ORIGIN OF THE THOROUGHBRED HORSE 73 



Volunteer, 1735. 

 Moorcork, 1740. 

 Babraham, 1740 ; son of the Godolphin Arabian, out of the larpje Hartley mare. 



Little Driver, 1743. 



Silver Leg, 1743. 



Othello, afterwards called Black and all Black, 1743. 

 Sampson, 1745. 

 Brilliant, 1750. 

 Forrester, 17 50. 

 Marske, 1750 ; sire of Eclipse. 

 Snap, 1750. 

 Syphon, 1750. 



IN THE YEAR 1750 there came off at Newmarket the celebrated match 

 made by the Duke of Queensberry (then Earl of March), to get four horses 

 to draw a carriage with four wheels, and a person in it, nineteen miles 

 within the hour. The feat was performed in fifty-three minutes twenty-seven 

 seconds ; and the four horses engaged, which were each ridden, were Mr. 

 Greville's Tawney, Mr. Hammond's Roderick Random, the Duke of 

 Hamilton's Chance, and Mr. Thompson's Little Dan. The horses ran away 

 for the first four miles, which were accomplished in nine minutes. 



BETWEEN THE YEARS 1748 AND 1764 the repeated use of Arab, Turkish, 

 and Barb blood had produced the happiest effect upon our race-horses, and 

 during this period three celebrated horses were foaled, which respect- 

 ively carry on the blood of the Byerley Turk, the Darley Arabian, and the 

 Godolphin Barb through the male lines. These three are Herod, or as he 

 was then called King Herod, foaled in 1758 ; Eclipse, foaled in 1764 ; and 

 Matchem, in 1748. Mr. Goodwin, Veterinary Surgeon, of Hampton Court, 

 lias published a table in which he traces all our good thoroughbred horses 

 of the present day to one or other of the three Eastern roots above 

 mentioned ; but he seems to have forgotten that in each case, even prior 

 to the time of Herod, Matchem, and Eclipse, there had been a mixture 

 with one of the other two, and since then in almost every case with the 

 third. It is, therefore, scarcely fair to attribute the excellence of Melbourne, 

 for instance, to the Godolphin Arabian, from whom he is descended in the 

 male line through Matchem, for the latter horse was also closely allied to 

 the Byerley Turk through his dam, and had moreover a second more remote 

 strain of the same blood. The same may be said of Melbourne's great 

 rival, Touchstone, who is set down by Mr. Goodwin as a proof of the 

 value of the Darley Arabian, to whom he can readily be traced through a 

 series of sires numbering Eclipse among them. Now a glance at the pedigree 

 of this latter horse will show that though he was a great-great-grandson 

 of the Darley Arabian through Bartlett's Childers, he was a great-grandson 

 of the Godolphin Barb on the side of his dam, and therefore one remove 

 nearer to the latter. Again, Bay Middleton, the contemporary of Touchstone 

 and Melbourne, and a representative of the Byerley Turk, according to 

 Mr. Goodwin's table, is descended through Herod from the Darley Arabian 

 on the dam's side, as well as from the Byerley Turk on that of his sire. 

 To make this clear, however, I will give the pedigree tables of the three 

 horses above mentioned, which will also serve to illustrate another point 

 which must be subsequently discussed. 



