AIESSENGEB AND HIS ANCESTORS. 207 



1773, f. by Turf. 1 



}$: . f f . fe D"*. (dam of "^"^ L <- 



1780, b. f. by Justice (dam of Equity). } 



1782, b. c. Vulcan, by Justice. Mr. Pan ton. 



1783. b. c. Favfige, by Sweetbriar. ) 



1784 b. f. Ariel by Highflyer (dam of Mr. \ Mr. Bullock. 

 Hamilton's Swindler, by Bagot). ) 



This is all we have of the pedigree of Messenger as recorded in 

 the English Stud Book, and this record, on its face, has a very 

 suspicious appearance. Messenger had run some races at New- 

 market and a place must be provided for him in the Stud Book. 

 He always ran as a son of Mambrino, and there is no doubt this 

 is correct, as it so appeared in the Racing Calendar, long before 

 the days of the Stud Book. But nobody, either then or later, 

 seemed to know anything about his dam. Toward the close of 

 this chapter I will give an exhaustive review of the many troubles 

 in which these two fillies by Turf seem to be involved. 



Messenger was by Mambrino, he by Engineer, he by Sampson, 

 he by Blaze, he by Flying Childers, and he by the Darley Ara- 

 bian. We give the right male line here for the reason that there 

 can be no doubt as to the accuracy of this line, for it has been 

 preserved in contemporaneous racing records. The trouble, where 

 any trouble exists, is all with the dams of these horses which at 

 best are only matters of the most uncertain tradition. A writer 

 in the Edinburgh Review for July, 1864, covers the whole ground 

 when he says: "The early pedigrees (in the Stud Book) are but 

 little to be relied upon, as they seem for the most part to have 

 been taken from traditional accounts in the stable, from descrip- 

 tions at the back of old pictures, and from advertisements, none 

 of which had to pass muster at the Herald's College." This is 

 in full accordance with our American experiences and it is en- 

 tirely safe to say that the great body of our old American pedi- 

 grees, especially in their remote extensions, are more or less ficti- 

 tious. The industry of producing great pedigrees out of little 

 or nothing has long been pursued on both sides of the water, and 

 it would be very difficult to determine which side had the better 

 of it. 



Before attempting to analyze the pedigree of Messenger, or 

 rather that of his dam, with which the chief difficulty lies, we 

 will go back to the head of the male line and consider each suc- 

 cessive generation. The Darley Arabian, one of the most dis- 

 tinguished of all the founders of the English thoroughbred horse, 



