IO PERFORMANCES AND DEATH OF ECLIPSE. 



one hundred pounds to a guinea, were offered on Eclipse. On a certain race, 

 O' Kelly betted five and six to four, that he posted the horses; that is to say, named, 

 before starting-, the order in which they would run in. When called on to declare, 

 he named" Eclipse first, the rest in no place," and won his money, Eclipse 

 disti/ncinii'n\\ the rest; being* distanced, they were consequently, in a sporting- sense, 

 in no place. 



Kit-yen King's Plates, the weight carried for all of them being twelve stone, 

 one excepted, ten stone, were won by Eclipse. In twenty-three years, three 

 hundred and forty-four winners, the progeny of this transcendant Courser, pro- 

 duced to their owners the sum of Io8,071/. 12s. various prizes not included. As 

 we have before remarked, the characteristics of the Eclipse Racers were speed and 

 si/.e, and many of them bent their knees, and took up their feet in the gallop, with 

 extraordinary activity. If few of them were stout, still fewer of them wanted 

 honesty, a restiff or s\\er\ m<j- horse being seldom found of that blood. The eye of 

 Turf science is directed to the portrait of Eclipse, to the curve in the setting on of 

 his head, to his short fore-quarter, to the slant, extent and substance of his shoulder, 

 the length of liis \vaist, and breadth of his Joins; to the extent of his quarters, and 

 tin- length and substance of his thighs and fore-arms. Although a strong, he was 

 a thick-winded horse ; and, in a sweat or hard exercise, was heard to blow at a con- 

 siderable distance. Eclipse first covered at fifty guineas: afterwards, at twenty 

 guineas, bein<> stinted to fifty mares, exclusive of those of his owner ; ultimately, 

 at thirty miineas. In 1788, his feet having been neglected, he was removed from 

 Epsom to Cannons, in a four-wheeled carriage, drawn by two horses, his groom 

 beinu ; inside passenger with him, the old Racer and his attendant taking* the 

 noccssarx refreshments on the road together. Eclipse died at Cannons in the 

 following year, on February 28th, aged twenty-five years; and, according to the 

 precedent of the Godnlpltin Arabian, cakes and ale were given at his funeral. 

 His heart weighed thirteen pounds. The uncertainty in Eclipse's pedigree arises 

 from the circumstance that his dam, barren in the previous year, was in the next 

 eo\ere<l by both Shnkespear and JA/r.s-/,-, but came to Marsk's time: there \\asa 

 >trono- resemblance, however, in Kdipse, to the progeny of Shakespear, in colour, 

 temper, and certain peculiarities of form. 



