MODERN FARllIEIl. 259 



bable that the most floiirisliing period of the turf 

 niav be deemed that between the years 1766 and 

 1784. 



The Darley Arabian, standing at the head of our 

 racing pedigrees, was, according to scattered rem- 

 nants of tradition, a horse of good substance, finely 

 formed, inclining to the deep or blood bay, and 

 nearly or altogether fifteen hands in height. He 

 was sent from Aleppo, perhaps towards the end of 

 queen Anne's reign, by JMr. Darley, of a sporting 

 family in Yorkshire, at that period a m.ercantile 

 agent in the east, and belonging to a hunting club 

 at Aleppo, where he made interest to purchase this 

 horse, doubtless, from all concurring circumstances 

 of evidence, a real Courser of the Desert, and of the 

 ancient and pure blood. He was kept by JMr. Dar- 

 ley as a private stallion, covering very few mares 

 but those of his proprietor ; indeed, as Arabians had 

 been long out of repute in the English breeding 

 studs, such consequence was to be' expected, and a 

 variety of the best bred mares of the country were 

 not annually poured in upon him, as afterwards, in 

 consequence of his great success, upon the Godol- 

 phin Arabian. His first get, however, was a true 

 and successful racer; and from this Arabian have 

 descended the speediest and largest coursers that 

 ever outstripped the Vvinds, in striding and spring- 

 ing over the earth. Flying Childers and EcHpse, 

 the swiftest of quadrupeds, w^ere the son and great- 

 grandson of this stallion, from which also, through 

 Childers and Blaze, descended Sampson, the most 

 powerful horse which ever raced, whether before or 

 since his time ; of first-rate speed as a racer, and in 

 form entitled to equal pre-eminence as a hunter, 

 hack, or coach-horse. The Darley Arabian was the 

 sire of Flying, or the Devonshire Childers, Bleed- 

 ing or Bartlet's Childers, Almanzor, Whitelegs, 

 Cupid, Brisk, Daedalus, Skipjack, Manica, Aleppo, 



