12 LIGHT HORSES: BREEDS AND MANAGEMENT. 



known sources affect nine of the sixteen divisions, leaving 

 the natural inference that the amount of English blood in 

 the pedigree of Eclipse is almost as large as that of the 

 Eastern sires ; and it is impossible to tell the relative in- 

 fluence of either blood in the descent The Eastern 



blood is unaffected, so far as Bartlett's Childers (son of the 

 Darley Arabian), and no further ; for his son, Squirt, inherits 

 the unknown blood in two distinct lines from his dam, Sister 

 to Old Country Wench ; whilst Marske, the son of Squirt 

 (and sire of Eclipse), has a far greater admixture of the 

 unknown (but, as I assume, English) element through his 

 dam, the daughter of Blacklegs, who has no fewer than seven 

 blanks, or, in other words, only one of eight lines of descent 

 can be traced to a purely Eastern source. What equitable 

 claim, therefore, can be made to a purely Eastern descent on 

 his sire's side, if both his sire and grandsire inherit so many 

 strains to which no Eastern origin can be assigned ? " 



Mr. Osborne continues : "The origin of Eclipse traced on 

 the side of his dam, Spiletta, is even more convincing as to 

 the extravagant conclusions which have been made. Even 

 the best influence of the Godolphin has commenced with the 

 unknown element in his son Regulus, whose dam, Grey 

 Robinson, is, of course, affected by the remarks above, 

 concerning the Sister to Old Country Wench ; whilst Mother 

 Western, the maternal granddam of Eclipse, is conspicuously 

 wanting in Eastern credit, since nothing is known of the 

 dam of her sire, besides the discrepancies in Snake, and the 

 ' unknown quantity ' in her dam, the Old Montague mare, 

 through the maternal descent of Merlin. I need say no more 

 about this great pedigree. The evidences which have in- 

 fluenced my own judgment are before the reader in a way 

 that enables him to form his own judgment independently. 

 There is nothing revolutionary in what I have stated. The 

 best authorities have referred, though only en passant, to the 

 Eastern sires as improvers ; but they have left the assumption 

 that the old English influence was at once obliterated by 



