42 FLYING CHILDERS BARTLET'S CHILDERS. 



short-backed, compact, close-ribbed horse, which depended chiefly on his lower 

 limbs, for his necessary length as a racer; a form directly opposite to that of 

 Eclipse, his great rival or partner in posthumous celebrity. 



KING^ HEROD, descended I)} his darn from Flying" Childers, was of the highest 

 reputation both as a Racer and a Stallion; indeed stands among* the first, if he be not 

 really the very first of the latter class, in modern times. He ranks decidedly before 

 Eclipse, some of Herod's stock being' not only among the most speedy, but the 

 generality of them, the stoutest and best constitutioned horses the Turf, at anyperiod, 

 has produced. We do not recollect to have seen King Herod, but many brethren 

 of the bridle now living, will answer for the correctness of Sartorius's portrait. 



The \)\:\ ONSHIRM or FLYING GUILDERS, a bay horse, somewhat upwards of 

 fifteen hands in height, was foaled in 1715, the property of Leonard Childers, Esq. 

 of Carr House, near Doncaster, and sold, when young, to the Duke of Devon- 

 shire. His pedigree was as follows : he was got by the Darley Arabian, his dam, 

 Betty Leedes, by Old Careless ; his grandam, own sister to Leedes, by Leedes' 

 Arabian ; his great grandam by Spanker, out of the Old Morocco mare, Spanker's 

 <>\\n dam. The Sporting reader will notice the near affinities in this pedigree. 

 The historx of this e< lebrated Racer is so well known, and has been so often re- 

 peated, that a few items of it will suffice. Mr. Parkinson, who was likely to be 

 well informed, has said that Childers was first used as a hunter, and that in the 

 field, both his high qualities and his headstrong, if not vicious disposition, were first 

 discovered. He was, however, void of any taint of restiveness. It is probable, 

 that, like Mclipse, he did not start on the course, until five, perhaps not until six 

 years old, when he beat all the horses of his time, at whatever distance. He was 

 never tried in running a single mile, but the measured and attested performances 

 since, of far inferior horses, leave not the shadow of a doubt of the ability of 

 Flying Childers, to run a mile within one minute of time! Carrying nine stone 

 two pounds, he ran over the Round Course at Newmarket, three miles, six furlongs, 

 ninety-three yards, in six minutes and forty seconds, when he was judged to move 

 eighty-two feet and half in one second of time. He likewise ran over the Beacon 

 Course, four miles, one furlong, one hundred and thirty -eight yards, in seven minutes, 

 thirty seconds, covering at every bound, a space of twenty-five feet. He made a 

 spring or leap often \ards, upon level ground, with his rider on his back. As we 

 remember, about 1778, O' Kelly caused the stride of his grey horse Horizon, one of 

 the speediest sons of Eclipse, to be measured, and the extent was reported to be 

 twenty-seven feet. Childers, as a Stallion, ranks far higher than his great com- 

 petitor Eclipse. In that capacity, perhaps, no English bred horse can compare 

 with him, as to essentials through length of descent ; as a Racer, certainly but one. 

 He died in the Duke of Devonshire's Stud in 1741, aged twenty-six years. 



BLEEDING CHILIMIKS, so called from his frequent bleedings at the nose, after- 



