HISTORY OF MESSENGER. 225 



till years after the horse was dead,, and probably the importer too, 

 did I learn from an advertisement of a son of his that stood in 

 Jersey that the importer's name was "Thomas Benger." In 1791 

 and for two years afterward he was advertised to stand at "Mount 

 Benger, two miles from Bristol, Pennsylvania." When I visited 

 Bristol for the purpose of identifying "Mount Benger," which I 

 supposed was the country seat of the owner of Messenger, I was 

 greatly surprised to find that none of the "oldest inhabitants" 

 had ever heard of such a place, and when I was informed that 

 there was no locality within half a dozen miles of Bristol where 

 the ground rose to a hundred feet above the level of the Delaware 

 River, the name "Mount Benger" assumed the character of an 

 absurdity as well as a myth. From a very intelligent man of 

 middle age, who had learned the blacksmith trade with his grand- 

 father, I learned that he had often heard his grandfather speak of 

 Messenger, and as having put the last set of shoes on him when 

 he was taken away to New York the fall the yellow fever was so 

 bad in Philadelphia. The tradition was still preserved in the 

 family that Messenger reared up in crossing the river in a boat, 

 and struck his groom on the head with one of those shoes, from 

 the effects of which he died. As our informant was able to name 

 two other horses, Governor and Babel, brought over by Mr. 

 Benger, we were ready to accept his tradition that he lived at a 

 point known in old times as "China Retreat," two miles below 

 Bristol on the Delaware. This point has been known later as 

 "White Hall." 



After all traditions were exhausted, without yielding anything 

 tangible or satisfactory, we turned with great confidence to the 

 records of the county of Bucks, in which Mr. "Benger" had 

 lived for a number of years. After a diligent and protracted 

 search, embracing a number of years before and after his known 

 residence in the county, we were not able to discover that any 

 person by the name of "Benger" had ever owned a foot of real 

 estate in the county or had been in any way publicly connected 

 with its affairs or its administration. We had search made in 

 Philadelphia with the same fruitless results. There is a faint 

 tradition that Thomas Benger, if that was his name, was a fox- 

 hunting Irish baronet, and if this was so, it is probable he re- 

 turned to the old country about the time he sold Messenger in 

 1793. However this may be, the owner is forgotten, but his 

 horse will live forever. 



