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A HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH TURF. 



same pure Eastern strain (whatever that may have been in each case), as the 

 Byerly Turk, the Darky Arabian, or the Godolphin Arabian, until I have a far more 

 satisfactory proof than I have yet seen of the purity of those great sires Matchem, 

 Herod, and Eclipse, through whom the blood of their three Eastern ancestors has 

 chiefly been transmitted to their modern descendants. Eclipse, I venture to think 

 (and I take him only as a typical example) was the result of a very fortunate mixture 

 of Eastern animal, who had been improved by residence in this climate, and the 





" Dungannon." 1 



English animal, who had already reached a very considerable pitch of excellence 

 before the results of such unions had really been scientifically appreciated. Nothing 

 is more baffling than breeding, and I can easily believe that if men had begun to 

 breed a racer on preconceived theories we should never have had the materials to 

 produce such a magnificent creature as Stockwell, or Persimmon, or a dozen more, at 

 all. But the old racing men were very justly favoured by the Providence that has 

 looked fairly well after their interests ever since. They were rewarded for their 

 pertinacity in racing hard with all the material they had by suddenly discovering that 



