267 



been of the short, compact form in his back and loins, his immense 

 stride being furnished by the length of his legs and thighs, the former ap- 

 pearing in every portrait of him, of considerable length. This is not 

 perhaps, precisely the form, from which we should expect such wonder- 

 ful performances, both of speed and endurance, if we may with proprie- 

 ty, speak of the game of a Horse which had no competitor on earth, en- 

 dowed with sufficient speed to come within the reach of his heel; the 

 same may be said of Eclipse, and of those two only. Strength of loin, 

 and general compactness of form, upwards, doubtless supported the 

 extraordinary reach of Flying Childers, and enabled him to make those 

 wonderful springs which are recorded of him. According to tradition, 

 he was a vicious Horse, and governed with difficulty, of which his 

 countenance is an indication; but whether the remainder of the story 

 be true, that he was not trained as a racer in the beginning, but that his 

 great speed and powers were first discovered in the field at a severe fox- 

 chase, in which all Horses but himself were knocked up, I cannot judge; 

 such a story is, however, current in the North. 



He was bred by Leonard Childers, Esq. of Carr-house, near Don- 

 caster, purchased young by the Duke of Devonshire, and in all proba- 

 bilit}'-, did not race until rising six years old. Foaled in 1715. Got by 

 the Darley Arabian, out of Betty Leedes, by Old Careless, grand- 

 dam, own sister to Leedes, by Leedes's Arabian, which was the sire of 

 Leedes's great grand-dam, by Spanker, out of the Old Morocco Mare, 

 his own dam. Old Careless, sire of the dam of Childers, was got by 

 Spanker, out of a Barb mare. Childers, we see, was bred considerably 

 in-and-in, and with a mixture of Barb and Arabian blood. Old Spanker, 

 being almost all Barb. 



Flying Childers never started, but at Newmarket, and there beat M'ith 

 ease, the best Horses of his time. In Ocober, 1722, he beat Lord 

 Drogheda's Chaunter, ten stone each, six miles for one thousand guineas. 

 At six years of age he ran a trial at nine stone two pounds, against 

 Almanzor, got also by the Darley Arabian, and Brown Betty, a mare 

 belonging to the Duke of Rutland, over the round course, at Newmar- 

 ket, three miles, six furlongs, and ninety-three yards, in six minutes and 

 forty seconds ; to perform which, he must have moved eighty-two feet 

 and a half, in one second of time, or nearly at the rate of one mile in a 



2 M 2 minute, 



