THE ENGLISH THOROUGHBRED HORSE OF 1750 GO 



judging in the selection and breeding of the horse, our cancestors never could 

 have arrived at such extraordinary success ; and whether this depended 

 u23on chance or preconceived theory, nearly equal merit is due, for there is 

 as much credit in seizing hold of facts which upset a prejudice, as in acting 

 upon those that support it. For a century and a half we have carefully 

 l)reserved the pedigrees of our pure bred horses, and for more than a third 

 of that time they huve been recorded in the Stud-book by the Messrs. 

 Weatherby. Besides these, we have breeds suited to the various purposes 

 for which horses can be required — namely, hunting, hacking, light and 

 heavy harness-work on the road, and agricultural operations. Each of 

 these varieties must, therefore, be considered separately ; and, as the grand 

 piece de resistance, I shall begin with 



THE ENGLISH THOROUGHBRED HORSE OF 1750 



In our historical records there are sundry notices of the importation 

 of Spanish and Flemish horses to serve as chargers, but there is no clear 

 account of any Eastern horse being brought into the country until the 

 reign of James the First, when Mr. Markham, a merchant of London, sent 

 for an Arabian from Constantinople, and sold him to the King for £500, 

 an enormous sum in those days. A great deal was expected from this 

 horse, but both the individual and his stock were found to be too slow to 

 race, and no other effort was made by either James I. or Charles I. in the 

 same direction. A Mr. Place, who was stud groom to Oliver Cromwell, 

 obtained possession of an Eastern horse, which appears in the Stud-book as 

 ^' Place's White Turk," but of his history nothing is known. Fairfax's 

 IMorocco Barb, and the Helmsly Turk, the property of the Duke of 

 Buckingham, were used to cross the blood of the four Bai'b mares imported 

 by Charles the Second from Tangiers, and known in the Stud-book as the 

 " Royal Mares ; " and for many years, that is, nearly to the end of the 

 seventeenth century, no other Eastern blood was employed in the English 

 breeding studs, with the exception of the three Hamburg mares which were 

 taken at the siege of Vienna, and brought over in 1684. These are 

 generally considered to be the foundation of the breed of our English 

 thoroughbred. It is quite clear, however, that prior to this time we were 

 in possession of a strain of race-horses which were possessed of fair speed, 

 for it is absurd to suppose that the Arabs of these days are faster than they 

 were two hundred years ago, and yet, those imported then specially to run 

 at Newmarket were beaten with ease. It is also highly probable that the 

 imported horses and mares were not bred from, exclusive of the native or 

 Spanish horses already in the country, for we find in almost all the old 

 pedigrees a break-down somewhere or other. Thus, in the pedigi'ee of 

 Eclijjse there are two blanks, which, it is true, may have been filled by 

 mares of Eastern blood, but the omission of the name looks extremely like 

 a desire to hide what has since been considered a blot in the escutcheon. 

 jMy own belief is that the race-horse of that day was imported from Spain, 

 and bred from a cross of the Andalusian mare with the Bai^b introduced by 

 the Moors. A fresh infusion of Eastern blood therefoi^e was likely to "hit," 

 as we know it did ; and by care, and taking advantage of our climate and 



