THE ENGLISH RACE HORSE. 73 



reign of that monarch. Still, nobody knows anything of his 

 birthplace, his origin or his blood. He was to the English race 

 horse what Rysdyk's Hambletonian has been to the American 

 trotter. Neither of them was ever in a race, but each of them 

 stood immeasurably superior to all others of his day as a pro- 

 genitor of speed, at his own gait. From the latter we had reason 

 to expect speed because we knew he inherited speed, but from 

 the former we had no reason to expect anything, for we knew 

 nothing of what he inherited until he proved his inheritance by 

 what he transmitted to his progeny. Some of the principal semi- 

 tragic incidents, so far as known in the early life of Godolphin 

 Arabian, were seized upon by the great novelist Eugene Sue, and 

 out of them grew a "horse novel" from his gifted pen. The 

 horse was foaled about 1724, was brought to England from France 

 about 1730, and died at Magog Hills, 1753. There seems to be a 

 substantial agreement among those who had the best opportuni- 

 ties to know that the horse was employed on the streets of Paris 

 as a common drudge in a cart and driven by a brutal master. A 

 Mr. Coke, who is represented to have been a Quaker, was in Paris 

 on business and he happened to witness the. brutality of the 

 ruffian who was this horse's master in trying to make him draw a 

 load of wood up a steep acclivity on to a new bridge, which the 

 horse after repeated trials and clubbings was unable to accom- 

 plish. To relieve the poor brute from his sufferings, Mr. Coke's 

 feelings of humanity asserted themselves, and he stepped forward 

 and bought the horse on the spot and had him released from the 

 cart. Mr. Coke, it is said, brought the horse to London and pre- 

 sented him to Mr. Williams, the proprietor of a famous coffee- 

 house, and Mr. Williams presented him to Earl Godolphin. 



In September, 1829, Mr. John S. Skinner commenced the publi- 

 cation of the first horse magazine that ever appeared in this 

 country, and in the first number there appeared a steel engraving 

 purporting to be executed by the famous Stubbs and to represent 

 the great horse, Godolphin Arabian. Not many years afterward 

 I came into possession of a copy of this publication from the be- 

 ginning, and the sight of this picture always impressed me as the 

 most ludicrous abortion of the likeness of a horse that could be 

 conceived of. The neck was absolutely longer than the body, 

 the legs were about strong enough for a sheep, and all over it 

 lacked strength of both muscle and bone to a most absurd extent. 

 When this picture appeared in London, some years before, it was 



