THE MORSE. 25 



assured us, was the only horse on the estate, whereof there were many much larger, 

 tliat never lost a day's work, or recjuired to be turned out and rested occasionally, from 

 sickness or exhaustion. Being informed of her blood, she was rescued from the? g 

 "ba&e uses" and sent to Sir Archy, by whom she produced Kate Kearney, and to ^'ir 

 Charles, and produced the renowned, but ill-fated Sussex, sire of Lady Clifden. La Jy 

 Lightfootwent out of a common livery-stable at 85500; and old Ecli})se, not long bef jre 

 his race with Sir Charles, was otlered to the writer of these remarks for $2,500. At 

 an advanced age he sold for $10,000, and is now, at twenty-seven years old, in vigor- 

 ous health, covering in Kentucky at $100. One of his get by Lady Lightfoot was 

 sold to a gentleman of Pennsylvania for $10,000, and that only on condition, as it was 

 rumoured, that the buyer \\ould reciprocate the favour, by letting the gallant owner 

 of him have one hundred bottles of his old Bingham wine, for ten times that number 

 of dollars. 



Sir Archy was in a great measure indebted to his fame, if not to his great value as a 

 stallion, during his declining years, to the establishment of the Turf Register, in which 

 were heralded the brilliant achievements of his renowned get and their descendants. He 

 had been made but a mere addition in the exchange, ibr but so-so high-bred cattle, by 

 his breeder, the late Col. .John Tayloe, of Mount Airy ; and thus passed into the hands 

 of his nephew, the late Ralph Wormley, Esq., of Kosegill, at whose death, shortly 

 thereafter, he was purchased in his three year old form, after being beaten, by our re- 

 nowned turfman, \V. R. .T., Esq., of Chesterfield, Virginia, who soon placed him at the 

 head of the turf, with the reputation of being as good a four-miler as had ever run in Ame- 

 rica. Such fame soon supplied his Harem — and at once he acquired a higher name in the 

 Stud than any stallion that had ever been in our country ; and now, thanks to the Regis- 

 ter, is very generally regarded as ourGodolphin Arabian — the ancestor of Boston, and 

 Fashion, and Wagner, and Grey Eagle, and J. Bascom, and Postboy, and Mingo, and 

 Lady Clifden, and Fanny, and Sarah Washington, and Grey Medoc, and .lim Bell, &c. 



It would here be unjust, not to say ungrateful, in one who has so often been the hon- 

 oured medium of his tavours in that way, not to nrake acknowledgments to the truly vene- 

 rable Judge G. Duvall, for the light shed b}^ him on the earlier annals of the American 

 Turf. So wonderful is his memory, that he can place each horse as he saw them 

 come out in remarkable races before the revolutinn! How gratifying to lis fri<'nds to 

 behold this old Maryland-born 'advocate of our revolutionary claims; compatriot of 

 Washington, and Tilghman, and Howard; asserter of all we have achieved that is 

 good in political — examplar of all that is commendable in private morals ; approaching 

 his centenary, and yet erect in port and in spirit, like one of our majestic old poplars, 

 sparsely surviving the ravages of the axe and the peltings of the pitiless storm — memo- 

 rials of the virgin soil and better days in which its roots were struck. 



When we insist that the great objects to be aimed at, action and power of endurance, 

 are only to be secured with certainty, by exact trials of speed and the preservation of 

 authentic pedigrees, we may perhaps be met by the suggestion that this theory is at 

 war with all observation as to the effect of indiscriminate intercourse among iv'dd 

 horses, which are said to display high powers and excellence, not only on the plains 

 and pampas of Nortli and South America, but j'et more in the deserts of Arabia, where 

 this animal is generally supposed to be found in his highest finish. As to the fine 

 specimens of their race, which are taken with the lasso, from immense herds roaming 

 at large on the plains of this continent, it is to be borne in mind, that while none but 

 the best are thus selected, the basis of these herds was originally brounrht, like that of 

 the fine cattle of Louisiana, from old Spain ; being deeply imbued with the fine blood of 

 the Andalusian or Barb Horse. That such a race, running at large, in a country 

 highly adapted to its constitution, should not have degenerated and become wnrthless 

 in form and spirit, is not so discordant with the principles of artistical breeding, for 

 which we contend, as may at first sioht appear — for it is well known that in thes*' wild 

 herds, the work of procreation is conceded not indisf"riminately to all. but is fou'^ht for 

 and engrossed by the most spirited and vigorous stallions amonsr tliein; following, in 

 this case, the laws that govern all animated nature, where might takes the place of 

 right, and courage and strength, there, as elsewhere, usurp the Lion's share — hence, 

 though in general the size, too often made a matter of primary consideration, may be 

 below the medium standard of the domesticated Horse, the more estimable qualities 

 3 D 



