A BELLFOUNDER, 201 



he is high at the whirlbone and straight on the rump, with a strong 

 Hambletonian appearance in his general form. There is nothing very- 

 striking in the outline and general form of the horse, except his strong 

 Hambletonian caste of the smoother type. He is, in all respects, very- 

 compact, and his limbs smooth and of the best quality, with feet as 

 good as any of his family. He has a good mane and tail, and carries 

 himself in a quiet and business-like way, showing no signs of temper 

 or intractability. In general outline he, perhaps, shows as much of 

 the Bellfounder as any of the sons of Hambletonian; but his outward 

 form and general appearance fall far short of portraying the depth and 

 positiveness of this element as it exists in this horse. He is, in fact, 

 the living Bellfounder of our day, and probably, since the advent to 

 our shores of the imported Bellfounder, we have had no representative 

 of his real character and merits that approaches so near the excellence 

 and true type of the original as this horse Florida. If there be any- 

 other horse that can claim to be the nearest approach to the essential 

 characteristics of Bellfounder, it is the horse Harry Clay, whose dam 

 was a daughter of the celebrated Norfolk trotter. Many in this 

 country have an inveterate, willfully obstinate prejudice against the 

 Bellfounder blood and all that savors of it in name or quality. Some 

 of these persons have had the means, and perhaps the capacity, of 

 knowing better; but their low apparent estimate of this element is 

 simply the result of sheer and pitiable prejudice. Such persons can 

 not be looked to as those who will enlighten public sentiment or 

 direct uninformed and inquiring minds. Another class, and a large 

 one, noted for candor and a disposition to make honest inquiry, and- 

 who are therefore entitled to full consideration, do not properly appre- 

 ciate this blood, because the ideas they have formed of it were de- 

 rived from a knowledge of animals that did not come up to the high- 

 est standard of excellence; hence they do not accord to it the high 

 estimate placed upon it by those who knew the original. The great 

 trouble has been, that the representatives of Bellfounder which have 

 come under their observation were lacking in the great qualities of 

 tliat distinguished horse, or, if they possessed them, they were in a 

 latent and concealed form, and hence they spoke not out of the great 

 excellence he possessed. 



In the West the greater part of the Bellfounder stock came from 

 Brown's (or Ohio) Bellfounder, a son of Lady Alport by Mambrino. 

 Now, it is a fact, that neither this horse nor any of his produce dis- 

 played the great qualities which distinguished his sire. I really doubt. 



