GENERAL VIEW OF THE FIELD. 19* 



his own power, and more especially as lie was the only English- 

 imported running horse that ever showed any tendency whatever 

 in that direction, the study of Messenger's lineage becomes a. 

 question of very great interest and value to all students of trot- 

 ting history. His sire, Mambrino, was a great race horse, and 

 was distinguished above all others of his generation, or indeed of 

 any other generation, before or since, as the progenitor of a tribe 

 of coach horses of great excellence and value. In addition 

 to this, the evidence *seems to be conclusive that he had a natural 

 and undeveloped trotting step that far surpassed that of all other 

 running horses of his day. His sire, Engineer, was notoriously 

 short on the side of his dam, and his grandsire, Sampson, was a 

 half-breed of great size and bone, and ran some winning races, in 

 the best of company, for that day. 



The history of Messenger himself is still clouded in mystery, 

 and the blood he inherited from his dam remains hopelessly un- 

 known. The identity of his importer and owner has never been 

 established, which of itself throws a suspicion upon the pedigree 

 that is said to have come with him. He ran several races at 

 Newmarket, England, and proved himself a second or third-rate 

 race horse. The racing records there show that he was by 

 Mambrino, and that is all that is known about his inheritance. 

 He left a few tolerably good race horses, for their time, but he 

 filled the country with the best road and driving horses that the 

 horsemen of this country had ever known. A chapter each to 

 Messenger's ancestors and to himself will be found in their proper 

 places in this volume. The twenty years of Messenger's life and 

 service in this country fell in a period of indifference to all kinds 

 of racing except running. The English race horse was then the 

 popular idol, and it is not known that any of his sons or daugh- 

 ters were ever trained to trot. Neither can it now be certainly 

 determined that any of them were disposed to pace, but if we 

 may judge of the habits of action of his immediate progeny by 

 what we know of succeeding generations, we can hardly doubt 

 that there were pacers among them. As the custom then was, 

 and as it so remained for at least half a century later, all pacers 

 were hidden away from public sight, as they were supposed to 

 furnish evidence of ignoble breeding. 



The chapter on "The Sons of Messenger" will be long, but it 

 will be of exceeding interest. They constitute the connecting 

 link that brings together the peculiar trotting instincts of tlie 



