ARRIVAL OF THE DARLEY ARABIAN 267 



No less liberal a supporter of the Turf than 

 William of Orange was Queen Anne, his suc- 

 cessor. A modern tautological historian quaintly 

 tells us that " Good Queen Anne had many 

 horses, and they were numerous and costly," a 

 phrase reminiscent of the newspaper reporter's 

 description of a bride's wedding gifts. 



That Anne should have loved horses and been 

 an enthusiastic "turfite" is not to be wondered 

 at when we bear in mind the sort of atmosphere 

 in which she had been reared. 



The Duke of Cumberland's breeding establish- 

 ment at Cumberland Lodge in Windsor Great 

 Park — where later on Eclipse and the almost 

 equally famous Herod were to be foaled — 

 probably was the best known in England. 



According to Mr Theodore Andrea Cook, our 

 modern authority upon the thoroughbred, its 

 origin, and all that has to do with it, the finest 

 breed of horse ever produced was the result of 

 the cross between the pure Arab and the animal 

 that was in England towards the end of the 

 seventeenth century. 



The Darley Arabian, foaled about the month 

 of March, 1702, and his line of distinguished 

 successors, in reality started the long and baffling 

 process which eventually ended in the production 



