Ill] AND HISTORIC TIMES 381 



it is always dangerous to argue ex silentio, the readiness with 

 which Arabs will sell colts, and their reluctance to part with 

 mares is a fact so well known in modern times (p. 168) that we 

 may safely assume that a like objection to sell mares prevailed 

 in North Africa and the Orient in medieval days. 



But Charles II sent his Master of the Horse, Sir John 

 Fen wick, to the Levant, and he was there able to purchase 

 brood mares as well as stallions, principally Barbs and Turks 1 . 

 It is to these mares (known as the King's mares) we must trace 

 the real origin of our English thoroughbred, for it is now practic- 

 ally admitted that our racing stock is purely foreign in origin, 

 since, with the remarkable exceptions of Sampson and Bay Malton, 

 in each of which there was a slight cross of vulgar blood, no 

 horse of mixed lineage has been able to beat one of pure North 

 African blood. This is in complete agreement with what we 

 have learned of the Arab and his derivatives in Western Asia, for 

 it is fully recognised that the pure Al-Khamseh horses of Central 

 and Southern Arabia are superior to the so-called Arabs of 

 Syria, Mesopotamia, and Persia, in which there is commonly 

 a considerable admixture of Upper Asiatic blood. 



As the Arab from his ancient practice of tracing his own 

 pedigree through females is inclined possibly to lay too great 

 stress on descent through mares, so the English from their 

 rooted belief in male descent have generally thought only of the 

 stallions and have unfortunately paid too little heed to the mares. 

 The stud-book shows the names of no fewer than 174 so-called 

 'Eastern' sires, of which 89 are classed as Arabians, 47 as Barbs, 

 32 as Turkish, 4 as Persian and 2 as foreign horses not more 

 closely defined 2 . The importation of all these dates from the 

 reign of James I downwards. But even in the case of the 

 mares imported by Charles II neither names nor any other 

 details seem to have been recorded. It is tolerably certain that 

 soon after the arrival in this country of these Royal mares the 

 king possessed the best breed of running horses in the kingdom. 

 At his death, when his stud was broken up, these mares were 

 eagerly sought by the principal breeders of the time, and after- 



1 Youatt, The Horse, p. 65. 



2 Charles Richardson, The English Turf (1901), p. 282. 



