106 THE HORSE. 



present day which are not in some degree descended from the 

 royal mares, it apj^ears too much to assert that they all owe 

 their origin entirely to Eastern blood. 



" The casuist may, therefore, with consistency inquire, "What 

 is a thoroughbred horse ? The term is accepted conventionally 

 to signify a horse whose pedigree can be traced through many 

 generations, the members of which have signalized themselves 

 on tlie turf, or have established their reputation as progenitors 

 of superior horses." 



This is undoubtedly the true and practical reply, and such 

 the pedigree of Eclipse will prove it in plain truth to be.* 



" The pedigree of Eclii^se will likewise afford us another 

 curious illustration of the uncertainty which attends thorough- 

 bred horses. Marske was sold at the sale of the Duke of Cum- 

 berland's stud for a mere trifle, and was suffered to run almost 

 wild in the New Forest. He was afterwards purchased by the 

 Earl of Abingdon, for one thousand guineas, and before his 

 death, covered for one hundred guineas. Squirt, when the 

 property of Sir Harry Ilarpur, was ordered to be shot, and, 

 while he was actually leading to the dog kennel, he was spared 

 at the intercession of one of Sir Harry's grooms ; and neither 

 Bartlett's Childers, nor Snake, was ever trained. On the side 



* In 1732 was foaled Squirt, who as the sire of Mr. Pratt's old mare, Marske and 

 Syphon — the former sire of Eclipse, Shark, and an almost infinite number of racers — 

 certainly merits a peculiar commemoration. 



Squirt was bred by a Mr. Metcalfe, near Beverly in the county of New York, 

 and was by Bartlett's, own brother to Flying Childer-. His dam, known by the 

 name of " Metcalfe's Old Mare," was bred by Mr. Robinson of Easby, near Rich- 

 mond. She was by Snake, and descended from the cross of the D'Arcy Turk with 

 the royal or Barbary mares. Squirt was a fair good racer, but, fiiUing into the 

 hands of Sir Harry Harpur, he was held in so little repute, that once, when by uo 

 means an old horse, he was sent to the kennel to be shot. He was reprieved at the 

 earnest solicitation of Sir Harry's groom, and subsequently became sire of Marske, 

 Syphon, and Pratt's old mare. What a void in the annals of the turf would that 

 bullet have produced ! Eclipse and all his descendants. Shark, and the numerous 

 tribe of other horses that sprang from Marske — Tandem, Sweetbriar and Sweet- 

 wilHam, sons of Syphon ; Rockingham, Walnut, Gohanna, &c., descended from the 

 old mare, would have had no existence. 



From this date the breed of the English race-horse may be held to have been 

 fully established, and thenceforth has transmitted its progeny to be victorious in 

 every country, over every native horse, to which it has been imported, or against 

 which it has been pitted. 



