IIISTOEY 



OF THE ENGLISH BLOOD-HORSE. 



It being, iu the first place, admitted that tlie English blood- 

 horse is the most perfect animal of his race, in the whole world, 

 both for speed and endurance, and that the American blood-horse 

 directly traces, without mixture, to English, and, through the 

 English, to oriental parentage, it is absolutely necessary to 

 revert to the origin and original creation of the former variety, 

 in order to come at the pedigree, characteristics, and history of 

 the latter. 



With American blood-horses, it is not as it is with American 

 men ; the latter may, in many cases, trace their descent to an 

 admixture of the blood of many nations ; the former, on the 

 contrary, must trace to the blood of the English thoroughbred, 

 or, if it fail to do so, must sufier in consequence of the taint of 

 any foreign strain. 



I do not, of course, mean to assert that, in a horse of unques- 

 tioned excellence and performance, it would be a defect to trace 

 to a new and recent cross of Arab or Barb blood ; but I do 

 mean to say, that such pedigree would be of no advantage to 

 the character of the animal ; since it is clear that, by no oriental 

 horse recently imported into Great Britain has the British 

 blood-horse been improved — the "Wellesley Arabian having got 

 but one ofispring of even moderate racing celebrity. Fair Ellen 

 — while no horse of the pure blood of the desert, by any allow- 

 ance of weight, has been enabled to win a race on the English 

 Turf, though, within the last twenty years, many have been 

 started for prizes. 



It is believed that no Barb, Arab, or Turk imported into 

 America, has ever got a horse of any true pretensions on the 



