164 HAMBLETONIAN". 



Of Saratoga, I find tte following in "Wallace's Monthly: 



Saratoga was a flea-bitten grey, foaled about 1805, got by imp. Messenger, 

 dam unknown. It is believed he was bred on Long Island, but the name and 

 residence of his breeder as well as his pedigree on the side of his dam have 

 been lost. He was driven in harness and did service in a number of counties 

 in Pennsylvania, and was sold at auction in Philadelphia in the spring of 1813, 

 to James Dubois, of Salem county, New Jersey. He was a great, strong 

 horse, and was kept to work on the farm of his owner. * * * He was a 

 slashing natural trotter. * * * ^ number of his progeny were fast trotters. 

 * * * Among the sons of this horse, one called Dove was the most distin- 

 guished in the stud. 



The editor of the Monthly acknowledges himself mainly indebted 

 to Mr. Edward Van Meter, an aged and eminent lawyer of Salem, New 

 Jersey, for most of his information in regard to these families, and 

 has very kindly furnished me the original letters from Mr. Van Meter, 

 for which favor I wish here to make my acknowledgments. Mr. Van 

 Meter speaks generally from an intimate personal knowledge, but the 

 same allowance must, be made for probable inaccuracy as to dates, at 

 this remote period. He says : 



Saratoga was sire of Charlotte Grey, a filly, ahead of anything in the 

 trotting line in that region. Mr. Dubois also raised a grey colt called Dove, 

 by this Saratoga. 



Dove was about fifteen and a half hands high, lengthy, long ears, very 

 coarse and homely, big head, very stout all over, with flat legs. It has been 

 said of him, and I believe truly, that he could pass eveiy horse on a trot, 

 whenever pushed up, that came in contact with him from 1817 until he became 

 injured and unfit for service. He was sold in 1819 to Isaac Elwell, keeper of 

 a hotel near Salem, and by him owned until his death, leaving perhaps fifty 

 to seventy-five foals, the most of them having a striking resemblance to their 

 sire. I had opportunity to know much of Dove's progeny. They were fit for 

 all service, the plow, the team or the road, kind and docile at work, prompt 

 and free drivers, and when pushed for a display of speed, the average of the 

 whole progeny would go away from any horse on a trot, that could not beat 

 8:30 to a mile. These trotting characteristics of Dove have been transmitted 

 to his descendants through several generations, and now there is much of his 

 progeny in this vicinity, which is recognized as the descendants of long-eared 

 Dove. 



In another letter, the same gentleman says : 



There was never a stallion in the county of Salem so much ridiculed as this 

 stallion Dove in his day. He was the ugliest living stallion. He had a nice 

 mane, good tail set on high, but his general appearance was rough as rough 

 could be. He had raw bones, big head, long ears, legs flat and wide, feet large 

 and flat. * ♦ * And I speak sincerely when I declare that no horse in my 



