The Nineteenth Century , No 182, Apr 1892 [‎89v] (183/244)

668
THE NINETEENTH
subsidy, and administer their revenues under the Minister of Agri
culture, Count Falkenhayn. There are some 24,000 acres of culti
vated land; but the farms are scattered, and there is no attempt at
the same systematic management as is carried out at Mezohegyes,
The stud, which has been in existence for over one hundred years^
consists of about 1,350 horses.
The twenty-two stud stallions are perhaps as good a lot for the-
purpose as it would be possible to get together. Among them four
English thoroughbreds, the last purchase a son of Gralopin, two pure
bred Arabs, both excellent of their kind, with good shoulders and good
action, five half-bred Arabs, the feature of the stud, two of the
Lippitzaner breed, and a remarkably handsome son of an Anglo-
Norman mare, Egletante, by an English thoroughbred.
"What struck me about the so-called half-bred Arabs, which have
been bred with the greatest care for a long period, was their extra
ordinary good action and shoulders. Two especially are worthy of
notice, one Gridran the 24th, a magnificent-looking bay with fine
action and quality, nine inches below the knee, somewhat long in
the back, but a model sire for carriage horses, and a four-year-old
dark grey, Sheraky the 3rd. I find my notes of this horse are as
follows:—
' I looked at this horse for a long time and could find no fault
in him. Short, compact, with beautiful shoulders and quarters, his
legs perfect both below and above the knee, with great muscle and
bone, and full of quality, I believe he is the best horse in the-
whole stable.'
I must not weary the reader by taking him with me to all the
groups of mares, and will simply say that they consisted of what are-
called the big English mares, among which, though there are a few
coarse mares, the Austrian's love of strength tending to make him
perhaps too lenient of this quality, I counted eighteen that would
have done honour to any show in England or Ireland as mares calcu
lated to produce weight-carrying hunters. Small Arab and Lippitzaner
mares, a very even lot of 15.1 high, half-bred English mares, Anglo-
Arab mares, and the so-called big Arabian mares.
I cannot dismiss these last without a few lines, as they impressed
me more than anything I saw in Austria in the shape of horseflesh.
To get to their station of Millichutz we drove through a picturesque
bit of country, past homesteads of Eoumanian peasants, with their
quaint gateways and stores of Indian corn piled under the projecting
eaves of their whitewashed houses, with here and there a little 'gast-
hof, in\ ariably in the hands of a Jew, as any money-making esta
blishment in this country always is; through a Grerman colony, easily
distinguishable from the rest of the country by the neat and sub
stantial appearance of its houses and farm-buildings and prosperous—