252 THE HOUSE OF AMEKICA. 



York, about 1796, and his dam was by Allen's Brown Figure; 

 graiidam by Rainbow; great-grandam by Dauphin. He seems to 

 have been kept on Long Island as long as he lived. His progeny 

 was much like their sire, and Mr. D. W. Jones describes them as 

 "clean, wiry, and brilliant. In their make-up there seemed 

 nothing wasted and nothing wanted." He ran some races, as did 

 many of his get. He was bred upon one of the early daughters 

 of Hambletonian, and she produced the great trotter "Old Top- 

 gallant/' the sensation of his period and one of the most famous 

 of the very early trotters. One of the most remarkable facts in 

 the history of this remarkable old gelding is that he ran some 

 races before he was trained to trot. 



FAGDOVVN. This son of Messenger was bred on the Jersey 

 side of the Delaware, not far from Philadelphia, and was foaled, 

 I think, in 1803. His dam was represented to be by Diomed, and 

 if this be correct it must have been Tate's imported Diomed that 

 was imported into New Jersey and kept there a number of years. 

 This was a bay horse and must not be confounded with the 

 -chestnut horse of the same name imported into Virginia. Fag- 

 down became vicious and dangerous, and from this trait in his 

 character he was generally called the "Man Eater." He was 

 kept in the region of Philadelphia and south of there for many 

 years, and left a very numerous and very valuable progeny. They 

 were noted for their superior qualities as road horses, and some 

 of them were very fast, for their day. For a number of years no 

 family of horses were so popular about Philadelphia as the Fag- 

 downs. He had a son called Cropped Fagdown that was fast, and 

 another son called Jersey Fagdown that trotted some races 

 against the great Andrew Jackson. Another son, named after 

 his sire, was bred in Northeastern Maryland, and was taken to 

 Eastern Ohio in 1829, and he was kept in Oolumbiana, Mahoning, 

 and Jefferson counties for at least ten years. He was never in 

 a race nor never trained, but his Quaker patrons all insisted that 

 when led by the side of another horse he could trot as fast as a 

 pretty good horse could run. This grandson of Messenger was 

 the sire of the grandam of Wapsie, the well-known trotter and 

 sire of Iowa. 



BRIGHT PHOEBUS was foaled 1804, the same year as Hamble- 

 tonian. He was out of the imported Pot-8-os mare, and his 

 breeeder, General Coles, of Long Island, sold him to Bond and 

 Hughes, of Philadelphia. His most noted achievement was at 



