THE BREEDS OF HORSES. 249 



fees" a very handsome sum, indeed, for that 

 period. He was a black, very blood-like in ap- 

 pearance, and lived to a very great age. A 

 writer in the Sporting Magazine for July, 1821, 

 when this horse was thirty-three years of age, 

 speaks of him as follows: 



He was brought last year out of the East Riding of York- 

 shire by a "break-neck dealer," being- "turned adrift," no 

 one suspecting it possible for him to propagate his species 

 any longer; but I have seen ten or twelve of his produce 

 (yearlings) as well as foals this season, which are very prom- 

 ising. He is a dark brown, 15.2 hands, and it appears was 

 bred by Christopher Rook [Wroot], Long Sutton, Lincoln- 

 shire. His first performance was in that county, when he 

 trotted two miles in 5 min., 54 sec., with a high weight, upon 

 green sward. I well remember his first appearance in a 

 market town in the north. The "Johnny Raws" smiled at 

 his worn-out, emaciated form, but the moment room was 

 given for him to get upon his pins every other stallion that 

 was exhibited retired into the shade in an instant. As he 

 was rattling along, apparently at full speed, a cur dog casu- 

 ally crossed the road; the people imagined it would be tram- 

 pled upon, but the generous animal darted over it in grand 

 style, to the astonishment of every individual 



W root's Pretender got Stevens' Bellfounder, 

 the sire of imported Bellfounder (Jary's Bell- 

 founder, 55 of the stud book). Velocity, the 

 dam of imported Bellfounder, must have been 

 a mare of great merit, as will be seen by the 

 following extract from the Norwich Mercury of 

 Nov. 8, 1806: 



On Wednesday se'night the long depending trotting match 

 for one hour took place between that celebrated brown mare 

 Velocity, the property of Mr. Roger Jary of Ashill, and that 



