36 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 



first act of the little colt was to tumble luto a pit 

 where clay had been mixed for making bricks. He 

 was rescued from this hole in a very sorry condition, 

 and either on account of the accident, or from natural 

 weakness, he was unable to stand upright. His pas- 

 tern joints bent under his weight, and altogether he 

 appeared to be so wretched and worthless a creature 

 that Mr. Jeffreys gave orders to have him killed. 

 But his wife interceded, begged that the foal's life 

 might be spared, and undertook to look after him 

 herself. The colt was accordingly permitted to live, 

 a little careful nursing soon brought him round, and 

 thus, through the pity of a woman, did the ances- 

 tor of all the Clays escape being murdered in his in- 

 fancy. It is an odd fact that Vermont Blackhawk, 

 founder of the trotting branch of the Morgan fam- 

 ily, and one of the handsomest horses that ever 

 lived, was also condemned to death bv his owner 

 because of the weak and ugly appearance that he 

 first made in the world. In his case it was the 

 groom who successfully interceded for his life. The 

 same thing is true of Santa Claus, one of the best 

 grandsons of Rysdyck's Hambletonian. Andrew Jack- 

 son was the sire of Henry Clay, founder of the Clay 

 family, his dam being a Canadian trotting mare called 

 Surrev, of unknown breeding. 



Some writers assert that Henry Clay's good quali- 

 ties as a trotter were derived from the Messenger 

 element in his composition ; but it is a striking fact, 

 that in form, in disposition, and in color he resembled 

 his great-grandsire Grand Bashaw very closely. He 

 was a coal-black horse with a beautiful white cres- 

 cent on his face, " very perfect, the line of it extend- 



