Macaulay (20/74. 'History of England' volume 1 page 316.)
remarks, "Two men whose authority on such subjects was held in great esteem,
the Duke of Newcastle and Sir John Fenwick, pronounced that the meanest hack
ever imported from Tangier would produce a finer progeny than could be
expected from the best sire of our native breed. They would not readily have
believed that a time would come when the princes and nobles of neighbouring
lands would be as eager to obtain horses from England as ever the English had
been to obtain horses from Barbary."
The London dray-horse, which differs so much in appearance from any natural
species, and which from its size has so astonished many Eastern princes, was
probably formed by the heaviest and most powerful animals having been selected
during many generations in Flanders and England, but without the least
intention or expectation of creating a horse such as we now see. If we go back
to an early period of history, we behold in the antique Greek statues, as
Schaaffhausen has remarked (20/75. 'Ueber Bestandigkeit der Arten.'), a horse
equally unlike a race or dray horse, and differing from any existing breed.
The results of unconscious selection, in an early stage, are well shown in the
difference between the flocks descended from the same stock, but separately
reared by careful breeders. Youatt gives an excellent instance of this fact in
the sheep belonging to Messrs. Buckley and Burgess, which "have been purely
bred from the original stock of Mr. Bakewell for upwards of fifty years. There
is not a suspicion existing in the mind of any one at all acquainted with the
subject that the owner of either flock has deviated in any one instance from
the pure blood of Mr. Bakewell's flock; yet the difference between the sheep
possessed by these two gentlemen is so great, that they have the appearance of
being quite different varieties." (20/76. 'Youatt on Sheep' page 315.) I have
seen several analogous and well marked cases with pigeons: for instance, I had
a family of barbs descended from those long bred by Sir J. Sebright, and
another family long bred by another fancier, and the two families plainly
differed from each other. Nathusius--and a more competent witness could not be
cited--observes that, though the Shorthorns are remarkably uniform in
appearance (except in colour), yet the individual character and wishes of each
breeder become impressed on his cattle, so that different herds differ
slightly from one another. (20/77. 'Ueber Shorthorn Rindvieh' 1857 s. 51.) The
Hereford cattle assumed their present well-marked character soon after the
year 1769, through careful selection by Mr. Tomkins (20/78. Low 'Domesticated
Animals' 1845 page 363.) and the breed has lately split into two strains--one
strain having a white face, and differing slightly, it is said (20/79.
'Quarterly Review' 1849 page 392.), in some other points: but there is no
reason to believe that this split, the origin of which is unknown, was
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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