206 THE HOESE OF AMEEICA. 



able to trot a mile in two minutes and thirty seconds, the speed 

 was deemed wholly phenomenal, but that speed has been in- 

 creased, second by second, until we are now on the very brink of 

 two minutes. In this process every second and fraction of a 

 second that has been cut off has been so much additonal proof of 

 the universal belief that Messenger was the chief progenitor of 

 the American trotter. He is not the only source of trotting 

 speed, but he is the chief source. Whence he derived this dis- 

 tinctive power to transmit trotting speed will be made more 

 clear as we proceed. His blood left no deep nor lasting impress 

 upon the running horses of the country, and it is seldom 

 we meet with any trace of it in the running horse of to-day, but 

 it is prominent and conspicuous at the winning post of every 

 trotting track on this continent. This will be made apparent 

 when we come to consider the details and the merits of the 

 mighty tribes and families that have descended from him. 



Several years ago I promised to write a volume on "Messenger 

 and his Descendants," and I have often been reminded of that 

 unfulfilled promise, which I will here try to rsdeem. When that 

 promise was made I had written many things about Messenger, 

 but since then I have secured very many valuable facts that, I 

 think, will far more than compensate for the delay. There is 

 still much that is unknown and much that is only partially 

 known of the origin and history of Messenger and his ancestors, 

 and in considering the questions that will arise as the discussion 

 progresses, I will not submit to a slavish acceptance of what- 

 ever has come down in the shape of stallion advertisements, or as 

 unsupported traditions, and then recorded as facts by people who 

 knew nothing about them, and made no effort to know. I shall 

 look for the facts that are known to be facts, or such evidence as 

 is reasonable and commends itself to an unbiased judgment, and 

 then reach such conclusions as right reason shall dictate. The 

 pedigree of Messenger, or rather the pedigree of Messenger's 

 reputed grandam, appears in the English Stud Book in the 

 editions of 1803 and 1827, in the following form: 



MARE (Sister to Figurante). Her dam by Starling, out of Snap's 

 dam. 



1769, b. f. by Herod (dam of Alert). ) M Vernon 



1770, bl. c. Hyacinth, by Turf. f Mr> Vernon - 



1771, bl. c. Leviathan (aft. Mungo), by Marske. Lord Abingdon. 



