94 THE HORtfE OF AMERICA. 



and the colt was taken to the vicinity of Hartford. Just where 

 this story originated it is not possible now to say, nor do I know 

 that it ever had currency in Connecticut, but it was certainly 

 rehearsed and probably believed in Maryland. He was owned by 

 Colonel Wyllis of Hartford, and was advertised in 1770 under the 

 single name of Eanger, and described as "a fine English stallion 

 of the Barbary breed, bred in England." From this it would 

 appear that nothing was then known of his romantic history. 

 As a part of his Maryland history it was said that General Wash- 

 ington's attention had been attracted to a body of Connecticut 

 cavalry by the excellence of their horses, and at his instance 

 Captain Lindsay bought Ranger, because he was the sire of many 

 of those horses, and took him to Maryland, where he was ever 

 afterward known as '"Lindsay's Arabian." The story of the 

 indorsement of Washington made an excellent stallion card, and 

 it is not necessary that we should inquire into it too closely, for 

 the dates might raise a question. The horse passed from Colonel 

 Wyllis to James Howard, of Windham, and was advertised by 

 him as "'The Imported Arabian Horse called The Ranger to 

 stand at his stable the season of 1778." Hence we must conclude 

 that he was not taken to the South before the season of 1779, or 

 possibly later. Then, as now, to catch the popular fancy, North 

 and South, the horse is no longer an "English stallion of the 

 Barbary breed" but an "Imported Arabian Horse." His cross 

 was well esteemed in his day, and it has held its place in the esti- 

 mation of all the experienced horsemen as a good cross in an 

 old pedigree. We now see that he was bred in England, that he 

 was got by a Barb horse or the son of a Barb horse, and that it is 

 not probable there was a single drop of Arabian blood in his 

 veins. This little sketch will serve to illustrate the methods, 

 general and particular, that were invariably used to place a ficti- 

 tious value upon the so-called imported "Arabians." In no 

 other department of human knowledge has there been such a 

 universal and persistent habit of misrepresenting the truth of 

 history as in matters relating to the horse. It seems to have 

 been, and still is, a kind of pyschical contagion that has been 

 generating dishonesty and a habit of lying in the minds of the 

 great body of horsemen for the past two hundred and fifty years. 

 If a horse is brought from Turkey, or Syria, or Egypt, or Spain, or 

 Morocco, or any of the Barbary States, he is at once called an 

 <k Arabian." This is worse than a misnomer, for it is an essential 



