INVESTIGATION OF DISPUTED PEDIGREES. 411 



tries that were famous in history for the great numbers of fine 

 horses that they produced far more than a thousand years before 

 the first horse was taken to Arabia. This horse is called an 

 "Arabian," and in the brief record of his importation we have 

 the same venerable "chestnut" served up to us that has served 

 so many generations of speculators in "Arabian blood." The 

 record says that Mr. Darley had a brother who was an agent for 

 merchandise abroad, who "became a member of a hunting club, 

 by which means he acquired interest to procure this horse." 

 This "gag" has been played too often to give eclat to horses 

 claimed to be brought from Arabia, in the past two hundred 

 years, to have much effect on the minds of people who have any 

 sense. That it required great social or political influence to in- 

 duce the old Arab sheik to part with him, was intended merely 

 to secure the attention of prospective customers to his superla- 

 tive excellence in order to obtain their patronage. This horse 

 probably never was within five hundred miles of the nearest part 

 of Arabia, and to call him an Arabian is a misnomer wholly un- 

 justifiable. He came from a country where horses were abundant 

 and cheap on all sides, and of a quality far superior to any 

 Arabian. He was simply a Turk, he was for sale, and it required 

 no influence to buy him except the contents of the purchaser's 

 purse. This horse has always been classed as one of the two 

 great founders of the English race horse. His progeny from 

 well-bred mares were not numerous, and his greatest distinction 

 is in the fact that he was the sire of Flying Childers. In accord- 

 ance with the truth, he should be known in the records as 

 "Parley's Turk." 



The horse bearing the dishonest misnomer of "Godolphin 

 Arabian" was really the greatest regenerator and upbuilder of 

 the running horse that England ever possessed. There seems to 

 be no historical doubt that he was brought from France, and that 

 is all we know about his origin and early history. It may be laid 

 down, therefore, as a safe proposition, that the odds are as a thou- 

 sand to one that he was a French horse. The only evidence that 

 can ever be furnished as to the strain of blood that he may have 

 possessed must be found and studied in his portrait, which ap- 

 pears in this volume. I believe this portrait to be a correct and 

 true delineation of the horse, and there is not a single lineament 

 in or about it that indicates the blood of either the Arabian or 

 the Barb. His pedigree is in his picture, and, from what is 



