48 THOROUGHBREDS. 



by the influence of skillful handling and natural conditions peculiar to 

 English soil and climate. The horses now generally regarded as of most 

 value among the early invoices of Oriental blood may be named as fol- 

 lows, in order of their importation : The White Turk, owned by Mr. 

 Place, stud groom of the Lord Protector Cromwell ; the Byerly Turk, 

 owned by Captain Byerly, and used by him as his charger in the wars of 

 William in Ireland, about 1689 ; the Darley Arabian, owned by Mr. 

 Darley, of Yorkshire ; and last in point of time, but by no means least 

 in the number and great excellence of his descendants, the Godolphin 

 Barb, called also "Godolphin Arabian," but erroneously, since he was 

 universally admitted to be a Barb. 



Many other noted parents of racing stock might be named as illus- 

 trating the extent to which the blood of the desert has been used in 

 forming the modern Thoroughbred, but space forbids. The Darley 

 Arabian, bred in the desert of Palmyra, may be said to be the parent of 

 our best racing stock. From Youatt, in reference to this horse and his 

 descendants, we quote : 



"His figure contained every point, without much show, that could be desired in a 

 turf horse. The immediate descendants of this invaluable horse were the Devonshire or 

 Flying Childers ; the Bleeding or Bartlett's Childers, who was never trained ; Almanzor, 

 and others. The two Childers were the means through which the blood and fame of 

 their sire were widely circulated ; and from them descended another Childers, Blaze, 

 Snap, Sampson, Eclipse, and a host of excellent horses. The Devonshire or Flying 

 Childers, so called from the name of his breeder, Mr. Childers, of Carr House, and the 

 sale of him to the Duke of Devonshire, was the fleetest horse of his day." 



Probably the most noted of the descendants of Flying Childers was 

 King Herod, the founder of the old Herod line of English Thorough- 

 breds. He was the sire of 497 winners, who gained for their owners 

 some ^200,000. 



Of Sampson more extended mention will be found in the chapter 

 on American Trotters. His reputed and recorded sire was Blaze, but 

 his actual sire has been commonly supposed to be of heavier, coarser 

 extraction ; be that as it may, in the horse Sampson, regardless of his 

 pedigree, was combined the exact elements necessary to plant the germ 

 of the trotting instinct, which has been so highly developed in the long 

 list of trotting horses descended from his great-grandson, imported 

 Messenger. 



Eclipse was, by acknowledged right, the most wonderful horse ever 

 produced on English turf. His career was so brilliant both on the turf 

 and in the stud, and his exploits so remarkable, that the following quo- 

 tation from Prof. Low's great work may prove of interest : 



"Eclipse was got by Marske, a grandson of Bartlett's Childers, out of Spiletta. 

 He was foaled in the year 1764, during the eclipse of that year, from which circumstance 

 he took his name. He was bred by the Duke of Cumberland, and on the death of that 

 prince sold to Mr. Wildman, a salesman at Smithfield, and afterwards he became the 



