HAMBLETOXIAX'S SOXS AXD GRAXDSOXS. 313 



knew the Frenchman who bred North American. Ladd had for- 

 merly lived at Rouse's Point, and kept a little hotel at Benson's 

 Landing on Lake Champlain. Ladd's statement was that the 

 Frenchman had a little pacing mare, from which he wanted to raise 

 a foal, but would not pay more than three dollars for any horse's 

 service. Sir Walter's fee was fifteen dollars, but in the same 

 stable was a large stallion that was used to haul water from the 

 lake to the hotel, and the Frenchman was permitted to have the 

 service of this horse for three dollars, and this is the only reliable 

 version I could ever obtain as to the pedigree of North American. 

 Besides the line we are now considering, this horse got Lady 

 Waltermire, the dam of the great Strathmore, and one of his 

 daughters is the dam of two in the 2:30 list, and Vergennes Black 

 Hawk came from another. North America was said to have 

 been a natural trotter, and quite fast for a short distance. A 

 son of his, named Whitehall, from the name of the place where 

 he was bred, was taken to Ohio from New York about 1854 and 

 there got the noted Rhode Island, 2:23^, the sire of Governor 

 Sprague. Rhode Island was a brown horse, foaled about 1857, 

 and his dam was by a black horse called Davy Crockett that was 

 brought from Pennsylvania, and her dam was called Bald Hornet. 

 This mare, Mag Taylor, was bred to Whitehall twice, one of her 

 foals being Belle Rice, the dam of the stallion Harry Wilkes, sire 

 of Rosalind Wilkes, 2:14i, and the other was Rhode Island. This 

 horse trotted many races, and at Fashion Course, New York, 

 October 27, 1868, earned his record of 2:23|. He about this time 

 passed into the hands of Sprague & Akers, and he died in 1875. 

 At this time Governor Amasa Sprague had among his brood 

 mares Belle Brandon, by Rysdyk's Hambletonian out of a 

 daughter of Young Bacchus. This was a bay mare, foaled in 

 1854 in Orange County, and was a fast trotter and a mare of 

 great general excellence. She was driven as a mate to Sprague's 

 Hambletonian, and Mr. Sprague claimed that he had once driven 

 her a mile in 2 :29. Bred to Volunteer she produced Amy, 2:20i, 

 and to Rhode Island, produced in 1872, Governor Sprague, 2:20|. 

 Governor Sprague was a black horse, approximating fifteen 

 hands two inches in height, and very substantially built. He is 

 described as having been an exceedingly handsome horse, es- 

 pecially in action, his gait having been pure and beautiful. In 

 1873 he was sent to Kansas and trained, and so promising was he 

 that he was that year sold to Higbee Brothers and Mr. Babcock, 



