ORIGIN OF THE THOROUGHBRED HORSE 83 



still further upsets the probability of his having performed the wonderful 

 feat above mentioned. In 1859, he won a £50 plate at Scarborough, after 

 which he was put to the stud, his price being at first 5 guineas, but the 

 success of the stock caused this to be doubled in 1765 ; and again, in 1770, 

 when it was raised to 20 guineas ; the lapse of another five years inducing 

 his owner to limit him to 25 mares at 50 guineas each. He is supposed in 

 this way to have earned £17,000, and in twenty-three years his stock won 

 upwards of £150,000. 



Herod, foaled in 1758, was a rich bay, and of very fine symmetry and 

 size. He was bred by the Duke of Cumberland, and sold to Sir John 

 Moore at his death. After a long series of successes at Newmarket, he 

 burst a blood-vessel in running for a subscription-purse at York, in 1766, 

 after which he was never quite in his previous form, and was put to the 

 stud, commencing with 10 guineas, in 1768, and ending with 25 guineas, 

 from 1774 to his death, which occurred in 1780. His stock won upwards 

 ol £201,000, besides many hogsheads of claret, whips, cups, etc. 



Eclipse (so named from being foaled in the year 1764, when there was 

 an eclipse of the sun) was a chestnut horse, like Herod bred by the Duke 

 of Cumberland, and at his decease sold to Mr. Henry Wildman, a Smithfield 

 salesman, who kept race-horses at Mickleham, near Epsom. Prior to the, 

 sale he must have had some private intelligence of the merits of the horse, 

 for we are told that when he arrived there in ample time, according to the 

 terms of the advertisement, the sale had been effected, but, claiming that 

 the lots already knocked down should be resold, the result was that he 

 purchased Eclipse for 75 guineas. In a short time he sold a moiety to 

 Oolonel O'Kelly for 650 guineas, and in the following year the other 

 moiety for 1100 guineas. In May 1769, when five years old. Eclipse won 

 £50 at Epsom, and it was on the second heat of this unimportant race that 

 Colonel O'Kelly is said to have won a very large sum of money, by laying 

 against all the five horses engaged in it. Such a feat is so improbable, 

 according to the laws of chance, that his offer was immediately taken at 

 much less than the legitimate odds, and on being called on to d(!clare, he 

 complied with the demand by placing " Eclipse first and the rest nowhere," 

 winning his bet by the great speed of his horse. During the two seasons 

 which he was on the turf he won an immense number of stakes for Colonel 

 O'Kellj^, but at last his extraordinary powers were so generally admitted 

 that no owner would enter a horse against him, and he was obliged to 

 retire, never having been beaten or paid forfeit. Among his victories are 

 eleven King's plates, the weights for all but one of which were 12 stone, 

 which now-a-days would be considered a crusher, even for a mile or a mile 

 •and a half. He covered at Clay Hill near Epsom, his price being at first 

 fixed at 50 guineas, but in 1772 it was reduced to the more reasonable sum 

 of 25 guineas, fluctuating between which and 30 guineas he continued at 

 the service of the public till 1789, when he died. He was so lame in his 

 feet, that on being removed from Epsom to Cannons in Middlesex, he was 

 obliged to be placed in a caravan on four wheels, and this was the first 

 instance in which a van was used for this purpose, though now so commonly 

 employed. The proportions of Eclipse have been minutely described by 

 ♦St. Bel, the founder of the school which afterwards became The Royal 

 Veterinary College, London. 



