncaster
Town Moor, and the Knavesmire at York;
the Lansdown course at Bath, and Stock-
bridge (now, alas! no more), where the
Bibury Club* held its meetings for so many
years, are examples of the fine old-fashioned
racecourses whereon generations of men have
enjoyed their favourite sport. And how far
more enjoyable, and more genuinely “ sport-
ing” as well, the glorious old pastime seems
to. be on those open spaces, where every one
who ‘loves to see a good horse gallop may
do so free and unfettered, than when cooped
up in cv owded stands and enclosures, while
the hors »s run round a “ soup-plate” course
for gam lers to bet on, for all the world:
like les petits chevaux in a Continental
Kursaal! New racecourses must now invari-
ably be es losed, that the gate-money may
flow into th coffers of the administration ;

* The Bibury © 1b now holds its Annual Meeting on
Salisbury Race Cou -e.

‘urepy [img sq Bunured e wo14
‘NGILVD “LS

ES

ON RACING. 281

while many a pleasant little meeting held
formerly on a breezy down or heathclad
common has died out, because owners are
no longer content to run for a silver cup
or a twenty-pound sweepstakes, as they were
when sportsmen loved sport for its own sake
rather than for that of gain. Well would
we like to see these old country meetings
revived, and others like them instituted; for
though we know there were rogues and
ruffians then as now, yet there was more
spirit and fun in the thing when country
gentlemen ran their horses for the public
as well as their own amusement, and the
rural race-goer, if he betted at all, backed the
colt he had seen playing beside its dam in
the breeding paddocks, or which was trained
upon the downs above his native village.
For some reason or other racing seems to
have become less interesting in itself (we
exclude the spurious excitement of betting)

than it used to be; and this, we think, is

282 ON RACING.

largely due to the almost universal forcing
of our young blood stock, which necessitates
their retirement from the Turf at a corre-
spondingly early age, so that nowadays we
seem to lose sight of a good horse almost
as soon as we have got to know him. Few
now are able to stand the severe strain of
training beyond a season or two, and con-
sequently the contests for the cups and
other time-honoured trophies become less
and less interesting year by year. We never
see now, for instance, such a field as fought
for the Ascot Gold Cup some thirty years
ago, when the great Continental champions
Boiard and Flageolet finished first and
second, while behind them were Doncaster,
Gang Forward, Marie Stuart, and Kaiser—
that is to say, the first three in the Derby,
the Oaks winner, the three placed in the
Leger, and the first, second, and third in
the Grand Prix de Paris. What a galaxy

of equine talent to contest a trophy which

ON RACING. 283

it was then the pride and glory of the
noblest in the land to win and own!

Our great three-year-old races too, though,
of course, not so much affected by the same
cause, seem somehow to be less exciting than
of yore. ‘Too often the Derby, the fields for
which are much smaller than they used to
be, is a one-horse race.

There has been, it is true, of late years
an occasional close finish, as between Sir
Hugo and La Fleche in 1892, and Persimmon
and St. Frusquin four years later; but when
shall we see again such a field for the Blue
Riband of the Turf as when the mighty
dark Blair Athol galloped home in front
of Lord Glasgow’s splendid colt General
Peel, with the favourite Scottish Chief third,
and behind these the brave Cambuscan,
beautiful Ely, Coastguard, and Birch Broom,
all good enough, perhaps, to have won three
Derbies out of four, but in 1864 beaten out

of place by superior merit? Or, again, but

284 ON RACING.

three years later, when Hermit, galloping
as Chris Flemming declared he had never
seen a horse gallop before (after breaking
a blood-vessel but ten days previously), beat
handsomely Marksman and the stout-hearted
Vauban, with such horses as Plaudit, Julius,
and the Middle Park winner, The Rake (who
had met with a similar mishap), ‘‘ squan-
dered” like hacks in their rear! I don’t
know if horses were pluckier in those days,
but I think owners were. At least, they
did not all seem so mighty afraid of a horse
with a big reputation, but would have a
“eut at the cracks” again and again, often
with satisfactory results. They seemed to
think more, too, of the glory and honour
of winning than of the mere value of the
stakes. Thus Custance, the ex-jockey, re-
ferring, in his ‘“ Riding Recollections,” to
the Queen’s Plate at Lincoln in 1867, con-
tested by Regalia, Lord Lyon, Sundeelah,

and Ruma (on which last he had the winning

ON RACING. 285

mount), pertinently asks, “‘ What would they
think in these days of the winner of the
Two Thousand, Derby, and St. Leger, the
winner of the Oaks, and two other horses
worth at least three thousand pounds each,
running two miles for a hundred guineas? ”

The reluctance which owners of the present
day so often exhibit to match or otherwise
run their successful colts against horses of
equal reputation, is due more often to dread
of lost prestige than to actual decline of
sporting enterprise. An unbeaten record
means such a lot to a colt when he retires
to the stud—which, by the way, he is apt
now to do at far too early an age. Still,
the most successful animal has no right to
be called a “‘ century” horse, or to pose as
a champion of the Turf, unless he has met
and conquered, or at least received forfeit
from, the very best of his compeers. Great
disappointment, therefore, was felt a few

years ago by the partisans of either horse

286 ON RACING.

when Flying Fox and Cyllene did not meet,
as it was expected they would, in the
Champion Stakes—an encounter to which
every one would have looked forward with
as much interest as when Voltigeur was
about to meet the famous Mying Dutchinan,
or Hermit the equally famous and flying
Achievement.

Speaking of Mlying Fox, what an enormous
sum that equine hero realised at the sale
of his late lamented owner’s stud! Over
thirty-seven thousand pounds for a single
horse, and that one of no particular beauty,
or, perhaps, very remarkable performance,
since the lot he had had to beat were
decidedly moderate! How our forefathers
would have opened their eyes! And well
they might; for if the sum expended on
Flying Fox is regarded as an investment,
it is not very easy to see, especially since
the horse is not to be again trained, how

it is to be made a remunerative one.

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TURNED A COMPLETE SOMERSAULT.
From a Drawing by John Sturgess.

XV.

ON STEEPLE-CHASING,

THE origin of this sport is by no means
so remote as that of flat-racing; in fact,
steeple-chasing, as we understand it, is
hardly yet seventy years old. The earliest
form of it was, as the name suggests, the
point-to-point. A church spire or steeple,
by reason of its height and shape, is very
often the most conspicuous point in a land-
scape ; and to this selected point, from some
other given point affording a convenient
view of it, the competitors had to make the
best of their way-across country, the only
proviso being that no one should ride one
hundred yards of roadway at any one time.
The line chosen in the very hard-riding

days in which the sport was instituted was,
289 19

290 ON STEEPLE-CHASING.

we may be sure, generally a stiff one; and
very little of the race could have been
visible to the spectators, unless indeed these
rode alongside, or after, the actual com-
petitors, which from old prints we gather
they were allowed to do. It was doubtless
on this account that, the sport becoming
popular, the flagged course (first on one
side only, and then on both) superseded
the point-to-point, which, however, has lately
been revived at hunt-meetings. The flagged
course was made as nearly circular as
possible, so that a large number of spec-
tators could, by taking advantage of any
adjacent eminence, or from the elevation
of a stand, see pretty well the whole of it,
without trouble or risk to themselves. At
first the flagged course was as_ purely
natural as in the point-to-point ; Aylesbury,
St. Albans, Leamington, and Warwick
having been some of the earliest and most

notable of cross-country fixtures.

ON STEEPLE-CHASING. 291

The avowed object of steeple-chasing was
of course identical with that of flat-racing—
the encouragement of the breed of horses.
Both hunters and cavalry horses were
thought to have degenerated from their old
form and powers, in consequence of the
abolition of long-distance racing, and parti-
cularly of racing in heats. It was considered
that if weights were raised to a minimum
of twelve stone, to be carried over four
miles of hunting country, the natural
result must be the cultivation of a class
of animal of superior stamina and capacity.
In process of time, however, the fatal mis-
take was made of adopting, and for the
same reason, the system of handicapping
employed by the Jockey Club. Inferior
animals were let in at lower weights, while
superior ones were brought to their level
by such crushing weights (from the racing
point of view) as 18st. 6lb. and 14st.

There was perhaps some reason for this

292 ON STEEPLE-CHASING.

innovation when we remember how those
two most famous horses, Gaylad and
Lottery, both belonging to the same owner,
swept the board for years; but it was
fatal to the improvement theory all the
same.

For some reason or other the sport of
steeple-chasing has never taken the same
hold on the public that flat-racing has.
Sporting journalists love to allude to it as
the illegitimate game, though why racing
horses over a country should be considered
less ‘‘legitimate”? than on the flat is a
thing not easy to understand. Possibly it
is because this sport has never been under
Jockey Club rules, being, as is generally
known, regulated by the National Hunt
Committee, a body, however respectably
composed, with by no means the same
prestige and authority as are possessed by
the august corporation, which from the very

centre of horse-racing, Newmarket, directs

ON STEEPLE-CHASING. 293

and supervises every “legitimate” race-
meeting in the kingdom.

Yet steeple-chasing had a good set-off ;
many noblemen and gentlemen at first
supporting it, and giving good prices for
horses in hopes of winning its prizes, or
failing this, of possessing valuable hunters
for their own use. Finding, however, that
they were seldom allowed to win, while
their horses were generally spoiled for
hunting, they gradually abandoned the sport
to a lower class of supporters ; and although
there has been somewhat of a revival in
the interest taken in it of late years, steeple-
chasing is still regarded with a great deal
of not altogether unjustified suspicion, by
men who are ready enough to own and run
horses under Jockey Club rules.

From the spectator’s point of view the
unpopularity of steeple-chasing as compared
with flat-racing is not so easy to under-

stand. One would rather have expected it

294 ON STEEPLE-CHASING.

to be the other way about, and the jumping
game to have proved more attractive to
the public than the more monotonous pro-
ceedings of the race-course. But such is
not the case, almost any flat-race meeting
being more largely attended than a cross-
country fixture; always excepting the
Liverpool Grand National, which draws
every year a crowd of North-countrymen
and Midlanders as huge as that which
assembles on the Town Moor to cheer home
the winner of the great St. Leger. Possibly
steeple-chasing would have acquired a greater
hold on popular interest had its earlier
conditions been maintained ; and particularly
had the old-fashioned natural course with
its greater variety of jumps been continued.
But this has almost entirely disappeared,
and one course is almost a facsimile of
another, the only important difference being
in the size and height of the artificial

fences. Great, I remember, was my sur-

ON STEEPLE-CHASING, 295

prise on first seeing the Grand National
course at Aintree; and I must own also to
a little disappointment as well—not certainly
with the size of the fences, which were big
enough in all conscience, great, spreading,
stiffly built erections, with a low guard-rail
on the take-off side, and wide on the top,
many of them, as a dining-room table is
long. But somehow or another I had pic-
tured to myself for years a very fine natural
course, with Becher’s and Valentine’s brooks
like the Langton brook or the Whissendine,
to which the grand thoroughbreds engaged
would come racing down and cover some
sixteen to twenty feet of water in their
stride. As a matter of fact, it being a very
dry spring, there was not a drop of water
in either; and both, moreover, were nothing
but small ditches, and so overhung by the
outward slant of the fence that any horse
which cleared the latter must clear the
ditch too. Notwithstanding the thoroughly

296 ON STEEPLE-CHASING.

artificial character of the fences, it is of
course a grand sight to see a field of twenty
to thirty horses, comprising the finest
chasers of the day, charge such obstacles
like a regiment of cavalry, and cover the
four miles and a half at a pace imper- —
ceptibly slower than that attained in doing
a mile and a half on the flat! When this
is done, as by Father O'Flynn, in 9 min.
48}th sec., we gain some idea of the
condition a candidate must be in to have
any chance of Grand National honours.
Equal condition, though the pace is reason-
ably somewhat slower, must those stout
chasers require, which yearly, in the distant
but very sporting county of Devon, negotiate
the most terrific specimen of a natural
steeple-chase probably yet surviving. But
to do this course justice let me give the
graphic description of it by an eye witness :—
“JT had this week the unusual pleasure of

attending Totnes Steeple-chases. The various

«WHONAIOSNOD T1V NI HDNONG DIG AYAM SAONGA AHL»

poe ge Bust we

ON STEEPLE-CHASING. 299

events are of no general interest, but the
course is; and it should prove to the most
pig-headed advocate of regulation fences,
that every country is the best judge of
its own. On this Totnes course they pass
under a railway arch, with a narrow mavr-
gin of pathway between them and _ the
river, over which they have also to make
their way before getting into the country ;
and they go up what appears to be an
exceeding high mountain, with banks and
other formidable fences. You see them
afar, against the horizon, on the brow of
the hill, and then the descent commences,
with a jump or two downhill also, one
of them being a bank. At the foot of the
hill they land into the hard road, gallop
along it nearly two hundred yards, then turn
sharp into the river Dart once more, a man
with a red flag on the road waving it in
the horses’ faces to prevent their shirking

the turn. Through the river they plunge—

390 ON! STEEPLE-CHASING.

and so home over made-up fences. I saw
five finish in good shape over this course,
and the sight was well worth seeing.”
Well do I remember a former friend of
my own (he met, alas! with the end
naturally to’ be expected of him, being
killed by a fall with a horse’ in
Australia) undertaking to ride an ineffable
brute called The Shah over this remark-
able course. He had no expectation of
winning, but had backed himself to get
round, and finish within fifteen minutes
of the last horse but his own delightful
mount. A truly sporting wager this, and
one which excited rather more interest than
the actual race. After The Shah had done
his best to crush his rider’s legs on either
side the railway arch, tried to lie down in
the river, and practised all the devilments
in his repertoire, which were numerous, I
believe my friend lost his bet by a minute;

which was nearly as good as a win, con-

ON STEEPLE-CHASING. 301

sidering the difficult (and to most riders
extremely unpleasant) task he was attempt-
ing. Another characteristic reminiscence of
my hard-riding friend was a “ Pounding”
match to which he had challenged a gallant
subaltern in one of Her Majesty’s foot
regiments. Poor E—— had a brown horse
called Blazes, a real sporting-looking old
crock, just such a stamp as Leech loved
to put his hard-going undergrads. on. His
antagonist rode a little, nearly thoroughbred
bay mare, a marvellous jumper. After
setting each other some terrific leaps in
cold blood, E ’s horse got stranded

across a high stone wall, very wide on the

top, and hung there with his jock standing
on the wall astride him. ‘“ Might he get
down?” Certainly, but man and _ horse
must descend together or lose the match.
Down sat E

rowels. Poor old Blazes made his final

again and plunged in the

effort, a mighty plunge, and down came

302 ON STEEPLE-CHASING.

wall, horse and man in a chaotic heap,
unfortunately on the wrong side, and the
match was lost. The scene, which a crowd
of sporting people turned out to see, was
one worthy of Lever. A Pounding match,
it should perhaps be explained (for this
horribly dangerous form of steeple-chasing
is now I suppose extinct, that in which my
friend took part being very likely the last),
consisted in two competitors riding out into
a country, and setting each other alternately.
the most formidable leaps they could find,
until one was ‘ pounded,” ¢.e., could not get
out, when the other was declared the
winner. Jack Mytton and Dick Christian,
by the way, would have made ideal ex-
ponents of the game. A clever trick in
connection with this form of sport is said
to have been practised by a man who
taught his horse to Jump a roadway, which
his opponent naturally crossed at a gallop,

thereby not taking a jump which was

ON STEEPLE-CHASING. 303

set him, and losing the match, though he
could hardly be said to have been “ pounded.”

With regard to any beneficial effect which
the sport of steeple-chasing may have had
upon horse-breeding, it is precisely the same
(neither more nor less), as that exerted
by flat-racing. The great mistake was ever
to have assimilated the two branches of
the sport. As at first conducted, chasing
did undoubtedly encourage the breed of
weight-carrying hunters, since only such,
when thoroughbred or nearly so, could get
over a big natural country at the pace
required. Such horses as Vivian, Grimaldi,
Gaylad, Lottery, Peter Simple, Rat-trap,
and Chandler, full-sized yet not leggy,
strong without being clumsy, high-couraged
yet temperate, and capable, several of them,
of carrying sixteen stone to hounds, were
just the class of animal for which there
is now so great a demand. These few

notable horses for some years carried all

304 ON STEEPLE-CHASING.

before them; but in order to secure large
fields and a paying attendance weights
were reduced, the handicap system borrowed
from the Turf, and fences cut down to
suit the mob of thoroughbred cast-offs,
which being useless on the flat were sent
to try their luck at the cross-country game.

Horses jump as well as gallop in all
shapes and sizes; and though many of
our best performers have been fine animals
of great apparent scope and power, as were
those just mentioned, there have also been
many first-class steeple-chasers whose ap-
pearance would (except, perhaps, to a
particularly discerning judge) have belied
their performance. Thus Dragsman, a
noted chaser of his time, was said to have
been a coach-horse to look at; but he cut
down a field of first-rate horses with great
ease, and ran four miles in the record time
of his day. The Lamb too, as every one

knows, was a mere pony, being bought on

ON STEEPLE-CHASING. 305

account of his small size as a boy’s hunter;
yet he won the Grand National twice;
while two other winners of that great race,
Lord Coventry’s famous mare Hmblem, and
Casse Téte, were lean, light, wiry mares,
of mean appearance perhaps, but all muscle
and quality, built high behind like grey-
hounds, with immense length from hip to
hock, giving them great stride and enormous
jumping power.

The revival of the Point-to-point at hunt
meetings forms an interesting feature in
modern steeple-chasing. This form of racing
has, no doubt, afforded a great deal of
pleasure both from the competitor’s and
spectator’s point of view; for though the
race is seldom, perhaps, exciting, there is
always the personal interest in some parti-
cular horse or rider to give it a zest.
Nevertheless, I have seen two or three
remarkably close finishes; and one—in
which a gallant captain, after turning a

20

306 ON STEEPLE-CHASING.

somersault over a gate into the last field
but one, and actually landing on his feet,
beat by a short head an honourable member
of the House of Commons, who had mean-
while been engaged in extricating his horse
from the last ditch, in which he was reposing
to recover his wind—was really sensational.
The great objection to these races is
that the course selected being invariably
a severe one, and horses frequently inade-
quately trained for such an ordeal, they
often suffer considerable distress, and not
infrequently break their backs or necks
through sheer inability, when blown, to rise
at their fences. The percentage of falls on
the number of horses which take part in
these races is enormously high; and owners
should see to it that their horses are pro-
perly prepared before being allowed to
start in them, lest they incur the charge
of cruelty to animals, which every true

sportsman is careful to avoid.

ON STEEPLE-CHASING 307

It is wonderful what some hunters will
do when this simple precaution is observed.
A gallant little horse of my acquaintance,
after winning the light-weight race at one
of these hunt meetings over three and a
half miles of stiff country, actually came
out again, and carrying fourteen stone ran
a good third for the Welter too“. He was
fourteen-three, and quite home-trained, but
the name of that little horse’s grandsire
was Blair Athol.

* A horse now is very properly no longer allowed to
start for both races.

ate

AUT Ng
RB

Sw 4 >

K : rane ay, OS

CHAPTER XVI.

SOME GENERAL REMARKS,

How few people seem now-a-days to adopt
riding as a form of regular exercise! They
will ride to hunt; even hunt to ride, as
Masters of Hounds, not without reason,
complain; but very few care enough for
the exercise to hack about the country,
either on business or for pleasure, as used
to be done by considerable numbers. The
Row seems as popular as ever, while the
delightful tree-shaded avenues of Continental
cities, such as the Bois de Boulogne of Paris
and the Bois de la Cambre of Brussels, still
attract equestrians; but in most rural dis-
tricts one now rarely meets a horseman;
scarcely ever, out of the hunting season, a

horsewoman. Our very children are growing
308

SOME GENERAL REMARKS. 309

disdainful of their ponies, and long for
bicycles and motor-cars. It is the spirit of
the age ; and apart from the exigencies of the
chase and warfare, equitation bids fair soon
to become almost a lost art. Yet how
pleasant and healthy an exercise it is!
Better surely for health, at least, than all the
whizzings and whirrings of mechanical loco-
motion. A few yet, mindful of the old
prescription that “the best thing for the
inside of a man is the outside of a horse,”
join what habitués of Rotten Row term the
“ Liver Brigade” ; but apart from that time-
honoured resort few ride for business, health,
or pleasure. The enclosure of, and building
over of, so many heaths and commons in
the vicinity of our larger towns might be
supposed to account in some measure for
this, since it must be confessed there is
little pleasure in walking and trotting along
monotonous miles of macadamised roads;

but even in rural regions of moor and

310 SOME GENERAL REMARKS.

heather, wide stretching downs of splendid
turf, and grassy ridings through wood and
dell, the horseman is becoming a rarity; a
cavalcade, unless hounds are out, never seen.
Yet what more delightful exercise than that
afforded by the smooth, elastic paces of a
perfect hack, mouthed and made by a master
hand ?

To acquire good hands, as the horseman
terms it, early practice and a naturally
sensitive touch are both required. A heavy-
fisted or otherwise clumsy person seldom
attains them. It is by reason of this natural
delicacy of touch, so often an attribute of
their sex, that ladies so frequently have good
hands—better than any man’s, I have heard
it said. But this is not so. I have known
men with ‘ hands’ which no woman’s could
excel; while, moreover, when I have seen a
horse’s mouth mercilessly jagged about, and
the whip unnecessarily used, it has (I regret to

say) been nearly as often by an uninstructed

SOME GENERAL REMARKS. 311

lady driver, as by a butcher’s or baker’s boy,
entrusted with the conduct of that most
sensitive and obliging animal, the horse,
without a proper training in the art of
managing him. Why, in so humane a
country as this, persons should be allowed the
control of man’s most faithful servant without
a previous course of instruction has always
been beyond my comprehension. It might
well form a subject of Technical Instruction,
and I would commend it to the consideration
of our County Council Committees. To see
for instance, the average carter trying to
back by main force by means of a thin-worn
ring-snaffle in the unfortunate animal’s
mouth, and the strength of his own brutal
arm, the entire weight of a bulky carthorse
and loaded waggon, because he does not
know that a horse cannot back as much as
he can pull, or that when his hind legs are
fully extended the poor creature can make

no further effort till he has been allowed to

312 SOME GENERAL REMARKS.

collect himself, is a sight to make an angel
weep, or a man of ordinary sensibility
swear !

Good hands denote not merely an acquaint-
ance with a horse’s powers and_proclivities,
and a quick and rapid concert with the same;
but a sympathetic give-and-take sort of
touch, which while restraining and _ con-
trolling him, does not worry the animal, or
impede the free carriage of his head and
neck. Hear Gervase Markham, an ex-
perienced horseman of the reign of James I.,
on this point; whose words, written so long
ago, are well worthy their survival to the

present day :

“ This slight precept I will bestow upon him (the rider
or driver) that he have a constant sweete hand upon his
horse’s mouth, by no means losing the feeling thereof,
but observing that the horse does rest upon his bit and
carry his head and rein in a good and comely fashion ;
for to goe with his head loose, or to have no feeling of
the bit, is both uncomely to the eye and takes from the
horse all delight in his labour.”

SOME GENERAL REMARKS. 313

It also takes all delight from the rider
when his horse’s mouth has been spoiled
by some heavy-handed groom; wherefore,
unless you have a man who ¢an ride, exercise
your saddle horse yourself, or have him led,
and lend him only to one who knows how
a horse should be handled. Good horsemen
differ themselves somewhat as to the kind
of mouth they prefer. Some have no ob-
jection to being pulled at; but to my mind
the lighter and more sensitive a_horse’s
mouth is, so long as he will go up to his
bit, the more pleasant he is either to ride
or drive. A hard-pulling animal which will
only stop when he chooses (however he may
assist an inferior rider to keep his seat by
allowing him to hang on to his head) is a
particular nuisance in the hunting field,
since he may carry you on top of the
hounds, smash your knee against a gate
post, or capsize one of the field before you

know where you are. Therefore, in making

314 SOME GENERAL REMARKS.

your horse, spare no pains to give him a
really good mouth. As a hack, do not
consider him properly broken until the
merest turn of the wrist, with the corre-
sponding pressure of a loose rein upon either
side of his neck, will suffice to bend him.
Many otherwise temperate horses will, of
course, pull a bit in the excitement of the
“Niagara-like”’ rush, as some sporting
writer has aptly put it, of the “ gone-away,”
and especially those that only occasionally
enjoy the treat of a day with the hounds.
If you want a good day’s exercise, by the
way, accept a friend’s offer of a mount on
one of his phaeton horses which was hunted
a bit in his youth. Some horses, again,
however regularly they are hunted, will
pull all day till they are done. But to
really enjoy hunting, the less you have to
consider your horse the better, since it
is obvious that the more attention you

have to bestow upon your mount, the less

me

SOME GENERAL REMARKS. 315

opportunity you have of watching the work
of the hounds, in which the real sport of
the chase consists.

It is interesting to observe the way in
which a clever, made hunter will keep his
eye on the hounds, and watch for himself
every turn in the chase. For this reason
a hard puller, though, perhaps, less un-
acceptable to a hard “ goer,” is objectionable
to the genuine fox-hunter, to whom a snaffle-
bridle hunter is always a real treasure. It
is well known that many pulling horses
will prove more amenable to an easier bit
than to one of increased severity; but the
most difficult of all as a hunter is the well-
bred one which will not stand a curb, but
which you cannot possibly hold with a
snaffle. Some recommend a gag-bit for
such cases, but the only animal to which
I ever offered this alternative resented it
nearly as much as she did the ordinary

double bridle. “It is a sin ever to put a

316 SOME GENERAL REMARKS.

curb on him,”

you sometimes hear it said
of a nice-mouthed horse, but I do not see
this. Ifthe rider has decent hands he will
not abuse his power because the curb is
on, while it is there for immediate use if
required. That very celebrated maker of
hunters, Dick Christian, tells us he always
put on a double bridle from the first.
Horses should, I think, be accustomed to
different kinds of bits during the process
of breaking ;

A very well-broken horse with a good

it helps to make their mouths.

carriage of the head and neck will hardly
need a bit at all for hacking. I remember
once riding a big, strong four-year-old for
miles, without knowing it, on the nose-band
of her bridle, the bit having slipped out
of her mouth through the cheek straps
having been buckled too long. The addition
of a nose-band to the bridle, by the way,
helps to control a puller, and sometimes a

net used to be put over the nose and mouth

SOME GENERAL REMARKS. 317

for the same purpose, but this I have not
seen for a long time; the effect of it, I
should fancy, would wear off as soon as it
ceased to be a novelty.

Work, perhaps, is the best antidote to
pulling, though I have never seen tried a
recipe said by Custance to have been sug-
gested by one Tom Oliver to a pertinacious
gentleman who was bothering him on this
subject: “Oh, put two men and a boy on
him three days a week; if that won’t stop
him, nothing will.” That is a fair story,
but I like better one told of Assheton Smith.
He rode hunting a horse which had run
away with every one who had ridden him.
“ And did he run away with Smith, too?”
was the inquiry of a man who was not out
of a friend who was. “ Not he,” was the
reply; ‘Smith ran away with him, and he
could never go fast enough for him any
part of the run!” That was all very well

for a story, but, as we all know, there is a

318 SOME GENERAL REMARKS.

preponderance of days, at least in the
provinces, when no such opportunity occurs
for thus taking it out of an inveterate puller.

Ladies often make admirable _horse-
breakers by reason of their sympathy,
excellent hands, and _ superior patience.
“Carries a lady’ now-a-days is not so
important a qualification as it was in the
days of long-skirted habits. No horse I
have broken has seemed to care whether it
was a man or a woman who mounted him.
Still, it is not advisable that a lady should
first mount the colt. She would be at a
disadvantage. The side seat can never be
quite so strong as a man’s, while there is
obviously far greater danger of her being
mixed up in case of a fall. The ideal
mount for a lady is a thoroughly broken
animal of easy paces, well up to, or a bit
above, her weight. Formerly, a pretty, weedy
horse, with a graceful neck and peacocky

style, was pronounced just the thing for

MAHAGIO AGNV ‘LSVA ‘DNOULS—ASYOH SAaGVI V

ets

SOME GENERAL REMARKS. 321

a lady; but now-a-days we recognise the
fact that a woman rides much heavier, in
proportion to their relative weight, than a
man does, and a lady’s horse should there-
fore be chosen accordingly, with, if possible,
a stone or two in hand.

A lady relative once told me a delightful
story illustrating the way in which a lady’s
horse is sometimes prepared. Staying some
years ago at a country house, she was
roused one morning by a_ great clatter
beneath her bedroom window, and on
looking out beheld a groom leading a horse,
on the back of which two helpers were
with difficulty sustaining a giggling and
dishevelled housemaid. The motive of this
strange proceeding was explained by the
circumstance that the horse was one of a
batch going up for sale next day, and was
advertised in the sale lst as having been
“yidden by a lady!”

With regard to not driving a horse which

21

322 SOME GENERAL REMARKS.

you ride, the objection, I think, is often
exaggerated and overdone. “Oh dear no!
he’s much too good for leather,’ is often
the contemptuous reply to the question asked
(perhaps of a most moderate animal): ‘“ Does
he go in harness?” As a matter of fact it
does not in the least degree harm the best
of hacks or hunters to be driven, so long as
they are not required to lean forward and
really pull. We should indeed be most
unwilling to use the horse we _ habitually
ride singly in a family waggonette, or the
wife’s Victoria; but as one of a pair in a
light phaeton, or singly in a Ralli car, two-
wheeled dogcart, or American trotting waggon,
his action and spring remain unimpaired.
Many men now drive their hunters for light
work in double harness; and in cases where
they do not require absolute rest, it is one
of the best ways of summering, as possessing
the advantage of not letting them out of

condition.

SOME GENERAL REMARKS. 323

As to turning out: it is undoubtedly the
best as well as the most economical treat-
ment for any animal not required for use,
except for stale horses when the ground is
hard (and it often becomes very hard indeed
in hot dry summers). Then a loose box or
barn end is preferable, with peat-moss or
sawdust for litter, and fresh-cut green food
in lieu of hay. For stale and overworked
horses a winter’s run is most beneficial; or,
better still, a salt marsh in summer or
autumn.

It has not lain within the scope of this
little book on the Horse to dilate upon any
of the important subjects of Stable Manage-
ment, Veterinary Treatment, Buying and
Selling, etc. Standard works embracing
these subjects exist, which contain a vast
amount of information upon them, and go
into the minutest details. One or other of
these every horse-keeper will have by him,

and constantly refer to: but valuable as

324 SOME GENERAL REMARKS.

such works are as aids and guides to know-
ledge and treatment, it is principally by
personal acquaintance with, and careful ob-
servation of, the interesting animal himself
that the tyro learns about him; and we may
say without exaggeration that the horse
affords a study for a lifetime. No situation
is more helpless than that of one who in
mid-age (as circumstances require so many
to do) sets up a saddle horse or carriage,
without previous experience. Such an one
is utterly at the mercy of his groom, who
may be, in small establishments usually is,
a mere gardener or cowman, whose ignorance
of the animal he is required to attend is
often surpassed only by his self-confidence.
Any reader so situated we strongly advise to
assume at once himself the office of ‘‘ Master
of the Horse”; otherwise the man will be
his master as well as the animal’s. Many
will proffer him advice. “In a multitude

of counsellors there is safety,’ we are upon

SOME GENERAL REMARKS. 325

high authority assured. Nevertheless, in this
case, in the multitude of counsellors there is
likely to be confusion. My own particular
counsel would be, not to ask the opinion on
this point or that of every man you meet,
who knows, or thinks he knows (as men
mostly do), all about a horse; but go to the
one among your friends who you think is
the mostly likely to know, explain the state
of the case, and follow implicitly whatever
advice he gives you. Buying a horse for a
friend, or even recommending one, is often a
thankless office. His friendship may, or may
not, go so far as to perform this service for
you; but you will at least find that his own
store of experience in horsekeeping is readily
at your service; and it will profit you far
more to avail yourself of this than to let
your own servant impose upon you either
his own ignorance, or that of //s friends.
Capable grooms, willing and able to dress a

horse as he should be dressed, are, it may

326 SOME GENERAL REMARKS.

be remarked, at the present time, extremely
scarce; being mostly absorbed in large
training and hunting stables.

A good horse in good health and condition
is one of the most delightful possessions
which this world affords—a real xryya, as
an old college friend used to designate any-
thing very choice or precious; and he is
well worth your best care and appreciation.
The Arab’s love for his steed is proverbial
throughout the world; that of the English
horse-owner, not of the baser sort, vies with
his, and the object of his affections fully
deserves his pride of place in the English-
man’s heart. Whatever his future may prove
to be, his past merits our gratitude and
esteem. In courage, temper, and generosity
of disposition, he surpasses all animals, save
man’s other favourite, the dog; and, as with
the latter, his finest qualities seem to be
developed only in a domestic state. Breed

him well, break him well, and treat him

SOME GENERAL REMARKS. 327

well, and you have for the (alas, all too
short!) term of his natural life a faithful
friend and comrade, who will cheerfully and
constantly expend to their utmost limit his
wondrous strength and energy in your ser-
vice. Therefore, as the word of command
is given to our mounted soldiers standing at

ease: “Make Much of your Horses.”

Faithful Friends and Comrades.

INDEX OF

Achievement, 286

Action, 71, 98, 104, 115-16

Africa, South, 152

Age of horses, 10-13, 177-8

Amphion, 145

Andalusian stallions, 23

Arabs, 24, 26-8, 37, 75,
107, 110, 113, 117-19

Archer, Fred, 227

Army horses, 55-77

Artillery horses, 65

Ascot, 18, 129, 278

Ass, The, 150-52

Barbs, 25-7

Beatrice, 257

Bedford, Duke of, 1

Bell’s Grey Arab, 28

Birch Broom, 283

Blair Athol, 283, 307

Blink Bonny, 12

Blood, Purity of, 32-7, 106

Blunt, Mr. Wilfrid, 119

Boiard, 282

Bone, 174, 192

Breeding Studs, Govern-
ment, 68-71, 76, 241

Brimstone, 249

SUBJECTS.

Brutandorf, 12
Button Park, 141
Byerley Turk, 25

Cambuscan, 283
Canada, 67, 96
Cart-horses, 13, 46, 52,
83-92, 164, 231, 240,
253
Casse Téte, 305
Castration, 208-9
Cavalry, British, 56-61, 72,
101
» German, 70-75
» Indian, 62-4
French, 70
» Russian, 70
Chandler, 303
Chillaby, 226
Chippendale, 134
Clevelands, 46, 79, 97
Clydesdales, 46, 79, 80, 85-
87, 92, 164, 258-61
Coastguard, 283
Colour of horses, 255-65
Compton Stud, 138-45
Confidence requisite
breaker, 215-18

in

328

INDEX OF SUBJECTS.

Cromwell, 24

Crucifix, 12

Cruiser, 226

Cumberland, Duke of, 110
Custance, 284, 317
Cyllene, 286

Dam, Choice of, 6-9, 120,
145, 172-9

Damascus Arab, 28
Darley Arabian, 26, 27
Dawson, Tom, 227

‘5 Matthew, 227
Derby, The, 282-3, 285
Doncaster, 18
Doncaster, 282
Dorset Yeomanry, 58
Dragsman, 304
Draught Horses, 78-98
Durham, Lord, 31

Eclipse, 26, 110, 118

Ellerdale, 227

Ely, 283

Emblem, 305

Epsom, 278

Epsom Downs, 17

Exercise, 203

Exposure to weather, 14,
183, 204

Fairfax's Morocco Barb, 25
Farm Work, 5, 162-4
Father O' Flynn, 296
Fisherman, 126

329

Flageolet, 282

“ Flying” Childers, 26, 118

Flying Dutchman, 286

Flying Fox, 286

Foal, The, 179-209, 212-
15

Foaling, Best time for, 179-
80

Food, 15, 16, 191-203, 227

Forcing colts, 15, 16, 196-
208

Franco-German War, 55

Galtee More, 70

Galton, Paper
Francis, 54

Gambling, 278, 281

Gang Forward, 282

Gaylad, 292, 303

General Peel, 283

Godolphin Arabian, 26, 27,
37, 118

Goodwood, 18, 129, 278

Governess, 8

Government breeding studs,
68-71, 76, 241

Grand National, The, 294-6

Great Hastern, 4

Grimaldi, 303

by Mr.

Hackneys, 47-53, 67, 84, 97,
117-18, 120, 240
Hamburg Mares, 25
Hamilton, Duke of, 85
Hampton Court, 124

330 INDEX OF
Handling and Breaking,
210-39

Hands, Good, 230, 232, 304,
310, 312

Harnessing a Colt, 232-7

Headstall, The, 212

Helmsly Turk, 25

Henry VIII., 21

Fermat, 284, 286

Homely, 141

Horse-breaking, 230

“« Horse-play,” 223-4

Housman, Mr. William, 53

Hunters, 65, 80, 142, 172,
199, 258, 291, 305-7

Insemination, Artificial, 240—
54

James L., 23, 123, 312
Jenyns, Colonel
C.B., 67
Jockey Club, 291-3

Julius, 284

Soanes,

Kaiser, 282

Katerfelto, 109

King, The, 123
Kipling, Rudyard, 159

La Fleche, 283

Ladies as Horse Breakers,
318

Lamb, The, 304

SUBJECTS.

Leonard, Major, 161
Lord Lyon, 284
Lottery, 292, 303
Lunging, 213-14

“* Machiners,” 92

Maneuvres, Military, 56-8,
64

Mares, Brood, 169-90, 211-
12

Marie Stuart, 282

Marioni, 138, 141

Markham, Gervase, 312

Marksman, 284

MatcWem, 25

felbourne, 12

Jfentor, 22

Merlin, 226

Milward, Mr., 104

Moorland ponies, 41, 44, 46,

Motor-cars, 78, 169, 171

Mounted Infantry, 77

Mules, 65, 148-66

Muntz, Mr. Albert, 146

National Hunt Committee,
292

Newcastle, Duke of, 24

Newmarket, 17, 277, 292

Norfolk trotters, 261

Northern Galloway, 51, 121

Oceanic, 4
Omnibus work, 5, 93, 95,
261

INDEX OF SUBJECTS.

Packhorses, 22, 51-2, 86

Pantomime, 142

Persimmon, 283

Peter Simple, 303

Place’s White Turk, 24

Plaudit, 284

Point-to-point, Revival of,
305-7

Polo ponies, 41-2, 199-203

Polo Pony Society, 41

Ponies, 99-122, 172

“Pounding” Match, A,
301-2

Premiums, Queen’s, see Sires

Priam, 12

Price of horses, 55, 83, 94,
110, 158, 196-8

Private breeding, 65

Pulling, 313-17

Queen of the Moor, 224

Racehorses, 12, 27, 266-86

Racing, Introduction of, 23

Rake, The, 284

Rama, 284

Rarey’s system of breaking,
218

Rat-trap, 303

Regalia, 284

“ Roaring,” 8

Rotten Row, 309

Royal Commission on Horse-
breeding, 38, 72, 130,
242

331

Royal Plates, 23,
277

Ruddigore, 138

Russian Cavalry, see Cavalry

123-33,

St. Frusquin, 283

St. Leger, 18, 277, 282, 285,
294

Sandiway, 250

Sally Brass [1,, 276

Scot Guard, 142

Scottish Chief, 283

Shah, The, 300

Shakespear, Major, 106, 119

Shires, 79, 80, 88-92, 258,
261

Sir Hugo, 283

Sires, Choice of, 8, 9, 11, 12,
15, 109, 123

Sires, Queen’s
123-47

Size, Breeding for, 4, 5, 7,15

Smithfield Club, 1

Spanish Armada, 22

Speed, 29-30, 45

Stakes, Increase in value of,
272-81

Stamina, 30, 84

Steeple-chasing, 289-307

Origin of

word, 289

Sterility, Cure of, 253-4

Stud-books, Effect of, 32-54

Studs, Government breeding,
see under Government

Premium,

” ”

332 INDEX OF

Suffolks, 87
Srndeelah, 284
Supply of horses, 65, 78

Thoroughbreds, 76-8, 120,
174, 179, 240, 250, 266
Trenton, 250

Turf, Tafluence of, 17-31

Turf, Roguery on, 269-72,
281

Two-year-old racing, 29

United States, 242, 248

Vauban, 284
Vegetius, 21
Vice in horses, 224-8
Vivian, 303

SUBJECTS.

Volttgewr, 12, 286
Von Stroom, 226

Walker, General, 72

Asai oa 259, 299

Waay, 1

Waa, 189-90

Wellesley Grey Arab, 28

Welsh cobs, 41, 51, 100, 108-
9, 121, 158

Westminster, Duke of, 250

Whisker, 12

White, Colonel, 67

White markings, 263-5

Yard Arm, 142
Yorkshire coach-horse,
97

47,

Printed by Hazell, Watson & Viney, Ld., London and Aylesbury.

BOOKS ON HORSES.

By FRANK T. BARTON, M.R.C.V.S.,

Author of “ Our Friend the Horse,” ete,

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and their Construction. Handling Foals, Yearlings, and Two-Year-
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Breaking for Saddle. Breaking of Heavy Horses for Farm Work.
Stable Vices and their Cures. Kegs and Troublesome Mares. Breakers
and their Responsibilities, etc. About 50 Illustrations from Photo-
graphs and Drawings.

The most recent and up-to-date work on the Horse.
3rd Edition, Revised.

The Veterinary Manual for
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With about Sixty Illustrations from Original Drawings. Crown 8vo, well
printed and slrongly bound, 10/6 nett.

“«'The teaching of this book is up-to-date in its character, and it will
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emergency.” — Glasgow Herald.

The Groom’s Guide ;

His Duties and how to Perform them.
Crown 8vo, cloth, 2/— nett.

“The information contained in the book could not well be over-
rated, and the publication should be in the hands, not only of grooms,
but all gentlemen who have grooms in their employ.”—County
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How to Choose a Horse;

or, Selection before Purchase.
Crown 8vo, cloth, 2/= nett.

“© The book is a valuable addition to literature of the kind.” — County
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BOOKS ON HORSES~— continued.
By FRANK T. BARTON, M.R.C.V.S.,

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Sound and Unsound Horses,
And How to Tell Them.

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From Birth to Old Age.
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CoNTENTS.—Veterinary Education; The Sense of Smell in the
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and Toothache ; Lock Jaw ; Americans and their Horses; Breeds of
Horses in the Old World ; Horses: their Final Uses, etc., ete.

War Horses:
Past, Present, and Future;
or, Life among the Remounts in South Africa.
By SYDNEY GALVAYNE,

Hon. Lieutenant Remount Corps,

Author of “ The Horse,” “ Horse Dentition,”
“Points of the Horse,” ete.

Cloth, 2/6.
‘CA plain and detailed record of experience and much plain-spoken
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Are Racehorses ‘‘ Doctored”” to make them win Races ?
Dopes:

A Criticism of American Arts and
English Efforts on the ‘“‘ Doping”
of Racehorses.

By NATHANIEL GUBBINS (Captain E. Spencer),

Author of “ Cakes and Ale,” “The Great Game,” ete.

Sewed, I/=.

‘The volume may be regarded as a text-book, and, so far, the best
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“NAT GOULD isthe Hawley Smart of Australia.”’— Vide Press.

Sporting Novels

By the MOST POPULAR AUTHORS.

In Boards, Illustrated by J. STURGESS and HARINGTON BIRD,
2s.; also in Cloth, 2s. 6d.

SPORTING SKETCHES. By Nat Gout.
A RACE-COURSE TRAGEDY. By Nat Goutp.
WARNED OFF. By Nar Goutp.
LIFE’S WEB. By Nat Gou.p.
SETTLING DAY. By Nat GouLp.
KING OF THE RANGES. By Nar Goutp.
IN ROYAL COLOURS. By Nat Gou_p.
A RACING SINNER. By Nat GouLp.
BROKEN DOWN. By Nat Gou.p.
THE SILKEN REIN. By Nat Goutp.
THE THREE WAGERS. By Nat Goutp.
RAYMOND’S RIDE. By Nar GouLp.
BRED IN THE BUSH. By Nat Gou tp.
BLUE CAP. By Nat GouLp.
THE BOY IN GREEN. by Nat GouLp.
IN LOW WATER. By Nar Goutp.
THE VIKING STRAIN. By A. G. Hass.
OUTRIDDEN. By Fox Russe..
A JUDAS OF TO-DAY. By Fox Russet.
TRICKED. By Fox RussgLu.

SNOOKER’S RACING ADVENTURES.
By ‘*G.G.” (H. G. Harper).

“ON THE GRASS.” By ‘‘G.G.” (H. G. Harper).
THE SCARLET JACKET. By LEON BREAKER.
ONLY A JOCKEY BOY. By Leon BREAKER.
RIDING TO WIN. By Leon BREAKER.
A Thrilling Novel of the Turf in Australia.
“RUBBED OUT.” By REGINALD BARNETT.

LONDON: R. A. EVERETT & CO., LTD.

WORKS BY NICHOLAS EVERITT.

The most Complete and Exhaustive Work on General Sport yet Published.
Third Edition (cloth gilt extra), 12/6 nett.

Broadland Sport.
Written and Illustrated by NICHOLAS EVERITT,

Author of “ Shots from a Lawyer’s Gun,” ete.

Also an Edition de Luxe, with numerous Photogravure Plates, beauti-
fully printed on special art paper and limited to 100 copies, handsomely
bound in Half-Vellum, gilt top and silk marker, each numbered and
signed by the Author, price £2 2. O nett; only a few copies left for
sale.

LEADING CONTENTS.—Eels and Eel Bobbing; Decoys: and How to
Use Them; Wildfowling at Sea; Punt Gunning; Curres and Short-
Winged Fowl; Wildfowling Costume; Shore Shooting; Flighting.
Hickling District; Horsey District; The Waveney Valley; The Yare
Valley ; Yachts and Yachting from 1800 to 1900, etc.

‘We know of no work, old or new, which fulfils its own purpose so
thoroughly. It is a book which appeals primarily to the sportsman, but
no one who loves the Broads merely from an artistic point of view can fail
to find interest on every page. A volume crammed with accurate informa-
tion and delightful anecdote."’— Times.

Mr. NICHOLAS EVERITT’S New Edition of

Shots from a Lawyer’s Gun.
Profusely Illustrated. Demy 8vo, cloth gilt, 7/6 nett.

The success of the First Edition has led the Author to thoroughly revise
and enlarge this important and valuable work—the only illustrated and
thoroughly up-to-date book on the Game Laws—by the addition of (1) A
Table of Statutes; (2) A List of Cases; (3) An Index; and (4) new
chapters on a variety of additional subjects.

Many of the characters, exciting episodes, and poaching reminiscences
in the First Edition, which caused so much comment and amusement,
have been illustrated by a well-known artist, and it is hoped the legal as
well as the lay reader will appreciate for the first time that law can be
made amusing as well as interesting, and at the same time sound and
reliable.

Shots from a Lawyer’s Gun.
Second Edition. Revised and Enlarged.
By NICHOLAS EVERITT.
*' Nothing is certain in Law except the expense."
A FEW PRESS OPINIONS ON THE FIRST EDITION.

‘‘We have read this book from end to end, with great pleasure. Mr,
Everitt's style is well calculated to lure any sportsman into reading his
lectures to the end. Even the professional poacher may be grateful to
the writer. The pages are full of chatty and amusing anecdotes. We
may disinterestedly commend Mr. Everitt's book, from which readers will
obtain both sound instruction and more amusement than they would find in
the average sensation novel."’"— The Field.

Sport Without Words.

4to Boards, U/=

CATALOGUE OF BOOKS.

Ale 9
Catalogue of Books Published

by

Messrs. R. A. EVERETT
jE Go. Ltd.

42 Essex Street, Strand,
LONDON, IW.C.

Telegrams & Cables: Telephone
“ACCOUTRED, LONDON.” 4719 GERRARD,

Everett's New THREE SHILLLING & SIXPENNY Novels
by Popular Authors. Crown 8vo. Cloth Extra.

A Roumanian Vendetta. By ‘CARMEN SYLVA” (Queen
of Roumania).

A Son of Mars: A new and powerful Military Novel. By
MAJOR ARTHUR GRIFFITHS.

‘A brisk military tale of Herbert Larkins’s life as a private soldier, officer, and at
last, in rightful possession of his true name, as Sir Herbert Farrington, Bart.”—
Times.

The Gentlemen from Goodwood: A new Sporting Novel.
By EDWARD H. COOPER, author of ‘‘Mr. Blake of
Newmarket,” etc.

A Sportswoman’s Love Letters. Fourth Edition. By
FOX RUSSEL, author of ‘* Colonel Botcherby, M.F.H.,”
“* Outridden,” etc.

The Strange Adventures of a Magistrate. By T. R.
THRELFALL, J.P., author of ‘* The Sword of Allah,” etc.

The Extraordinary Islanders. By ASTON FOREST.

A Frontier Officer: Tale of the Punjab. By H. CALDWELL
LIPSETT, author of ‘‘ Lord Curzon in India,” etc.

The Ghost. By Mrs. CAMPBELL PRAED.

My Japanese Wife. By CLIVE HOLLAND. A new and
Revised Edition, with Coloured Illustrations.

A Sporting Adventurer. By FOX RUSSELL, author of
“*Outridden,” etc.

In Royal Colours: A Story of the Coronation Derby, By
NAT GOULD.

The King’s Yard: A Story of Portsmouth Dockyard. By
WALTER JEFFERY, avthor of ‘*A Century of Our Sea
Story,” etc.

The Man Who Died. By G. B. BURGIN.

Dacobra; or, The White Priests of Ahriman. By
HARRIS BURLAND.

The Story of Stories for Children. Translated from the
Neapolitan by J. E. TAYLOR, with Six Illustrations by
George Cruikshank. A Reprint of the scarce Original Edition.

“A translation by J. E. Taylor of Giambattiste Basile’s Fairy Tales which will
be eagerly read by the children. The wonderful doings of the little people of fairy-
land are rehearsed in an entrancing manner, both amusing and instructive to the
young mind. The book is beautifully illustrated, the pictures bearing a look of
quaintness which belongs only to the elfin world.”— Dundee Courter.

A Scourge of the Sea. By HERBERT COMPTON, author
of “The Inimitable Mrs. Massingham,” etc., with Full-page
Illustrations by A. H. Fullwood.

Barcali, The Mutineer: A Tale of the Great Pacific. By C.
DUDLEY LAMPEN. Illustrated by LI. Piflard. ;

4

Everett’s New SIX SHILLING Works by Popular
Authors. Crown 8vo. Cloth Extra.

Richard Brice: Adventurer. A thrilling and original Novel
of Adventure in out-of-the-way parts of the world. By
CHARLES JUNOR, author of ‘* Dead Men’s Tales,” etc.

“ And so we are in this case doubly glad to feel that we can bestow our meed of
praise on Mr. Junor’s last sheaf of tales. Fresh, bright, and lively stories of
adventure they are."—Padl Afall Gazerte.

The Daughters of Job. By ‘‘DARLEY DALE,” author of
“ The Village Blacksmith,” etc.

“They were the Rector’s daughters, Jemima, Kezia, and Kerenhappuch, all
beautiful, and all bent on going out into the world. Their respective careers as a
lady journalist, a secretary, and a cook resolve themselves, needless to say, into love
stories readable enough.” —7imes.

The Viking Strain: A Realistic Novel. By A. G. HALES,
War Correspondent, author of ‘‘ Campaign Pictures,” ‘* Camp
Fire Sketches,” etc. Illustrated by Stanley L. Wood.

“We should like best to see Mr. Hales make use of his experiences of hard and
active life in the new countries of the world, and, if he pleases, of the healthy open-
air sports of the Old Country. But even as it is, there is so much breezy good
humour in ‘The Viking Strain’ and the story, in spite of much that is disagreeable,
is so well constructed, that there is a good deal of pleasure to be derived from its
perusal.” —Daily News.

Thomas Assheton Smith; or, The Reminiscences of a Famous
Fox Hunter. By Sir J. E. EARDLEY-WILMOT, Bart.
A New Edition with an introduction by Sir Herbert Maxwell,
M.P. Illustrated with Numerous Engravings.

‘Sent out by Messrs, Everett & Co., London, with a portrait and a charmingly
written introduction from the pen of Sir Herbert Maxwell, the book should secure a
new lease of popularity among lovers of sports and sportsmen.” —Scotsimez.

Sporting Sketches. By NAT GOULD. Recollections and
Reflections on a variety of subjects connected with Sport,
Horses, and Horsemen never before published. Large Crown
8vo, handsomely bound, cloth gilt. Illustrated by Harington
Bird.

‘*We are inclined to regard this work the best he, Mr. Gould, has yet done.”—

The Field.

Boxers and their Battles: Anecdotal Sketches and Personal
Recollections of Famous Pugilists. By ‘‘ THORMANBY,”
author of ‘‘Kings of the Hunting Field,” ‘‘Kings of the
Turf,” etc., etc. Illustrated from scarce Portraits.

“ Lovers of ‘The Noble Art’ will derive considerable pleasure from a perusal of
this work.”—Datly Telegraph.
5

“NAT GOULD is the Hawley Smart of Australia.” Vide Press.

Sporting Novels

By the MOST POPULAR AUTHORS.

In Boards, Illustrated by ]. STURGESS, Qs. ; also in Cloth, 2s. 6d.

SPORTING SKETCHES.

A RACE-COURSE TRAGEDY.

WARNED OFF.

LIFE’S WEB.

SETTLING DAY.

KING OF THE RANGES.

IN ROYAL COLOURS.

A RAGING SINNER.

BROKEN DOWN.

THE SILKEN REIN.

THE THREE WAGERS.

RAYMOND’S RIDE.

THE VIKING STRAIN.

OUTRIDDEN.

A JUDAS OF TO-DAY.

TRICKED.

SNOOKER’S RACING ADVENTURES.

“ON THE GRASS.” By “G.G.” (H. G. Harper).

ROMANCES OF THE ROAD. & 2"?
6 By “THORMANBY.”

By NAT GOULD.
By NAT GOULD.
By NAT GOULD.
By NAT GOULD.
By NAT GOULD.
By NAT GOULD.
By NAT GOULD.
By NAT GOULD.
By NAT GOULD.
By NAT GOULD.
By NAT GOULD.
By NAT GOULD.
By A. G. HALES.
By FOX RUSSELL.

By FOX RUSSELL.

Everett’s SHILLING Library of Popular Authors.

Well Printed and Bound in Attractive Covers, 1s.,
and in Cloth, 1s, 6d.

Camp Fire Sketches. By A. G. HALES, War Correspondent. :
author of ‘* Campaign Pictures,” etc. ”

“ «Camp Fire Sketches’ consists of a number of stirring little stories of danger
and courage in South Africa. Mr. Hales’s experience as war correspondent has
supplied him with material for these sketches, and he has made good use of it.""—
Literary World,

On the Promenade Deck. By TORIN BLAIR, autkor of
** Belinda,” ‘‘ Epaulettes,” ete.

‘€ Just the thing to while away the tedium of a railway journey.”"—Zo-Day.

“Why I Don’t:” A Series of Humorous Sketches. By
WELLESLEY PAIN (brother of Barry Pain).

Two Fools. By G, B. BURGIN.

The New Comic Bncyclopeedia. Written and Illustrated
by ARCHIBALD CHASEMORE.

Varsity Types. By FRANK RUTTER. Illustrated.

A Girl in London: A New and Original Novel. By JOHN
STRANGE WINTER :

The Malefactors: A Novel of Prison Life and Intrigue. By
CHAS. R. BLAIR, author of ‘*The Adventures on the
Flouseboat.”

The Twillford Mystery. By G. FIRTH SCOTT, author of

‘©The Last Lemurian,” etc.
Free Pardon. By REGINALD BARNETT.

O Duchess! A Trivial Narrative. By W. R. H.
TROWBRIDGE, author of ‘‘The Grandmother’s Advice
to Elizabeth,” etc

Round the World with a Millionaire By BASIL
TOZER.

7

Everett’s SIXPENNY Novels, 1903.

Medium 8vo (94 x6) with Special New Cover Designs in Colours.

Tom Ossington’s Ghost. By RICHARD MARSH.

The Woman with One Hand. By RICHARD MARSH:

A Woman’s Story. By FLORENCE WARDEN.

The House by the Lock. By Mrs. C. N. WILLIAMSON.

Kate Coventry. By G. J. WHYTE-MELVILLE.

Digby Grand. By G. J. WHYTE-MELVILLE,

General Bounce. By G. J. WHYTE-MELVILLE.

The Interpreter. By G. J. WHYTE-MELVILLE.

Sporting Sketches. By NAT GOULD.

A Stable Mystery ; His Last Chance; and Chased by
Fire. By NAT GOULD. 3 Complete Stories in 1 Volume.

A Race-course Tragedy. By NAT GOULD.

The Story of Phil Enderby. By ADELINE SERGEANT.

The Noble Art; or, Boxers and their Battles. By
“ THORMANBY.”

“This is a book that will give a great deal of pleasure to patrons and lovers of
‘the noble art,’ and is exceptionally well written in a peculiarly fascinating style.” —
Sporting Times.

The West End. By PERCY WHYTE, author of ‘The Grip
of the Bookmaker,” etc.

Mr, Blake of Newmarket. By E. H. COOPER.

Snooker’s Racing Adventures. By ‘‘G.G.” (H. G. Harper).

The Adventures of Captain Mounsell. By W. WIL-
MOTT DIXON.

The Second Series of the Adventures of Captain
Mounsell. By W. WILMOTT DIXON.

By Order of the Cross. Powerful and Original Detective
Stories. By JOHN DUOS.

Outridden. By FOX RUSSELL.

The Fate of Captain Petton. By ‘“‘ WEATHERBY
CHESNEY,” author of ‘John Topp, Pirate,” ete.

A Good Thing: A New and Original Sporting Novel. By
‘“LARRY LYNX” (Sporting Editor of 7he People).

Racing. By W. C. A. BLEW, M.A,

An entirely new and novel work on Billiards, for Beginners
and Moderate Players.

Fedp. 8vo, 134 pp. 6d. net.
Cue Tips: Hints on Billiards or 100 Up-pers and Owners of Bijou

Tables. By WM. MITCHELL (B.A. Champion, 1892-7),
Edited by F. M, Horine. aaa with 61 Diagrams,

Miscellaneous Books.

Lightning Tours; Flights by Day and Night by Boat and Rail,
each mostly within 24 hours. By PERCY FITZGERALD,
M.A., F.S.A., author of ‘The Recreations of a Literary
Man,” etc. Cloth, 2s. €d.

Age and Old Age. A Iandbook on Health and Disease. By
DAVID WALSH, M.D., author of ‘‘The Rontgen Rays in
Medical Work,” ‘‘ Diseases of the Hair,” etc. Cloth, 2s. 6d.

‘* Practical as well as interesting.”"—Abendeen Free Press.

Henry Warren’s New Book on the Methods of Banking.

A Bee among the Bankers; or, How to increase your Deposit
Rate and reduce your Banker’s Charges. By HENRY
WARREN, author of ‘‘ How to Deal with your Bankers,” ete.

Cloth, 3s. 6d.

“Should prove profitable reading to persons who have money to invest.’’"—
Scotsman,

Lord Curzon in India, 1898-19038. By CALDWELL
LIPSETT, author of ‘‘ Where the Atlantic meets the Sea,” etc.
With Portraits and Lllustrations. Cloth, 2s. 6d.

“Mr. Lipsett has contrived to pack a great deal of information into a very few
pages.” —Daztly Chronicle.

Sharpshooting for Sport and War. By W. W.
GREENER, author of ‘*The Gun and its Development.”
Sewed, Is. ; Cloth, 1s. 6d. net.

Second Edition, Completing 20th Thousand.
200 pp., 100 Lllustrations.

“Tn so far as the art of shooting with the rifle can be taught by words, Mr.
Greener has essayed to make all who read his treatise proficient sharpshooters, and
his remarks, both on sporting and military weapons, are eminently practical.”—
The Field,

2

Shots from a Lawyer’s Gun.

CHARACTERS INTRODUCED.

Mr. S1x-anp-E1GHT we sie oe ain A Sporting Lawyer
Mr. LEGALLING.. ne ae a8 " Articled Clerk to Mr. Six-and-Eight
Mr. SPouTER A leading Junior
Mr. Buster : A rising Junior
Mr. Newcatp Bernier "7 % ie A young Junior
Mr. Sorrsap A very young Junior
Mr. GIMBLETT 4 ss A Solicitor (ex-Lawyer’s Clerk)
Mr. EruDItTE si "The Salsito to whom Mr. Six-and-Eight was articled
P. C. IRonGrRIP si ae ed ies ue .. Of Deepdale Village
Squire BRoapacreEs, J. Pr. a é be .» Of Deepdale Manor
Mr. SHARPSIGHT .. a wi a a ” Head Keeper to Squire Broadacres
ny Sie \ Game Watchers under Mr. Sharpsight
Jack FuNNYBONE Nephew to Squire Broadacres, a Medical Student of Barts
Sir Joun RocketTer, Bart., J.P... .. Of Sedgemere Hall
Patrick O’LEaRY .. ia ai re Sir John Rocketter’ s Irish Gamekeeper
Lorp SEAvVIEW au as ow na 5 Lord of the Manor of Saltwold
Mr. SPipER .. ae = a ne sit Lord Seaview s Watcher
Mr. UprErton, J. Pp. aud a di i .. An egotistical ‘‘ Know All”
Mr. Carrots 5 a A retired Greengrocer and Landowner
Mr. STINGIMAN... ..» Tenant Farmer under Mr, Carrots
Mr. SKINFLINT.. of the Priory ; : ' Proprietor of the Home and Church Farms
Mr. CunnincmMan .. Lessee of Mr. Skinflint’s Farms, and a believer in ‘‘ Every
{man his own Lawyer”
Mr. StuseLes ef rr ay sa ‘a A Tenant Farmer
Tom StTuBBLes 6 od Ber ne Eldest Son of Mr. Stubbles
CHARLIE STUBBLES 7) a we om .. Youngest Son of Mr. Stubbles
Mr. STRAWLESS.. re ee or 2d .. An unfortunate Agriculturist
Mr. Cross .. He = 2% ar .. A cantankerous Agriculturist
Mr. FierpMAN ea ..An experimental Agriculturist
Mr. STEELUM x se a a A Poaching Farmer
Mr. CLoserHisT .. .. An economical Farmer
Mr. PROWLER 1 ni oe A Town Sportsman and a Pot-hunter
JoserH CocKLEY .. ws .. Of Firthorpe, a Pheasant Farm Proprietor
SAMUEL SPOTTEM .. F oo i .. An Inland Revenue Officer
Bos Pickemup ae ers ze os .. A Poacher of Deadem Green
Mrs. Pickemur.. F as Wife of Robert Pickemup
Mrs. SARAH ANN Mutuines ae Mr. Pickemup’s Mother-in-Law
Mike KELty on ja ink An Irish Loafer of Deepdal€
WanDERING WILL ) 4
James GREEN { er ‘i or :» Poachers and Ne’er-do-weels
Mr. Harpup oes oe te a5 a .. A Sporting Publican
Jor SwisHEM ny sa ts ae he "Ostler of the ‘Dog and Gun”
Timotuy TATTLEK ‘ ae Ratcatcher and Poacher
“SHOOTING JOE” .. ‘ ae ‘ Be An Owner of Lurchers

Shots from a Lawyer’s Gun.

PRESS OPINIONS.

‘We have read this book from end to end with great pleasure.
Mr. Everitt’s style is well calculated to lure any sportsman into
reading his lectures to the end. Even the professional poacher
may be grateful to the writer. The pages are full of chatty and
amusing anecdotes. We may disinterestedly commend Mr.
Everitt’s book, from which readers will obtain both sound
instruction and more amusement than they would find in the
average sensation novel.”—- 7he Field.

‘This book is a veritable triumph. Every point of law in
connection with game preservation is most ably dealt with, and
the interest never flags throughout. This work on the Game
Laws is peculiarly one for gamekeepers, and, indeed, we feel
convinced that the author had their requirements in view when
penning it. With the aid of a collection of characters, more or
less fictitious, but wonderfully human, every contingency likely
to occur as regards poaching is reviewed as if on the stage, and
the whole thing is enlivened by the most amusing and original
anecdotes. We strongly advise our readers to get this book.”—
The Gamekeeper.

“An instructive and, at the same time, an amusing little
manual on this interesting subject, a good deal of it being given
dramatically in the form of dialogue between solicitor and
client."— The Standard.

“¢ Shots from a Lawyer’s Gun’ will prove a welcome surprise
to those who imagine that the study of the law must necessarily
be a dry and laborious pursuit. Besides being bright and
entertaining, the book is of real and lasting value as a hand-
book of the law particularly appertaining to the sportsman and

his servants.”—Zxe Globe.
II

PRESS OPINIONS—continued.

“The book is the work of a lawyer who hesitates not to com-
bine his capacity for entertaining with amusing tales lucid
exposition of laws to anyone interested in the points with which
he deals, whether he be the Squire of the Hall, the gamekeeper,
or the poacher.”—The Scotsman.

“A comprehensive survey of all matters likely to interest
sportsmen. It is interesting and amusing to note the number
of popular fallacies which Mr. Everitt explodes. Here hunting
men will find that fox-hunting is a trespass in spite of a contrary
popular belief; landowners will discern that the popular four-
feet rule in connection with ditches is fallacious ; shooting
lawyers will find how easily they may be ‘ cornered’ by difficult
questions of game ownership. The author’s easy, familiar, and
yet instructive style will be recognised. The book is really an
amusing dissertation in the form of articles and interviews on a
subject of interest to all who live in the country. We can pro-
mise all buyers their full money’s worth in both instruction and
amusement.”—Law Notes.

“Mr. Nicholas Everitt’s new book, with its striking title
and somewhat impressive ‘get up,’ should certainly win him
a large measure of appreciation. To sportsmen and lawyers
it will be the very marrow of useful and interesting ma-
terial, and if poachers were given to studying legal litera-
ture, they would find here a rich storehouse of facts and
opinions calculated to help them at a pinch. Mr. Everitt’s
twenty-two chapters brim over with legal learning and exceed-
ingly useful ‘tips.’ The book is of sterling value, and will have
a wide appeal.” —Zastern Daily Press.

“We commend Mr. Everitt’s book to all who have to do with
dog or gun. The book is nicely printed and bound, the droll
design on the cover thereof being highly appropriate to the
contents."—WVorfolk Daily Standard.

12

AN IMPORTANT NEW WORK ON THE CONGO.

THIRD IMPRESSION.

THE CURSE OF CENTRAL AFRICA;

Or, THE BELGIAN ADMINISTRATION OF
THE CONGO “FREE” STATE.

By CAPTAIN GUY BURROWS,

Late District Commissioner for the Aruwimi District of the Congo ;
Chevalier de ’ Ordre du Lion; and author of ‘*‘ The Land of the
Pigmies,” etc. Royal 8vo, 21s. net. Illustrated with about 200
full-page and smaller Illustrations from Photographs taken by
the Author and others.

“©The Curse of Central Africa’ is a vehement, uncompromising indictment of the
whole system of administration by which the Congo Free State is governed. It
confirms, with a definite array of facts, names, and dates, the rumours which have

continually come to England during the last few years, but which have not
unnaturally been regarded as extravagant and incredible.” —Dazly Mews.

[See next page.

The success of the First Edition of this book has led the Author
to prepare a new Edition, Illustrated, with Tables of
Statutes, Cases stated, revised, and brought up to date.

Shots from a Lawyer’s Gun. By NICHOLAS EVERITT,
author of ‘* Broadland Sport,” etc. [See pp. 10-11.

“ Mr. Everitt has made many a good shot in this book, which mixes the useful
with the agreeable. Mr. Everitt isa safe guide. He knows his subject uncommonly
well.” —The Athenaum.

Dedicated to THE RicHtT Hon. RIcHARD SEDDON,
Premier of New Zealand.

Full Cry. By FRED CO1TON. With a frontispiece in colours
and other full-page Illustrations by Harington Bid. 4to.
Half-leather, gilt top (limited to 350 copies), £T Is. net.

‘« A splendid hunting novel.”—Daily News.

“« Pull Cry' gives an insight into the sporting proclivities of our Colonial
brethren, and is very handsomely got up.” —Pall Mall Gazette.

““A manly and cheery spirit pervades the book, and young people and old do their
best to enamour the reader with New Zealand and the New Zealanders. The
volume contains a number of admirable illustrations by Harington Bird.” —Scotsman.

13

Press Opinions on

The Curse of Central Africa.

‘*It would be affectation to deny that the appearance of the
present volume has not been awaited with considerable interest
and curiosity by the increasing numbers of people in this
country who have become painfully sensitive on the subject of
our national responsibility for the existence, and consequently
for the actions of the Congo Free State. For some years past,
charges more or less definite have been made against the
officials of the local administration in Africa, involving not
merely an utter disregard of the rights of property of the
natives, but the most callous and inhuman contempt for life.
The higher officials, both on the Congo and in Brussels, have
been charged with complicity in the crimes of their subordinates,
partly by reason of their neglect to detect and punish the
atrocities committed by their agents, and partly because these
crimes are, it is alleged, the direct and necessary result of the
policy adopted and sanctioned by the State for the exploitation
of the natural products of the country. To these charges the
official answer has been a general denial of their accuracy,
with a plea that it 1s impossible altogether to avoid misconduct
on the part of agents serving under peculiarly trying conditions,
remote from the central authority, and therefore difficult to
control; but that wherever specific acts of misconduct have
been brought home to any particular officer, steps have at once
been taken to bring him to trial, and that when he has been
found guilty he has been punished with the utmost severity.
It has further been the custom of the Free State and its
apologists to weaken the effect of the charges brought against
it by suggesting that when made by former officials they are
advanced for interested motives. The volume published to-day
is the joint work of a former officer in the British Army who
was, for two periods of three years each, in the service
of the Free State, and of an American citizen who was
also at one time in the service of the State, and subse-
quently revisited the Congo as an agent of one of the com-
mercial companies in which the State authorities hold half the
share capital. We gather, however, from a long introduction
signed by Mr. J. G. Leigh, that the writer of the introduction
has had a considerable share in the production of the volume,
which, unfortunately, bears signs of its composite authorship.
On a cursory examination, at least, we have not found it
always easy to distinguish whether it is Captain Burrows or
Mr. Canisius who is the narrator, due, probably, to defective

14

Press Opinions on the ‘‘Curse of Central Africa ”—contd.

T

arrangement of the material. It is also much to be regretted
that the photographs should have been so very badly repro-
duced that they are in several instances quite useless for the
purpose which they are avowedly intended to serve. But these
matters, though by no means unimportant in what is intended
as a formal indictment of the methods employed by the Congo
State Administration, are defects of form rather than of sub-
stance, and it is in the material parts of the indictment that
the real interest of the volume will be found. It has been
suggested that the statements made in the book may probably
form the subject of investigation before a court of law. We do
not know how far this suggestion is likely to be realised, but in
any case, we do not propose to anticipate the result of such an
inquiry, should it be held, by discussing in detail the evidence
which is adduced by the authors in this volume. Without
committing ourselves to the opinion that an English court of
law, with its very rigid rules of evidence, is the best tribunal
for conducting an inquiry which must necessarily, if it is to be
at all exhaustive, cover a very wide field, we may point out that
we have always strongly urged the imperative necessity that an
inquiry should be held into the appalling charges made against
the Congo Administration. That view has been further
strengthened by an examination of the volume now under
review. Some of the charges here made, with a particularity
of names and dates which enables their accuracy to be put to
the test, are of so atrocious and appalling a character that the
mind instinctively revolts at the idea that a civilised country
can have produced monsters capable of the deeds alleged to
have been committed. It is simply impossible that these
charges can remain without investigation. The Sovereign of
the Congo Free State cannot ignore them; nor can the
Governments responsible for the. creation of the Congo Free
State decline to recognise their responsibility in this matter.
Moreover, it 1s not sufficient to attempt to discredit the authors
because they both appear to have been willing to re-enter the
service of the State for a further term. In the introduction
Mr. Leigh quotes some correspondence which passed between
Captain Burrows and the Congo Administration, and between
Mr. Canisius and the Administration. We frankly confess
that we do not like the idea that, with the knowledge they had
of its methods, Captain Burrows and Mr. Canisius should have
been willing to re-engage themselves in the service of the Free
State; but, as we have said, that circumstance in no way
detracts from the nécessity for a full, public, and impartial
inquiry into the charges now publicly made against the Congo
Administration, for if those charges are well-founded, they

15

Press Opinions on the ‘Curse of Central Africa” —contd.

constitute not merely an outrage on the conscience of the
civilised world, but a menace to the future work of every
European Power which has taken on itself the responsibility
for the good government of any portion of Equatorial Africa.”
—Morning Post. :

“ Messrs. R. A. Everett & Co. publish ‘The Curse of Central
Africa,” by Capt. Guy Burrows, with which is incorporated ‘A
Campaign amongst Cannibals,’ by Edgar Canisius, the volume
being marked ‘Second Impression,’ for reasons which are not
completely explained in the introduction from the pen of Mr.
John George Leigh. It it stated in the introduction that legal
proceedings have been threatened on behalf of the Congo State
by Sir Hugh Gilzean Reid, whose name is twice misspelt. We
may say at once that the introduction and also the portion of
the book which is from the pen of Mr. Canisius, an American,
contain detailed statements with regard to a well-known
Belgian officer, Major Lothaire, which might be made the basis
of legal proceedings in our courts. Many of the Belgian officers
who are named in the volume are beyond all doubt men whose
shameful and shocking proceedings could not possibly be
defended before an English jury. But the case of Major
Lothaire is different. He is not without friends and admirers,
even in this country, and although he became unpopular here
after he shot Stokes, yet Stokes was not above reproach, and
there is a Belgian side to that transaction. If it is to be estab-
lished that the statements in the volume before us are in any
degree exaggerations, it is by Major Lothaire, we think, that
such proof can possibly be offered. The true case against the
Congo State is made by Mr. Fox-Bourne in an admirable book
which we recently reviewed, and it is doubtful how far it is
strengthened by the more detailed and much more sensational
statements put forward in the present volume upon evidence
which may or may not be sufficient. The book is an odd one
in its construction. Capt. Guy Burrows begins, as it were, in
the middle of his story, for he merely states in his first para-
graph that ‘at the expiration of a year’s leave ... I left
Antwerp on the 6th of June, 1898, to resume my duties as
Commissioner.’ His contribution to the volume is followed by
that of Mr. Canisius, but it is not clear at what point this
second section ends, nor who is the author of the last part—
which is political, and follows Mr. Fox-Bourne, Mr. E. D.
Morel, and the Belgian writers who have published accounts of
the Congolese administration. The boek may be lightened for
the general public, and especially for those of them who are
fond of horrors, by the photographs, some of which have

16

Press Opinions on the ‘Curse of Central Africa” —condd.

already appeared elsewhere, though all are not of a nature to
create confidence. The first photographs, after the portraits of
Capt. Burrows and the Sovereign of the Congo State, are two
which face each other, but one is merely an enlargement of
the other, apparently inserted for some purpose of verification
which is not clear. This photograph bears signs of having
been touched, and therefore strikes a note which is unfortunate.
It is also an unhappy fact that the authors will set against them
a good deal of opinion which ought to have been on their side,
on account of the statement, in the Burrows part of the book,
that many of the missionaries are men who have resorted to the
Congo State ‘with a desire to escape unpleasant consequences
resulting from some form of indiscretion or other.” Many of
the missionaries in the Congo State are men of the highest
repute in their religious bodies. To some of them we owe the
most complete and the most trustworthy exposure of the
horrors of Congolese administration which has been made. It
is the case that much has been said against the missionaries
for having given countenance to the proceedings of the King
of the Belgians. Those who, like Mr. Thomas Bayley, M.P., in
a recent speech to a Baptist gathering at Nottingham, have felt
it their plain duty to censure the conduct of missionaries of
their own denomination, will find their hands weakened by the
unjust and unfair charge here made by Capt. Burrows. What
can be truly said is bad enough. In reply to Mr. Bayley, a
gentleman was sent down, apparently from the headquarters of
the Baptist missions in London, to state that the Baptists could
not but be grateful to the King of the Belgians, who had reduced
by fifty per cent. the taxation upon their missionary property,
and that the recent deputation to Brussels to express confidence
in the humanity of the King was justified by this reduction. A
more terrible admission we have never known. The contribu-
tion of Mr. Canisius to the volume is thoroughly deserving of
attention, and, as he is evidently a serious observer, we note
the inaccuracy of his statement that ‘ the African, as a general
rule, is not suitable material for the making of a good soldier.’
This is supported by a reference to ‘the scandalous conduct of
some of the negro regiments of the United States.’ The last
allusion is to circumstances unknown to us. We had always
heard and believed that the Government of the United States
had had reason to congratulate itself upon its black troops,
both in the Civil War and in the recent war with Spain. Un-
doubtedly, however, African regiments, recruited with care,
have produced admirable results, and the French Senegalese
levies are among the best troops in the world, as are the
Egyptian Soudanese. The index is feeble, and we note the

17

Press Opinions on the “Curse of Central Africa”-—contd.

misprint of Wazters for the well-known Belgian name of
Wauters.—A theneuim.

“Following Mr. Fox-Bourne’s ‘Civilisation in Congoland,’
which we noticed on its appearance, this volume should serve,.
if anything will, to make English readers realise the appalling
state of things that prevails in Central Africa. Captain Burrows
was formerly in the service of the Congo State, as was Mr.
Edgar Canisius, whose experiences among the cannibals are
incorporated with the,Captain’s narrative. In addition to the
verbal record, the imagination of the reader is assisted by
reproductions of photographs of barbarities that have taken
place. The result is a compilation of descriptive and pictorial
horrors that no healthy-minded person would turn to except
from a sense of duty. But for all who can do anything to
influence public opinion that duty exists, for the driving home
of the facts must precede any hope of effective action. With
the main heads of the indictment against the Congo Free State
those who take any interest in the question are already familiar.
Its agents are paid by commission on the rubber and ivory
produced from their several districts, and no inconvenient
questions are asked or effective restrictions laid down as to the
treatment by which the natives are made to serve the most
lucrative purpose. Agents guilty of misdemeanours in the
Congo are, as Captain Burrows puts it, ‘liable to be prosecuted
only by a Government which indirectly employs them, and is
likely to benefit by their offences’—the result of which ingenious
provision for ‘justice’ can be easily imagined. As a matter of
fact the natives are exploited with an unscrupulous barbarity
happily without known parallel. The callousness with which
white people regard their black fellow-creatures belongs more
or less to every nation, but Captain Burrows has come to the
conclusion that ‘not the worst can be accused of such systematic,
comprehensive and cold-blooded misdeeds as those which
during the past fifteen years have made of the Congo State a
veritable charnel-house.’ :

“ Of the Belgian officers who have so active and responsible
a share in these cruelties, Captain Burrows speaks in quite un-
flattering terms, apart from their treatment of the blacks.
‘Arrogant,’ ‘ill-bred,” ‘cowardly’ are some of the epithets
which he applies to the type; and they are represented as
taking delight in the infliction of pain and humiliation on any
one in their power, including their own countrymen. If this
be so, it makes it necessary to take with qualification Captain
Burrows’s frequent suggestion that it is the system rather than
the men that must be held responsible for the Congo atrocities ;

18

Press Opinions on the ‘‘Curse of Central Africa ’—condd.

whereas his picture of the men would seem to show that, what-
ever the system under which they worked, they would turn it to
barbarous use. This tendency to make the system share the
blame appears even in what is said of the notorious Major
Lothaire :—‘ The system of butchery which has been inaugur-
ated in the Mongalla concession is directly traceable to him,
although he has always been sufficiently wily not to place any
written proof of this where it could be brought against him... .
His hasty and despotic treatment of the blacks, as shown in the
massacre at Bau, had due effect upon his subordinates, by
whom he has been regarded as a hero since the day he lynched
a British subject, Stokes, a white man... . It is, however,
mere justice to add that Major Lothaire is a brave, usually
even-tempered, and, I firmly believe, not naturally hard-hearted
man. For many of his faults and much of the ill that he has
done, the system of the Congo must be held primarily
responsible.’

“One of the first and most natural questions to be asked is,
How far does the influence of missionaries avail to lessen those
awful evils? And the answer, at least as given by Captain
Burrows, is disappointing. We need not quote at length his
personal opinion of the missionaries he has met in the Congo.
Of some he evidently thought highly ; others he writes down
as weak-chinned and the wrong men for the work’; others,
again, he does not hesitate to describe as ‘rank.’ But, taking
the men as they are, what have they done for the protection of
the natives? According to what we are here told, practically
nothing. Incidentally, they may do something to ameliorate
the condition of those around them, but on such vital matters
as the collection of rubber and ivory and forced recruiting, they
are powerless. ‘ They are fairly in the toils of a most immoral
corporation, and they are obliged to frame their actions accord-
ing to its dictates. They have no option in this matter. If
they became in the least degree troublesome; if they de-
nounced a single one of the crying evils that surround their.
daily lives; if they taught the native the iniquity of the con-
ditions under which he is made to live and groan, they would
soon cease to be missionaries in the Congo State.’

“It is possible that this picture of missionary impotence is
overdrawn, but it is best that Captain Burrows’s view of the
case should be widely known amongst the friends of missions.
Many would be ready to say that acquiescence in nameless
cruelties is too great a price for religious teachers under any
circumstances to pay; but one effect of the publication of this
book will probably be authorised statements from the mis-
sionaries’ point of view, such as that by the Baptist Missionary

19

Press Opinions on the ‘‘Curse of Central Africa ”—condd.

Society, which we give elsewhere. As to whether anything can
be done to improve matters, Captain Burrows indicates his own
opinion with sufficient clearness. Belgium ought to be deprived
of the government, and the Congo partitioned amongst the
three principal Powers possessing adjoining territory, viz.,
England, France, and Germany. This, of course, is easier
to put on paper than to perform in practice ; but the Powers
which sanctioned the creation of the Congo State at the Berlin
Conference of 1885 cannot shake off their responsibility for
what has happened. Failing action on their part, civilisation,
to say nothing of Christianity, will continue to see Central Africa
made a shamble in order that the Belgians may ‘ gather’ rubber
at a fabulous profit. Asa parting gleam of light, and as show-
ing that something can be done by a humane official, we may
mention that, when commissioner at Basoko, Captain Burrows
succeeded in suppressing the flogging of women. He declares
that he has evidence to prove that before his arrival half-a-dozen
women were flogged every day.”-——-Christian World.

“As the first edition is marked ‘Second Impression,’ it may
be presumed that this much-talked-of volume has been toned
down since the publisher was threatened with libel actions, and
that some of the passages included for the ‘first impression ’
have been prudently cancelled. The volume, as we have it, at
any rate, makes fewer attacks on individuals than we were led
to expect. It does not for that reason lose any of its value as
an impeachment of the methods of Congo State administration.
In some other respects, however, it is disappointing. Though
Capt. Burrows’s name appears as its principal author, about
half the volume consists of ‘A Campaign amongst Cannibals,’
contributed by Mr. Edgar Canisius, and with both writers’ com-
positions Mr. J. G. Leigh, the editor, admits that he has taken
great liberties. He has ‘ventured to modify’ Capt. Burrows’s
work ‘as originally planned and completed,’ and he leads us to
suppose that he has practically written, or re-written, all Mr.
Canisius’s chapters, besides supplying the lengthy introduction
which he signs. Even if in this way the literary quality of the
book is improved, its authority is weakened as a record of first-
hand information. It is unfortunate, moreover, that both writers
should have to admit that, after several years’ service under the
Congo Government, and experience of the abominations in
which, as servants of the State, they had to take part, they
were willing to renew their occupations, and have only made
their disclosures now that their offers have been rejected.
Whatever defects may be found in the book, however, it
affords very valuable confirmation of charges that have ‘re

20

Press Opinions on the ‘Curse of Central Africa ”—condd.

peatedly, and within the past few months with special emphasis,
been brought against King Leopold and his agents. Capt.
Burrows spent six years in various parts of the Congo, princi-
pally in the regions near Stanley Falls, where, according to
Mr. Leigh, ‘he fulfilled the very repugnant duties imposed
upon him by his official positions to the entire satisfaction of
the authorities, and it must be set down to his credit that he
appears to have done whatever little he could in lessening the
evils that he could not prevent. ‘The Balubas, ‘a docile and
interesting people,’ with whom he came in contact while he was
in charge of the Riba-Riba or Lokandu station, far beyond
Stanley Falls, seem to have been especially befriended by him.
‘About this time,’ he tells us, ‘large numbers of Baluba slaves
commenced to arrive at my post, frequently 300 in a batch.
These people had been captured by the commandant, and
carried off to work as slaves in the stations and on the planta-
tions of the State. Many died of hunger and exposure, and
quite a number, too sick to proceed, remained at the post.
Those whom I succeeded in curing continued at Lokandu
during the rest of my stay, and were employed on the
plantations and other work. By treating them kindly I gained
their confidence, and on moonlight nights they would sing for
me their native songs and dance the Baluba dances.’

“His labours as a State slave-driver must certainly have
been irksome. He says: ‘ Nearly all the disputes among
the natives and the followers of the Arabs are caused by
mutual slave-stealing. Much of the time of the post com-
manders is devoted to these disputes, for no sooner does a
slave run away than his master sets off at top-speed from the
station to inform the white man. “ Master, my slave has been
stolen!” he cries. “Send quick your soldiers to bring him
back!” Half an hour is required for the interrogation of the
excited slave-owner, generally with the result that he admits
that the slave had run away, but that So-and-So is harbouring
the fugitive in his village. To the latter, therefore, a soldier is
sent, with instructions to bring to the post both the slave and
his protector. A court is then held, and if the claimant is
proved to be the runaway’s owner, the man is forthwith handed
over. By an unwritten law, and under pretext of respecting
maurs indigenes, the slave system is rigorously upheld by
the officials of Bula Matari.’ Against two of his Belgian
associates Capt. Burrows brings charges that are especially
grave, and in the case of one they are supported by translation
from the procés verbal of the inquiry which he conducted early
in 1901. The allegations are that, in one instance, the culprit
handed over a native who was obnoxious to him to other

21

Press Opinions on the ‘Curse of Central Africa "contd.

natives, telling them to eat him ; that, in another instance, he
caused one of his ‘boys’ to be ‘beaten with blows of a
bludgeon by the work-people till death ensued’ ; that, in other
instances, he caused the chief of a village and a dozen prisoners
taken from another village to be killed, and gave the corpses
to a rival chief as luxuries for one of his feasts. In other cases,
again, this official handed over to two neighbouring chiefs
several prisoners from various villages ‘as payment.’ ‘He
gave me,’ according to the testimony of one chief, ‘six men
and two women in payment for rubber which I brought into
the station, telling me I could eat them, or kill them, or use
them as slaves—as I liked.’ This Belgian, however, had gone
to Europe before the investigation took place, and we hear
nothing of any punishment being accorded either to him or
to any of the other offenders of whom Capt. Burrows had to
complain.

“Mr. Canisius’s ‘Campaign amongst Cannibals’ is a painful
story in seven chapters, dealing as it does with some of his
experiences under Major Lothaire during the Budja revolt of
some two years ago. The cruelties and atrocities here recorded
are, of course, none the less terrible because Mr. Canisius took
them all in his day’s work. But somehow it is difficult to attach
all the importance that perhaps it deserves to the testimony of
so callous an authority. ‘The cruel flogging of so many men
and boys would probably have had a peculiar effect upon a new-
comer, but I was in a measure case-hardened,’ we read on one
page; and on another, ‘To be quite candid, I was, on the
whole, by no means disinclined to accompany the column, for
I much desired to witness the operations which were to be con-
ducted with a view of compelling the Budjas to accept the
benefit of our rubber regime.’ A great many more Congo
atrocities than the body of the book reports are catalogued
by Mr. Leigh in seven pages of his introduction, but this
summary is too bald and unauthenticated to be of much
weight. Mr. Leigh is probably responsible for the chapters
in which some account is given of the history and general
arrangements of the Congo State, but in which nothing new
is told, and there are numerous grave inaccuracies. On one
page we are told that the Congo State has an area of 1,000,000
square miles, and a population of 40,000,000 ; and in another
that the whole Congo Basin, of which the Congo State
occupies only about two-thirds, ‘comprises some 800,000
square miles and a population variously estimated at from
8,000,000 to 27,000,000." Of the Abir Company, again, we
read in one place that ‘it is only fair to say that, so far as
the present writer is aware, no allegations of ill-treatment of

22

Press Opinions on the ‘Curse of Central Africa ”—condd.

the natives have ever emanated from the districts where the
Société Abir conducts its operations,’ and in another that ‘the
now notorious Abir has had a record scarcely less scandalous
than that of the Mongalla Company,’ better known as the
Société Anversoise. It is extraordinary that such self-contra-
dictions could escape the authors, to say nothing of the pub-
lishers’ readers. They enormously detract from the importance
of the book. It undoubtedly contains some materials of value.
But these are greatly impaired by the failure clearly to under-
stand that in a work of this character, in which credibility is
everything, strict accuracy in regard to detail is the first,
second, and third essential.”—JAforning Leader.

“*] pray,’ said Prince Bismarck, in 1885, speaking of the
new Congo Free State, ‘I pray for its prosperous development
and for the fulfilment of the noble aspirations of its illustrious
founder.’ It was with a burst of missionary enthusiasm that
the Powers represented at the Berlin Conference in 1885
handed over a million square miles to the care of Leopold,
King of the Belgians. The ostensible object of the new Belgian
administration was to carry the light of civilisation into the
dark places of Central Africa, and to suppress the slave trade ;
it undertook to ‘assure to all nations the advantages of free
navigation,’ and to further ‘the moral and material well-being
of the native populations.’ Europe has been too busy with its
own affairs to put the question: ‘How has this trust been
carried out?’ But the question is answered with alarming
clearness in a book which appears to-day, chiefly from the pen
of Captain Guy Burrows, with a chapter by Mr. Edgar Canisius.
‘The Curse of Central Africa’ is a vehement, uncompromising
indictment of the whole system of administration by which the
Congo Free State is governed. It confirms, with a definite
array of facts, names, and dates, the rumours which have
continually come to England during the last few years, but
which have not unnaturally been regarded as extravagant and
incredible.

“‘ Captain Guy Burrows has served for six years in important
positions under the Congo Free State. His book, which Mr.
R, A. Everett is now publishing, is a plain, vigorous piece of
writing, purporting to set down his own experiences in the
Congo, and what he actually saw of the methods of govern-
ment, the treatment of natives, and the ‘opening-up’ of the
country. Ata dinner given recently to Captain Burrows, his
statements were confirmed by Mr. Edgar Canisius and Sous-
Intendant Hoffmann, who have both lived for many years in
the Free State, and by Mr. John G. Leigh, who has also had

23

Press Opinions on the ‘‘Curse of Central Africa’’—contd.

some acquaintance with the country. When we recall the
stories that have so often reached England before, and the
scandals that have from time to time made a stir even in
Belgium, this additional and more definite information leaves
no room for doubt. The Free State Government, directly
responsible to King Leopold alone, must be regarded as a
stupendous trading company, owning what is virtually a
monopoly, and armed with the power of life and death over
its employees. The government is carried on by means of a
military force—La Force Publique—an army recruited by
compulsion, and serving a long term of years. This army is
mainly fed by supplies which the inhabitants of the surrounding
neighbourhood are compelled to bringin. The staple products
of the country are india-rubber and ivory ; and it is the duty of
the Government officials to extort from the natives the largest
supplies that can be obtained. A native chief is informed that
he must send in a certain quantity of rubber within a given
time (there may or may not be a nominal payment) ; if the
rubber does not arrive a punitive expedition is undertaken, and
a village may be burnt, the men killed, and the women taken
away to do the work of slaves. ‘In the days of Tippoo Tib
and the Arab dominion,’ says Captain Burrows, ‘ thousands of
natives were killed or carried off into slavery ; but I venture to
say that no Arab chief ever managed the business on so vast a
scale as some of the officials of the Free State.’ The employ-
ment of forced labour, slavery in all but name, and that under
the most degrading circumstances, is part of the system of the
country. Captain Burrows’s book reproduces photographs
showing native chiefs in the act of being tortured, and Belgian
officers looking on approvingly. A certain proportion ot the
rubber and ivory exacted from the natives is part of a District
Commissioner’s income. ‘Considering that the very duties of
the men involve the: perpetration of acts of cruelty, and that
they are daily familiarised with deeds which are unspeakable
and indescribable, it will be agreed that it is not the man but
the system which is deserving of censure.’ The State is one
‘whose very conditions of service include the incitation to
commit what must be morally called a crime.’ Notorious
offences against life and property are winked at by officials,
and disregarded at headquarters. The whole State, the
Executive at Boma, the Government in Brussels, cannot be
acquitted of participation in a system which is rapidly organis-
ing corruption and degrading the natives, and has long since
stultified the magnificent promises of King Leopold and
Bismark.

“This is the account which Captain Burrows gives from his

24

Press Opinions on the ‘Curse of Central Africa” —conéd.

own personal experience of the Congo. And we must con-
‘ gratulate him on coming forward to say what others—including,
we fear, the Baptist Missionary Society—have shrunk from
saying. Captain Burrows is entirely free from the accusation
of sensation-mongering. His book is a cold, clear exposition
of hard facts. It reveals a terrible state of affairs ; and it does
so without any appeal to emotion. We see a system of govern-
ment which would have been a scandal in the worst days of
Republican Rome. We see the Government of a neighbouring
civilised Power, to which the Congo was given in trust by the
combined action of the Powers, directly responsible for that
scandal. If nothing else can be done immediately, the facts
shou'd be made known ; the Belgians must be made to under-
stand what is going on in the name of their Sovereign ;
Englishmen must be enlightened, because they, with the other
Powers, agreed to hand over the Congo to King Leopold. As
it is, everything has been done to conceal the facts. The
Belgian Press has been gagged, and, through the medium of
English Courts, attempts have been made to secure an injunc-
tion against the publication of Captain Burrows’s book. It is
surely curious that, whilst we are at liberty to criticise the direct
representatives of the King in England, a foreign Government,
to hide its own shame, should be able to threaten the freedom
of the English Press. Yet we must not only insist—it is an
important point—on the right to ventilate such questions as
this, but also point out that, as long as the present Government
remains in power, it is the only way of securing reform in the
Congo. After all, it is the Belgians who are, in the first place,
responsible for enormities which are being committed by
Belgian citizens. We do not believe the moral sense of
Belgium is at such a low ebb that, if it were fully aware of the
horrors of the Congo, it would really tolerate their continuance.
But meantime the responsibility of England remains ; she was
a member of the Conference of Berlin ; her trading interests in
West Africa are at stake ; and the condition of free rights of
trade to all countries has not been kept. The atrocities com-
mitted in the name of civilisation are even worse than those in
Macedonia ; whilst the responsibility of England is greater.
And though the victims in one case are barbarians, and in the
other case are Christians and Europeans, the facts make no
difference to a question, not of faith, but of humanity. But to
influence public opinion in Belgium should not be the only
remedy. Our own Government should formulate questions on
the subject. Captain Burrows suggests another Conference of
Berlin, which should divide up the Congo country between
Germany, France, and England. We scarcely think this is

29

Press Opinions on the ‘Curse of Central Africa”—contd. —

practical politics. We have not much reason to expect great
results from a Concert of Europe, and though it was easy for
the Berlin Conference to vote away the Congo country, it would
prove much harder to get it back again. But the reign of
slavery and horror revealed by Captain Burrows cannot be
accepted as a permanent shame to European civilisation. It
is perhaps idle to hope for actio from the present Ministry—a
Ministry whose interest in labour, black or white, is sufficiently
indicated by their attitude in regard to the Bethesda scandal—
but Captain Burrows’s record cannot fail to effect reform through
some channel.”—Dazly News.

26

The most Complete and Exhaustive Work on General Sport
; yet Published.

Third Edition (Cloth Gilt extra). 128. 6d. net.

BROADLAND SPORT.
Written and Illustrated by NICHOLAS EVERITT.

Author of ‘* Shots from a Lawyer’s Gun,” ete.

Also an Edition de Luxe, bound in Half-Vellum, with numerous
Photogravure Plates, beautifully printed on special art paper, and
limited to 100 copies, handsomely bound in Half-Vellum, Gilt Top
and Silk Marker, each numbered and signed by the Author, price
£2, Qs, net ; only a few copies left for sale.

Leading Contents.—ZHels and Hel Bobbing—Decoys, and How to
Use Them—Wild Fowling at Sea— Punt Gunning—Curres and
Short-winged Fowl—Wildfowling Costume—Shore Shooting—
Flighting—Hichling District—Horsey District—The Waveney
Valley—The Yare Valley—Yachts and Yuchting from 1880
to 1900, etc.

PRESS OPINIONS.

“Tn acquaintance with the details of all the forms of sport
presented by the district of the Broads the author of ‘Shots
‘from a Lawyer’s Gun’ can hardly be rivalled, and, with the
knowledge he possesses, a succinct guide to the locality might
easily have been produced. As it is, he has given us a number
of articles which have appeared from time to time in various
petiodicals, and although the volume in which these have been
collected is well worth reading, especially by visitors to Norfolk
and Suffolk, we think that it might have been materially improved
by alittle more pains. For those who enjoy angling for ‘coarse’
fish the information given will undoubtedly prove useful,
especially the appendix on the origin and application of the
fishery laws, the by-laws for the control of pleasure and other
boats, tables of tides, distances, etc. An interesting chapter is
devoted to the management of ‘decoys,’ by which is meant the
exhibition of either living or imitation ducks to attract wild birds
within reath of the sportsman’s ambush ; also on approaching
birds by the aid of a canvas body representing a horse or an
ass, the illustrations of this being very amusing. In fact, all
the productions of Mr. Everitt’s pencil show considerable
power, and some of the vignettes are beautiful. Qn the whole,
the book is pleasantly written, and the account of yachting on
the Broads, with illustrations of the competitors in the regattas,
is admirable. The index also leaves nothing to be desired.”
Atheneum,

27

Press Opinions on ‘“‘ Broadland Sport ”—contd.

“We know of no work, old or new, which fulfils its own
purpose so thoroughly. It is a book which appeals primarily
to the sportsman, but no one who loves the Broads merely from
an artistic point of view can fail to find interest on every page.
A volume crammed with accurate information and delightful
anecdote.’’-— Zimes. :

“Mr. Everitt’s book contains a great deal of information:on
the sport to be got among the waterways and lagoons of the
Eastern Counties, which are generally spoken of as the Norfolk
Broads. In this very attractive part of East Anglia about two
hundred miles of waterway and four thousand acres of lagoons
or inland waters are open to the yachtsman. Wherries, with
comfortable, and racing yachts, with uncomfortable, accommo-
dation may be hired at Norwich, Wroxham, and other places,
at the most reasonable charges. The shooting and the fishing
on the Broads are for the most part open to everyone. If the
wildfowling 1s not what it was, great catches of perch, bream,
and, in the winter, pike may still be made. Portions of Mr.
Everitt’s book have already appeared in the Fve/d and similar
newspapers, and now that they are put together, want of order
and some repetition rather spoil the book as a whole. In some
five-and-twenty chapters he discourses on pike and eel fishing ;
yachts and yacht racing from 1800 to 1900; shore shooting and
punt gunning; the use of decoys and duck shooting. Other
chapters deal with various districts of the Broads, or describe
particular expeditions. There is a great deal in the book that
is useful and interesting to anyone who is planing an excursion,
and on the coarse fishing and wildfowling the author writes
with knowledge gained by experience. But the reader must
not expect a book of any literary merit. The style is inclined
to alternate between the high-flown and the facetious of the
local guide-book. If scientific names are used, they should be
used correctly, and we may point out that the bearded tit is not
now called by naturalists Calamophilus biarmicus, nor is the
Latin name of the dabchick JZergus minor. Some persons may
also think that there are too many references to frequent and
liberal potations from the beer-jar and the whisky bottle.”—Z%e
Spectator.

““ Broadland Sport’ is a very readable and interesting book,
but not more so than a score of others which we have had the
pleasure of receiving during the last twelve months. Good
shooting of all kinds is still to be had in Broadland ; and where-
ever the game is preserved and the shooting is to be hired, no
one on the lookout for some good mixed ground could do

28

Press Opinions on ‘“ Broadland Sport ”—conztd.

better than make inquiries on the East Coast between Yarmouth
and Southwold. The Broads themselves and the reed beds
will supply any number of wild fowl, besides first-rate pike and
perch-fishing ; the woods and the osier beds will hold plenty of
pheasants, hares, and woodcock, while on the adjoining stubbles,
turnips, and heather, some of the best partridge shooting in
England, of the old-fashioned kind, is to be had. The marshes
should yield abundance of snipe, and the gorse-covered sand-
banks ought to be peopled with rabbits. Such a sporting
Paradise may still be picked up in Broadland, if you like to pay
the price. But as game and wild fowl are not nearly so plentiful
as they used to be, while the demand for them is much greater,
a really good shoot in this highly-favoured region has now
become an expensive luxury. There is still, however, a con-
siderable extent of fairly good open shooting to be got, though
many places once famous for it have now sadly deteriorated.
The fate of Oulton Broad may stand for several more :—‘ In
days gone by there were several inhabitants in the quaint little
waterway village who gained their sole means of livelihood
from fish andfowl. That was before the railway came and before
steam drainage mills were heard of, and a Cockney would have
been considered daft had he then thought fit to appear in the
regions of Broadland in the costume and general rig-out which
is now no longer strange to the quiet dwellers in this out-of-the-
way corner of Old England. Drainage was the first great
blow to sport, steam and railways the next, then the breech-
loader, and finally the invading host of would-be sportsmen, all
eager to kill something. Year by year the water-birds have
diminished in number, and by degrees they desert the more
frequented rivers, streams, and broads until on many of the
more public waterways there is hardly an edible wild water-bird
per hundred acres. Oulton has suffered most in this respect.
We do not suppose there is a public shooting water in Norfolk
or Suffolk which has been so harassed. Often are seen pictures
in the London illustrated papers entitled, “ Wildfowling on
Oulton Broad,” wherein the artist depicts a shooter sitting on
the bottom of a punt, in the reeds, with his waterman holding
an anxious-looking retriever by the collar. Overhead are flying
streams of mallard and wild-duck, and the envious looker-on
anticipates that at least a score will grace the bag before the
shooter returns to breakfast. What a myth! What a snare
and delusion! Years gone by such a picture would not have
been an exaggeration, but now things are sadly altered, and
if the shooter killed one couple of mallard during the month
of August on Oulton Broad, he would be considered fortunate.’
Horning Ferry, on the river Bure, must be one of the most

29 ¥

Press Opinions on ‘‘ Broadland Sport ”—conid.

charming spots in Broadland, whether we are in love with the
perch or the picturesque. The shooting is very strictly pre-
served, though duck may be got from a boat. An idea seems
at one time to have prevailed that anyone being on the river
might shoot anything crossing it, a delusion which is still
cherished in many parts of England. The river Bure, from
Horning to Wroxham Broad, runs through the heart of a
highly-preserved game district, and keepers are always in
hiding among the reeds or alders on the bank. Woe to the
unlucky wight who knocks over a pheasant within sight of one
of these sentinels! The raparian owner claims the soil of the
river, and the ‘poacher’ will meet with no mercy from the
Bench of Magistrates ; nor is there any reason why he should.
Pheasants are reared at a great expense, and are practically as
much private property as chickens. The chapters on yachting
and on otter hunting will be full of interest for the lovers of
such amusements. But as they are not peculiar to Broadland,
we need not include them in our notice.” — Zhe Standard.

‘* We have already reviewed Mr. Nicholas Everitt’s work on
‘Broadland Sport,’ but the two chapters on yachting ‘ During
the Past’ and ‘During the Present’ form such a special
feature that we are glad to notice them apart. These chapters,
occupying about 70 pages, really contain a history of yachting
in the Broadland district during the last hundred years. As
Mr. Everitt says, yachting ‘is a sport in which all can indulge,
from the millionaire in his luxurious steam yacht to the gutter-
snipe in a wash-tub ; there is plenty of room for everybody
without being obliged to rub shoulders with everybody.’ Room
there must be for many a long day, seeing that in Broadland
proper there are 200 miles of waterway, comprising over 4,000
acres of open water. Our author points out that the old
‘water frolics’ were to be remembered more as jollifications
than by reason of the sailing capabilities of the boats. The
patriarch of all Broadland boats was the Augusza, built about
1755, and she is said to have retained all her old material up to
1867, while as late as 1885 she made the home of an artist near
Buckenham Ferry, who was wintering in the old craft. Our
summary of Mr. Everitt’s history must needs be brief. From
1800 to 1850 there was little development in Broadland pleasure
craft, but from 1850 to 1870 marked improvements took place
in speed, appearance, and comfort. But the Jfaria, built of
heart of oak in 1834, had a notable record as a successful racer.
Bought by Sir Jacob Preston in 1837, it is rumoured that at his
death in 1894 he left by will a provision sufficient to preserve
this veteran in good order and up-keep for all time.

30

Press Opinions on ‘“ Broadland Sport »—contd.

‘‘ The lateeners were long the fastest racing craft of Broad-
land, one of the most successful being the Waterwitch. ‘Ter
Worterwitch, said an old shipwright, ‘ior lornched the daay
Pointer fought the Black on Mussel ’Eath,’ whereby the date
was fixed as 1818. There is a slight error here. The fight,
12th May, 1818, was between Cox, blacksmith, and Camplin,
a weaver, and Ned Pointer seconded Camplin. Cutters became
more fashionable in the fifties, but from 1840 to 1869 the ideal
model of a racing boat is described as ‘a cod’s head bow with
a mackerel tail.” Mr. Everitt gives a vast amount of detail
concerning many notable craft, for in his index the names of no
less than 171 yachts are given, from the Ada to the Zzngara,
but we miss any allusion to Mr. Suckling’s JZarmzon, built upon
his estate at Woodton in 1828, and considered a very beautiful
yacht in her time. Perhaps, however, she was not kept upon
the local waterways. The Norfolk and Suffolk Yacht Club,
founded in April, 1859, obtained Royal patronage and the
prefix Royal 16th February, 1867. With the establishment of
this club, yacht racing, not feasting, became the main object of
the various regattas, and the term, ‘ water frolic,’ rapidly died
into disuse. The first ocean yacht race of the club came off
29th June, 1867, from Harwich to Lowestoft ; but, we are told
that for several reasons the East Anglian coast is not a good
one for yachting. The Yare Sailing Club, formed in 1876, has
had a very prosperous career, and pleasure wherries came into
vogue about 1880. In the chapter on ‘ Yachts and Yachting
during the Present—1880 to 1900,’ Mr. Everitt brings his
subject virtually up to date, and here we Jearn that the ‘Great
Yarmouth Yacht Club’ was founded in 1883, the ‘ Broads
Dinghy Club’ in 1895, and the ‘Waveney Sailing Club’ in
the same year. In this last the chief prize-winner is the U77¢,
designed and built by Mr. W. S. Parker, of Oulton, long a
dredger in Lowestoft Harbour, working twelve hours a day, yet
making time, on week-days alone, to construct this craft, which
is still ‘Cock of the Walk’ at Oulton Broad. These yachting
chapters are embellished with very numerous illustrations, and
a list of the more important annual fixtures will be found very
useful. ‘The motor craze,’ regretfully remarks the author, ‘has
now found its way even to these peaceful and secluded haunts,
and launches of all shape, size, build, and method of propulsion
are to be daily met with.’ We are inclined to suggest that this
yachting section might well be issued in a separate form.
Meantime we note that the first edition of Mr. Everitt’s book
is exhausted, and a portion of the second impression has already
been sold.”—LZastern Day Press.

“Tn the preface to ‘ Broadland Sport,’ Mr. Nicholas Everitt

31

Press Opinions on ‘‘ Broadland Sport ”—conid,

modestly disclaims the title of artist-author: the value of his
book, though it certainly smacks more of actuality than of art,
is increased rather than diminished by the occasional amateur-
ishness of its author, for this very amateurishness stamps it far
more as a true record than any polishing or elaborate phrase-
making could have done. Something of the guide-book, some-
thing of the sportsman’s diary, something of the would-be
sportsman’s handbook, it forms a complete, lucid, and welcome
exponent of the sports and pastimes practised on or around
the lagoons, waterways, and marshes of East Anglia, and at the
same time is replete with hints that will serve the sportsman in
all lands. The two chapters devoted to yachting are quite
a feature of the production, tracing as they do its origin and
gradual development, and giving details of every boat of im-
portance launched during the last hundred years, the history
of every yacht club, the supporters of yacht-racing, and much
matter concerning the owners of racing-yachts. Mr. Everitt is
evidently as keen about the sport of Broadland as Mrs. Battle
was upon her particular pastime, but his enthusiasm is kept
well within bounds, and he is never too assertive. He might
with safety, had he been so minded, have parodied Van Troil’s
famous six-word chapter on Snakes in Iceland—‘ There are no
snakes in Iceland’—with a page headed ‘ Concerning Broad-
land Sports Undealt with in this Book’—‘ There are no
Broadland sports undealt with in this book.’”

BY THE SAME AUTHOR.

O BE PUBLISHED SHORTLY.

SPORT WITHOUT WORDS

A series of Comic and Caricature Sketches, depicting various branches
of Sport, conducted in a manner perhaps too curious for Letterpress
description.

CORNELL UNIVERSITY
Dept. of Preservation & Conservation

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