110 ORIGINAL SOURCES OF TROTTING BLOOD. 



Lawrence, the writer above referred to, says: 



His dip of plebian blood, however little or much it might be, caa 

 scarcely be called a blot, even in the escutcheon of Sampson, since such acci- 

 dental crosses, although they are not recorded, must inevitably have happened, 

 as well in our English as our Southern breeds; and since Sampson at light as 

 well as heavy weights beat the best horses of his day. Indeed Sampson at 

 twenty and perhaps fifteen stone would have beaten over the course both 

 Flying Childers and Eclipse, and have double-distanced Bonny Black. "When 

 Sampson was led out at Malton to start for his first race, I have been told by a 

 spectator, that the grooms made themselves merry with the idea that Mr. Rob- 

 inson had brought a coach horse to start for the plate. My informant repre 

 sented him as a true game horse, and as having a great stride. Some of his 

 stock were the best runners of their time. But Sampson's blood has always 

 been unfashionable, chiefly, I believe, because the stock run to so large a 

 «ize. 



Mambrino ran until he was eleven years old; he won a large ma.jor- 

 ity of his races, and received forfeit from many good horses. 



On the supposition that the sire of Sampson was a horse of coarse 

 blood, or cart-horse, as he was called — whatever his quality as such 

 was — how can we account for the superiority of Sampson and Mam- 

 brino as race-horses? The question grows in importance and difficulty 

 when we extend the view, as we shall before the close of this chapter, 

 to the remarkable superiority of Messenger and his descendants in cm- 

 own country. Could he receive the infusion of inferior blood and 

 the great coarseness of bone and conformation, and yet retain that 

 excellence of quality which made him so great a horse, and which 

 marked his descendants for so many generations? The effects of such 

 a cross, if it was one of really inferior blood, might be expected to be 

 seen in the first produce, but would gradually give place, under the 

 preponderating influence of superior blood, in its subsequent crosses, 

 and under its more potent influence, and might be expected at the 

 end of three or four generations to disappear or become hardly per- 

 ceptible. But such was not the case. Mambrino, the thoroughbred 

 son of Messenger, and Dove, the part-bred grandson, besides many of 

 his other descendants, displayed in great and eminent degree the 

 peculiar qualities of coarseness and excellence that distinguished 

 Sampson and the first Mambrino. 



Several important questions are here presented, but which may not 

 be easily solved. 



First — Had the dam of Sampson such a concentration of good blood 

 as would enable her to produce a horse of such superiority and so ex- 

 ceedingly impressive as a sire himself, from a low or ill-bred sire r 



