OF FARRIERY. 



361 



flesh, than run the risk of training so fine, as 

 lo debilitate the constitution of the animal. It 

 would be also more wise very often to substi- 

 tute walking exercise, than severe training, 

 immediately before the match comes on. It is 

 essential that rest should intervene before any 

 extravagant demand is made upon the powers 

 of any animal. Without such care it is not to 

 be wondered at that Horses should break 

 down in racing. 



MARSK. 



The brown Horse, Marsk, foaled in 1750, 

 and so named from the place where he was 

 bred, was the property of John Hutton, Esq., 

 of Marsk, Yorkshire, who afterwards disposed 

 of him to his Royal Highness the Didie of 

 Cumberland, was got by Squirt, son of Bart- 

 let's Childers, out of the Ruby mare, which 

 was from a daughter of Bay Bolton and Hut- 

 ton's Black Legs — Fox Cub — Coneyskins — 

 Hutton's Grey Barb — a daughter of the By- 

 erley Turk, from a Bustier mare. This is one 

 of our highest bred pedigrees, going back to 

 the reign of Charles I. In the year 1750, the 

 Duke made an exchange of a chesnut Ara- 

 bian with Mr. Hutton, for the colt, which his 

 Royal Highness afterwards named Marsk. 



The history of Marsk, like the Godolphin 

 Arabian, was highly eventful, and distin- 

 guished by alternate depression and elevation. 

 The fitful tide of life, seems equally to affect 

 the quadruped as much as the biped part of 

 the creation ; as the history of Marsk, as well 

 as of his sire, will show. 



Marsk must be deemed a capital racer, 

 since he beat Brilliant ; but he was an uncer- 

 tain Horse. Being in low estimation as a 

 Ktallion, in the Duke's stud, he was sold at his 

 Koyal Highness's sale at Tattersall's, to a 



farmer for a trifling sum, and in 1766, as has 

 been before observed, covered country mares 

 and foresters, at half-a-guinea ; when Mr. 

 Wildman finding his intelligence respecting 

 the Eclipse colt correct, thought it advisable 

 to get into his possession the sire of such a 

 colt, and purchased Marsk of the ftirmer for 

 twenty pounds, who professed himself happy 

 to be well rid of a bad bargain. 



Of Marsk's subsequent advance in fame and 

 price as a stallion, we have spoken of before 

 under the head of Eclipse. 



Marsk has been styled the " Prince o 

 Horses," and his fame will be handed down 

 to as late a posterity as the fame of his late 

 princely owner. 



It is suflScient to say that, beside so many 

 other racers of high reputation, he was the 

 sire of Eclipse, Shark, Pretender, Honest Kitt. 

 Masquerade, Leviathan, Salopian, and Pontac 

 Shark won sixteen thousand and fifty-seven 

 guineas, in matches, sweepstakes, and plates . 

 beating the best Horses of his day, at their 

 own play, whether speed, or stoutness. 



Marsk seems to have had the caprices of 

 fortune imparted to him as an inheritance from 

 his sire. Squirt, after running with great re- 

 pute, became a stallion in Sir Harry Harpier's 

 Stud, who esteeming him of no worth, ordered 

 him to be shot. 



As the huntsman was leading him out t? 

 the dog-kennel, he was begged off by the 

 stud-groom ; and afterwards got Marsk, Sy- 

 phon, Prat's famous old mare that bred Pump- 

 kin, Maiden, Purity ; with many others. 



Syphon got Sweetwilliam, Sweetbriar, 

 Tandem, Daisey, and others. 



These curious and interesting facts, which 

 might be greatly multiplied, surely cannot fail 

 of having certain effect upon the minds <>/ 

 4 V 



