OF FARRIERY. 



^51 



nature of the Horse, were found highly to 

 improve in size and powers, the progeny of 

 the Horses of the South ; and thence, aided by 

 the systematic care of our turf breeders, has 

 arisen the British race Horse, in the state of 

 beauty, symmetry, and perfection, which we 

 now witness ; and the superiority of which, all 

 the world acknowledges and admires. This 

 species had probably arrived at perfection, 

 above a hundred years since, in the instance 

 of Flying Childers, as the speed of that 

 wonderful animal has never been exceeded ; 

 nor does it seem within the experienced 

 powers of Nature that it ever should. 



From that period, the greatest attention has 

 been paid to pedigree, and to preserving the 

 racing breed pure and unmixed. Accidental 

 mixtures there certainly have been, for such 

 are upon record ; but they have been com- 

 paratively few, mere drops of common, in the 

 grand stream of pure and high racing blood. 

 Such crosses have been occasionally apparent 

 in the form and qualities of the produce, 

 perhaps for several generations ; but they 

 have been obliterated by time, and are not dis- 

 coverable in the remote descents. Within 

 the above period, but not very lately, the 

 phenomenon has now and then appeared of a 

 Horse not thorough -bred, proving a winning — 

 even a capital racer. But such exceptions 

 will not induce experienced Sportsmen to 

 infringe the general rule, by breeding from, or 

 training Horses for the course, which are not 

 thorough-bred. The same rule holds, however 

 anomalous it may seem, with respect to 

 foreign Horses of the purest blood, from which 

 our thorough-breed is derived. None of them, 

 and the expeiiment has often been repeated, 

 whatever be their age, size, or condition, are 

 able to contend upon the course, from a race 



of one hundred yards, to one hundred miles, 

 with their relatives and brethren in blood, 

 the race Horses of this country. 



The first James, our first sporting monarch, 

 also, purchased of a Mr. Markliam, a merchant, 

 an Arabian Horse, at the very considerable 

 price of five hundred pounds. 



The ill success of this Horse brought 

 Arabians into such disrepute, that we read of 

 but few in the scanty annals of the Turf, until 

 the reign of Queen Anne, the last of the 

 Stuarts. 



THE DARLEV ARABI.\N. 



Early in the reign of Anne, and which 

 forms an epoch in Turf history, the famous 

 Darley Arabian was imported. He was sent 

 from Aleppo by Mr. Darley, a merchant there 

 settled, who procured him through his con- 

 nections, from the Arabian deserts ; and he is 

 one of those few Horses, on the purity of the 

 blood of which we can have a certain reliance. 

 Hence the consequence to a turf breeder, of 

 having a portrait upon which he can depend 

 upon, to illustrate those proportions of excel- 

 lence, which this Horse possessed. It is 

 said the only portrait of him has never been 

 published, but remains in the mansion of his 

 former master. That he was the sire of that 

 racer of deathless fame. Flying Childers, and 

 that his blood has since invariably proved the 

 most valuable for the stud, form the best 

 evidence of its purity, and that the land in 

 which he was bred, is the native soil of the 

 genuine courser. The Leedes Arabian was 

 cotemporary with the Darley, and it is suffi- 

 cient for his fame as a stallion to say, that he 

 was the sire of Old Leedes. 



The great success of Mr. Darley with his 

 Arabian, turned the current of fashionable 



