AEABIAX HORSES.] 



THE HOESE. AND 



[ARABIAN HORSES. 



such horses as were brought from the south. 

 Hence, assisted by the systematic care of our 

 turi-breeders, the British race-horse has beau 

 brought to the state of beauty, symmetry, 

 and perfection in which we now behold him, 

 and that superiority which all the world ac- 

 knowledges and admires. 



It is now upwards of one hundred years 

 suice, in this country, the greatest attention 

 has been paid to pedigree, and to preserving 

 the racing-breed pure and unmixed. Acci- 

 dental mixtures there certainly have been, for 

 such are upon record ; but they have been 

 comparatively few — mere drops of common, in 

 the grand stream of pure and high racing- 

 blood. Such crosses have been occasionally 

 apparent perhaps for several generations, in 

 the form and qualities of the produce; but 

 they have been obliterated by time, and are 

 not discoverable in the remote descents. 

 "Within this period, the phenomenon has now 

 and then appeared of a horse not thorough- 

 bred, such as in the cases of Sampson and 

 Eiiv Malton proving winning — even capital 

 racers. But such exceptions will not induce 

 experienced sportsmen to infringe the general 

 rule, of breeding from, or training horses for 

 the course, which are not thoi'ough-bred. The 

 same rule holds, however anomalous it may 

 seem, with respect to foreign horses of the 

 purest blood, from which our thorough-breed 

 is derived. None of them — and the expe- 

 riment has often been repeated — whatever 

 their age, size, or condition, have been found 

 capable of contending on the course, from a 

 race of one hundred yards to one of a bun. 

 dred miles, with their relatives and brethren 

 in blood — the race-horses of this country. 



The ill-success of the Arabian purchased 

 by King James I., and already alluded to, 

 brought the studs of the desert into such 

 disrepute, that we read of but few of them 

 in the scanty annals of the turf, until the 

 reign of Queen Anne, the last of the Stuarts 

 Vtho has occupied the British throne. 



THE DARLEY ARABIAN. 

 Early in the reign of Anne, the famous 

 Darley Arabian was imported. He was sent 

 from Aleppo by Mr. Darley, a merchant, who 

 had settled there, and who had procured him, 

 through his connections, from the Arabian 

 70 



deserts. He is one of those few horses, on 

 the purity of the blood of which we can have 

 a certain reliance. Tlie form of this animal 

 is said to have exhibited every point desirable 

 in a turf horse. The general characteristics of 

 the racer are the Arabian head, the curving 

 and tapering neck, the slanting, lengthened 

 shoulders, the fully-developed muscular quar- 

 ters, the bending hinder legs, the flat limbs, 

 somewhat short downward from the knee, and 

 the long and springing pastern. The Darley 

 Arabian had these excellences, and was the 

 sire of that wonderful racer, Elying Childers. 

 If a judgment might be formed as to the 

 original country of the horse, from the per- 

 formances of the descendants of this animal, 

 then the desert must have been the native 

 soil of the general courser; but as we have 

 already given our opinions upon this point, 

 it need not again be touched upon here. 



The great success of Mr. Darley with his 

 imported stranger, turned the current of 

 fashionable opinion, among English sportsmen, 

 so much in favour of the horses of Arabia, 

 that it became a common inducement to style 

 all horses brought from the Levant, Arabians, 

 whether or not they might have been really 

 such, or Persians, Syrians, Egyptians, Turks, 

 or Barbs. This has occasioned much con- 

 fusion and uncertainty ; but it has been ex- 

 perienced, that the horses of all these coun- 

 tries are, in certain degrees, endowed with 

 the properties of the race-horse, and the blood 

 of our Euglish thorough-bred horse is derived 

 from a mixture of all those, although doubtless 

 that of the Arabian and Barb predominates. 



THE GODOLPHIN ARABIAN. 



The Godolphin was imported into this 

 country about five-and-twenty years after the 

 Darley Arabian. Both of these horses were 

 the most celebrated and valuable for their 

 blood and high form, which have yet appeared. 

 There are sufficient reasons, however, for the 

 supposition that Lord Godolpliin's horse was 

 in reality a Barb. 



The portrait of the Godolphin Arabian, by 

 the artist Stubbs, gave rise to some unfavour- 

 able criticisms by his brethren of the pencil, in 

 respect to the elevation of this horse's crest, 

 which was said to be excessive, indeed totally 

 out of nature. It was therefore asserted 



