130 Till'; iioiwK. 



ker'(< dam, the White and Yellow D'Arcy Turks, the Selaby 

 Turk, and either the old Vintner or the Layton violet Barb 

 mares ; and, on the other, to the Godolphin Arabian, through 

 Regulus, Babraham, Juniper, Dormouse and others. I say it 

 is remarkable, because— after this blood had for very many 

 years been bred in this country, more or less, in and in — the 

 celel)i-ated horse Sir Archy, son of imported Diomed and im- 

 ported Castianira, running back through his sire, his grandsire 

 Florizel, and his great grandsire Sir Herod into precisely the 

 same strain of Partner blood, and through his grand-dam Tabi- 

 tha, into the same Babraham and Godolphin strain, seems to 

 have i)rodueed by a reinfusicm of the selfsame original elements, 

 a new stock of unequalled excellence, of iron endurance, con- 

 stitution, speed and stoutness, which is hourly winning fresh 

 laurels on our own turf, and is shortly, as it is understood, to 

 compete in the lists of fame, on the very courses whereon their 

 ancestors ran above a century ago, with their far-away kindred 

 of the ocean island. 



From Virginia and Maryland, the racing spirit extended 

 itself rapidly into the Carol in as, where it has never to this day 

 flagged. The oldest race-courses in this country, which are yet 

 kpet up for purposes of sport, are the Newmarket course, near 

 Petersbui'gh, Virginia, and the Washington course, near Charles- 

 ton, South Carolina ; at Alexandria, D. C, there was a Race- 

 course early in the last centurj', and the courses in the neigh- 

 borhood of Ilichmond have been in existence above seventy 

 years. Xot very long after this date, and previous to the Revo- 

 lutionary War, there were two race-courses on Long Island, in 

 the State of New York, one called Newmarket, near the centre 

 of Suifolk county, and the other near Jamaica in Queens county, 

 at both of which trials of speed were frequently had, but whether 

 there ^^ere meetings at stated intervals and for regular prizes is 

 not known ; it was not until about the commencement of the 

 present century, however, that what may be called race-courses 

 proper* were established in New York ; the first club for the 

 promotion of the breed of horses by means of racing, taking date 

 from 1804, in which year the old Newmarket course was re- 

 modelled, and regular meetings with two and three-mile heats 

 were established. 



