INVESTIGATION OF DISPUTED PEDIGREES. 455 



there is no conflict and all is smooth sailing, and upon the infor- 

 mation derived from these two sources the pedigree of George 

 Wilkes was decided as established by the Board of Censors. But 

 more recent discoveries made by Mr. Ray, in which I have no 

 doubt he is thoroughly conscientious and possibly thoroughly 

 right, have raised a conflict that is irrepressible, for dates are 

 involved and insisted upon that make the pedigree impossible. 

 In his original statement Mr. Ray says that Henry -Clay made 

 the season of 1846 at Bristol, "when he became the property of 

 Kent & Bailey. He was kept in that town for some years." 

 Up to this point there is no contradiction and no impossibility; 

 Ray agrees with Lewis and Lewis agrees with Ray. But in the 

 past two or three years Mr. Ray believes he has secured addi- 

 tional information, and this places Captain Lewis in a very un- 

 enviable position. The whole point of Clark Philips 7 evidence is 

 that he bred his mare "Old Telegraph" to Henry Clay when that 

 horse was owned by Bailey Brothers, of Bristol, and I suppose 

 they were the successors of Kent & Bailey of an earlier date. 

 Now, as Mr. Ray told us in his first investigation that Henry Clay 

 passed into the hands of Kent & Bailey in 1847, and as he tells 

 us later that he did not pass into their hands till nine or ten 

 years after that date and then fails to fix the precise year, it must 

 be conceded by all that his information is not wholly satisfactory. 

 Recollections may be ever so honest, but they are of various 

 degrees of reliability. The best and final evidence is the service 

 book of the horse. My best judgment of the whole matter is 

 that Mr. Ray's later information is probably correct, but until 

 all doubt is removed by the production of some contemporaneous 

 record covering the case there must remain an element of uncer- 

 tainty attaching to the pedigree. 



