694 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF AGRICULTURE. 
his stud was kept intact until 1845, when it was broken up, the Rus- 
sian imperial Government becoming the owner of the greater part. 
The blood and performances of these horses have been carefully re- 
corded. The highest rate of speed known to have been attained 
by an Orloff was in trotting 3 versts in 5 minutes. A verst being 
1,166% yards, it will be seen that the performance was at the rate of 
a mile in about 2:313. Though some specimens of the Orloff trotter 
were brought to the United States, meeting trotting blood superior 
to their own, they naturally failed to leave their mark on our breed. 
The only reputed trotters mentioned by English writers were cer- - 
y rey A g 
tain horses located chiefly in the county of Norfolk. John Lawrence, 
the earliest writer who mentions them, and a most entertaining one, 
declares that ‘“‘the renowned Blank may be looked upon as the 
father of trotters, since from his son Shales have proceeded the best 
and greatest number of horses of that qualification.” Blank was a 
son of the Godolphin Arabian whose romantic and mysterious ca- 
reer we are told touched at one time the degradation of hauling a 
cart in the streets of Paris, though at last he achieved fame as a 
mighty sire of English race-horses. As will be seen later on, how- 
ever, Shales was probably by Blaze and not by Blank. One of the 
most famous of this tribe was Marshland ies a noted trotter 
that sold for over 3,000 guineas at anction in 1812, when ten years 
old. In writing of these horses a quaint old writer describes Marsh- 
land Shales as ‘‘the best in Mother England.” Records of their 
speed are indefinite and uncertain, but it is said that a mare named 
Phenomena trotted in July, 1800, 17 miles in 56 minutes, and in 
the same month repeated the performance in 53 minutes. If this 
be true, this mare was the superior of any American trotter, not of 
her day alone, but for many years after her day. When we re- 
member that this was at the rate of 20 miles in 624 minutes, and 
that it was not until 1849-.that Trustee,in America, covered 20 
miles in 59:354, the conclusion is forced upon us that the Hng- 
lish had the material fvem which to build and evolve a great breed 
of trotters. That they have nothing equal to Phenomena in these 
days is certain, and the cause of this retrogression is probably that 
the trotting instinct and action in the horses of the olden time has 
been submerged by repeated infusions of running blood, just as the 
ancient English pacer disappeared before the tides of oriental blood 
upon which the English nartebehcaneis is founded. The chief and, 
indeed, only interest attaching to the Norfolk trotter is in the fact 
that it is practically certaim that Imported Bellfounder, the sire of the 
dam of Rysdyk’s Hambletonian, the greatest of all American trotting 
progenitors, was one of this tribe. This horse was imported from 
England in 1822, and was a powerful animal with gigantic quarters, 
showy trotting action, and kindly disposition. Hambletonian bore 
much resemblance to him in form and disposition, 
The foreign horse that played the most important part in origi- 
nating the American trotting breed, and that figures in the ancestry 
of our greatest sires and performers, was Imported Messenger. Ever 
since trotting speed first began to be considered a mark of merit in 
the American horse, ever since trotting blood was talked of, the 
blood of this horse, Messenger, has been unanimously considered 
the chief foundation stone on which the greatest trotting families 
have been. built. Just as the English race-horse was founded on 
oriental blood, and in years of selection and development for a special 
purpose was bred to a poimt of excellence unknown to the oriental, 
