English Aristocrats 21 



and numerous others from whom sprang the largest and 

 speediest race horses ever known. Bartlett's Childers 

 was never trained. Flying Childers and O' Kelly's Eclipse, 

 the latter a great-great-grandson of the Darley Arabian, 

 were the swiftest horses that have ever been in the world; 

 and Sampson, descended from the Darely Arabian, 

 through Childers and Blaze, was the strongest race horse 

 the world has produced. 



FLYING CHILDERS was a bay with a blaze face and four 

 white feet and is said to have been about fifteen hands 

 high. He was foaled in 1715; his dam, Betty Leedes by 

 Careless; sister to Leedes by Leedes Arabian; by 

 Spanker; Barb mare that was Spankers dam. Spanker 

 was most all Barb. 



In 1721, when six years old and carrying 128 pounds, 

 Flying Childers ran the Round Course at Newmarket, 3 

 miles, 3 quarters and 93 yards in 6 : 48 equivalent to 

 4 miles in 7:09. In the same year, same weight, he ran 

 the Beacon Course, 4 miles, I furlong and 138 yards in 

 7:30 equivalent to 4 miles in 7:08. This, according 

 to a Newmarket chronicle; its accuracy is, however, 

 questioned by many doubting Thomases. 



The Editor of The Turj Register wrote that Flying Chil- 

 ders, when six years old, at York, ran 4 miles in 6:48, 

 carrying 128 pounds; and over another course of 4 

 miles, lacking 760 yards, he ran in 6:40. In the 6:48 race 

 "he must have run at the rate of 51 feet 9 inches per 

 second and at the exact rate of a mile in 1 142." He gave 

 the famous horse, Fox, 12 Ibs. over the course and beat 

 him one quarter of a mile in a trial. Childers' owner, the 

 Duke of Devonshire, refused an offer for him of the horse's 

 weight in crowns and half crowns. Childers covered but 

 few mares, except the Duke of Devonshire's. He sired, 

 among others: 



