126 THE HOKSE. 



lias any stable of racers ever been kept to the eastward of New- 

 York.' 



Yirginia and Maryland as the head-quarters of tlie Cavaliers — 

 the former State having for a long time refused submission to 

 the Connnonwealth and to stout old Oliver — as the seat of the 

 aristocracy, fashion, and wealth of the Colonies, prior to the 

 Kevolution — took an early and decided lead in this noble pur- 

 suit ; and, while the love of the sport continues to distinguish 

 their descendants, who are by far the most equestrian in their 

 habits of any other citizens of the Kepublic, the result of the 

 liberality of the first settlers is yet visible in the blood of their 

 noble steeds. 



It is probable that Eacing may have commenced simultane- 

 ously, or nearly so, in the two States above named. It was an 

 attribute of the principal towns of Maryland some years pre- 

 vious to Braddock's defeat in 1753, and it is nearly certain that 

 Spark, owned by Governor Ogle, of that colony, presented to 

 him by Lord Baltimore, who received him as a gift from the 

 Prince of Wales, father to King George III., came hither pre- 

 vious to that event, and was among the first horses of great dis- 

 tinction brought to America, though it cannot be shown, what 

 was the exact date of his importation. It seems also that there 

 is some dispute as to his pedigree. Weatherby's stud-book has 

 S])ark, by Honeycomb Punch out of Wilkes' Old Hautboy 

 mare, and this I presume is the horse in question, as is stated 

 by Patrick Nisbett Edgar, in his Sportsman's Herald, who gives 

 his pedigree as above, signed and sealed by Lord Baltimore. 

 Skinner, in his stud-book, states him to have been got by Aleppo, 

 son of the Darley Arabian, dam by Bartlett's Childers, &c. ; 

 but he states no authority, and I presume is in error ; as I find 

 no grounds for such a pedigr(>e. Edgar states, also, that Wilkes' 

 Old Hautboy mare, dam by Brimmer, was also imported into 

 Virginia by Col. Colville, and afterward known as Miss Col- 

 ville. Old Hautboy was son of the D'Arcy white Turk, out of 

 one of King Charles II.'s barb mares. Honeycomb sire of Punch, 

 by the Dun Barb out of a Babraham mare. Governor Ogle, 

 the owner of Spark, who as a grandson of Hautboy must date 

 back to early in the 18th century, also imported Queen Mab, 

 by Musgrove's grey Arabian ; but the date of her importation 



