352 



THE MODERN SYSTEM 



opinion among our English Sportsmen, so 

 much in favour of the Horses of that country, 

 that it became a common inducement to style 



was never tried in running a single mile, hut 

 the measured and attested performances since, 

 of far inferior Horses, leave not the shadow 



all Horses imported from the Levant, Arabians, | of a doubt of the ability of Flying Childers. to 



whether or not they might have been really 

 such, or Persians, Syrians, Egyptians, Turks, 

 or Barbs. This has occasioned notable con- 

 fusion and uncertainty, but it has been ex- 

 perienced, that the Horses of all those countries 

 are endowed with the properties of the race 

 Horse in certain degrees, and the blood of our 

 English thorough-bred Horse is derived from a 

 mixture of all those, although doubtless the 

 blood of the Arabian and Barb predominates. 



THE DEVONSHIRE, OR FLYING CHILDERS. 



Childers, a bay Horse, somewhat upwards 

 of fifteen hands in height, was foaled in 1715, 

 the property of Leonard Childers, Esq. of Carr 

 House, near Doncaster, and sold, when young, 

 to the Duke of Devonshire. His pedigree was 

 as follows : — he was got by the Darley Arabian, 

 his dam, Betty Leedes, by Old Careless ; his 

 grandam, own sister to Leedes, by Leedes' 

 Arabian ; his great grandara by Spanker, out 

 of the Old Morocco mare, Spanker's own dam. 

 The Sporting reader will notice the near affi- 

 nities in this pedigree. The history of this 

 celebrated racer is so well known, and has 

 been so often repeated, that a few items of it 

 will suffice, Mr. Parkinson, who was likely to 

 be well informed, has said that Childers was 

 first used as a hunter, and that in the field, 

 both his high qualities and his headstrong, if 

 not vicious disposition, were first discovered. 

 He was, however, void of any taint of restive- 

 ness. It is probable, that, like Eclipse, he 

 did not start on the course, until five, perhaps 

 not until six years old, when lie beat all the 

 Horses of his time, at whatever distance. He 



run a mile within one minute of time ! Carry- 

 ing nine stone two pounds, he ran over the 

 Round Course at Newmarket, three miles, six 

 furlongs, ninety-three yards, in six minutes 

 and forty seconds, when he was judged to 

 move eighty-two feet and half in one second 

 of time. He likewise ran over the Beacon 

 Course, four miles, one fourlong, one hundred 

 and thirty-eight yards, in seven minutes, 

 thirty seconds, covering at every bound, a 

 space of twenty-five feet. He made a spring 

 or leap of ten yards, upon level ground, with 

 his rider on his back. As we remember, about 

 1778, O' Kelly caused the stride of his grey 

 Horse, Horizon, one of the speediest sons of 

 Eclipse, to be measured, and the extent was 

 reported to be twenty-seven feet. Childers, 

 as a Stallion, ranks far higher than his great 

 competitor Eclipse. In that capacity, perhaps, 

 no English bred Horse can compare with him, 

 as to essentials through length of descent ; as 

 a Racer, certainly but one. He died in the 

 Duke of Devonshire's Stud, in 1741, aged 

 twenty-six years. 



THE GODOLPHIN ARABIAN. 



The Godolphin Arabian was imported into 

 this country, about five and twenty years after 

 the Darley Arabian. They were the most 

 celebrated and valuable for their blood and 

 high form, as stallions, which have yet ap- 

 peared, and are the source of our present best 

 racing blood. There are sufficient reasons, 

 however, for the supposition, that Lord Go- 

 dolphin's Horse was in reality a Barb. The 

 public has been in constant possession of tha 



