ECLIPSE. 461 



ally six in ares, wliich ot course was rejected. ]\Ir. 0" Kelly 

 said he had cleared by this horse twenty-five thousand 

 pounds, and his statement is supposed to be correct. 



Eclipse was allowed to be the fleetest horse that ever ran 

 in England, since the time of Childers. After winning 

 king's plates, and other prizes, to a great extent, he was 

 kept as a stallion, and gained to his OAvner, for forty mares, 

 the great sum of thirty guineas each. 



This fine horse seemed to combine all the qualities which 

 constitute an excellent racer : his stoutness, form, and 

 action were excellent. He had a vast stride, and certainly 

 never horse threw his haunches below him with more vigour 

 or effect ; and his hind legs were so spread in his gallop, 

 " that a wheelbarrow might have been driven between 

 them ;" his agility was great, and his speed extraordinary, 

 but we cannot estimate it justly, as no horse of his day 

 could be compared with him. The only contemporary 

 which was supposed at all equal to him was Mr, Shaftoe s 

 famous horse Goldfinder. He was never beaten, and was to 

 have been matched against Eclipse, for the king's plates, on 

 the following year, but he broke down at Newmarket in the 

 October meeting. 



Eclipse won eleven king's plates, in ten of which he 

 carried twelve stone, and in the other ten. It was calcu- 

 lated, that within the course of twenty-three years, three 

 hundred and forty-four winners, the progeny of this animaL 

 produced to their owners the enormous sura of £158,071. 12s. 

 sterling, exclusive of various prizes. The prevailing excel- 

 lence of all the progeny of this horse v/as great speed, and 

 they took up their feet in the gallop with wonderful acti- 

 vity. They wjre not, however, generally famed for stout- 

 ness ; but, almost all of them Avere horses of fine temper, 

 seldom or never betraying restifness. 



