856 



THE MODERN SYSTEM 



Eleven King's Plates, the weight carried for 

 all of them being twelve stone, one excepted, 

 ten stone, were won by Eclipse. In twenty- 

 three years, three hundred and forty-four 

 winners, the progeny of this transcendant 

 Courser, produced to their owners the sum of 

 158,071/. 12s. various prizes, not included. 

 The characteristics of the Eclipse racers were 

 speed and size, and many of them bent their 

 knees, and took up their feet in the gallop, 

 with extraordinary activity. If few of them 

 were stout, still fewer of them wanted ho- 

 nesty, a restive or swerving Horse being 

 seldom found of that blood. 



The eye of Turf science is directed in the 

 portrait of Eclipse, to the curve in the setting 

 on of his head, to his short fore-quarter, to the 

 slant, extent, and substance of his shoulder, 

 the length of his waist, and breadth of his 

 loins ; to the extent of his quarters, and the 

 length and substance of his thighs and fore- 

 arms. Although a strong, he was a thick- 

 winded Horse ; and, in a sweat or hard exer- 

 cise, was heard to blow at a considerable 

 distance. 



Eclipse first covered at fifty guineas ; after- 

 wards at twenty guineas, being stinted to fifty 

 mares, exclusive to those of his owner ; ulti- 

 mately, at thirty guineas. 



In 1788, his feet having been neglected, he 

 was removed from Epsom to Cannons, in a 



four-wheel carriage, drawn by two Horsoi?, 

 his groom being an inside passenger with him, 

 the old racer and his attendant taking the 

 necessarj' refreshments on the road together. 

 Eclispse died at Cannons in the following 

 year, on February 28, aged twenty-five years ; 

 and, according to the precedent of the Godol- 

 phin Arabian, cakes and ale were given at 

 his funeral. His heart weighed thirteen 

 pounds. 



The uncertainty in Eclipse's pedigree arises 

 from the circumstance that his dam, barren in 

 the previous year, was in the next covered by 

 both Shakespear and Marsk ; but came to 

 Marsk'.s time. There was a strong resem- 

 blance, however, in Eclipse, to the progeny of 

 Shakespear, in colour, temper, and certain 

 peculiarities of form. 



Mr. John Lawrence, who was well ac- 

 quainted with Eclipse, says : — " Never, to the 

 eye of a Sportsman, was there a truer-formed 

 galloper in every part ; and his countenance 

 and figure as he stood in his box, notwith- 

 standing his great size, excited the idea of a 

 wild Horse of the desert. His resolute and 

 choleric temper was well known ; and al- 

 though he held a very familiar and dumb 

 converse with us over the bar, we did not 

 deem it prudent to trust ourselves alono with 

 him in his apartment ; he was nevetheless 

 very kind and friendly \uth 1 is grocm." 



