The Dari.f.y Arab and Flyixg Chiidf.rs. 



57 



that " he was a big horse in every sense of the word, tall in stature, lengthy and capacious in 

 body, and large in his limbs. For a big horse his head was small, and partook of the Arabian 

 character ; his neck was unusually long ; his shoulder was strong, sufficiently oblique, and 

 although not remarkable for, not deficient in depth, his chest was circular ; he rose very little 

 on his withers, being higher behind than before ; his back was lengthy, and over the loins roached ; 

 his quarters were straight, square, and extended ; his limbs were lengthy and broad, and his joints 

 large, in particular his arms and thighs were long and muscular, and his knees and hocks broad 

 and well-formed." 



Mr. Percival came to these conclusions from the descriptions of contemporary writers like 

 Lawrence, and from an examination of the skeleton, then preserved in the Museum of the 

 Royal College of Surgeons. The skeleton is not now in the Museum of either the College 

 of Surgeons or Physicians, and doubt exists as to the true height of Eclipse ; sixteen hands 

 and a half sounds like an error ; but if the measurement is correct, the late Admiral Rous's 

 statement that the height of race-horses had been increased five or six inches was evidently a 

 mistake. 



Of the pedigrees of celebrated race-horses, carried back to the commencement of the 

 eighteenth century, one may safely say that nearly all go back to the Darley Arabian (17 15), 

 or the Godolphin Barb (1724), or to both. The following pedigree of Eclipse will sufficiently 

 establish facts familiar to all students of turf literature : — 



PEDIGREE OF ECLIPSE 



ECLIPSE. 



The learned in thoroughbred pedigrees declare that there are two blanks in the pedigree of 

 Eclipse, which would probably be filled up by tv.o half-bred mares. 



PICTURES OF ECLIPSE. 

 Mr. Edmund Tattersall has kindly allowed me to reproduce G. Townley Stubbs' engraving 

 of Eclipse in racing condition, from his celebrated father's picture, and also to make a coloured 

 fac- simile of an original portrait of Eclipse, after he was put to the stud. Both show an animal 

 of high quality and great power. 

 I 



