(5 THE WELLESLEY ARABIAN. 



the period of the reign of Elizabeth, when horse-racing- had already attracted con- 

 siderable attention, both in England and Scotland, horses began to be imported 

 from the East, for that peculiar purpose, as well as for the general one of an im- 

 provement of the native breeds. At first it is probable that, pedigree and purity 

 of blood were not objects of such high consideration as they have since been ; but 

 that any well-shaped and blood-like nag", with good action, served the purpose 

 either of the breeding stud or the course. Turks, Barbs, Spaniards, Arabians, 

 Egyptians, and Persians, were imported, without any particular preference^ nor 

 had the Arabian horses, in those days, acquired that high distinction which they 

 have enjoyed since the commencement of the last century. The first James, our 

 first sporting monarch also, purchased of a Mr. Markham, a merchant, an Arabian 

 horse, at the very considerable price of five hundred pounds. This horse obtained 

 no reputation, being, it seems, quite unable to race, and the horse coursers of that 

 day being probably aware that such might be no reasonable objection. The ill 

 success of this horse brought Arabians into such disrepute, that we read of few in 

 the scanty annals of the Turf, until the reign of Queen Anne, the last of the 

 Stuarts, and of our horse-racing sovereigns. 



Early in the reign of Anne, and which forms an epoch in Turf history, the 

 famous DARLEY ARABIAN was imported. He was sent from Aleppo by Mr. Darley , 

 a merchant there settled, who procured him through his connections, from the 

 Arabian desarts ; and he is one of those few horses, on the purity of the blood of 

 which we can have a certain reliance. Hence the consequence to a turf breeder, 

 of attention to the portrait of this horse, which, however imperfect in a refined or 

 scientific view, doubtless represents a likeness of the animal, and a sufficiently 

 correct view of his proportions. That he was the sire of that racer of deathless 

 fame, FLYING CHILDERS, and that his blood has since invariably proved the most 

 valuable for the stud, form the best evidence of its purity, and that the land in 

 which he was bred, is the native soil of the genuine courser. The Leedes Arabian 

 was cotemporary with the Darley, and it is sufficient for his fame as a stallion 

 to say, that he was the sire of OLD LEEDES. 



The great success of Mr. Darley with his Arabian, turned the current of fashion- 

 able opinion among our English Sportsmen, so much in favour of the horses of that 

 country, that it became a common inducement to style all horses imported from 

 the Levant, Arabians, whether or not they might have been really such, or 

 Persians, Syrians, Egyptians, Turks, or Barbs. This has occasioned notable con- 

 fusion and uncertainty, but it has been experienced, that the horses of all those 

 countries are endowed with the properties of the race-horse in certain degrees, 

 and the blood of our English thorough-bred horse is derived from a mixture of all 

 those, although doubtless the blood of the Arabian and Barb predominates. The 

 importation of these southern horses into Europe has proceeded as formerly, to the 

 present time ; and great numbers have been brought to this country during the 



