MESSENGER AND HIS ANCESTORS. 



gations. John Lawrence commenced work on horse history long 

 before Mr. Weatherby commenced as a compiler of pedigrees, and 

 he was altogether the ablest writer of his day, or perhaps we 

 might add, of any other day. He was a clear and independent 

 thinker and a vigorous writer. In his "History of the Horse in 

 all His Varieties and Uses," on page 281, he thus discusses the 

 question of Sampson's pedigree: 



"Nobody yet ever did, or ever could assert positively that Jigg was not 

 thoroughbred, but the case is very different with respect to Sampson; since 

 nobody in the sporting world, either of past or present days, ever supposed 

 him so. Nor was the said world at all surprised at Robinson's people furnish- 

 ing their stallion with a good and true pedigree, a thing so much to their ad- 

 vantage. Having seen a number of Sampson's immediate get, those in the 

 Lord Marquis of Rockingham's stud and others, and all of them, Bay Malton 

 perhaps less than any other, in their heads, size and form, having the appear- 

 ance of being a degree or two deficient in racing blood, I was convinced that 

 the then universal opinion <>n that point was well grounded. I was (in 1778) 

 an enthusiast, collecting materials for a book on the horse. It happened that 

 I wanted a trusty and steady man for a particular service, and opportunely for 

 the matter now under discussion, a Yorkshire man about threescore years of 

 age was recommended to me, who had recently been employed in certnin stables. 

 I soon found that his early life had been spent in the running stables of the 

 North, and that he had known Sampson, whence he was always afterward 

 named by us 'Old Sampson.' He was very intelligent on thesubject of racing 

 T ck ami his report was as follows. He took the mare to Blaze, for the cover 

 '.v'uich produced Sampson, helped to bit and break the colt, rode him in exer- 

 ise and afterward took him to Malton for his first start, where, before the race, 

 IIP was ridiculed for bringing a great coach horse to contend against racers. 

 On the sale of Sampson this man left the service of James Preston, Esq., and 

 went with the colt into that of Mr. Robinson. His account of Sampson's dam was 

 that she appeared about three parts bred, a hunting figure and by report a 

 daughter of Hip, which, however, could not be authenticated; and the fact 

 was then notorious and not disputed in the Yorkshire stables. . . . Mr. 

 Tattersall lately stowed me a portrait of Sampson in his flesh, in which this 

 defect of blood appears far more obvious than in one which I had of him 

 galloping." 



Again, in his great quarto work, issued 1809, Mr. Lawrence 

 reiterates his belief that Sampson was not thoroughbred. He 



"I am by no means disposed to retract my opinion concerning Robinson's 

 Sampson. Not only did the account of the groom appear to me to be entitled 

 to credit, but the internal evidence of the horse's having had in him a cross of 

 common blood is sufficiently strong by the appearance both of the horse him- 

 self and of his stock; an idea in which every sportsman, I believe, who re- 

 members Engineer, Mambrino and others will agree with me." 



