154 



THE 110K8E. 



obtained, and located about four miles east of Jamaica, and as 

 l^articularly indicative of the spirit and emulation which char- 

 acterized its members, six of their number agreed to send to 

 England and imj^ort each a horse expressly for the saddle. 

 Among the most successful of these was Eichard Smith, Esq., 

 of Suffolk County, who in old " Eoyal George," obtained the 

 very heau ideal of a hunter. Many amusing anecdotes were 

 related by this liberal, high-toned, but facetious gentleman, of 

 indulging his amateur friends from the city with a ride on his 

 favorite, who was perfectly docile and quiet by the side of the 

 cover ; but the moment the game was roused and the pack gave 

 tongue, no ordinary arm could restrain, nor fence nor furze ap- 

 parently impede him, until he had arrived in their midst, where 

 he was satisfied quietly to continue. 



I am unwilling, my dear sir, to close this communication 

 without the endeavor to place on record in juxtaposition, the 

 names and characters of unquestionably the best three race- 

 horses ever bred in this State. They were on the turf at differ- 

 ent periods, but each in his day was as confessedly superior to 

 all others at the North, as in intellectual endowments was Web- 

 ster in Massachusetts, Clay in Kentucky, and Calhoun in Caro- 

 lina. I allude to Mr. Van Ranst's Potomac, Tij^poo Sultan, and 

 American Eclipse. The first a son, the other two grandsons, 

 of Messenger. Potomac foaled in 1796, Sultan in 1800, Eclipse 

 in 1814. Each ran about an equal number of races, and neither 

 was ever beaten. Of Potomac's races several were short, but 

 never from choice ; his friends being confident he was the fast- 

 est, but perfectly certain he was the gamest horse then on the 

 turf, whenever an opponent offered, exerted themselves to ex- 

 tend the distance and increase the stake, but in every case 

 closed with the best proposition they could obtain. The result 

 invariably proved the correctness of their judgment. 



Often have I listened to the discussions of Mr. Yan Ranst 

 and my late father, Major William Jones — of whom it may be 

 said, that fi-om early manhood up to more than fourscore years 

 of age, he was never Avithout a race-horse in his stable — relative 

 to the respective merits of the two horses for whom they enter- 

 tained so great a geographical as Avell as pecuniary interest. 

 Neither could resist the conclusion that Eclipse was the supe- 



