MESSENGER'S soxs. 245 



July, 1829. This horse had probably more trotting speed than 

 any of the other sons of Messenger. Mr. Bush assured me that 

 he could trot very fast for a horse of that day, and when led by 

 the side of another horse he could beat three minutes very easily, 

 but as we have to take Mr. Bush's assertions cum grano salis, we 

 fortunately have very reliable testimony of contemporaneous date 

 and from a source wholly disinterested. I have before me a 

 letter written by Judge J. Porter, of East Bloomfield, dated June 

 4, 1828, in reply to inquiries from some correspondent about the 

 horse, his terms, etc. He writes as follows: 



" I should think he was a very swift trotter from what I have seen, and very 

 sprightly and nearly white. He has got a great number of fine colts in this 

 town which are three years old; and the probability of their drawing on the 

 old horse's business is the reason of his being removed to Le Roy and Batavia." 



Whether Judge Porter was a horseman or not he certainly 

 reflected, in this remark which I have emphasized, the leading 

 quality for which Bush Messenger was distinguished in that region 

 and in that day. 



Although he was certainly a very fast natural trotter, it is not 

 known that he was ever trained an hour in his life, neither is it 

 known that any fast or trained trotters ever came from his loins. 

 This was the period of fast mail coaches running from Albany to 

 Buffalo, and as the old proprietors of those great lines were 

 pushed westward from State to State until they finally were 

 driven across the Mississippi, I have many times heard them talk 

 of the great slashing grey Messenger teams that would carry their 

 coaches along at ten miles an hour, and lament that there were 

 no such horses nowadays. There were other sons of Messenger 

 and many grandsons, all known as "Messengers," but as a pro- 

 genitor of horses suited to the stage coach this particular one 

 that broke his neck in trying to get out of his inclosure was the 

 premier. He probably came nearer filling the place in this 

 country that his grandsire filled in England English Mambrino 

 than any other one of the tribe, for we can truly say of him, as 

 Pick said of his grandsire, "from his blood the breed of horses 

 for the coach was brought nearly to perfection." 



POTOMAC was a bright bay, fifteen and a half hands high, and 

 was bred by Daniel Youngs, of Oyster Bay, Long Island. He 

 was foaled 1796 and got by imported Messenger; dam by imported 

 Figure; grandam by Bashaw. He was put on the turf in the 



