CHAPTER V. 



ORIGINAL SOURCES OF TROTTING BLOOD. 



IMPORTED MESSENGER. 



The most valuable domestic animal ever brought to our shores, as 

 well as one of the most remarkable the world has ever produced, was 

 the horse Imported Messenger. His ancestry possessed a character 

 which, for the great and peculiar elements that constituted their celeb- 

 rity, was as remarkable as have been the qualities for which his 

 descendants have been distinguished in all generations. He was an 

 in-bred horse to some degree, and his progenitors from the earliest 

 period to his great-grandson, with one probable exception, embraced 

 a union of the best, the purest and richest blood that could be found 

 in the early English race-horse, freshly descended from the best Arabs 

 and Barbs that were ever brought to that kingdom. His great-grand- 

 sire, his grandsire, and his sire, presented a conformation and exhibited 

 (jualities totally unlike in some respects their reputed ancestry, but 

 coupled with a capacity for great performance in no way inferior to or 

 unworthy of their high origin. His pedigree stands recorded in the 

 English stud-book, as follows: 



Messenger Grey Horse, foaled in 1780, by Mambrino. 



First dam, by Turf. Sixth dam, by New Castle Turk. 



Second dam, sister to Figurante, by Seventh dam, by Byerly Turk. 



Regulus. Eighth dam, by Taffolct Barb. 



Third dam, by Bolton Starling. Ninth dam, by Place's White Turk, 

 Fourth dam. Snaps dam by Fox. out of a natural Barb mare. 



Fifth dam, Gipsey by Bay Bolton. 



Has male ancestry might also be set forth in like manner, as followc: 



First sire, Mambrino. (And according to the stud-book) 



Second sire. Engineer. Fourth sire. Blaze. 



Tliird sire, Sampson. Fifth sire, Flying Childcrs. 



Sixth sire, Darley Arabian. 



(106) 



