ORIGIN OF AMERICAN TROTTING HORSES 131 



the sister to Syrian, Baroness, by Mentmore. Numbers 

 of other examples could easily be given, but enough has 

 been said to show that Mr. Helm was mistaken in 

 thinking English race-horses and pure-bred Arabians never 

 possess the gift of trotting, for on the contrary many are 

 very fast trotters indeed, and consequently are quite likely 

 to transmit their gifts to their descendants. 



When, therefore, Mr. Helm mentions " that Lord Gros- 

 venor, the owner of the horse, offered to match Mambrino 

 to trot fourteen miles in an hour for one thousand guineas," 

 and attributes his trotting powers to his being " one degree 

 closer to the coach-horse," he is scarcely treading on sure 

 ground. 



Other points that Mr. Helm relies on for proving coarse 

 blood in Sampson are that he was 15.2 at a period when 

 the thoroughbred horse rarely reached 15 hands, and also 

 that his withers were round and flat ; but this last charac- 

 teristic is by no means uncommon amongst pure-bred 

 Arabians, and both Hadramaut and Mail Train, mentioned 

 above, were remarkably round in their withers, though they 

 had great liberty of action and won many races. Lackland 

 also, bred at Middle Park by Mr. T. Blenkiron, by King 

 John out of Gaiety by Touchstone, the dam of Gamester, 

 winner of the St. Leger, a winner of fourteen races on the 

 flat, was as round in his withers as any mountain galloway, 

 so this certainly cannot be relied upon as a certain proof of 

 coarse breeding. As for the unusual height, Hagar, already 

 mentioned, a desert-born Arabian mare, was 15 hands, and 

 of her progeny, bred at Crabbet Park, Hadramaut grew 

 to 15.1 in the first generation reared in England. As 

 Sampson's ancestors had been brought up in this country 

 for some generations, the good keep may easily have sufficed 

 to grow a horse of Sampson's size. He was, moreover, a 

 racehorse of great excellence, having won all his races of 

 four miles and under, except his last race, when he won his 

 first heat. Surely therefore the convenient Scotch verdict 

 of "not proven" may be applied to Mr. Helm's arguments 

 as to the parentage of Sampson's sire. 



