CHAPTER VII. 



ARABIAN', TURK, AND BARB. 



" England of yore was full of men 



Made strong to run a glorious course, 

 Of lion port and eagle ken, 

 Fit riders for the Arab horse. 



His high heart, then, like mingling flame, 



Into their brightness would have flowed : 

 And in his generous veins the same 



Free spirit would have lived and glowed." 



THE horses for which Tregonwell Frampton was more or less personally responsible 

 during the reigns of William III., Queen Anne, George I., and George II., would 

 alone form a most interesting list of the ancestors of the modern thoroughbred. 

 Among the animals bred or imported by the first-named monarch were Cricket, 

 Cupid, and Stiff Dick, with Turk, the White B.irb, Cliillaby, the Bhuk Barb without 

 a tongue, and Hutton's Gray Barb. For Queen Anne, Frampton no doubt had a 

 hand in the training of Pef>per, Mustard, and Star, while her Moonali Barb Mare was 

 an invaluable addition to the Royal Stud. George I. seems to have been more 

 interested in his own court-circle from Herrenhausen, than in the race-horses of the 

 country which had summoned him to govern it ; and Frampton took advantage of 

 the interval to do a good deal of racing on his own account, as we have seen. But 

 with the days of George II., the English turf looked up again, and we begin to see a 

 little more justification for the enthusiasm of Mr. Thomas Doggett "a famous 

 comedian, deceased," who celebrated the advent of the House of Hanover by 

 starting the oldest sporting fixture on the Thames, the yearly sculling-match between 

 six watermen for his Coat and Badge, which has preserved the name of Congreve's 

 friend and Colley Gibber's partner from oblivion. It was in the reign of George II. 



