150 THE JOCKEY CLUB 1750- 



mysterious influence undoubtedly exercised by them 

 for many years upon the English breed of horses), but 

 all the good horses in the country belonged, or by 

 them and by their families before them had been 

 bred ; and it was only through the sales which took 

 place upon the death or the retirement of such owners 

 and breeders that the ' cracks ' fell into the hands of 

 persons whose social rank precluded them from be- 

 coming members of the Club — as Eegulus, for in- 

 stance, into the hands of Mr. Martindale (a saddler, 

 of St. James's Street) ; Eclipse into the hands first of 

 Mr. Wildman (a meat salesman, of Newgate Market), 

 and then of Mr. (Captain, Major, and Colonel) O'Kelly 

 (a disreputable adventurer) ; and Highflyer into the 

 hands of Mr. Tatter sail (an auctioneer, though of 

 excellent repute). It is true that the Shem, Ham, 

 and Japhet of all our present race of thoroughbreds, 

 that is, the Byerley Turk (the charger ridden by a 

 Captain Byerley in the wars of King William the Third), 

 the Darley Arabian (which was purchased by an 

 English merchant in Smyrna, and presented, or sold, 

 or bequeathed to his brother, Mr. Darley, of Aldby 

 Park, Yorkshire), and the Godolphin Arabian or Barb 

 (imported from France by Mr. Coke, of Leicester, and 

 given by him to Lord Godolphin, of Gogmagog, Cam- 

 bridgeshire), did not belong to members of the Club ; 

 but it is enough to say that the least ancient of the 

 three died in 1753, the very year in which the Club 

 made its first appearance at Newmarket with its two 



