A LH AM BRA. 227 



His working' machinery seems too fine for the weight of carriage ac- 

 companying, and the powerful muscular organism that runs the whole. 

 The deficiency is far more apparent when the powerful nerve and brain 

 organism is in active operation, displaying a muscular power and 

 energy that is hardly to be surpassed in any animal ever seen in 

 motion. To see him in motion, in harness or runnuig loose, one gets 

 the idea that his nerve and muscular energy is far too great for any 

 horse machinery that has yet been set up — that in quality of materials 

 and their construction we have not kept pace with the elements of 

 motor energy that we have developed. And in his case such is really 

 the fact. 



His pedigree may be given thus: 



Alhambra — brown horse, foaled 1858, by Mambrino Chief. 

 First dam, Susaa, by American Eclipse, son of Duroc. 

 Second dam, by Woodpecker, son of Bertrand. 



Third dam, by Hepliestian, son of Buzzard, out of the dam of Sir Archy. 

 Fourth dam, by imp. Bedford. 

 Fifth dam, by Twigg, son of Janus. 



Sixth dam, by Harlequin, son of imp. Gabriel, the rival claimant for the 

 paternity of the great Sir Archy. 



It will be seen that his dam was a strictly thoroughbred mare, and 

 that the grandam was by Woodpecker, son of the great Bertrand, 

 whose grandam was imported Mambrina by Mambrino the sire of 

 Messenger; Woodpecker was also sire of the great and almost invin- 

 cible Grey Eagle, the pride of Kentucky, and one of the most dis- 

 tinguished race-horses that ever ran on American soil. 



In arriving at a correct understanding of Alhambra, we must at all 

 times keep in view the fact that, in addition to the fineness of her 

 breeding, his dam was not a large mai-e — was indeed hardly an 

 average-size4 thoroughbred, while his sire Mambrino Chief was a very 

 large and coarse-boned horse, over sixteen hands high, strong and 

 heavy in every part. Had the respective positions of these conditions 

 as to sex of the parents been reversed in the make-up of the horse, 

 Alhambra would have been different. 



Messenger Duroc is a rich bay stallion, foaled June 3d, 1865. His 

 marks are two white hind ankles. His exact size may be taken as 

 given out by his owners: Sixteen hands one inch on the withers, and 

 sixteen hands two inches at the coupling or over the hips. His 

 weight is given as 1,175 to 1,200 pounds. He is called, in a sketch 

 sent forth by his owner, a large-featured, well-proportioned horse of 



