ABDALLAn. 173 



akin in their origin, and close study of the two families reveals the 

 fact that in general physical conformation they differ but slightly. 



The traces of Suffolk Punch in Bellfounder and Hambletonian are 

 clear, and hard to exclude; and the known fact that in the very county 

 and district of England where Bellfounder was bred, the stock of 

 Sampson had been much prized for road horses; that Useful Cub, the 

 produce of a Suffolk Punch from a granddaughter of Sampson, was a 

 popular trotting stallion and could trot seventeen miles within an hour, 

 and that his repute went in along with that of old Bellfounder, the 

 original, under the then common designation of a Noefole: Tkottee, 

 — all go to render it quite probable, with strong evidences of its truth, 

 that the dam of the original Bellfounder may have been a daughter of 

 this same Useful Cub. The time and the place and the blood qualities 

 of the descendants of Bellfounder all point to such a conclusion. It is 

 alleged that Bellfounder the original, was a true descendant of the 

 Fireaways, and if by that we learn that he was a lineal descendant on 

 the male side, it leaves it quite probable that his dam was a daughter of 

 Useful Cub. This would comport entirely with the locality, the chro- 

 nology and the blood traits found in the offspring even to this day. 

 Such evidences must often be considered and in many cases have great 

 weight. 



1 am doubtless met with the inquiry, whether Hambletonian was 

 himself a trotter; for, with all the fame of his stock and of himself as 

 the sire of great trotters and trotting sires, the world has little knowl- 

 edge of his performances in the way of speed, or his ability to show 

 any of that marvellous speed which in his sons and daughters has 

 given him so great renown. In this particular he is somewhat like 

 the distinguished son of Mambrino Chief, whose full sister was a star 

 of the first magnitude, and who, as a producer of trotters of early 

 speed, has found no superior, and perhaps no equal, but of whose 

 ability to trot fast the world knows nothing. 



So little was Hambletonian ever seen in harness, and so studiously 

 was he excluded from all public exhibitions of speed, or even trotting 

 action, that the public have grown in the impression that he was in no 

 sense a trotter; and such opinion has at length become wide-spread 

 and almost universal. The owner of Hambletonian was a man quite 

 positive in his ways and opinions, and while he seemed to think he had 

 the best horse ever produced, from the first to the last, he was at all 

 times averse to trotting him in any contests, or even exhibitions of 

 speed. The life of Hambletonian has been one of stallion-service. 



