702 



A HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH TURF. 



It will, I believe, be of interest to those who followed the development of the 

 Arab type into the English thoroughbred which I traced in my first volume from 

 the Elgin marbles, through Leonardo's and Durer's drawings to Mambrino if 

 they will for a moment consider the conformation of Sceptre or Rock Sand, and 

 compare it with the mare and foal I reproduce on page 708 of this volume 

 from a Thessalian gold drachma (93^ grains) struck at Larissa between B.C. 400 

 and B.C. 344. Another gold coin of the same date and place shows a galloping 

 horse with a rein that trails across his neck. Both these formed part of the 

 famous Montagu collection. By the kindness of Mr. Newton- Robinson I can trace 



the type through the 

 ^T&irj^J'L&S^ Graeco- Roman times in 

 a ring and a cameo of 

 that period ; and finally, 

 Mr. J. P. Heseltine has 

 permitted me to repro- 

 duce a famous brown 

 sard bought from the 

 Marlborough collection, 

 with an exquisite carving 

 of a Roman racehorse. 

 The fine muzzle, broad 

 hoof, loaded shoulder, 

 and round barrel, will 

 be found to have per- 

 sisted from the earliest 

 times we know the Arab until now ; and to make it more clear that the 

 pure Arab blood, when unmixed, has retained all its old characteristics, I have 

 also reproduced upon page 705 the favourite horse Warren Hastings used 



o 



to ride, from Stubbs' painting on porcelain in possession of Sir Walter Gilbey ; 

 Azrek, a typical animal from Mr. Wilfrid Blunts Arab Stud at Crabbet Park ; 

 and Mr. Charles Purse's spirited sketch for his equestrian portrait of Field 

 Marshal Lord Roberts. This well-known Arab, Vonolel, was bought, Lord 

 Roberts tells me, in Bombay, at Abdul Rahman's stable in March, 1877, when 

 it had just been landed from Arabia. Vonolel was of pure Nejed breed, 

 and must have been about twenty-seven years old when he died in Dublin 



Photo by Clarence Hailey, Newmarket. 



Lord Howard de Waldai's 

 " Zinfaiidel." 



