AMERICAN TROTTING HORSE. 523 



Butler, he never met Flora again, and died May, 1864, leaving 

 a reputation of which his numerous descendants may well be 

 proud. 



Her reputation was now so well established that it was difficult 

 for the mare to find any horse bold enough to contend with her ; 

 but at length a new antagonist put in an appearance in John Mor- 

 gan, but in two races at the Centreville Course in June, 18G1, mile 

 heats and two-mile heats, he was beaten in the mile race in 2 m. 

 24f s., 2 m. 26 s., and 2 m. 28J s., and in the two-mile race in 

 4 m. 55 J s. and 4 m. 52 i s. Flora's owner, Mr. McDonald, 

 sympathizing with the rebellion, soon after these races she was 

 confiscated by the government, and her trotting days were ended. 

 She was sold in 1864 to Mr. A. Welch, the princely owner of 

 Leamington and Alarm, for $8000, and at his beautiful farm at 

 Chestnut Hill roamed the meadows in her well-earned leisure. Her 

 first foal was a filly by Rysdyk, son of Rysdyk's Hambletonian, 

 called Kitty Temple, who has never shown any great speed. Her 

 second foal was the stallion Prince Imperial, by William Welch, a 

 handsome, wiry little horse, full of courage and vim. Her third 

 and last foal was a filly by Imported Leamington. Flora Temple 

 died December 21, 1877, and was buried in the lawn at Chestnut 

 Hill. While I write there is on the desk before me her fore-leg 

 and hoof, stuffed and mounted by Krider in his most artistic style, 

 and though she was over thirty-two years old at the time of her 

 death, and had been on the turf for eleven years, trotting as few 

 horses ever trotted, there is not a single break or crack in the neat, 

 deerlike hoof; it is as sound and true as when she was foaled. 



During the first years of the great Rebellion the turf languished 

 well nigh unto death — " Inter arma leges silent" — and few cared 

 for the mimic contests of the turf, when on the great battle-fields 

 of Virginia and Pennsylvania the flite of the nation was being 

 decided amid the clash of arms and the thunder of cannon. The 

 sporting papers yielded to the changed state of affairs, and the 

 editorials of the " Spirit of the Times" now breathed forth threat- 

 enings and slaughter, and paid but little attention to aught but the 

 stirring news of the day. Even their correspondence was dated 

 from the camps on the Potomac or Rappahannock, and now told only 

 of marches and countermarches and the details of army life. In 

 the Fall of 1862 the turf revived somewhat in the immediate 

 neighborhood of New York, and Lady Emma and Jilt, and General 

 Butler and Rockingham, trotted several notable races, and George 

 Wilkes, the first of Hambletonian's sons to show to the world the 

 merits of that greatest family of trotters, made his first appearance, 

 defeating Ethan Allen in three straight heats, in 2 m. 24| s., 

 2 m. 25| s., and 2 m. 31 s. George Wilkes is a dark brown stal- 



