354 



THE MODERN SYSTEM 



ECLIPSE. 



Eclipse, fully master of sixteen stone, was 

 bred by the Duke of Cumberland, of Culloden 

 memory, and foaled during the great eclipse 

 in 1764, whence the name given him by the 

 Royal Duke. He was got by Marsk, a 

 grandson, through Squirt, of Bartlet's Child- 

 ers, out of Spilletta ; she was got by Regains, 

 son of the Godolphin Arabian, out of Mother 

 Western, which mare was got by a son of 

 Snake, full brother to Williams's Squirrel, her 

 dam by Old Montague, grandam by Hautboy, 

 out of a daughter of Brimmer, her pedigree 

 not preserved. 



Eclipse had several full brothers and sisters ; 

 Hyperion, afterwards Garrick, Proserpine, 

 Briseis, and others, but none of them racers of 

 any high form. 



This famous racer, together with Flyuig 

 Childers, whose names are familiar to every 

 ear, stand proudly aloof, to this hour, from all 

 possibility of competition. Eclipse, in his form, 

 constitution, and action, seemed to compre- 

 hend every excellence for the course — a vast 

 stride, with equal agility ; no Horse ever threw 

 in his haunches with more vigour and effect, 

 and they were so spread in his gallop, that a 

 wheel-barrow might have been driven be- 

 tween his hinder legs. 



Of his speed too much cannot be said, but 

 we have no rule by which to judge of his 

 stoutness or game, since no cotemporary racer 

 was able to run for a moment by his side, far 

 less able to try his power of continuance ; and 

 if it be said, that he contended with middling 

 Horses only, the two or three capital ones that 

 met him, having passed their prime, it must 

 be remembered that those Horses he dis- 

 tanced, and probably could have, doubly dis- 



tanced. The jockeys never held him, the 

 Horse always running according to his own 

 will, yet never swerving from his course, and 

 always pulling up easily enough at the ending 

 post. O Kelly was yet apprehensive that he 

 might at some time Ireak away ; and when 

 the Horse ran over the course at York, with 

 twelve stone, which he was judged to have 

 performed in eight minutes, a number of men 

 were placed at the ending post, with the view 

 of stopping him, in case the jockey should be 

 unable to pull him up; a precaution which 

 proved entirely useless. He never felt the 

 whip or spur on any occasion. 



The only cotemporary which was supposed 

 to have any pretensions to contend with 

 Eclipse, was Mr. Shaftoe's famous Horse, 

 Goldfinder, by Snap, a beautiful and long- 

 reached brown Horse. He was never beaten, 

 and would have met Eclipse, to run for the 

 King's Plates in the following year, but that 

 he broke down in the October Meetina:, at 

 Newmarket. The speed of Eclipse was never 

 timed by the watch, unless in running over 

 the course at York, a fact never clearly ascer- 

 tained. 



Immediately previous to Eclipse running 

 for the King's Plate at Winchester, 1769, Mr. 

 O'Kelly purchased the half share of him, for 

 six hundred and fifty guineas, of Mr. Wild- 

 man, the sporting sheep salesman of Smith- 

 field, who had a stud, and trained race horses, 

 near Epsom, Surrey. Afterwards O'Kelly 

 purchased the remainder for eleven hundred 

 guineas. 



About the year 1779, a noble Duke, or 

 some sporting member of his family, demand- 

 ing of O'Kelly how much be would take for 

 Eclipse, the reply was — " By the Mass, my 

 Lord, and it is not all Bedford Le^el that 



