14 LIGHT HORSES: BREEDS AND MANAGEMENT. 



Eclipse blood in him than he has of that of either Herod or 

 Matchem, for from Eclipse have proceeded very many families. 

 In the same way it can be shown that, with reference to the 

 male line alone, Herod is next represented, and Matchem 

 least of all. When, however, we come to take the female 

 lines into consideration as well, the complexion of the case is 

 somewhat changed, and it will be found that, with scarcely 

 an exception, the foremost horses of to-day have more of the 

 blood of Herod in their composition than of Eclipse, that is 

 to say, they represent the Byerly Turk to a greater extent 

 than they do the Darley Arabian. 



In a most learned and carefully thought out article on " The 

 Blood of our Thoroughbred Horses," which appeared in the 

 Field for the 8th and 2gth of May, 1886, and in the Rural 

 Almanack for 1887, all this and much more is cleverly shown 

 by carefully prepared tables, and the writer there remarks 

 "the representation of the Godolphin line of descent (Mat- 

 chem) is ' nowhere ' in comparison with the representation of 

 the Darley line (Eclipse) as regards the number of direct 

 male descendants ; but the descendants, in respect to pro- 

 portion of blood, do not derive from the Darley Arabian one 

 half as much as they do from the Godolphin. And it is even 

 more marked in the line of Herod, for in that sire there was 

 not one drop of Godolphin blood, whereas Herod's descen- 

 dants in the present day derive from the Godolphin three 

 times as much as from the Byerly Turk which they are con- 

 sidered to represent." The reader, therefore, will understand 

 that, although certain horses are described as being de- 

 scendants of one of the three Eastern sires, or of Herod, 

 Eclipse, or Matchem, this does not mean that they do not 

 include much blood of the others, for, as time has gone on, 

 the three strains have become commingled. 



As the Byerly Turk came to England before either the 

 Darley Arabian or the Godolphin, we will speak of him first. 

 The famous horse, Herod, was great grandson of Jigg, who 

 was son of the Byerly Turk ; and until Partner, one of his 



