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Worcestershire

- Wedgwood Park, near Droitwich.

YORKSHIRE.- Kildale-in-Cleveland; Newton Hall, near Malton; Harewood Park, near Leeds; Eshton Hall, near Gargrave; Browsholme Hall, near Clitheroe; Nostell Priory; Morby Park, near York.

In Scotland there are comparatively few large heronries, but the small ones are so numerous that the reader may be referred to lists of them by Mr. H. B. Watt in the Annals of Scottish Nat. Hist., 1908, p. 218, and 1910, p. 68. The chief colonies in Ireland have been enumerated by Messrs.

Ussher and Warren in their Birds of Ireland.

J. E. HARTING.

HIGHLAND GAMES. - [See LOCAL SPORTS.] HIPPOPOTAMUS (Hippopotamus amphibius). - Habitat. - Huge, unwieldy beast as he is, slow of movement and without special means of defence, or a superabundance of intelligence, the Hippopotamus has yet held his own against his human foes during the last half-centuryterribly destructive as that period has been to animal life in every quarter of the globe -better than any other beast whose hide or flesh is useful to man. For during that period, which has witnessed the almost complete extermination of the millions of shaggy bisons which once roamed the great prairies of North America, and has converted into an almost dead world (zoologically speaking) those vast wastes of Southern Africa, which when first visited by Europeans were tenanted by innumerable herds of wild animals, the range of the Hippopotamus has been but slightly restricted, and to-day his loud trumpeting bellow may still be heard on every lake or river of any size from the upper waters of the Nile to St. Lucia Bay in Zululand.

Until quite recently a few still lingered in the lower reaches of the Orange River, and also in the St. John's River in Pondoland, and some of these may still survive, though I have had no recent information concerning them. The small herd of Hippopotami which used to have their home in a lake near [HIPPOPOTAMUS the Umgeni River in the colony of Natal, and had been carefully protected for a long time, were, I believe, all killed off during the closing years of last century, as they not only did great damage in the neighbouring sugar plantations, but had become vicious, and were so dangerous to human life that they had to be destroyed.

At the present day, however, the Hippopotamus is still plentiful in the lower Limpopo, and it is to be found also in greater or lesser numbers in every stream, where the conditions are favourable to its existence, between that river and the Zambesi, and from thence throughout the whole of Central, Eastern, and Western Africa, ranging northwards on the west to the confines of the waterless Sahara, and on the east to the upper cataracts of the Nile. Thus the Hippopotamus seems likely to be able to maintain itself for centuries to come in the vast rivers and swamps of Africa, and bids fair to outlive as a wild animal both the elephant and the rhinoceros.

In 1893 a considerable number of Hippopotami inhabited the deep pools of the upper Umzingwani River, some forty miles south of Bulawayo. These animals had been protected for many years, both by Lo Bengula and his father Umziligazi before him, but, to the shame of our race be it said, no sooner were the Matabele conquered and their country thrown open to Europeans, than certain white men destroyed nearly all these animals, which had been rendered tame by long protection, for the sake of their hides. A small herd was also protected by Lo Bengula in the Umguza River, within twenty miles of Bulawayo, but whether it is still in existence or not, I do not know. de- Although the African and Asiatic elephants and rhinoceroses differ considerably from their prototypes of pleistocene times, the Hippopotamus of the present day appears to be identical in structure with the animal whose fossil bones have been discovered in the caves and river beds of Southern Britain, and which must have been an inhabitant of western Europe at a very remote period of the world's history, probably anterior to the glacial period, for during and subsequent to that time the English climate would hardly have been suitable to its requirements.

Habits. In Africa itself the Hippopotamus must have existed for countless ages of time, for I have seen places in the lower Umfuli River, in northern Mashunaland, where these uncouth beasts have worn paths some three or four inches deep in HIPPOPOTAMUS] 0000000000000 000000 00000000 0000000 HIPPOPOTAMI. THE SPRAY RESEMBLING THE WHALE'S "BLOW" IS MADE BY THE ANIMAL AS IT COMES TO THE SURFACE. HEAD OF AN OLD HIPPOPOTAMUS.

THE CURVE OF THE NECK SHOWS THE LIKENESS TO A HORSE. HERD OF OLD HIPPOPOTAMI ASLEEP. [Photographed on the Tana River by A. Radclyffe Dugmore IMMATURE HIPPOPOTAMI. (NOTE THE BIRDS WHICH EAT THE PARASITES ON THEIR HIDE.) the solid bed of rock, through the centre of which the river has worn a deep channel.

Over these beds of rock the Hippopotami have walked night after night, always on the same trail, until little by little their soft spongy feet have worn a deep track in the hard metamorphic rock. A fresh Hippopotamus track made in soft muddy ground is some two feet in width with a little ridge in the centre, as, unlike other animals, Hippopotami do not cross their feet in walking, but move the front and hind foot on each side in parallel lines, thus producing two paths, or rather one broad path with a slight ridge in the centre. The paths cut in the rock beds of the Umfuli river show the ridge in the centre as plainly as paths made but yesterday in soft ground.

In following the course of a river in a wild uninhabited part of Africa, the European traveller will often have reason to thank the Hippopotami for the broad paths they have tramped for him to walk along.

These paths will sometimes lead right across country for several miles from one bend of a river to another, and in broken country will be found winding up and down steep hill sides, or piercing dense jungles or beds of reeds on the level ground. The same paths are kept open and used year after year, and it may be fairly said that the Hippopotamus is the only animal capable of making a track that it is comfortable to walk along in the interior of Africa; as his only rival, the native, makes a path which exasperates a European, being not only so zigzag, that in a jungle you very often cannot see a man three yards in front of you, but also so narrow that you cannot walk in it without crossing your feet.

Hippopotami are strictly nocturnal in their habits, never leaving the water to feed until after dark. Their food consists of reeds and grass, and as their huge stomachs can hold a good part of a haystack, they often wander far to obtain the requisite amount of nourishment, more especially during the rainy season, at which time I have seen their tracks more than a mile away from the water.

Before daylight they are all back again in the river they frequent, and during the daytime they lie lazily floating about in the water, or else bask like huge pigs on the tail of some island, some lying on the dry sand, others half immersed in the water, and others again with just their heads show ing above the surface.

Hippopotami consort together in herds or families of from four or five to twenty or thirty in number, and in one portion of [HIPPOPOTAMUS the Lower Zambesi below the gorge of Kariba, I once saw over 100 of these animals in several distinct herds, but scattered over a distance of less than a mile of river. The old bulls are often met with by themselves, and these old fellows, as well as cows with very young calves, are sometimes very savage, and will on occasion attack with great fury a boat or canoe which incautiously approaches them. Once, when travelling on the Upper Zambesi, I had a canoe capsized in deep water by a Hippopotamus HIPPOPOTAMUS. cow with a small calf, and lost ivory and other things to the value of £60 through the accident.

Shooting. It is by no means easy to shoot Hippopotami in a large river like the Zambesi, as not only are they in all probability pretty wary, through having been more or less molested by the natives, but the great breadth of the river enables them to keep out of the hunter's way. Again, it is by no means easy to hit the small mark presented by the vulnerable portion of a Hippopotamus's head (which is only shown above the water during the few seconds of time during which the animal is taking breath) from a rickety native canoe.

Should the poor animals be found, as is often the case, in the pools of a small and narrow river, where they are always well within shot from either bank, they are easily destroyed, and in such cases, unless their flesh is required for food, to kill them is mere slaughter with no element of sport in it.

African natives who possess firearms seldom attack Hippopotami in the daytime, as experience has taught them that they cannot shoot accurately enough to hit so HOCKEY] small a mark as the vital part of a Hippopotamus's head, which is usually all that can be seen of these animals when they are in the water, as they almost always are in the daytime. They therefore lie in wait for them at nights, and as the unsuspecting animals graze past them, put a heavy bullet into their great round bodies at close range.

If the bullet is well placed and reaches the heart or penetrates both lungs, the stricken beast rushes back to the river, but only to die, and his carcase is found floating on the surface of the water the following morning.

Should the bullet not be well placed, the wounded animal will probably recover, and for every Hippopotamus that is killed by the natives by night shooting, a good many doubtless escape with wounds which do not prove fatal. Where the natives have no guns, Hippopotami are usually either attacked in the water with harpoons to which long lines are attached, or caught in pitfalls; but the most deadly method which I have ever heard of to compass the destruction of these animals was one which I saw practised many years ago in Northern Mashunaland, when a whole herd was starved to death in a pool of the Umniati River. a To accomplish their object, a whole tribe of Mashunas, men, women, and children, had co-operated, and having found a herd of Hippopotami in a deep reach of the river some 150 yards in breadth by 300 in length, they had fenced it in the river both above and below the pool running in shallow channels amongst large rocks-and by keeping up fires all night and beating tom-toms had prevented the animals coming out to feed.

When I arrived on the scene there were eight starving animals lying huddled together on a submerged sandbank in the centre of the pool, and two swimming about vainly seeking a place of exit, with assegais in their backs, whilst two which had died of starvation or of assegai wounds were being cut up on the edge of the pool, and the meat of many others hung drying in festoons on the trees around. In a few more days the survivors must all have died, as the natives said that they had not eaten anything but water for three weeks, and thus a herd of nearly twenty Hippopotami were done to death. The destruction of these animals, however, supplied a whole tribe with a quantity of much required food, and was to my mind not so reprehensible as the slaughter of the Hippopotami in the Umzingwani River near Bulawayo by white men for the sake of their hides alone in 1894.

The meat of the Hippopotamus is most excellent, at least in those parts of Africa where the altitude above the sea level renders the climate rather temperate than tropical, and where the winter nights are cold and frosty. It has a flavour of its own something between beef and pork. During the rainy season, when the feeding is rich and plentiful, Hippopotami get into high condition, and besides developing much inside fat, put on a layer of blubber between the skin and the flesh, which sometimes covers the whole body to a thickness of an inch or even more. When in this condition I would rather have a piece of meat cut from the ribs of a young Hippopotamus cow, and roasted on a forked stick over the camp fire, than the best piece of meat that England could offer me. Good, however, as is the meat of a fat Hippopotamus cow, an old bull is to be avoided as an article of diet, should any other kind of meat be obtainable, as he is sure to be both lean and tough.

Weapon. As Hippopotami are almost always killed by Europeans by brain shots, no rifle could be more suitable for their destruction than any of the various modern small-bore cordite rifles, with solid bullets; and the most deadly spot to hit is the root of the ear, if the animal is either facing sideways or looking half away. Should a Hippopotamus be facing directly towards one, it will be found easier to hit than kill him, and it will therefore be advisable to wait for a better chance. In conclusion, let me say that although the African traveller or hunter may often find it necessary to kill Hippopotami to supply himself and his large native following with meat, he will, I think, soon realise that there is little sport to be got out of killing them, and will therefore soon learn not to molest unnecessarily these usually inoffensive beasts; for, once they have disappeared from an African river, the scenery has lost one of its greatest charms for every lover of nature.

F. C. SELOUS.

HOCKEY.-History of the Game.--It is matter of great difficulty to trace the early history of hockey, as there do not appear to be any records of the game preserved, but it is probable that it is as old in one or other of its varieties as any ball game in the world. Hockey, as now played, is a development of a game known in Ireland as hurley, in Scotland as shinty, and in Wales as bandy, all of which games have been played for centuries.

The word seems to be derived from the old French hoquet shepherd's crook (an indication that it was also an old French game), and the name originally belonged to the hooked stick with which the game is played. Its antiquity is shown by a unique relic in the Copenhagen National Museum in the shape of an altar pot made about the year 1330, on which are depicted two hockey players with hockey sticks and a ball, apparently bullying, in the modern style. “ In Denmark this evidence is considered so authentic that an engraving of the altar pot appears in the year book of the Danish Hockey Association.

In English literature there is, according to Murray's dictionary, one mention of it in 1527: "The horlinge of the litill balle with hockie stickes or staves." [ HOCKEY to do with the present Hockey Association, which is an entirely new body. The game was revived in 1883 by the Wimbledon Club, but not changed much. At that time it was not very scientific, and there was hardly any combination. The side consisted, it is true, of the same number of players, viz., eleven, but of these eight were forwards, two socalled half-backs, and a goalkeeper. The disproportion between attack and defence seems absurd, but the game then consisted almost entirely of scrimmages between the two sets of forwards varied by occasional individual dribbling which the half-backs generally proved equal to checking. As the idea of combination developed, the number of backs was increased, making the propor- 4 THE BULLY.

Strange to say, there is no trace of the word again until 1785, when Cowper mentions the game of hockey in one of his letters. Macaulay, in his essay on John Bunyan, says: "Bell-ringing and playing hockey on Sundays seem to have been the worst vices of this depraved tinker."

The game was played in an unscientific way in schools before football became so popular, and it was played a good deal by clubs round London in the seventies of last century. In the season 1875-6 an association was formed to draw up a fixed code of rules, the most important of which was that a goal might not be shot from a further distance than 15 yards from the nearest goal-post. Up to the formation of the association there were apparently no fixed rules, and any ball, any stick, and any number of players were permitted. The rules drawn up in 1875 were somewhat similar to the present ones. The Association seems to have died a natural death, and has nothing tions more equal. First a third half-back was introduced. After that, one of these three was placed behind the other two as a back. Next the forwards were reduced to six, the half-backs again numbering three, and finally a second back was added, making the numbers of attack and defence practically equal, the forwards numbering five, with three half-backs, two backs, and a goalkeeper. This change in the formation was gradually introduced and took some years to develop.

In 1886 the Hockey Association was established, and this really marked the birth of modern hockey. Since then the game has spread by leaps and bounds, and at the time of writing (1910) there are about 700 clubs affiliated to the Hockey Association, without counting the 60 or 70 regimental clubs and the Universities. (Many of these clubs run two, three, four, and even five teams, so that the enormous spread of hockey can be realised.) District associa- HOCKEY] tions have been formed to manage their own local affairs, but they play under and are bound by the rules of the game authorised for the time being by the Hockey Association. They consist of the Eastern Counties H.A., the Midland Counties H.A., the Northern Counties H.A., the Southern Counties H.A., and the Western Counties H.A. There is also an Army H.A., and many naval establishments run hockey teams regularly.

Within recent years have been formed the New South Wales Hockey Association, the New Zealand Hockey Association, the Transvaal Hockey Association, Victoria Hockey Association, British East Africa Hockey Association, and the West Ausbetween International matches first took place in the season 1894-5, when Ireland played England. There are now regular international fixtures every year England, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland, and since 1907 there has been an annual match between England and France; English teams, too, have been sent to Germany and Belgium, and an annual match between Scotland and France has recently been arranged. In addition to these and to the club games, there are inter-district matches, county matches, an army tournament, and the Oxford and Cambridge Universities have played an annual match since 1890.

The public schools have also taken up the game, and it is especially popular at Marl- THE BALL SECURED AFTER THE BULLY. tralia Hockey Association, in addition to the Associations of Ireland, Scotland, and Wales, while foreign countries have taken the game up with enthusiasm, as is shown by the existence of hockey associations in Belgium, Denmark, Holland, France, Germany, Egypt, and the Channel Islands. Hockey is also played a great deal in India and to some extent in Canada.

The Hockey Association is the parent body of the game all over the world, and its rules and decisions apply everywhere.

About 1907 the International Hockey Board was formed to frame and amend the rules of the game. It consists of ten members, two each annually elected by and representing the Hockey Associations of Ireland, Scotland, and Wales respectively, and four annually elected by and representing the Hockey Association. This board has absolute power to make and alter the rules of the game, and meets annually for that purpose.

VOL. II borough, Uppingham, Felsted, and Cheltenham.

The popularity of hockey among women is even more remarkable than it is among men. There is hardly a girls' school in Great Britain where it is not played, and the number of ladies' clubs is very large.

It is a game adapted to women, and not only do they show great keenness for it, but they have reached a high degree of skill.

The best women players give as clever an exposition of the game as do the best men players, but the natural advantages of men in pace, weight, and strength will always prevent the sexes competing on equal terms. now The international ladies' hockey matches between England, Ireland, and Scotland are annual affairs, which attract large crowds of enthusiastic lady hockey players.

The All-England Women's Hockey Association, which is the governing body of women's hockey, has an enormous number EE 4 of clubs under its control, and its excellent management is evidence of the high talent for co-operation and organisation that is possessed by the fair sex.

The wide increase in the popularity of hockey and its rapid development in the last HOCKEY width allowed conduces to the best game.

The goals are 12 ft. wide and 7 ft. high, and should always be fitted with goal nets, which prevent any disputes as to whether a shot has gone between or outside the posts.

Fifteen yards in front of the goal a line A FORWARD RUSH. twenty years is unique in the history of games. It is due principally to the improvement in the rules. All recent legislation has tended to increase the science and to diminish the danger of the game. A premium has been put on skill and pace as opposed to brute strength and wild hitting.

Modern hockey is very like Association football in its rules, and in the way it is played (hitting a ball with a stick instead of kicking it is the main difference); and hockey, besides most of its rules, owes to "Soccer" the lesson of the evils of professionalism. Thanks to the Hockey Association, which forbids all cup-ties and competitions, the game is entirely and without exception amateur, which cannot be said of any other game. The general feeling of players is that hockey should be kept free from any taint of professionalism, and there is every prospect that it will always remain so.

The reasons of the remarkable advance of hockey may be summed up as follows:- (1) It is a fine game, requiring skill, pace, vigour, and fitness, while it is free to a great extent from the roughness and danger of football. (2) Men can go on playing hockey for years after they are too old for football. (3) It is a purely amateur game.

Conditions of Play. - The game is played on a ground 100 yards long and 60 yards wide. The width may vary from 55 to 60 yards, but it has been found that the full parallel to the goal-line is marked, also 12 ft. long, and from each extremity of this line, taking each goal post as a centre, is described a segment of a circle terminating at the goal-line. This constitutes what is, roughly speaking, a semicircle in front of the goal, and the attacking side cannot score a goal unless the ball was last hit by one of them inside this line. The object of this is to prevent a goal being scored by indiscriminate hitting from any part of the field. The game is started by what is called a bully in the centre of the ground. The centre forward on each side strikes with his stick, first the ground, then his opponent's stick thrice, after which proceeding the ball is in play. When the ball is driven over the goal-line by one of the attacking side, a bully takes place 25 yards from the goalline in a direct line from where the ball passed over it. When a defending player hits the ball over his own goal-line, or the ball glances off him or his stick and goes behind the line, the penalty is a corner hit.

This is a free hit by the attacking side from the corner flag, usually hit by the outside forward or a half-back, whilst the other forwards range round the circle line. If the defending player intentionally sends the ball over his own back line, a penalty corner is given; this is a corner hit from IO yards from the nearest goal post. The defending side must stand with feet and sticks behind the goal-line until the ball is hit, when they may run out. The attacking HOCKEY] side cannot score a goal from a corner hit, unless the ball has been first stopped dead on the ground, or been touched by one of the defending side. A penalty bully is given for deliberately unfair play by the defending side in their own circle. It consists of a bully between the offender and any one player of the attacking side. The rest of the defending side must not enter the circle nor play the ball until it has been hit outside the circle again by one of the players taking part in the bully or a goal has been scored.

The Players. Of the five forwards the most important is of course the centre forward. He is the connecting link between the two sets of wing players, and is responsible for the combination of the front rank as a whole. He should be a fast and thoroughly unselfish player and a first-rate shot at goal. He must always be careful to keep his place, or he will interfere with his wings. His passes to the other forwards are of two kinds, the short pass to either of the inside wing players, or the long pass well forward to the outside men. He must use his discretion which to employ. In shooting at goal he should be able to put in a good shot from a pass, without waiting to stop it first. The shot will go harder, and the goalkeeper has less time to note the direction from which the ball comes. This more opportunities are gained for scoring, and some of the shots are sure to be successful.

The inside wing players should be considered as partners of the outside men, and are responsible for their getting proper opportunities. Nothing is prettier than a combined run of two wing players passing and re-passing to each other. The inside men should always try to pass well forward to the outsides so as to allow the latter, who should always be fast men, to get well into their stride before taking the ball. They should try and draw the opposing half-back away from the outside men before passing, and if they are successful in this, the way is cleared for a good run down the ground.

Inside forwards should not pass out too much near their opponents' circle, unless both they and the centre are unable to get an opening for a shot. Of the two outside forwards, he on the right has much the easier position in which to play. Unless the half-back opposed to him keeps out near the line, he can nearly always slip past him on the outside. He can centre the ball with ease while going at a good pace, which is an impossibility for outside left, who has either to get slightly in front of the ball as it is running, and then try to centre it, with a good chance of missing it altogether, or else stop it first with his foot or stick, and then get in his stroke. The outside forwards FORWARDS PASSING. rule will apply to all the forwards, and countless goals are lost by stopping the ball first, and then trying to shoot. By that time it is more likely than not the backs will have deprived the forward of the ball. These flying shots may not always be accurate, but should make a point of passing into the centre as soon as they have got beyond the twenty-five yards line, though outside left may go a little further than outside right, for his passes always come more at right angles to the side line than those from out- EE2 side right. All the forwards should make a point of taking passes with their sticks, and not waste time by stopping the ball with their hands or feet before hitting it. Individual play is quite useless, and no team [HOCKEY of the outside forwards is a possibility for which he must always be on the look out, as this frequently proves very advantageous, particularly when the opposing wing halves are not keeping as near the touch TACKLING. with selfish forwards can expect to meet with much success.

Half-backs are perhaps the most important element in the team. Three good halves certainly go further towards making a good team than any other three players.

Both backs and forwards are dependent on them. A good set of forwards will lose half their opportunities with weak halfbacks behind them. Half-back is without doubt the position in the field that entails the hardest work, and, of the three, centre half has the most to do. Their duty is to support their forwards when they have the ball, and to break up the passing of the opposing forwards, and when they have done this, to feed their own forwards. They must assist the backs by falling back at once directly they have themselves failed to stop a run, taking care not to get in their way. They must never deprive a back of the ball when he is in a position to get in a good hit, as he is much better able to clear his lines than a half-back rushing towards his own goal. Centre half is perhaps the most difficult position of the three. He has practically to look after all the three inside forwards, whilst the wing half has at the most two forwards to mark and should devote his chief attention to the outside forward. In feeding the forwards, the centre half has much more scope, as he is in a position to pass to any of the five, and must be able to see at a glance which of them is in the most favourable position to start an effective run. A long pass to either line as they should do. A half-back must be full of resource for every emergency, and so needs to be quick and accurate with hands, feet, and stick. Short passing is best broken up by using the feet or the stick, as the half-back can then get the ball at once, whereas if the hands are used the stick has to be gripped again before hitting the ball.

The hands should only be used for fielding the ball when it is in the air, and when there is plenty of time to get rid of the ball before the opposing forwards can get up to it.

Half-backs must get rid of the ball as soon as possible to their forwards and then follow them up closely. It will thus be seen that half-backs need to be fast and to have plenty of staying power. They must be able to hit hard when near their own goal. Their passes to their forwards must be cleanly hit and go sharp and straight. If he cannot get in a hit to his forwards, a half-back can sometimes pass back to one of the backs; but it is obvious that this pass must always be very accurate, or it may prove disastrous. If the forwards have got past them, they can often hinder their progress by hooking their sticks and so help their backs to get the ball. One other point should be noted, and that is that no onehanded play should ever be indulged in by half-backs. It is nearly always ineffective in forwards, but is quite out of the question in defensive play.

The position of back is one in which a mistake may at any time prove fatal, so that a cool and steady player is absolutely HOCKEY] essential for this post. He must be able to hit hard, but must not hit wildly and in any direction, and should always feed his for wards like a half-back whenever possible.

When a half-back in front of him compels a forward to pass, he must be ready to intercept the pass and then get rid of the ball at once. If he is fast, he can play close up behind his half-backs, and smother passing before it becomes dangerous. If not he must keep further back, and rely on the half-back catching up the forward again, or hampering his play so that he is easily tackled. He must have a thorough understanding with the half-backs in front of him, or they will constantly be running into one another. Inside the circle he must see that the half-backs keep well out of his way, or they will prevent his getting the ball away, and he in turn must always be careful to give the goalkeeper plenty of room and not obstruct his view of the ball. He should avoid as much as he can getting out to the side of the ground to tackle an outside forward, particularly in his own half of the ground, as this is likely to leave an opening rushing down on him. Being able to hit the ball on the run with accuracy is therefore a valuable quality in a back. A brilliant but erratic player is not the man for back, but rather the cautious man who will leave nothing to chance.

A good goalkeeper is a treasure that few clubs are fortunate enough to possess, and he makes an enormous difference to his side, not only by the actual number of goals he saves, but by the confidence imparted to backs and half-backs when they know they have a safe man behind them. He has a thankless task, and his position, affords very little enjoyment and a large amount of responsibility. He needs to have an accurate eye, and to be very quick with hands, feet, and stick. His stick should be held in both hands, so that he can quickly have either hand free to stop a shot in the air. He should rely on his feet to stop shots along the ground, only using his stick as a forlorn hope for shots he could not otherwise reach.

He should always hit the ball away if possible rather than kick it, as it takes a long kick to get the ball out of the circle, but PLAY ROUND THE GOAL. [Photo. Sport and General. in the centre and weaken the defence. In hitting the ball he should, whenever he has time, stop it first and then get in his hit.

This will lessen the chance of a mis-hit or of missing the ball altogether, but of course there is not always time when forwards are frequently all he can do is to scrape the ball away with his feet. To stop side shots he should move towards that side of the goal from which direction the shot is coming, as he will thus cover more of the space available for shooting at. The only occasion on which he should run out of goal is when a forward has got away and has hit the ball so hard that the goalkeeper can easily get to it first, or when a forward has broken through and is likely to get in a shot before he can be overtaken by the backs. In this latter case the goalkeeper should run forward right out of the circle so as to attempt to tackle him before he can get within shooting range, as this will be his only chance of saving his goal. There is very little likelihood of his stopping any fairly hard shot from a forward who can take his aim unmolested. Goalkeepers are divided in [HOCKEY studs on the soles and heels to prevent slipping. Rubber soles are sometimes worn, but they are not very effective on a wet ground. The choice of a stick, which must be capable of passing through a two-inch ring, must be left to the player's taste. He will soon find out what weight and shape suits him best. Forwards will find it convenient to play with a fairly short stick, which should not weigh more than 22 oz.

Backs and half-backs need a stick two or three inches longer than a forward, as they require a longer reach. This extra length, and the fact that they require to hit harder, 00 FORWARDS DRIBBLING. their opinions as to whether cricket pads or shin guards are the most effective to keep goal in. The former afford more protection to the feet and knees, but some say the ball bounces further off them than from shin guards, which is a great objection if correct, as a shot rebounding from the goalkeeper often affords a second opportunity to a forward and generally a very easy one. This matter must be left to the taste of the individual.

Outfit. All other players should always wear shin guards. They are no encumbrance, and, though a hard hit hurts nearly as much through a guard as without it, they prevent the skin from being broken, saving many nasty wounds. Gloves of some sort are worn by most players, as the knuckles are very liable to get knocked about by one stick glancing up another. Ordinary batting gloves are very convenient, as they leave the fingers comparatively free for a good grip of the stick. It is hardly necessary to add that boots should always have bars or entails a heavier stick, but 25 oz. is quite heavy enough for any player. It has been found by experience that sticks of 26 and 28 oz., or even more, which some players formerly used, are no more effective for such hard hitting as is necessary, and their weight prevents their being freely handled.

Hard slogging is not the correct game, and the lighter the stick a player can use efficiently the better. The ball is an ordinary cricket ball painted white or made of white leather. Attempts have been made to find another more suitable ball, the idea being that a cricket ball is too hard, but nothing better has yet been discovered.

Umpires. The umpires are as a rule two in number. The game is too fast for one man to take entire charge as at football, so each umpire takes one half of the ground. They are on either side of the ground, so that each can control one touchline for the whole length of the ground. They should always try to keep level with the ball while it is in their own HOCKEY] half, as they are then less likely to make mistakes in the case of offside. The ball travels at such a great pace that umpiring is no easy matter at hockey.

E. L. CLAPHAM.

E. L. MARSDEN.

LAWS OF THE GAME.* 1.-A game of Hockey shall be played by two teams of eleven players. The correct constitution of a team is five forwards, three half-backs, two backs, and a goalkeeper, but this formation shall not be compulsory. The duration of the game shall be 70 minutes (unless otherwise agreed by the respective captains), half-time becross-bar nor the cross-bar sideways beyond the goal-posts. The posts shall be 2 in. broad and not more than 3 in. in depth, and the cross-bars shall have rectangular edges. Nets shall be attached to the posts, cross-bars, and to the ground behind the goals. 5.-In front of each goal shall be drawn a white line 4 yards long, parallel to, and 15 yards from, the goal-line. This line shall be continued each way to meet the goal-line by quarter circles, having the goal-posts as centres. The space enclosed by these lines and the goal-lines, including the lines themselves, shall be called the striking circle. 6. The ball shall be a leather cricket ball painted white or made of white leather.

Umpires shall forbid the use of any other ball.

CENTRE-HALF PLAY. ing called after 35 minutes' play, when the teams shall change ends. 2.-The captains shall (1) toss for choice of ends; (2) act as umpires, if there be no umpires, or delegate the duties of umpires to one member of their respective teams; and (3) indicate the goalkeepers for their respective teams before starting play, and after any change of goalkeeper. 3.-The ground shall be rectangular, 100 yards long, and not more than 60 yards nor less than 55 yards wide. The ground shall be marked with white lines; the longer boundary lines to be called the side-lines, and the shorter boundary lines to be called the goal-lines. A flag-post shall be placed for the whole game at each corner, and at the centre of each side-line, one yard outside the line, and any other flag-posts must be a yard outside the ground. All flag-posts shall be at least 4 ft. high. 4.-A goal shall be in the centre of each goalline, and shall consist of two posts 4 yards apart (inside measurement), joined together by a horizontal cross-bar 7 ft. from the ground. The goal-posts shall not extend upward beyond the * The Laws of the Game are published with the permission of the International Hockey Board, who revise the rules in each May, and publish a revised edition each July through their publisher, Horace Cox, Bream's Buildings, London, E.C. 7.-A stick shall have a flat face on its lefthand side only. The head of a stick (i.e., the part below the top of the splice) shall not be edged with, or have insets or fittings of hard wood or of any other substance, nor shall there be any sharp edges or dangerous splinters. Each stick must be of such size that it can be passed through a 2-in. ring. An india-rubber ring, 4 in. in external diameter when on the stick, may be used, and, everything included, the total weight must not exceed 28 oz. The extremity of the stick must not be cut square or pointed, but must have rounded edges.

Umpires shall prohibit play with a stick which does not comply with this rule.

Note. Surgical binding on the head of the stick is allowed subject to its not preventing the head passing through a 2-in. ring. 8. No player shall wear any dangerous material such as spikes or nails, &c. 9.-The game shall be started by one player of each team together bullying the ball in the centre of the ground (and after each goal and halftime). To bully the ball each player shall strike the ground on his own side of the ball, and his opponent's stick over the ball, three times alternately; after which one of these two players must strike the ball before it is in general play.

In all cases of bullying, the two players who are bullying shall stand squarely facing the side-lines. Every other player shall be nearer to his own goal-line than the ball is (except in the case of a penalty bully).

For any breach of this rule the "bully" shall be taken again. 10. A goal is scored when the whole ball has passed entirely over the goal-line under the bar, the ball, whilst within the striking circle, having been hit by or glanced off the stick of an attacker. Should the goal-posts or bar become displaced, and the ball pass at a point which, in the opinion of the umpire, is between where the posts or below where the bar should have been he shall give a goal. 11.-When a player hits or rolls in the ball, any other player of the same team who is nearer his opponent's goal-line than the striker or roller-in at the moment when the ball is hit or rolled in is offside, unless there be at least three of his opponents nearer to their own goal-line than he is.

He may not play the ball nor in any way interfere with any other player until the ball has been touched or hit by one of his opponents. No player, however, shall be offside in his own half of the ground, nor if the ball was last touched or hit by one of his opponents, or by one of his own team who, at the time of hitting, is nearer his opponent's goal-line than himself.

Inside or Outside the Circles. For any breach the penalty shall be a free hit by one of the opposing team on the spot where the breach occurred. 12.-The ball may be caught (but must be immediately released to fall perpendicularly to the ground) or stopped, but may not be picked up, carried, kicked, thrown, or knocked on or back except with the stick. No player shall gain an advantage by the use of any part of his person or apparel except such as may accrue from stopping the ball; the foot, if used for that purpose, shall be taken away immediately. There shall be no play with the rounded back of the stick, no charging, kicking, shoving, shinning, tripping, personal handling, or hooking. Hooking sticks is allowed only when the stick hooked is within striking distance of the ball. There shall be no striking at sticks. A player may not obstruct by running in between his opponent and the ball, nor cross his opponent's left, unless he touches the ball before his opponent's person or stick, nor may he in any way interpose himself as an obstruction. The goalkeeper is allowed to kick the ball only in his own striking circle, but in the event of his taking part in a penalty bully this privilege shall not be allowed him. A ball touching an umpire or post is in play unless it goes off the ground.

No player shall in any way interfere with the game unless his stick is in his hand. (I) Outside the Circles.

For any breach the penalty shall be a free hit for one of the opposing team on the spot where the breach occurred. (2) Inside the Circles. (a) For any breach by the attacking team the penalty shall be a free hit for the defending team. (b) For any breach by the defending team the penalty shall be a "penalty corner" or a "penalty bully" on the spot where the breach occurred. A penalty bully should only be given for a wilful breach of a rule or when a goal would most probably have been scored but for the occurrence of the breach of the rule. (3) Inside or Outside the Circles. [HOCKEY In the event of two players being simultaneously at fault, the umpire shall give a bully at the spot where the breach of rule occurred. 13.-When a player strikes at the ball no part of his stick must in any event rise above his shoulders at either the beginning or end of the stroke.

Inside or outside the circles. - In the event of two players being simultaneously at fault, the umpire shall give a bully at the spot where the breach of rule occurred. 14.-No player shall intentionally undercut the ball. 66 Note. This rule is not intended to penalise the scoop" stroke which raises the ball nor the hitting of the ball when in the air except as provided for in Rule 15. (I) Outside the Circles.

For any breach the penalty shall be a free hit for one of the opposing team on the spot where the breach occurred. (2) Inside the Circles. (a) For any breach by the attacking team the penalty shall be a free hit for the defending team. (b) For any breach by the defending team the penalty shall be a "penalty corner" or a penalty bully (except in the case of 66 sticks" when a "penalty corner" only shall be allowed). A "penalty bully" should only be given for a wilful breach of a rule, or when a goal would most probably have been scored but for the occurrence of the breach of the rule. 15. On the occasion of a free hit, no other player than the striker shall be within 5 yards of the spot where such hit is made. Should, however, the umpire consider that a player is standing within 5 yards to gain time, he shall not stop the game. After taking such hit the striker shall not participate in the game until the ball has been touched or hit by another player. He must fairly hit the ball, "scooping" up not being allowed.

If the striker hit at but miss the ball, the stroke shall be taken again by him, provided that he has not given "sticks."

If any player, other than the striker, be within 5 yards of the ball at the time of a free hit, the umpire shall order the hit to be taken again, except as specially provided for in this rule.

If the striker, after taking such hit, participates in the game again before the ball has been touched or hit by another player- (I) Inside the Circles.

The umpire shall give a "penalty corner." (2) Outside the Circles.

The umpire shall give a free hit to one of the opposite team to the offender.

If the ball is "scooped up"- (I) Outside the Circles.

The umpire shall give a free hit to one of the opposite team to the offender. (2) Inside the Circles.

The umpire shall give a "penalty corner." 16.-A penalty bully shall be played by the offender, and by any player selected by the other team on the spot where the breach occurred.

All other players shall be beyond the nearer 25 yards' line in the field of play, and shall not cross such 25 yards' line or take any further part in the game until the penalty bully is completed.

If during the progress of a penalty bully the ball goes over any part of the goal-line other than that between the goal-posts off the stick or person of the offender, the penalty bully shall HOCKEY] be taken again; if the ball goes over the goalline between the goal-posts off the stick or person of the offender, a penalty goal shall be awarded to the attacking team; in all other cases as soon as the ball has passed wholly over the goal-line (not between the goal-posts) or outside the striking circle, the game shall be re-started by a bully on the centre of the nearer 25 yards' line. (a) Breach of any rule by the offender (except Rule 9).

The attacking team shall be awarded a penalty goal, which shall be of the same value as an ordinary goal. (b) Breach of any rule by the player selected by the attacking team (except Rule 9).

The defending team shall be allowed a free hit. (c) Simultaneous breach of any rule by both players.

The bully shall be taken again. 17. When a ball passes wholly over the sideline, it shall be rolled-in along the ground (and not bounced) into play by hand from the point where it crossed the side-line in any direction by one of the team opposite to that of the player who last touched it. Players may cross the 5 yards' line immediately the ball leaves the hand of the roller-in. The ball may be rolled-in at once, but no player shall stand (himself or his stick) within the 5 yards' line; should, however, the umpire consider that a player is standing within the 5 yards' line to gain time, he shall not stop the game. The roller-in must have both feet and stick behind the side-line, and may only play the ball again after another player. (a) Breach of the rule by the player who rolls in.

The roll-in shall be taken by a player of the other team. (b) Breach of the rule by any other player.

The roll-in shall be taken again except as specially provided for in this rule. 18.-(a) If the ball is sent behind the goal-line by a player of the attacking team, or glance off the stick or person of, or be unintentionally, in the umpire's opinion, sent behind the goal-line by one of the defending team who is farther away from his own goal-line than the 25 yards' line, it shall be brought out 25 yards in a direction at right angles to the goal-line from the point where it crossed the line and there "bullied." (b) If the ball glances off, or is, in the umpire's opinion, unintentionally sent behind the goal-line by any player of the defending team behind the 25 yards' line he (the umpire) shall give a corner to the attacking team. (c) If, however, the ball is intentionally, in the umpire's opinion, sent behind the goal-line by any player of the defending team, the umpire shall give a penalty corner to the attacking team. 19.-A player of the attacking team shall have a hit from a point on the side- or goal-line within 3 yards of the nearest corner flag, and at the moment of such hit all the defending team (their sticks and feet) must be behind their own goalline, and all the attacking team must be outside the circle in the field of play.

Provided that no player shall stand within 5 yards of a striker when a corner hit is taken, and that no goal can be scored from a corner hit by the attacking team unless the ball has been stopped motionless on the ground by one of the attacking team, or has touched the person or stick of one of the defending team before the last stroke of the attacking team. A player taking a corner hit cannot participate in the game again until the ball has been played by another player.

On taking a corner hit, if the striker miss the ball he shall take the hit again, provided he does not contravene Rule 13.

If the striker after taking such hit participates in the game again before the ball has been touched or hit by another player, the umpire shall give a free hit to one of the opposite team to the offender.

If the player to whom the corner is hit out, without attempting to stop the ball, takes a flying hit at goal, the umpire shall award a free hit to the defending team. 20.-A player of the attacking team shall have a hit from any point on the goal line he may choose, and at the moment of such hit all the defending team (their sticks and feet) must be behind their own goal line, also all the attacking team must be outside the striking circle in the field of play.

Provided that no player shall stand within 5 yards of the striker when a penalty corner hit is taken, and that no penalty corner hit shall be taken at a less distance than IO yards from the nearest goal-post, and that no goal can be scored from a corner hit by the attacking team unless the ball has been stopped motionless on the ground by one of the attacking team, or has touched the person or stick of one of the defending team before the last stroke of the attacking team. A player hitting a penalty corner hit cannot participate in the game again until the ball has been played by another player. On taking a penalty corner hit, if the striker miss the ball he shall take the hit again, provided he does not contravene Rule 13.

If the striker after taking such hit participates in the game again before the ball has been touched or hit by another player, the umpire shall give a free hit to one of the opposite team to the offender.

If the player to whom the corner is hit out, without attempting to stop the ball, takes a flying hit at goal, the umpire shall award a free hit to the defending team. 21.-Each umpire shall take half the ground for the whole game without changing ends. He shall also take one side-line and give decisions as to the roll-in (but not the corner hit) in both halves of the ground. The umpire shall allow (the elements permitting) the full or agreed time, neither more nor less, deducting all wastage, and keep a record of the game. In the event of a penalty bully falling to be taken on the call of half-time or time, an umpire shall allow extra time until either a goal has been scored or the penalty bully has been completed. Until a decision is given the ball is in play. If there be only one umpire there should be two linesmen to give decisions as to the ball passing over the sidelines, and as to where and by which team the ball shall be rolled-in. 3 Umpires and linesmen are debarred from coaching during a game. The umpire shall refrain from putting the provision of any rule into effect in cases where he is satisfied that by enforcing it he would be giving an advantage to the offending team. The umpires shall give all decisions without waiting for an appeal. 22.-For rough play or misconduct the umpire shall have a discretionary power to warn the offending player, or to suspend him from further participation in the game. 23. When a player is temporarily incapacitated, the umpire shall suspend the game. When it is resumed the ball shall be bullied off on the spot to be chosen by the umpire in whose half of the ground the player was hurt.

LIST OF RECORDS OF INTERNATIONAL MATCHES.

Year.

ENGLAND V. IRELAND.

Place. 1895 At Richmond 1896 At Dublin 1897 At Wimbledon 1898 At Dublin (drawn). 1899 At Richmond 1900 At Belfast 1901 At Surbiton. 1902 At Dublin 1903 At Surbiton 1904 At Dublin 1905 At Surbiton... 1906 At Dublin. 1907 At Bromley 1908 At Dublin 19c9 At Dublin 1910 At Queen's Club Year. 1898 At Kersal, Manchester. 1899 At Newport 1900 At Kersal.. 1901 At Swansea 1902 At Kersal Goals.

Goals. 2 I England 5 Ireland England I Ireland O England 7 Ireland England I Ireland I England 3 Ireland I England 2 Ireland England 4 Ireland 2 England Ireland 0 England I Ireland Ireland 3 England 4 England England 5 England 4 England 8 2 2 I England 2 Ireland Ireland I Ireland Ireland o Ireland O England 4 Ireland England IO I 0 ENGLAND ข. WALES.

Place.

Goals.

Goals.

England 7 Wales O England 3 Wales o Wales O England 4 Wales O England 7 Wales England 6 Wales 3 England 4 Wales I Wales 2 England 13 Wales 2 Wales o Wales 2 England 6 Wales 1903 At Llandudno 1904 At Bath 1905 At Newport. 1906 At Manchester 1907 At Llandudno 1908 At Bath 1909 At Swansea 1910 At Cambridge Year. 1903 At Birmingham 1904 At Glasgow.... 1905 At Surbiton... ...

England 6 England 6 England 4 England 9 Wales England 3 ENGLAND V. SCOTLAND.

Place.

Goals.

Goals.

England 5 Scotland O England 2 Scotland 2 England 9 Scotland O Scotland England 3 England 3 England 5 Scotland England 3 Scotland O.

Scotland 0 Scotland I 2 Goals. 1906 At Glasgow..... 1907 At Birmingham 1908 At Edinburgh... 1909 At Manchester 1910 At Aberdeen Year.

ENGLAND 7'. FRANCE.

Place. 1907 At Beckenham 1908 At Paris 1909 At Acton... 1910 At Paris Goals.

England 14 France O England 2 France England 9 France England 6 France 3. 2 I Bibliography. - Hockey, F. S. Creswell, revised by P. Collins (Bell), 1909; The Hockey Annual, in progress (British Sports Publishing Co.); The Hockey Association Handbook (Horace Cox); The Complete Hockey Player (Eustace White) (Methuen); Hockey (Cresswell and Collins) (Bell and Sons).

HORSE.-T HE ARABIA N. - The Arabian horse-in Arabic Kehailan-is probably the most ancient of existing domestic breeds. He is also the original "thoroughbred" horse of the East, from whose exemplar all Western ideas of thorough breeding in horseflesh were derived. He has been held in repute as of "noble" blood for at least 1,300 years, and has been bred with fanatical reverence and pure from all foreign admixture in peninsular Arabia as far back as the records of that country go; that is to say, till the second century before Mohammed, the sixth of our era.

It is a matter of considerable dispute in modern science whether or not the Kehailan was indigenous to Arabia as an original wild breed. The common Mohammedan tradition would make him a gift from Solomon to the Arabs, or, again, descended from mares ridden by the prophet; but [HORSES Western criticism rightly rejects these tales, nor are they, in truth, real Bedouin traditions local to Arabia itself. The local tradition is that the Kehailan is a separate wild breed kept pure in the desert from the time of his first capture and domestication; that his habitat was Nejd and the high plateaux of Yemen, and that he owes his distinguishing qualities to the fact that his original blood has never been mixed with that of breeds of inferior type. In physical science there is as yet nothing positively ascertained which would show this to be improbable.

The high plateaux of Arabia, though all of them desert land-in the sense that they contain no district where crops can be grown in full dependence on the rainfallare neither without pasture nor without water. It is unquestionable that the wild ass existed, if he does not still exist, in Yemen, and the wild horse too may have there existed. In the sandy tracts there is a certain fine grass called nossi, which grows freely, especially within range of the occasional monsoon rains, and it is excellent pasture for horses, so that it is quite conceivable that in the gradual drying up of the peninsula, of which we have geological proof, a section of the wild species may proof have found itself cut off in the South from the rest of its kind, and have developed there in isolation the special qualities we find in the Kehailan. This is Professor Ewart's opinion, and, in the absence of evidence contradicting it, may be provisionally accepted as true. On the other hand, what historical evidence does exist is adverse to the idea of a very early possession of the horse as a tame animal in Arabia.

The Bedouins, certainly of Northern Arabia, would seem during the ages immediately preceding Christ to have been, as indeed many of them are still, exclusively camel-riders, and there is a significant absence of all mention of the horse in lists which have been preserved of the then products of the country. Strabo, on the authority of his friend Ælius Gallus, Prefect of Egypt, who made an armed expedition into Western Arabia in the year A.D. 24, says of Arabia Felix (Yemen): "The products of the soil are good. Much honey is made and much cattle reared, amongst which, it is true, are seen neither horses nor mules"; and again of the land of the Nabatheans (Hejaz): "the land does not produce horses, but camels take their place." The monumental French work of M.

Piètremont, Les Chevaux préhistoriques et historiques, should be consulted on this point, his opinion being that the Arabs did not become horse riders till the third century HORSES] after Christ. In English our best authority on the subject, though perhaps rather out of date, Colonel Hamilton Smith, is of a similar opinion; and on historic grounds alone the balance of evidence would seem to be in favour of a comparatively late date for the domestication of the Kehailan. All that we know positively is that in the fifth and sixth centuries of our era the Bedouins of Nejd and Yemen were already possessed of a special breed of horses of which they boasted as an "ancestral possession." "Are not these," say their poets of that date, an inheritance from our fathers? Shall not we to our sons in turn bequeath them?"

It is clear too from their descriptions that 66 Caliph Omar, A.D. 633, which shows the value already set in Arabia on this special breed. "After the battle of Yermuk," El Wakidi says, "Abu Obeidah, the Arabian commander, divided the spoil thus: 'To a horseman he gave thrice as much as to a footman, and made a further difference between those horses which were of the right Arabian breed (which they looked upon to be far the best) and those that were not, allowing twice as much to the former as to the latter. And when they were not satisfied with the distribution Abu Obeidah told them that the Prophet had done the same after the battle of Khaibar, which upon appeal to Omar was by him confirmed." " PURE ARABIAN MARES AND FOALS AT CRABBET. the horse then possessed by them was identical in his chief characteristics with the modern Kehailan, as were the ideas of his owners concerning him. There is a description in one of the Abu Zeyd cycle of romances of a Bedouin mare, which is precise in its details and which might have been written yesterday :- "Spare is her head and lean, her ears pricked close together, Her forelock is a net, her forehead a lamp lighted, Illumining the tribe, her neck curved like a palm branch, Her wither sharp and clean. Upon her chest and throttle An amulet hangs of gold. Her forelegs are twin lances.

Her hoofs fly forward faster ever than flies the whirlwind, Her tail bone borne aloft, yet the hairs sweep the gravel."

Nor are prose writers silent. Ockley, in his History of the Saracens, quotes from the Arab historian, El Wakidi, a decree of the Of European authors the oldest I can find mentioning the Arabian horse as a special and valued breed is Marco Polo. He, writing about the year 1290, says of Arabia and the Port of Aden: "It is from this Port of Aden that the merchants obtain the fine Arabian destriers of which they make such great profit in India, for you must know that they sell in India a good horse for well one hundred marks of silver and more."

It is certain, however, that long before this the Kehailan must have made his way into Europe, for the first time doubtless in the van of the Arab invasions of the eighth and ninth centuries, which having swept across North Africa, passed over into Spain, and through Spain into France. Here he left his trace permanently in the Barb and the Andalusian, and, as is locally believed, in the French Limousin. The great value however of the Kehailan blood does not seem to have been fully recognised in Europe until the practice of wearing heavy armour in war was well on the decline, and it was then introduced rather through Turkey and the Barbary States than directly from Arabia. Leo Africanus, a Moor in the sixteenth century, who had travelled through the whole of North Africa and of the Arabian deserts from Timbuctoo as far as the Persian Gulf and allowed himself to be converted to Christianity at Rome, makes an interesting mention in his description of Africa of the Arabian horses, which, under the name of Barbs, began at that time to be renowned in Europe, and which is of especial value as showing the close connection between the Barb and the Arab. "This name (of Barb)," he says, "is given unto the Barbarie horses throughout Italy and all Europe, because they come foorth of Barbarie and are a kind of horses that are bred in those regions, but they which thinke so are deceived, for the horses of Barbarie differ not in any respect from other horses; but horses of the same swiftness and agilitie are in the Arabian toong called throughout all Egypt, Syria, Asia, Arabia Felix, and Deserta by the name of Arabian horses.

Historiographers affirme that this kind of wild horse ranging up and down the Arabian deserts ever since the time of Ismael have so exceedingly multiplied and increased that they have replenished the most part of Africa; which opinion savoureth of truth, for even at this present there are great store of wilde horses founde both in the African and Arabian deserts. And I myself saw "SHAHWAN," AN ARABIAN HORSE OF THE SHAHWAŃ BREED. in the Numidian Desert a wilde colte of a white colour and having a curled maine.

The most certain triall of these horses is when they can overtake the beast called lant or the ostrich in a race; which if they be [HORSES able to performe they are esteemed woorth a thousand ducats or an hundred camels."

The lant (eland?), he explains, "is so exceeding swift that no beast can overtake "ASTRALED,' A BROWN ABEYAN SHERRAK. him, but only the Barbarie horse as is beforesaid." He also affirms that "the Arabians of the desert take the wilde horse and eate him, but he will hardly be taken with either horses or dogs. In the waters where this beast keepeth they lay certain snares, covering them over with sand, wherein his foot being caught he is entangled and slaine." The writer of this monograph quite recently received identically the same account as this of Leo's from a negro of Wadai, who spoke of the wild horses still captured there as Kehail. He described the method of snaring them, and declared that when tamed they could go ten days without water. The Arabs of Wadai used them as sires with their tame mares.

In England we first hear of "Barbs" in Charles II.'s time, when the "Royal Mares " were brought for the King from Tangiers, and about the same time of "Turks," captured in the wars in Hungary. It was not, however, till the beginning of the eighteenth century that the great success of the "Darley Arabian," a horse of undoubted Kehailan blood and purchased direct from the Arabs of Northern Arabia by Mr.

Darley, our Consul at Aleppo, revealed to English breeders the true source of excellence in Eastern blood. From this date the importations registered in the Stud Book show a constantly increasing preponderance of "Arabians," as against Barbs or Turks.

They were, I imagine, obtained direct from the Syrian Ports or the Persian Gulf; and there is every probability, judging from such portraits of them as remain to us, that they were pure Kehailans, though of the HORSES] Darley Arabian alone we know the particular strain of blood, Mánaki, to which he belonged.

Captain Upton, in his interesting book "RAOUF," A KEHAILAN IBN RODAN STALLION.

IOI Newmarket and Arabia, enumerates Arabian stallions, 44 Barbs, and 28 Turks, as having been registered first and last in our Stud Book. The importation was well maintained until near the close of the eighteenth century, when it seems to have been interrupted by the great war which then began and which made communication with the Levant difficult.

It would be an interesting speculation to calculate the amount of true Kehailan blood flowing in the veins of our modern English racehorse, but it is one on which I dare not enter here, beyond hazarding the opinion that it amounts to at least three-quarters, perhaps to seven-eighths, of the whole. It may well be that even the unknown English mares figuring at the head of most pedigrees were in fact partly of this blood, either through Barb or Turk or Spanish ancestors -while in the male line the blood of the Darley and Godolphin Arabians is everywhere preponderant. The Godolphin, though reaching Europe through Tunis, was almost certainly an Arabian, as his original name, "Scham" (Damascus), would seem to indicate. .

The price of Arab horses in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries seems to have been high. Sir Henry Blunt, 1634, says that in Egypt in his day as much as 1,000 pieces of eight was paid for a three-yearold of the true breed; Hamilton, 1720, mentions £50 to £60 as being a small price for one at Moccha, and Niebuhr, 1762, says: "The English sometimes purchase their horses at the price of 800 or 1,000 crowns each." An English merchant was offered at Bengal twice the purchase money for one of their horses, but he sent him to England, where he hoped he would draw four times the original price (say £800). The Sporting Gentleman's Dictionary, 1735, mentions still higher sums: "£500, £1,000, £2,000, and even £3,000," as "the intolerable price" demanded for the "right Arabian horse" exported from Scanderoon, pricing at the same time the Turkish horses at £100 to £150, and the Barbs at but £30 in their own countries. In 1782 Arthur Young records that at the Royal Stud of Pompadour in France three Arab horses had just been acquired at a cost to the King of 72,000 livres (£3,149).

In former days the Kehailan was bred in most Arabic speaking lands with more or less purity. Egypt, Syria, and South- Western Persia, to say nothing of the Barbary States, had their own breeds, which boasted of pure Arab origin; but at present the area of his distribution has been restricted even in Arabia itself within comparatively narrow limits, and there are indications of a decline of the race which seems to be becoming general. Egypt, with the exception of the single stud of Ali Pasha Sherif, possesses no pure blood, nor is it to be found in Tunis, Tripoli, or Algeria. In southern Morocco the tradition of pure breeding, if preserved at all, is so only among the remote desert tribes beyond the Atlas-who still boast of possessing strains of blood brought with them in their migrations from Nejd in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. Syria is almost stripped of its authentic breeds, once numerous in the Lebanon; and although a considerable sprinkling of pure mares is still to be found "SHANFARA, A HAMDANI SIMRI STALLION. in Homs, Hama, and Aleppo, and in the villages of the Euphrates, their quality is far from what it used to be; so much so that the horse-buying commissions sent by the French and other European Governments find it yearly more difficult to acquire stallions of standard merit. In Mesopotamia the breed is becoming more and more mixed, and in all the Bagdad district it has long been a by-word. A few good mares are still to be found in Persian Arabistan, but the great studs of the Bakhtiari chiefs are gone, and it is very doubtful whether any pure blood at all is to be found now in Persia proper. Pure Kehailan blood may therefore be considered as confined in the present day strictly to Arabia, and even there within ever narrowing limits. 66 The reasons of this general decline are, first, the ever-increasing military pressure of the Ottoman Government, which has broken the independence of the tribes on the Arabian frontier and limited their areas of summer pasture. Secondly, the gradual adoption of firearms by the Bedouins in their inter-tribal wars, and thirdly, the more systematic combing" of the desert for stallions for the Indian market. It has been found that wherever firearms take the place of the lance, there the tribesmen care less about their horses and revert to their original camel-riding in their raids. It is certain. too, that for many years past the handsomest and strongest colts have been taken away more and more unsparingly from the strength of the breeding stock, while the tribes have contented themselves with less and less perfect stallions for their stud use.

The blood has remained the same, but the stock has declined in vigour, in beauty, and in excellence.

The following is a list of all the tribes of whom it can safely be affirmed at the present moment that they are possessed of the true Kehailan blood stock.

Sebaa Fedaan Ibn Haddal Kahtan } Anazeh Montefik [HORSES mares and horses collected, at the expense, it is said, of a million sterling, sixty years ago in Nejd by Abbas I., Viceroy of Egypt.

The Ottoman Sultan's stud at Constanti- "AJMAN," AN ABEYAN SHERRAK COLT. nople is of recent growth and of no special value. It is a collection of some 800 stallions, many of them of great beauty, but of which the pedigrees have been lost, and of some 40 mares, few of them "mazbutat " (of known pedigree) or of the first quality.

In India fine horses abound in the stables of the native princes, especially at Jodpore, and in the hands of the rich Bombay merchants, but few mares; and I do not know of any Indian stud exclusively managed on the Arabian principles of breeding. The Indian Government in 1893 had 147 Arab stallions in stud use in Bombay and the Northern provinces. These had been purchased at from 1,200 to 2,000 rupees, but the price has since risen. In Europe the oldest Arab studs are those of Prince Sanguscko and Count Joseph Potocki, in Poland, both of high quality, which date from the end of the last century, and of the Branicki family in the Ukraine. Although the pedigrees in these are imperfect from an Arab point of view, they all contain mares of fine Arabian type, especially Prince Muteyr Oteybeh Ajman Harb (a few) Shammar Beni Suleiman (a few) Sanguscko's, and supply magnificent chargers Rowala Daffiri.

There are also in Arabia certain studs still flourishing in the hands of princes and individuals which are recognised as authentic. The chief of these are the studs of the Emir Ibn Rashid at Hail, of Eid et Timimi at Oneyzeh, of the Emir Ibn Khalifa at Bahreyn, and of the Sultan of Muscat. Outside Arabia the only Eastern stud of any importance recognised by the Arabs as authentic is that of Ali Pasha Sherif, at Cairo, which is held in great respect by them, as descended from the to the Russian Imperial cavalry. Next to these come the Royal Stud of Würtemberg and the Austro-Hungarian Imperial Studs at Libitza and Babolna, at all which establishments great care has been taken in the acquisition of Kehailan mares as well as horses. In Italy there was in the time of King Victor Emmanuel a truly magnificent stud, containing as it did half of Abbas Pasha's famous collection. But it was unfortunately sold and dispersed at the King's death in 1878; while in France, though Arab stallions are largely used for cross breeding, there is still no pure Kehailan "Haras." HORSES] Prussia has quite recently been endowed by the Emperor William with a pure stud at Neustadt; but Spain, Portugal, and the rest of the European States are still unrepresented. In England the first attempt to breed from pure Arabian mares as well as horses was made by Mr. Chaplin in 1875, who sent Captain Upton, an enthusiast on the subject, to Aleppo, where with the help of Mr. Skene, H.M. Consul, he purchased some authentic stock. But ill luck attended the venture. The best stallion died, and one or two of the best mares proving barren, the project was shortly after abandoned.

It was revived, however, in 1877 by the writer of this monograph on a larger scale and with better results. The Crabbet Park Stud, established in the autumn of that year, now numbers some thirty brood mares of the most authentic strains of blood, the produce of which are sold yearly by auction and realise good prices. The average of all sales during the last fifteen years from the stud stands as high as IIO guineas. It is carried on on strict Arabian principles, and as there is no attempt at increasing the height of the stock, the Kehailan type has been well preserved. It has supplied breeding stallions to nearly every part of the globe, including North and South America, South Africa, Australia, India, and even Turkey. The Honourable Miss Dillon's stud, started in 1884, but now dispersed, won many prizes in open jumping competitions. "IBN YASHMAK," A KEHAILAN JELLABI.

In America Arab breeding was commenced some twenty years ago by Mr. Huntington, and has subsequently been taken up, but on no large scale, by others.

Several small studs exist in Australia, and Arab stallions and mares were imported by the late Mr. Cecil Rhodes into South Africa.

It may be hoped, therefore, that any falling off there may be in his original home is being compensated to the Kehailan elsewhere.

The total census of the Arabian horse cannot be large. Of quite pure authentic blood there are probably not 2,000 brood mares left in Peninsular Arabia, with perhaps as many more among the northern tribes-5,00o, let us say, the world through, all counted.

The Bedouin system of breeding is one rigid in its principles. The noble tribes divide their mares into three categories.

I. The Mazbutat (authentic) mares, of absolutely certain pedigree, their ancestors having been from time immemorial in the tribe. From these alone colts are chosen as stallions for the tribe, all others being sold away as yearlings. 2. Mares taken from other noble tribes and their descendants. These are often authentic, their pedigree being known. But their colt produce is disqualified, and even one of their own Mazbutat mares, if lost and bred from away from the tribe, remains on her return disclassed. 3. Mares of unknown pedigree. These in the best tribes are used for riding only, and are not bred from. They go by the name of Shimalieh, Northerners, or Kadisheh, mares of no breed, the Mazbutat mares being sometimes called Nejdich, of Nejd, in distinction, though there is no such thing as a "Nejd" breed.

All authentic mares claim to be descended from certain original strains of Kehailan blood. The most notable are the Seglawi, Managhi, Abeyan, Hamdani, Dahman, Hadban, Jilfan, Toweysan, Saadan, and Wadnan. The five first are generally known as the "Khamsa." The pedigrees are chiefly remembered through the dams, the blood of the sire being taken for granted as always beyond question. These are not written in the desert, but kept by oral tradition.

Within the tribe the blood of each mare is of common notoriety and so is not a subject for deception, but strangers need to be on their guard.

The single object for which the Kehailan is bred by the Bedouins is service in their wars. For this the qualities necessary are great powers of endurance, the capacity of making long marches, of 300 or 400 miles, without flagging, an extreme sobriety in the matter of food and drink, and a sufficient turn of speed at the end of the raid to overtake the enemy or elude pursuit. Mere speed over a short distance is not encouraged by any system of racing or trials. The sole practical test is in the raid ("ghazu," Italianised "razzia"). What is of at least equal importance with speed, inasmuch as all fighting is done with the lance, is perfect shoulder action, facility in turning, a light mouth, intelligence and courage. All these qualities are conspicuous in the true Kehailan, and seem inherent in his blood. The rigorous conditions of his desert life ensure a certain hardihood of constitution; his feet are of iron. He stands unsheltered night and day; he is hardened against hot sunshine and bitter "AHMAR," AN ARABIAN STALLION OF PURE ANAZAR BLOOD winds. The Bedouin camp is a perpetual turmoil of noise: he is bold and cool-headed.

From his foalhood the children have crawled among his feet in the tents: he has the temper of a lamb. He is made for the vicissitudes of campaigning life, and is thus the most complete light cavalry horse imaginable for all countries where hard work and short commons, especially under a burning sun, are the rule of the campaign.

As a racehorse, the Kehailan, though not scientifically bred for the purpose, would seem to have in him a natural quality of speed superior to any other natural breed.

Neither the Tartar of Eastern Asia, nor the Cossack, nor any of the unimproved European breeds, can at all compare with him on this head; and it is only his own illegitimate descendant, the English thoroughbred, that has at length distanced him. For over a hundred years he figured victorious against all comers on the Indian turf, and until quite recently he held his own there even against English blood.

Latterly, however, he has become less in fashion in India, and has had to give place on most racecourses to the improved Waler, who, thoroughbred or nearly thoroughbred, [HORSES has been found able to beat him at an allowance. At the present time Arab racing proper is nearly confined to the Bombay Presidency, where the horses arriving from the Persian Gulf are first landed. Here the general price given for a Kehailan of the best strains is from 1,500 to 2,000 rupees before he has been tried for racing, or 2,500 to 3,000 when tried successfully.

In the rest of India, Arabs figure mainly as polo ponies, and are run in races of that class when under the standard height. In the palmy days of Arab racing in India, the performances of the best horses were very nearly on a time level with those of our own thoroughbreds.

On the English turf it is rather as a sire of racehorses than as himself a racehorse that the Kehailan is honoured. Few of the imported Arabs, even of the eighteenth century, distinguished themselves as winners; and in the present century, no pure Kehailan has carried off an important race. The last Eastern horse entered for any of our classic contests was in 1863, when the Duke of Beaufort's Barb "Mazagan" ran for the Goodwood Cup, high hopes being entertained of him by his owner and trainer; but in the event he was easily beaten. In 1883, through the exertions of Lord Calthorpe, Lord Bradford, Prince Batthyani, Mr. Edward Weatherby, and others, the Jockey Club, in the interests of horse breeding, consented to the establishment of a special race for Arabs, to be run at Newmarket yearly at their July meeting; and a single contest took place in accordance with their decision in the following year.

Fifteen Arabians were entered and eight of them appeared at the post, including two that had run well on the Indian turf, with the result that Admiral Tryon's "Asil," a three-year-old colt, bred in England from an Anazeh mare imported in foal from Aleppo, proved the winner. The same colt, however, was shortly afterwards beaten in a match by "Iambic," an English thoroughbred of inferior class; and this was considered so discouraging that the Arab race has not since been renewed. The superiority of the English thoroughbred on the flat cannot indeed be contested. At the same time it is by no means proved that a new infusion of Kehailan blood would not be an advantage to breeders for our turf; and Lord Bradford's experience is encouraging. From Arab mares mated with Bend Or and Chippendale he had produce in the second and even in the first generation which proved winners of good English races, notably of the Dee Stakes at Chester.

The practical value, however, of the HORSES] Kehailan lies undoubtedly in his rôle of sire to half-bred stocks, especially for all such countries as suffer from extremes of heat and cold, drought, poverty of pasture, and general hard conditions of life. For this purpose he is inestimable, for he has the power of transmitting to his half-bred offspring his own enduring qualities, with much of his speed, action, and courage, and no little of his beauty. In this he is superior to any but the very highest class of our English thoroughbreds, and has been successful wherever he has been fairly tried. Certain rules, however, are very necessary to be laid down in the choice of Arabians as stallions, the neglect of which will lead to failure; and, as it is a subject not well understood, I think I cannot do better than close this monograph with a few practical suggestions in the interest of breeders.

The first point in choosing an Arab stallion, as indeed any other, for stud use is to be certain of his blood. Unless the horse chosen can show a clean Kehailan pedigree it will always be a matter of chance whether his stock proves satisfactory. Many a stout horse on the Indian turf has proved a despicable sire, and many an unconsidered slug a good one. Apart, however, from pedigree, and where this cannot be ascertained, there are certain characteristics of shape and figure which very seldom mislead, and a certain ideal type without an approximation to which no Arabian ever yet proved of value as a stock getter. The Arabian points are not very different from those of our English thoroughbred sires of eighty and a hundred years ago; and there are half-a-dozen representations in the collection of Portraits of Celebrated Racehorses, which might stand for those of Kehailans of the highest type. Such are "Flying Childers" (the portrait without the saddle), "Sedbury" 1734, "Dungannon 1780, his grandson "Walton" 1792, his great grandson "Partizan" 1811, and above all, "Sultan" 1816, an almost perfect type of the pure Kehailan. "Actaeon" 1822, and "Venison" 1833, are the latest that show any strong Arabian character in this collection, all the recent portraits having diverged widely from the type. If the reader wishes to contrast the Arab points with those of the modern thoroughbred, he cannot do better than set the portrait of "Sultan" side by side with that of the great modern racehorse "Fisherman."

Of nineteenth-century "English" nglish" sires "Petrarch" and "Bend Or" come nearest to the Kehailan type. دو The best Arabian sires are about 14 hands 2 inches high, of great thickness through, VOL. II depth and substance, but very short on the leg and with the shortest possible cannon bones; the feet large, deep and perfectly round; the legs clean and flat, with a fair amount of bone, say 72 to 8 inches below the knee; powerful forearms and second thighs; broad knees and hocks; but a greater development of bone than 8 inches seldom goes with the highest quality. The horse should cover a deal of ground, but should have a short back, with just sufficient space between the wither and the rise "SHIEHA," A HAMDARIEH SIMRICH MARE (MOUNTED BY MR. BLUNT). a of the loins for a short saddle. The wither should be high (this is an original Kehailan characteristic found in no other breed), but not exaggerated, and the highest point of the croup should be nearly level with it.

It is a great point of breeding that the tail should be set on high and that it should rise at an angle of about 45 degs. from the point of insertion, curving, however, sharply downwards so as just to clear the hocks in walking. It is no defect that the tail should hang a little sideways, that being often the effect of a twist given it at the foal's birth by the Bedouin breeder for luck.

Both mane and tail should be fine as silk and fairly abundant, never heavy. The shoulder should be well sloped, but without the exaggeration of the English hunter's.

It should have, however, the freest possible action, and there is no better test of quality than to turn a colt loose in a paddock and take note of how he moves his shoulders and fore-arms. There should be little high knee-action, but the whole limb should be thrown forward and the hoof "dwell" a second in the air before it is put down.

This, with corresponding action behindlike that of a deer trotting through fern- FF is most important in a sire and a great test of quality. The most characteristic point, however, of all in the Kehailan is his head.

It is difficult to describe this intelligibly.

It shoud be very broad between the eyes, the forehead high and slightly convex, but with a sudden upward turn of the profile, such as is seen in the gazelle. This can hardly be too exaggerated. The muzzle should be extremely fine, the lips delicately compressed, the nostrils set somewhat high and on a plane with the face in repose, but capable of great expansion when excited; great depth of the cheek bones and width at the throttle; great distance between the eyes and the ears, the head well set on, and the neck arched. The following are the exact measurements of "Mesaoud," bred by Ali Pasha Sherif, the most successful stallion of the Crabbet Park Stud, also of the head of "Sherifa," a Nejd mare bred by the Emir Feysul Ibn Saoud, both admirable types.

Measurements of "Mesaoud" at ten years of age:-Height, 14 hands 2 inches; girth, 69 inches; from summit of skull to wither, 38 inches; from wither to root of tail, 41 inches; tail bone, 18 inches; from summit of skull to point of muzzle, 2334 inches; round jowl and forehead, 37 inches; round muzzle, 19½ inches; wither to knee, 45 inches; knee to pastern, 11/2 inches; point of hip to point of hock 40 inches; point of hock to fetlock joint, 17½ inches; round forearm, 19 inches; round cannon bone, 73/4 inches; round hoof, 16 inches; length of ear from junction with skull, 53/4 inches.

Measurements of the head of "Sherifa": From summit of skull to point of muzzle, 24 inches; round jowl and forehead, 36 inches; round muzzle, 14/½ inches; width between cheeks 5½ inches.

The best Kehailan colours are-1. Bay with black points. This would seem to have been the original wild colour, and is that principally esteemed by the Bedouins, especially a dark full bay with the black markings well above the knees and hocks. 2. Chestnut, a strong bright chestnut with mane and tail of the same shade, accompanied generally with three or four white feet and a blaze. These markings are commoner among the Anazeh tribes than in Nejd. Pale shades of chestnut should be avoided, but a sprinkling of white hair is no disadvantage. 3. White. This, when quite pure, is perhaps the best, as it is the most beautiful of all colours. It is the "fortunate" colour with Mohammedans and for this reason has been more carefully [HORSES bred for than any other. The most perfect Kehailan types I have seen have been white, or in advancing years flea-bitten. No Kehailan, however, is ever foaled white, and for the first five years colts go through many changes of coat, from bay, chestnut, or nearly black to rose-roan, iron grey, and grey. A white stallion should not be used as sire, says Guarmani, till he attains his full white colour at eight years old. White is the favourite colour in Nejd; and all the great collections have been mainly white, notably Ibn Saoud's at Riad, described by Palgrave, Abbas Pasha's in Egypt, and Ibn Rashid's at Haïl. Except in the Sultan's stables at Yildiz, I have never seen a quite black Arabian, and I doubt black being a true Kehailan colour, though Bedouins say it occasionally occurs. Dun, blue-roan, and piebald certainly are not. The skin, where clear of hair, especially round the eyes, should be in all cases of a deep slaty blue.

The eyes should be large and prominent, and shaped like the human eye, the white showing well round the cornea. This is very characteristic of the true Kehailan, The chief modern works to be consulted on the subject are :- Piétremont's Chevaux Préhistoriques et Historiques.

Doughty's Travels in Arabia Deserta.

Naturalist's Library, Section by Colonel Hamilton Smith. Upton's Newmarket and Arabia.

Lieut.-Colonel Halien's Reports to the Indian Government, 1892-3.

Palgrave, Travels in Central Arabia.

Lady Anne Blunt's Bedouins of the Euphrates.

Pilgrimage to Nejd.

General Tweedie's Arabian Horse.

Sidney's Book of the Horse.

NOTE. Since this article was written seventeen years ago, little needs to be said in correction of the text. The decline of the Kehailan in Arabia has continued to the point that the Continental Governments have almost ceased to look for new sires for their studs in that direction, first-class stallions being no longer attainable in the Syrian desert or in any of the old sources of supply. The Ali Sherif stud at Cairo has been broken up, and the troubles in Nejd consequent on the death of the Emir Ibn Rashid have adversely affected the supply of imported Arabs at Bombay, so that stallions needed by the Indian Government for breeding purposes have been looked for as far afield as at the annual sales at Crabbet Park in Sussex. On the other hand, Arab breeding has found considerable extension in other parts of the world. An important new stud on lines of HORSES] strict Kehailan breeding has been started in South-Eastern Russia by Prince Scherbatoff, and another lately by Mr. Winthrop Ames, of Boston, in the United States, while South Africa imports an ever-increasing number of Arab stallions for cross-breeding with the existing native stock. There seems to be no fear now that the pure breed will be suffered to die out or its value to be underrated.

The Crabbet stud at the present moment numbers some 50 brood mares, and drafts from it may be found in almost every part of the world. These, in spite of changed circumstances of climate and treatment, have perfectly preserved the original type as well as the temper, endurance, and sound constitution of the imported stock.

WILFRED SCAWEN BLUNT.

THE ORIGIN OF THE THOROUGH- BRED HORSE. It is an exceedingly remarkable thing that Great Britain should have become the home of the thoroughbred horse, seeing that the animal is entirely exotic. It was in Africa that what we now know as the racehorse had its origin, but it is in this country that he has developed to as near an approach to perfection as he is presumably ever likely to attain. These islands, for Ireland must by no means be excluded, have long been and continue to be the centre and the headquarters of the world's market. From England horses have been sent to all parts of the world, and the superiority of the blood has always been brilliantly demonstrated, not only on the Continent of Europe, but in the United States, in South America, in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, India, wherever, in fact, the sport of racing has extended; and another curious fact is that it has been found necessary constantly to recruit the stock from our shores. Good horses are bred elsewhere; little as it at one time seemed probable, the best of the English horses have been on occasion beaten by importations from France, America, and the Colonies. But these victors have invariably dated back to recent English exportation, and it is doubted by many experts whether, if the breed were not renewed periodically from England, the stock in other lands would continue to thrive. It may be admitted that this is supposition, as the experiment has never been tried. If the sires of the chief foreign winners have not been horses bred in England in the vast majority of cases the grandsires were bred here, and equally the blood of the dam is of our provision.

The assertion may be made that this development of the thoroughbred horse arose almost by accident. In the year 1909, which supplies the latest figures available, 3,846 horses of all ages took part in races in England under Jockey Club rules - that is to say, on the flat-and the number had been exceeded. In 1901, for instance, 4,019 competed, a total little higher than that of the preceding and following years.

The enormous majority of these sprang from three famous animals, immortal in racing history as the Byerley Turk, the Darley Arabian, and the Godolphin Arabian. So much has been written in various treatises about these horses that they must here be briefly dealt with, though it is, of course, impossible to discuss the subject without what seems adequate reference to them. The Byerley Turk was ridden by his owner, Capt. Byerley, during King William's Wars in Ireland in 1689, &c. No trustworthy record of where he came from is discoverable. When his military career was over he was put to the stud, and his success is the more notable as it is stated that he was ill-supplied with well-bred mares.

The Darley Arabian, a bay horse of only some fifteen hands, descended from the race most esteemed among the Arabs, was foaled in 1702 "about March," it is stated by a writer with a seeking after accuracy.

He was purchased for a very moderate sum by a Mr. Darley, described as member of a hunting club at Alletto. That the horse could ever have been hunted is improbable, however, as he was sent to England in 1705 when he was a three-year-old, and stood at the residence of his purchaser's brother, Mr.

John Brewster Darley, of Aldby Park, near York. His descendants largely outnumber those of the other two, though at different times all three had admirers who pronounced him to be the best. The Darley Arabian became the sire of the two brothers Flying Childers and Bartlett's Childers. This latter was the sire of Squirt. Squirt fathered Maske, the sire of the great Eclipse, whose history has been given at length in a large volume. He was so called because he was born during the great eclipse of 1764. After the death of his owner, H.R.H. William Duke of Cumberland, Eclipse was put up for auction and knocked down for seventy guineas. A certain Mr. Wildman had intended to buy him, but on his arrival at the place of sale found that Eclipse had already passed through the ring. The sale, however, had begun before the time for which it had been announced, Mr. Wildman therefore in- FF2 sisted that the horse should be put up again, and bought him for seventy-five guineas.

It was not until he was a five-year-old that he ever ran, after having given an infinity of trouble, for his temper was extremely bad; apparently no endeavour was made to train him for a considerable period. With a view to getting him quieted down, he was handed over to a rough-rider living near Epsom, who is said to have worked him almost off his legs, riding him about the country all day, and often keeping him out all night upon poaching expeditions; but when he did run he was never beaten. Much nonsense has doubtless been written about his speed, for all evidence points to the fact that in this respect modern horses are infinitely superior to their predecessors of the eighteenth century, and no one for a moment seriously accepts the statement that Eclipse ran a mile in a minute; in all probability it took him two minutes, or scarcely less, to cover the distance, for the times occupied by the best horses have constantly diminished, and no horse has ever galloped a mile in a minute and a half. That he was the best of his day does, however, seem certain, and there is no reason to discredit the story which has given rise to the familiar saying, Eclipse first and the rest nowhere." The anecdote on which this is based is to the effect that someone undertook to place the horses in a certain race, and did so by the formula quoted. A horse, in technical language, is "nowhere" if he is distanced 66 that is to say, if he is more than 240 yards behind when the winner passes the post.

This happened in the case of a contestpossibly that which gave rise to the saying -against two animals of considerable repute in their day called Bellario and Tortoise, both of them having been more than a distance behind Eclipse at the end of the first two miles in a race presumably over four miles which he is said to have won in a canter. It was he who, in a large measure, secured the high repute of the Darley Arabian. To avoid prolixity and to escape tediousness, the pedigree of Eclipse on the dam's side has not been discussed, and it may be briefly said that the strain of the Lister Turk occurs largely in it, as also of the Darley and of the Godolphin Arabian. The Lister Turk was brought into England by the Duke of Berwick in the reign of King James II. having been taken from the Turks at the Siege of Buda. a The Godolphin Bard or Arabian was little brown horse-he only stood about fifteen hands-foaled in 1724.

His points are said to have resembled [HORSES the highest breed of barbs, though he is more commonly known as Arabian. His origin, too, is doubtful, the rumour being that he was Emperor of Morocco to Louis XIV. sent as a present by the What happened to him is not known, but he is said to have been stolen and taken to Paris, where he did the humblest possible duty in a water cart. An Englishman, Mr.

Coke, bought him for £3, gave him to a Mr. Roger Williams, by whom he was presented to the Earl of Godolphin, whence his description, and he seems to have had no name. He laid the foundations of the family, and according to further report pined away and died of remorse after accidentally killing his favourite cat, subsequently, the story goes, acquiring such an extraordinary hatred of these creatures that he attacked every cat he met.

The three sires who come foremost in the history of the English thoroughbred are supplemented by a number of others whose names are little known, or, it may be said, whose existence has passed into oblivion, including a horse imported by King James I. and spoken of as "Small Bay Arabian "; A. Place's White Turk, the property of Place, stud groom to Oliver Cromwell; Mr.

Latham's Byerley Barb mare, from whom at a long interval descend the classic winners Thormanby, MacGregor, Kisber, Wenlock, Apology, and Irroquois; Hutton's Grey Barb, presented by Mr. Hutton to William III. in 1700. The Belgrade Turk, taken by General Merci at the Siege of Belgrade from the Pasha of that place.

The Allcock Arabian, the Lonsdale Bay Arabian, Lord Oxford's Blood Shouldered Arabian, so-called from a bright red mark on the point of his shoulder, are other horses who have done great things towards producing the thoroughbred of to-day, and the Old Montague Mare belonging to Lord Montague must not be forgotten, for Eclipse, Voltaire, Prince Charlie, and Sterling are among her descendants. The Helmsley Turk should likewise be mentioned. The property of the Duke of Buckingham, and sometimes called the Buckingham Turk. He was a horse whose grandson, Old Merlin, created extraordinary enthusiasm in his day.

Mr. C. H. Thaunton, whose volume on "Famous Horses" is of the utmost value to those inquiring into this subjectthough it may be said that many of the old prints reproduced are of utterly impossible animals-has traced the history of a great match won by Old Merlin at Newmarket, upon which occasion "the South country gentlemen observed to those of the North that they would bet them gold whilst they exact Geomchical Drawing representing the isovet proportions of the late Stamous Eclipse. T AA A SAINT BEL'S ANATOMICAL DRAWING OF "ECLIPSE.

HORSES THE ENCYCLOPÆDIA OF SPORT had it, and then they might sell their land.

Several gentlemen having entirely ruined their fortunes, a law was passed by Parliament against the recovery of any debt exceeding £10." Many of the mares with whom the imported Barbs and Arabs were mated were, it is natural to suppose, the offspring or descendants of animals who had been used for racing purposes long before the end of the seventeenth century, when the Byerley Turk came to England. References occur to running horses in the fifteenth century, though it is not obvious to what extent a running horse was equivalent to a racehorse -that is to say, whether running horses were habitually used for other purposes.

At the end of the fourteenth century it is certain that matches were run, as no doubt they were centuries before, and an Arab horse came to England, or, rather, to Scotland, for there is record of one belonging to King Alexander in 1121. Diligent research on the part of the author of "A History of the English Turf" has discovered the fact that the Privy Purse expenses of Henry VIII. show that "various sums were regularly paid out to persons who brought their horses to compete on various courses against those of the King, and to the jockeys and other officials who were connected with the Royal stables."

Here, too, we read of a match early on a May morning in 1517 between Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, then living at Metz, and a Frenchman, the Seigneur Nicolle Dex, owners up. The Frenchman won, riding without a saddle, his horse having been trained on a copious diet of white wine.

One of Henry VIII.'s household was Paule, described as the Keeper of the Barbary horses, whom Mr. Theodore Cooke assumes to have been the King's trainer. The jockeys of the period wore doublets of burgess satin, together with "Ryding cappes of blac satin and lyned with black vellute for the King's grace." A Royal jockey received a gratuity of 24s. 8d. for winning, in addition to his 2s. per week and 5d. a day for board wages.

There was also a gentleman rider at the stables who received £20 a year, and 205. for winning. If he were thus paid it is hard to understand in what he differed from a professional. The accounts further show a gratuity of 18s. 4d. to the trainer and to the "boye that ranne the Barbary horse."

Evidently there was racing in the time of Henry VIII.; indeed, the Mayor and Aldermen of Chester passed a resolution that the saddlers " from hensforth shall gyve and de- [HORSES liver unto the said drapers afor the mayre for the time being upon horsbak a bell of silver to the value of iiis. iiiid. to be ordered as is aforesaid by the Drapers and the Mayre of the said citie for the tyme being to whome shall runne best and furthest upon horsback before them the said daye tyme and place."

Following on Mr. Cooke's researches and coming to the reign of Elizabeth, we find that extensive and elaborate preparations were made by Archbishop Parker to receive the Queen in his palace at Croydon for the May Race Meeting of 1574. The Queen could scarcely have gone without her host. and so it appears that His Grace the Archbishop went racing likewise. was Whether the Markham Arabian bought by King James I. to improve the breed with any idea of racing, must remain doubtful, but if that was not a deliberate design of Capt. Byerley seventy years later, it will have been seen that it fulfilled the dence that great nobles trained and dieted purpose. Earlier than 1617 it is in evitheir horses to win races, and we know that Newmarket was a busy place in the reign of Charles II. What it had become in the reign of William III. may be learned from Macaulay's History.

It will have been perceived that several of the early sires were ridden by officers of the Army when on active service-the Lister Turk, the Byerley Turk, the Belgrave Turk - and it is the value of the blood for military purposes amongst others which would form one of the excuses for racing if any were needed. The fact is not apparently realised by opponents of sport that only on the racecourse can facts be demonstrated which it is necessary to make plain. The most perfectly bred horses, faultless in make and shape, and to all appearance sound, may have unsuspected weaknesses, constitutional or otherwise, which can only be ascertained by submitting them to the ordeal of a struggle after due preparation, in the course of which, indeed, it is highly probable that these weaknesses would have been made apparent. To be of value as progenitors of thoroughbred stock, the qualities of the horse must be tested, and there is no other way except racing by which this can be done. It is very certain that the huge prices which have been paid in many cases and refused in many others for the best modern racehorses would never have been given and offered had the animals not made names for themselves by actual successes on the Turf. The payment of 20,000 guineas for a horse is nowadays not regarded as at all out of the way. On March 8th, 1900, the late Duke- After the Painting by George Stubbs in the possession of Sir Walter Gilbey, Bart. ECLIPSE.

HORSES] of Westminster's Flying Fox was sold for 37,500 guineas, that is, only £625 less than £40,000, and those who oppose racing because some foolish people lose money by betting, which in all probability they would lose in some other way if the Turf were not a convenient medium for speculation, are incurring a heavy responsibility. The circulation annually of an enormous amount of money in America has been prevented by the puritanical policy of a fanatical Governor and those whom he has been able to influence. The injury done to thoroughbred stock in the United States, indeed, is incalculable. a How to obtain the best results from the material available is always the standing problem, and a certain number of breeders believe that it can be done by a species of mathematical calculation known as the "Figure System." Its advocates contemptuously deride the ignorance and short-sightedness of those who cannot be made to see the merits which it is declared to possess; but there are certain questions to be answered to which no satisfactory replies can be obtained. One is how it happens that horses whose breeding is strictly according to the methods indicated as desirable by the figures are so often beaten by those whose breeding is altogether contrary to the rules laid down? And another is, why it is that when a horse bred on the lines of the system has made a name for himself and been the subject of pæans of congratulation from those who delight in his success, because it conforms to their beliefs, the own brothers and sisters of the animal prove to be utterly worthless for racing purposes -or the brothers and sisters in blood, which practically comes to the same thing.

GLOSSARY.

Arm. The upper part of the fore-leg, from just below the withers (q.v.) down to just above the elbow. Generally called shoulder.