Tuts portraits of celebrated English race horses from 1702 to 1870 occupy four thick volumes which were published last year by Messrs. Sampson Low & Ca. The portraits are accompanied by the pedigrees of the horses and full accounts of their performances. The book does not contain likenesses of all the race horses that ran during the period which it covers, but some four hundred presentments of more or less famous heroes and heroines of the turf are given with innumerable accounts of - bye-gone races. The first volume begins with portraits of the Arabian sires who have founded the great lines, and strains of the blue blood of the turf, which are as highly considered by the votaries of racing as any imperial or royal line is by courtiers. It is interesting to compare the race-horse of the beginning of the last century with those of the present time. The former is a stout hunter-look al with a docked tail, and the of our day is built for speed and has generally that air of "quality" about him which is the result of generations of high breeding. Not that horses of prev nis times or of the present have such a strong resemblance to each other th: is difficult to distinguish one portrait from another. The illustrated newspapers of every country when they publish portraits of race-horses, make one resemble another so much that suspicion is roused as to whether they are not kept in stock, and the winner of ten or twenty years ago does not appear as Ormonde or Miss Jummy as the case may be.
But it is not to discourse on the style or deeds of olden or recent race horses that we mention these volumes. We intend to notice some of the peculiarities, the whims, humours and. good or bad tempers of some of them. They seem to have many of the weaknesses and failings of mankind, and probably owing to the trials to their tempers which they endure during training, to have, in many cases, worse tempers any other domesticated animals, certainly worse than their one humbler kin. Thus we read that Lottery, a famous racer some sixty ago, when he could not get his rider out of the saddle, would lie down and roll; and one morning, when at exercise, ho rushed at a farm labourer and struck him with his foreleg. This striking with the foreleg seems to be a favourite vice of bad-tempered horses, and several instances of it are given in the accounts of these celebrated race horses. Some times an animal took a great dislike to a particular jockey, as when one used to become furious when William Scott entered his stable, and to scream with rage when he heard his voice. Hermit, the great sire of these days, took such a dislike to a jockey who had punished him severely, that he lathered and trembled all over whenever the mau afterwards mounted him. Sometimes race horses take thorough dislikes to other horses, and fly at them open mouthed whenever they meet them on the course. It often happens that this dislike is mutual, that itn horses become furious at sight of each other. An instance is given in these volumes, when in the Derby of 1845 Alarm kicked at The Libel, before starting, who in return jumped right on Alarm, striking his rider, who. was then ran away, striking Iinwelf violently thrown by his horse's plunging, Alarm against the iron chains. In West Australian's Derby there wore two horses who whenever they met became enraged with each other, as if they had been Capulets and Montagues. On the whole, we may say that in spite of the instances of furious tempers which occur among the celebrated race-horses the instances are not so many as to give a bad character to the breed. On the other hand, there are cases is which good humour is shown. Of Rataplan it is said that bar Laner-cost and Springy Jack there never was such a lazy colt as he was; he would lie down at full length whilst the boys plaited his mane; and, after feeding, would go to sleep with' wrierring regularity. Springy Jack was said to be willing to eat up to his weight, but there are nice feeders in the record, who had none of the aldermanic appetite and sluggishness of these horses, such as the race-horse whose trainer could tell toa handful the quantity of vats he would eat in a week. Bobbie Noble, a racer of high degree, forty years ago, was of the most exclusive habits. No one, said @ sporting writer, "The Druid," ever saw him in the company of other horses; but he {would come readily to a whistle, after the manner of a dog, and Lord John Scott, who bred him, would often take his friends out after dinner, and whistle for him to come to the garden gate to be inspected. If this horse's exclusive ness towards his own kind arose from
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.