ECLIPSE MARSK. 39 



thousand pounds by Eclipse. Mr. Fenwick, of Yorkshire, acknowledged that at 

 the foot of the account of his horse Matchem, he found a profit of more than 

 seventeen thousand pounds from his services as a stallion, exclusive of his acquisi- 

 tions as a Racer : whilst Mr. Martindale, of the Subscription House, St. James's 

 Street, profited barely to the amount of one thousand pounds, by Old Regulus, 

 one of the highest names upon the British Turf, both as a Racer never beaten, and 

 a Stallion. 



The Eclipse Colt, when a yearling, was purchased by Mr. Wildman for seventy- 

 Jive guineas, on the decease of the Duke of Cumberland, at the sale by auction of 

 his Royal Highness's Stud. Marsk, the reputed sire of Eclipse, subsequently % on 

 the New Forest, covered Country and Forest mares at half a guinea each ; and the 

 present writer has seen several galloways of that description of his get. The same 

 Marsk, which afterwards, being Lord Abingdous .property, covered at one 

 hundred guineas each mare, and was advertised, in succeeding 1 seasons, by the noble 

 Breeder, at two or three hundred guineas a mare. Wildman had a friend in the 

 old Duke's Stud, from whom he obtained a hint of the superior form of the Eclipse 

 colt ; but making the journey in haste, he did not arrive until the sale had com- 

 menced, and his object had been already knocked down at seventy guineas. Appeal- 

 ing instantly to his watch, which he knew to be a correct time-piece, he found the 

 hour had not arrived by several minutes at which the commencement of the sale had 

 been publicly advertised, and thence firmly insisted there had been no lawful sale, 

 and that the lots knocked down should be put up again. The Knight of the 

 Hammer, well aware of the resolution and pecuniary weight of the little man, 

 very prudently offered him the chance of any lot he should chuse. Eclipse was 

 put up again, and Wildman purchased him at an advance of Jive guineas. 



ECLIPSE, for what reason has never been published, did not appear upon the 

 Turf, until he was full five years old, when he was entered at Epsom for the Maiden 

 Plate of fifty pounds ; and, according to an anecdote first given in the Philoso- 

 phical and Practical Treatise on Horses, his recent trial at Epsom having been 

 watched, the odds at starting were four to one in his favour. O' Kelly was doubtless 

 well aware of the g'oodness of this maiden horse, by the large sums he then betted at 

 such considerable odds. In running the second and winning heat, the whole five 

 horses were close together at the three-mile post, when some of the jockies used 

 their whips ; Eclipse was quietly jogging on at his moderate rate ; when alarmed 

 by the crack of the whips, he bounded away, and notwithstanding Oakley held 

 him back with all the force of his powerful arms, not one of his competitors 

 could save his distance. In running over the course at York, in the following 

 year, 1770, for the Subscription Purse, against Tortoise and Bellario, twoTacersof 

 the highest reputation, but aged, Eclipse took the lead; and the jockey being unable 

 to hold him, he was more than a distance before, the other horses at the end of two 

 miles, and won the race with the utmost ease. At starting, twenty, and in running, 



