THE TURF UNDKR JAMES /. " THE MARKHAM ARABIAN." 49 



famous Puppey against whom men may talke, but they cannot conquer." The 

 1 \~iilcntine" who is given by the same writer as the best English horse he knew, 

 was the property of the Earl of Northumberland, who owned " Grey Dallavell : 

 Grey Valentine, which dyed a horse never conquered." Other names of horses 

 famous at the time are given by Ben Jonson, who says that wagers were laid 

 about the afore-mentioned Puppy, with Peppercorn, Whitefoot (an ancestor, no 

 doubt, of the Flatfoot whom Evelyn saw at Newmarket in 1671), and Franklin. 

 Other names more famous in the North are recorded, in a ballad of a race on 

 Gatherley Moor near Richmond, as Bay Corbet, Grey E Her ton (who won), and Grey 

 Applcton. Grey was a favourite colour in those days. In 1605 the Earl of 

 Cumberland bequeathed his bald (i.e., whitefaced) gelding Grey Lambert to Sir 

 William Ingleby, a Yorkshireman out of whose stud at Ripley a certain " baie 

 barbarie horse" was in turn bequeathed to Sir Peter Middleton. 



Markham's opinion of the Arab is that of the Duke of Newcastle, who so much 

 objected to the famous importation of 1617. " He was a bay," writes the Duke of 

 the Arabian which was probably brought over by our author's father, a keeper in 

 Sherwood Forest, " but a little horse and no Rarity for shape ! for I have seen many 

 English horses far finer .... being trained up for a course, when he came 

 to run every horse beat him " ; an opinion which must, of course, be taken for what 

 it is worth, as the value of the Godolphin Barb, for instance, would not be very 

 high if it depended upon any performances recorded in his racing career. As I shall 

 have occasion to point out, breeding is by no means a safe investment if judged by 

 the victories of the sire alone ; and it is also worth noting that if His Grace's ideas of 

 " shape" are to be judged from the illustrations of his famous book, the only sort of 

 horse he cared about was of the massive Flemish build of Van Dyck's chargers. 

 What Markham himself implied by the "true" breed of English horse, he explains 

 in another passage : "him I mean that is bred under a good clime, on firm ground, 

 in a pure temperature, is of tall stature and large proportions ; his head, though not 

 so fine as either the Barbarie's or the Turke's, yet is lean, long, and well-fashioned ; 

 his crest is hie, only subject to thickness if he be stoned, but if he be gelded then it is 

 firm and strong ; his chyne is straight and broad ; and all his limbs large, leane, flat, 

 and excellently pointed. For their endurance I have seen them suffer and 

 execute as much and more than ever I noted of any foraine creation." 



Before quoting another writer, Michael Barrett, whose work appeared very soon 

 after Markham's, it is perhaps only just to the Duke of Newcastle to lessen the 



VOL. i. H 



