THE HORSE. 53 



ol the bi ^od of old Messenger imparts high form and action for the state oach and 

 ihe eye oi the connoisseur can detect the signs in a horse in whose veins flow eves 

 one-eighth of his blood ; so the fact is generally known to old gentlemen in the South, 

 and especially avouched by the Sporting and Agricultural Society in South Carolina, 

 that the stock of old Janus (there called Genius,) was so remarkable as road and 

 saddle horses, as to have gotten to be considered a distinct breed ; so the Topgal- 

 lant stock made fine saddle-horses, excelling in the canter. The blood horse, too, 

 is remarkable for longevity the Messenger stock particularly so. If the truth could 

 oe known, it is' probable it flowed in larger or smaller streams in each of the four 

 thorough-breds which the late General Hampton, (sire of that paragon of sportsmen 

 and gentlemen, Col. Wade Hampton,) drove in his coach all together for sixteen 

 years. 



Here may be aptly introduced some extracts from a familiar letter received by the editor 

 from Col. N. Goldsborough, of Talbot, Maryland, who has an eye for the fine points 

 of a horse, as quick as a hawk's for a fish one who has thought much and with effect 

 on all matters that give dignity and attraction to rural life himself of the pure old 

 stock in fashion when it meant something to be called a " Maryland" or " Virginia 

 gentleman." He, in confirmation of our hypothesis, says, speaking of Tom Thumb 

 " But whence came his lastingness, his powers of endurance, as well as speed 1 I 

 have been in the habit of thinking, that no horse could long continue exertion, espe- 

 cially at a rapid pace, without a good tincture of the blood. At about the same time 

 there went to England a horse called Rattler, of great speed as a trotter he was 

 represented as the cross of a full-bred horse on the Canadian mare. What a magni- 

 ficent picture " Whalebone" makes in his trotting action, and how different from the 

 abcvemimeJ horses ! When a boy, I have seen Phil Hemsly mounted on Ids trotting 

 mare, bred on the borders of Queen Anne's County. She was much in the style of 

 the famous Phenomena Mare of England about fourteen and a half hand? high. 

 He could keep up with a pack of hounds all day in a trot and she could pass over 

 the largest oak bodies lying in a v/ood, without breaking up. I was informed two 

 years ago in Philadelphia by Mr. Allen, son-in-law of Badger of the Marshall House 

 that some of the best trotters then in New Jersey, were the offspring of Monmouth 

 Eclipse the Messenger blood you see ! I know of no other family of the pure blood 

 horse which may be said emphatically to produce trotters the exception confirms the 

 rule. Col. Lloyd's Vingtun and old Topgallant got fine racking and cantering 

 horses. Is there more than one out of twenty thorough breds, that makes really a 

 racer? And are there not as many trotters at the North, and more, than there are 

 racers at the South, &c., where the most systematic efforts have been persevered in for 

 years, exclusively for the production of racers 1 I have often wondered where they 

 of the North derived their horses from what I have seen and heard, they have a 

 peculiar family, different in appearance, in form strikingly from ours. They of the 

 North have had some method in this matter as well as the breeders of short-horns, 

 Leicester sheep, &c. About the lakes they have a horse of great speed and power, 

 as I am informed, called the ' Frencher.' The English officers bring over from the 

 mother country, fine blooded stallions for troopers and parade. // is the cross of these 

 and the Canadian mares, which produces the 4 Frencher,' blood is indispensable. 

 But what is the Canadian"? undevenit? They are descended from the horses of 

 Normandy carried over by the French settlers. Napoleon's coach when captured 

 was being drawn by four Norman horses, and I guess the Emperor was not fond of 

 sitting behind slow cattle. When he Spaniards were in possession of the Low 

 Countries, they carried with them their Andalusian horses these were crossed on 

 the Normans, which produced great improvement. When the Spaniards were ex- 

 pelled, the breeding in-and-in from this stock must have produced a distinct family, 

 as Bakewe*! produced with other races of quadrupeds. Climate necessarily produced 

 a change in the Norman horse, when transferred to the rigour of Canadian winters- 

 hence the thick coat of hair, &c. The Andalusian, you know, is of Arabian descent. 

 So far as I have been able to learn, Vermont is indebted to Canada for her distin- 

 guished race of roadsters, as well as the neighbouring Stales. They have one dis- 

 tinct family, the ' Morgan,' descended from a little Canadian, famous too for running 

 quarter ra?es. This family has been cherished for years, and is as dittin<ruis>iec! 

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