BACL-nORSES.j 



MODEEN VETEHINART PRACTICE. 



fllACE-nOIlSES. 



he won was against Ascliam — a curious one, 

 from the circumstance of two aged horses 

 carrying featliers, five stone seven, and six 

 stone, lie won several matches for five hun- 

 dred guineas, and a sweepstake of tliree hun- 

 dred guineas, nine subscribers. 



The fiime of this racer as a stallion, in the 

 Tu)f Register, is truly splendid. In nine- 

 teen years — namely, from 1771 to 1789 — 

 four hundred and ninety-seven of his sons 

 and daughters won for their proprietors, in 

 plates, matches, and sweepstakes, the sura of 

 £201,505 ds., exclusive of some thousands 

 won between 1774 and 1786. He was 

 the sire of the celebrated Highflyer, bred 

 by Sir Charles Bunbury, which was never 

 beaten. Herod also got Woodpecker, Bour- 

 deaux. Anvil, Hammer, Sting, Adamant, 

 Plunder, Quicksand, Eantipole, "Whipcord, 

 and many others, among which were the 

 speediest horses of their day. Tuberose, 

 Guildford, and Latona, were rare examples of 

 the family stoutness, and Laburnum was an 

 excellent and useful racer. The list of brood 

 mares got by Herod is very large. 



King Herod first covered the property of 

 Sir John Moore, Bart., at ten guineas. In 

 1774 his price rose to twenty-five, at which it 

 remained till his death, in 1783, in the twenty- 

 second year of his age. 



This noble animal was so shamefully ne- 

 glected in his latter days, and his body so 

 encrusted with dung and filth, that, it is said, 

 the immediate cause of his death was a mortifi- 

 cation in his sheath. Many much later in- 

 stances are known of covering stallions ne- 

 glected in a similar way. George IV., when 

 Prince of Wales, formerly allowed the breeders 

 in the vicinity of his residence in Hants, the 

 use of a well-bred stallion gratis, excepting 

 the groom's fee of a crown : the consequence 

 of which was the exhaustion of the animal. 

 So many mares were sent, that it was impos- 

 sible for nature to support the continued de- 

 mand ; and the result was the most wretched, 

 puny, spindle-shanked produce to be imagined. 



MARSK. 



This horse was foaled in 1750, and so named 

 from the place where he was bred, being the 

 property of John Hutton, Esq., of Marsk, 

 Yorkshire, who afterwards disposed of him to 



his royal highness, William, Duke of Cumber- 

 land. He was got by Squirt, son of Bartlett'a 

 Childers, out of the Ruby mare. She was 

 from a daughter of Bay Bolton and Ilutton's 

 Bhick Legs — Fox Cub— Coneyskins — Hut- 

 ton's Grey Barb — a daughter of the Byerley 

 Turk, from a Bustler mare. This is one of our 

 highest bred pedigrees, going back to the reign 

 of Charles I. In the year 1750, the duke 

 made an exchange of a chestnut Arabian with 

 Mr. Hutton, for the colt, which his royal 

 highness afterwards named Marsk. 



In Mr. Ilutton's Stud-Boole, printed by 

 Weatherby in 1801, appear the following ex- 

 tracts : — 



" In the year 1750, his royal highness the 

 Duke of Cumberland, gave me — John Hutton 

 — a chestnut Arabian in exchange for a brown 

 colt, got by Squirt, bred from the Ruby mare ; 

 and which his royal highness afterwards called 

 Marsk. 



" My Black Legs was got by the Mulco 

 Bay Turk ; his dame by Coneyskins ; his grand- 

 dam was the old Club-foot mare, got by Mr. 

 Weekes's Hautboy." 



" The above are true copies from Mr. Hut- 

 ton's Stud- Book. E. Geldaet. 

 " Marsk, October, 1801." 

 The history of Marsk, like the Godolphia 

 Arabian, was highly eventful, and distinguished 

 by alternate depression and elevation. 



He was a capital racer, and beat Brilliant ; 

 but he was an uncertain horse. Being in low 

 estimation as a stallion in the duke's stud, 

 he was sold at his royal highness's sale, at 

 Tattersall's, to a farmer for a trifling sum ; 

 and in 1766, as will be observed in the 

 history of Eclipse, covered country mares and 

 foresters, at half-a-guinea. When Mr. Wild- 

 man, the purchaser of Eclipse, found his in- 

 telligence respecting that colt correct, he 

 thought it advisable to get into his possession 

 his sire, and bought Marsk of the farmer for 

 twenty pounds, who professed himself happy 

 at being well rid of a bad bargain. 



This animal has been styled the " prince of 

 horses." 



It is suflBcient to say that, besides so man;: 



other racers of high reputation, he was the sire 



of Eclipse, Shark, Pretender, Honest Kitt, 



Masquerade, Leviathan^ Salopian, and Pontac. 



Shark won sixteen thousand and fifty-seven 



73 



