:-374 THE BASHAWS AND CLAYS. 



open, and -with a cheerful, " Come, Henry," the old horse sailed out into the 

 barnyard, with as lofty and as sure a step as though he could see everj' spot 

 to place a foot. 



First, in his box, his wish was to do all you asked, and that cheerfully and 

 -quick ; not nip, bite, strike, kick, or sulk, but with a prompt, cheerful, glad-to- 

 see-3^ou air. Then in harness, the positive confidence he estalilished in j-our 

 bosom for the work, be it long, hard and rough, or short, all the same ; he was 

 willing. Then in the stud, you knew for certain that he would not beget 

 a lazy brute. 



During the late years of his life, this horse Henry Clay was owned 

 by General Wadsworth, of Geneseo, New York, and was kept in the 

 interior of that State. While there, according to the weight of testi- 

 mony, lie produced the mare Dolly Spanker, a famous road mare that 

 became the dam of the stallion George Wilkes, described fully in 

 Chapter XIII, known in his early life as Robert Fillingham. I may 

 here say that this horse, and the several Clay stallions known in 

 this country and coming from the same stock, were generally reputed 

 to be quitters, but from him and others of the name came many 

 mares that became the dams respectively of numerous distinguished 

 trotters, and, so far as I now recall, this quitting characteristic seemed 

 to rest in its full force mainly with the produce of the male members 

 of the Clay family, although the sons of some of these daughters have 

 shown the same trait. 



George Wilkes, although inclined to sulk occasionally, became 

 one of the most celebrated of the sons of Hambletonian, both as a 

 trotter and a sire of trotters — and other Clay mares have been equally 

 celebrated, as dams of great trotters, among whom the name of a 

 real quitter or soft horse can not be found. Rarus, Bodine, St. 

 Julien, Gazelle, Prospero, Reform, Happy Thought, Elaine, Election- 

 eer, Idol, I.(Ouis Napoleon, Peacemaker the sire of Midnight, Knick- 

 erbocker, and Hambletonian Prince, all came from mares descended 

 in the direct line from Henry Clay — as is fully set forth in Chapter 

 XIII. 



CASSIUS M. CLAY. 



In 1843, Henry Clay produced Cassius M. Clay, from a mare whose 

 blood can not be established, but which was undoubtedly of the very 

 best quality. She was reputed to be a Mambrino, but without any 

 other ])robable evidence than the locality in which she was owned — 

 the city of Brooklyn — the fact that in appearance she resembled the 

 Mambrino, and that she disjilayed in an eminent degree the trotting 

 qualities of that family. 



