46 THE CHANGE COUNTY 



vantages of the breed again became perceptible, and he was 

 soon followed by the Helmsley Turk, the Morocco barb, and 

 by a variety of horses of similar descent. Thus, a beauty of 

 form, and a degree of speed and stoutness, to which an ap- 

 proach had scarcely been observed in the original breeds, 

 was obtained. 



On the Restoration, Charles II. gave every possible en- 

 couragement to horsemanship. He established, races on 

 Datchet Mead, and often attended the newly-established 

 course at Newmarket, entering his own horses. The racing 

 cup was now substituted for the bell, the old prize, and the 

 example of the king raised the course to a splendor before 

 unknown. 



This king, to whom we are in a great measure indebted 

 for the introduction of the present strains of foreign blood, 

 sent his master of the horse abroad to procure a number of 

 foreign horses and mares; the latter, which were brought 

 over by him, were called the royal mares, from one of which 

 in the maternal line the genealogy of Eclipse is traced. The 

 pedigree of his sire, Marske, is somewhat obscure; it goes 

 back through eight generations to a daughter of Bustler; 

 but how her dam was bred there is no authority. It may be 

 conjectured that she was descended from some of the wor- 

 thies which distinguished themselves on the coarse in tho 

 reign of James I. There are several examples of a similar 

 nature traceable in the stud-book, which lead to the conclu- 

 sion, that during the early periods of breeding for the turf, 

 mares used for ordinary purposes were occasionally selected 

 in case they evinced speed and stoutness, -without reference 

 to their Oriental pedigree. The pedigree of Highflyer 

 affords a similar instance to that of Eclipse, and, singular to 

 relate, runs into precisely the same strain of blood. On his 

 clam's side he can be traced to a royal mare; but in the pa- 

 ternal line his genealogy terminates in a mare which pro- 

 duced a filly from Bustler, which horse was a son of the 

 Helmsley Turk. Although there are scarcely any horses on 

 the turf at the present day which are not in some degree de- 

 scended from the royal mares, it appears too much to assert 

 that they all owe their origin entirely to Eastern blood. The 

 casuist may, therefore, with consistency inquire, What is a 

 thorough-bred horse ? The term is accepted conventionally 

 to signify a horse whose pedigree can be traced through 

 many generations, the members of which have signalized 

 themselves on the turf, or have established their reputation 

 as progenitors of superior horses, 



