32 THE HORSE. 



of the animal economy is such as that an animal will gradually accommodate itself til 

 great vicissitudes in climate and alterations in food, and by degrees undsrgo g:ea 

 changes in constitution. The size of animals is commonly adapted to the soil which 

 they inhabit. Where produce, is nutritive and abundant, the animals are large, 1 aving 

 grown proportionably to the quantity of food which for generations they have been 

 accustomed to obtain." To these respectable authors it will be sufficient to add the 

 observations &f Captain Thomas Brown, in his Biographical Sketches of the Horse, 

 that " the degenerating effects of a British atmosphere and pasturage, can only be suc- 

 cessfully combated, by the occasional introduction of Asiatic blood. A permanently 

 excellent breed can never be expected in Ms climate ," except, we would add, as haa 

 been well and truly said of Liberty itself, by eternal vigilance. 



On the soundness of these views, may not the opinion safely rest, that on this con- 

 tinent the Horse ought to reach and retain powers at least equal to any he has ever 

 attained in England ? And were truth to compel the admission, which is by ruo rneana 

 certain, oi any deficiency or falling off, might it not be fairly ascribed to the want, in 

 this country, of the vast means and the leisure, the science and the skill, which 

 English Aristocracy can command and afford to bestow on the turf, and all the appoint- 

 ments and accommodations, requisite for the pursuit and enjoyment of that and othei 

 field sports ; all of which create wide and constant demand, at high prices, for honest 

 and stout nags, that can go both the pace and the distance ] If money " makes the 

 mare go," so will it the horse, and by its agency, what may not be achieved in a 

 country where a nobleman finds amusement in spending, like the Duke of Richmond, 

 at Goodwood, fifty thousand dollars on his dog kennel? If the superiority claimed by 

 some for English over American horses, cannot be the fruit of climate, neither can it be 

 ascribed to any want on our part of their best blood. Our importations go back more 

 than a century. On this point we are glad again to borrow and adopt the views of thai 

 accomplished amateur, Mr. B. O. Tayloe, of Washington, by whom the public has 

 been well reminded that " at a very early period of its Colonial Government, fine 

 horses were introduced into Virginia encouragement was given by Legislative 

 enactments, and speed was particularly attended to Bull-Rock, a famed son of the 

 Darby Arabian, and wholly of Eastern Hood, was imported as far back as 1730, the 

 year that the Godolphin Arabian (Barb), was introduced into England ; and many 

 other English horses and mares were imported, long before any Stud-Book ippeared 

 in England." Before and soon after the Revolutionary War, and again, since the 

 establishment of the American Turf Register, the importations into New York, New 

 Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland. Virginia, and South Carolina, have embraced many 

 of the most distinguished families that have adorned the English Turf; bringing 

 streams pure and copious, from the great fountains of Matchem and Eclipse, with an 

 imple infusion from the loins of Herod himself; in whose stock, above all, is united 

 ' the two essential qualities of speed and botton*. ' To go more into detail in proof 

 of our abundant resources, if well husbanded, for sustaining a stock of horses equal IP 

 all desirable points, and for all manner of work, to that which any other country can 

 exhibit, would here be out of place else it would be easy to present a list not much 

 short of three hundred imported horses, among the very best which in their day 

 could be found in the " fast-anchored isle," beginning, as before stated, near half 

 a century before the American Revolution. 



Let it suffice to name a few, such, for example, as Shark, at the close of the last 

 century, and shortly thereafter those Derby winners, Saltram, (one of the best sons 

 of the famed Eclipse,) Diomed, Spread-Eagle, and Sir Harry; the equally famed 

 race-horses Gabriel, Buzzard, Eagle, and Chance ; and latterly the renowned winners 

 of the Derby Priam, St. Giles, and some others and of the St. Leger, Rowton, 

 Margrave, and Barefoot, that with their close competitors, also imported to thi 

 country, Sarpedon,Caetus, Trustee, and Emancipation; together with Glencoe, Rid- 

 dleworth, and Leviathan; Chatt^a-Margaux, and perhaps some others, were race- 

 Hordes of the very highest repute in their day, in England. 



Soon after the last revival of the turf in America, and before there was time to witnest 

 its effaces on our existing stock, it was deoined expedient to import again, at very great 

 tost, some of the most fashionable horses of the " old country," with ? view to the re- 

 . as it v^as supposed, of our native stock, but it is questionable how far it wan 



