.372 THE. BASHAWS AND CLAYS. 



the trait. It was undoubtedly a mental quality that, when collared 

 by an. antagonist and likely- to be forced to the utmost, caused them 

 to sulk, or refuse to do their best. Boston had this trait; his grand- 

 son, Harry Bassett, exhibited it, and neither of them lacked courage 

 or pluck. They did not win, because they would not. 



This mare Surry, however, did engraft on the family one point or 

 element which they carry to the present day, and by which they are 

 distinguished at least from the family of Abdallah, namely, in the 

 increased length of rear leverage and the coarseness or heaviness of 

 conformation of the hindquarter. It is a family trait, and marks them 

 even among the Hambletonians, who also receive an elongation and a 

 growthy development in that quarter from Bellfounder, but not of the 

 same character precisely that follows the Clays. Bellfounder, and the 

 Hambletonians who follow him, were not wide across the hips. They 

 had a round and strong loin and a straight or goose rump, a meaty 

 buttock as it was termed, and a long leverage, from hip to hock; but 

 the Clays are heavy in the hindquarter and are wide across the hips, 

 and have a rounder and more drooping rump, with general heaviness 

 of the hindquarter. 



Henry Clay is often referred to and described as a horse with a 

 long thigh, a strong thigh, and hock well let down. Those who knew 

 him well, all agree that he had much of the strong and long rear pro- 

 pellers that marked the Canadian cross. This is a feature that fol- 

 lows the larger and better trotters of Canadian blood. It was one of 

 the distinctive features "of St. Lawrence, and yet marks his descendants. 

 But there can be no doubt that the strong concentration of the blood 

 of Messenger in the later Clays, and the well known superiority of 

 that blood, has had the same effect on the Canadian leverage in the 

 Clays that it has had on the Bellfounder elongation in Hambletonian 

 - — it did not survive more than the first generation, yet its remote 

 effects are still visible. 



The Clays are not so elastic in trotting action as the Abdallah and 

 Champion families, and trot with a heavier jog and more demonstrative 

 and violent way of going, but in other regards not very unlike the 

 other Messengers. In this descrii)tion I except the produce of Sayer's 

 Harry Clay, where the Canadian blood, reinforced by that of Bell- 

 founder, made a great and important change not only in the gait but 

 in the qualifications of the family for trotting and breeding purposes. 



As a family the Clays have a superior physical conformation of 

 much strength, and in great part well adapted to the trotting gait, but 



