372 AGRICULTUKE AND THE HORSE. 



progenitors who brought into our country, many years 

 ago, the bone and muscle and nerve and wind and 

 capacity of the Enghsh thorough-bred of that day. 

 I am mindful of the old Messenger, and of what he 

 and his sons have done ; and I cannot, moreover, 

 forget that his fame as the ancestor of trotters was 

 established, not in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, where 

 he stood two seasons after his arrival in this country 

 (in 1780), but on Long Island, and various other points 

 in New- York State, whence his stock was distributed 

 throughout the best breeding-sections of New England. 

 As the sire of Miller's Damsel (the dam of American 

 Eclipse) and of Sir Harry, out of mares of undoubted 

 pedigree, he won a line reputation ; but it was as the 

 sire of Mambrino — whose dam had no pedigree, ex- 

 cept that she was " by Imp. Sour-krout," and of Ham- 

 bletonian, whose dam was by Messenger himself, but 

 whose grand-dam was " unknown " — that he won his 

 distinction as the ancestor of some of the most re- 

 markable trotters known on earth. And how, as gen- 

 erations went on, and that " unknown " blood worked 

 in, did the speed of this family increase ! From Mam- 

 brino sprang Abdallah, dam Amazonia (by Messenger, 

 dam unknown), and Mambrino Paymaster, dam un- 

 known. From Abdallah, with his unknown grand- 

 mother, we have, two or three generations removed, 

 each with its unknown dam, Rysdyk's Hambleto- 

 nian, with his famous sons Dexter, George Wilkes, and 

 Mountain Boy. From Mambrino Paymaster, with his 



