353 THE ROYAL GEORGES. 



a tlioroug-hbrcd. This horse Highflyer, sire of the dam of Ogflon's 

 Messenger, was by Highfl^'er, a noted English stallion, and his dam 

 was by Gimcrack, one of the most celebrated English horses — referred 

 to in my sketch of Duroc in Chapter V. 



I have called attention to the peculiarities of Duroc tracing to 

 Gimcrack, and while the light that leads us to connect Tippoo and the 

 Royal Georges with Ogden's Messenger is a dim and feeble ray, one 

 of its strong internal supports is found in the conformation and way of 

 going of the family of Royal Georges, as compared with other trotting 

 families of Messeno-er and other descent. 



Ogden's Messenger was bred by Mr. H. N. Cruger, of New Jersey, 

 and was foaled in 1806. He was a grey horse, and was sold when 

 three vears old to Judg-e David A. Offden. He is described as a 

 "coarse pattern of a fine horse, with marked traits of his lineage."' 

 This is a description that would apply to all the sons of Messenger. 

 Like««all of that family he was a big-jointed, overgrown, and apparently 

 immature young horse. They all seemed to ripen up late, and did 

 not grow into esteem very young. As a family they only began to be 

 valued when the stallions that produced them were old horses. It 

 must be conceded that if they were slow to begin, they have main- 

 tained popular favor for a good while. When this horse was four 

 years old, Judge Ogden sent him to a farm he owned on the St. Law- 

 rence river, and after he had been there vmtil about the year 1815 or 

 1816 he was taken to Lowville, in Lewis county, and made several 

 seasons there. He was at Lowville in 183 6, and the popular stallion,, 

 with little measure of doubt, from which the colt Tippoo came. Coin- 

 cidence of time, place and the precise blood qualities found, and which 

 can not readily be accounted for elsewhere or ascribed to other origin, 

 are a class of evidences that have great weight and must often be 

 resorted to in questions of horse lineage. The origin of Amazonia 

 and the dam of Mambrino Chief, necessarily and rightfully rest 

 on evidences of this character, but they carry great weight. 



It must be conceded that this matter of relationship is not clearly 

 established and can not probably ever be settled in the case now 

 under consideration with any more certainty or satisfaction than in 

 either of the two other cases above referred to, but the conclusion has 

 been very generally reached and accepted among American breeders, 

 and more generally by those in Canada, that Tippoo was a. son of 

 Ogden's Messenger. 



We do not learn that he was anything of a great trotter, or so 



