ROAD HORSES. 119 



31 any private breeders also added to the Arabian stuck 

 in England ; but it was not until the first half of the 

 eighteenth century that the three horses were 1111- 

 ported who have exercised the greatest influence upon 

 the race of English thoroughbreds. These were the 

 Byerly Turk, the Darley Arabian, and especially the 

 Godolphin Arabian, or Barb, — probably the latter. 

 The last named was a dark bay horse about fifteen 

 hands high (Arab horses seldom exceed 14| hands), 

 with a white off heel behind. He is said to have been 

 stolen from his owner in Paris, where he was em- 

 ployed in the menial task of drawing a water-cart, and 

 his pedigree was never ascertained. It is the fashion 

 of English writers to decry the Arabian blood; and it 

 is true that the present thoroughbred, owing to many 

 years of good food and severe training, is a bigger, 

 stronger, swifter animal than the Arab ; 1 but the 

 latest and perhaps the highest authority on this sub- 

 ject, William Day, makes the significant admission, 

 that all the best thoroughbreds now on the English 

 turf trace back to one or more of the three Arab 

 horses whose names have just been mentioned. 



The chief reason wiry a good roadster must have 



1 Some years ago, Haleem Paeha, of Egypt, who had inherited 

 from his father, Abbass Pacha, a stud of Arabs estimated to have 

 cost about 35,000,000, made a match with certain merchants at Cairo 

 to run an eight-mile race for £400 a side The Cairo merchants 

 sent to England and bought Fair Nell, an Irish mare, thorough- 

 bred, or nearly so, that had been used bv one of the Tattersalls as 

 a park and covert hack. She was a beautiful bright bay mare, 

 with black legs, standing about 15 hands 1^ inches. The match 

 took place within two weeks after Fair Xell landed in Egypt, and 

 she won with ridiculous ease, beating the Pacha's best Arab by a 

 full mile. She did the eight miles in 18| minutes, and palled up 

 fresh. 



