"LEOPARD" AND "LINDEN TREE," 



the country, and although there was no public racing, unremitting 

 attention was paid by those possessing 'royal mares' and ' Tutbury 

 stallions' to preserve the breed pure and undefiled. But the most re- 

 markable, and by far the most important, contribution to Charles II. 's 

 racing stud was the magnificent animal above mentioned, which Oliver 

 Cromwell had obtained from Tutbury in July, 1650. During this inter- 

 val of the Lord Protector's sway, he was one of the greatest breeders 

 of thoroughbred stock, first at Hampton Court, and afterwards at New 

 Hall in Essex. In this interval Cromwell imported many Arabian stal- 

 lions. His White Turk was one of the most celebrated sires of the 

 Commonwealth. Cromwell's weakness for Arab horses was well known 

 to Mazarin, so much so, that on one occasion, when the crafty cardinal 

 wanted to circumvent Colonel Lockhart (the ambassador of England 

 at the French court), he overcame the envoy's diplomatic scruples by 

 presenting him ' with four exceedingly fine Arab horses for the saddle,' 

 which his Excellency pronounced to be the finest he ever saw, adding 

 that ' his lord and master would be mightly pleased with them.' Thus 



we find in Cromwell's stud not only the choice animals of Tutbury, 



the royal mares, horses, and colts, and their descendants which have 

 been carefully bred therein during those nine years, — but frequent ad- 

 ditions of new Arab blood, from which the highest breeding advantages 

 were expected, and doubtless attained. At any rate, the fame of Crom- 

 well's stud was well known to the merry monarch, as almost the first 

 order he issued at the Restoration was that those horses, ' said to be 

 the best in England,' should be seized, and returned to the royal stud. 

 The result of that order is well known, and all horses, except Coffin 

 Mare, soon after became the personal property of Charles II., and 

 formed the nucleus of his racing establishment, which subsequently 

 turned out so many winners on the race-courses of his kingdom durino- 

 his remarkable reien. 



"J. P. H." 



