"MATCHEM," "HEROD" AND THEIR DESCENDANTS. 



279 



Unless this is clearly grasped, the real meaning of "the English thoroughbred" 

 will, to my mind, never be truly appreciated. It is possible that one or two horses 

 may have had a successful career on the English Turf which have had not a drop 

 of other than Eastern blood in their veins. But to say that all of the best pedigrees 

 of modern blood-stock can be traced back to The Byerly Turk, The Darley Arabian, 

 and The Godolphin Arabian, is not at all equivalent to proving that the English 

 thoroughbred is a pure product of Eastern blood alone. As a matter of fact, the 

 assertion is no more true than it would be true to say that the best Englishmen are 

 a pure product of nothing but English blood. In these days of extended travel 

 and easy communication, marriages between different nationalities are common. 

 Even if this be denied, 

 it will not be questioned 

 that Englishmen often 

 marry American 

 heiresses ; and, charm- 

 ing as these wealthy 

 ladies are, who will be 

 bold enough to assert 

 what is the exact pro- 

 portion which any 

 nationality can claim in 

 a descent which has 

 produced such fascinat- 

 ing examples of mixed 

 heredity ? But there is 

 no need even to take 



the analogy of modern society. Long before Burke was heard of, or Debrett was 

 born, there was an aristocracy in these islands. What was its origin ? Was it pure 

 Norman, pure Saxon, or pure Dane ? What is our highest family of all ? Is it 

 Celtic, or Teutonic, or of what unmixed race ? Of none, for it is better than any. 

 Our most representative families are the result of the happiest blend ever concocted 

 in Nature's great Laboratory of Race, the composite of various strains known as the 

 English. 



Much the same holds good of the English thoroughbred. I shall never believe 

 that any name in the modern blood-stock upon the English turf is descended of the 



"Phosphorus" by "Eclipse}' 



