6o 



The Book of the Horse. 



which, as the property of Count Lauragiiais, he performed in France, when, in 1766, he ran 

 twenty-two and a half miles within the hour, and netted a very large sum for his owner. His 

 remarkable stamina was an additional confirmation of the truth of the maxim held by the late 

 Sir Tatton Sykes, that little horses are the best stayers. 



In looking over the album of portraits of race-horses, blood sires, and brood mares, from 

 the earliest times, collected by the late Mr. Richard Tattersall, the first rude etchings represent 

 a series of impossible animals — the very reverse of the illustrations of the English horses in 

 the Duke of Newcastle's book, or the Italian horse of 1688, given in our last chapter — with 

 scraggy bodies, needle-like legs, and the necks of camels. They seem to have been veritable 



I'DRIRAIT OF GIMCRACK, WHOSE PICTURE WAS BEQUEATHED TO THE JOCKEY CLUB liY ADMIRAL ROUS. 



weeds. Sir William Morgan's Coneyskins, a famous race-horse in 1726, is indeed a miserable 

 wretch ; while a little later, Marskc, the sire of Eclipse, is represented as a thorough-bred 

 weight-carrier all over. Whether the improvement was due to the horses or the artists there 

 is no reliable evidence. 



For useful purposes (whatever may be the requirements for a modern mile race) it woukl be 

 difficult to find more satisfactory models than the Earl of Egremont's Gohanna, racing in 1790, 

 to whose blood Irish hunters owe so much of their well-deserveil reputation ; or Eleanor, who 

 won the Derby and Oaks for Sir Charles Bunbury in 1801, and looks fit to ride hunting; 

 Trufile and Benedict, in 1808, Woeful and Whisker, in 1812, leave nothing to be desired in the 

 way of strength and quality. To be sure, their short tails give them a compact look. At the 

 present time the most popular race-horses are three-year-olds, which have not come to their full 

 development ; not " furnished, ' in dealers' phrase ; and their portraits, to the unlearned in 



