162 THE HOKSE. 



and West, the Trotting Horse, although it is now the game 

 and cant of the day to deny the influence of blood in this class 

 of animals. 



The wholesome and amicable rivalry of the Northern and 

 Southern stables, with their — in a greater or lesser degree — dis- 

 tinctive families, was an unquestionable stimulus to breeders, 

 and told its tale in the high form of the racers which we used 

 to see contending in the good days of the 30's — under the 

 auspices of such men as Messrs. Johnson and Tayloe, Van 

 Mater, Wade Hampton, Bingaman, Stevens, Livingston, Stock- 

 ton, Tillotson, Jones, Gibbons, and many more, as good as they, 

 from all sections of the country. 



Of those palmy days it is with pleasure that I can say 



quaeque ipse celerrima vidi 



Et quorum pars parva fui. 



The great race of races, it is true, was one of the things bye- 

 gone when I iirst trod the soil of America ; but the first Amer- 

 ican race-horse on whom I set eyes, in the first year of my no- 

 vitiate, was the champion. Eclipse ; and the next, his gallant 

 competitor. Sir Henry. Ariel, the most successful and enduring, 

 perhaps, of all the progeny of the great northern conqueror, 

 was withdrawn from the scene of her glories, already ; but it 

 was my fortune to witness, as my entering to the turf of Long 

 Island, the splendid twenty-mile mare-race, the prize of which 

 was borne off by that magnificent and honest animal. Black 

 Maria ; who, singularly enough, combines all the imported 

 blood which I have named, together with the old Virginian 

 strains of Clockfast, Fearnought, Yorick, and the rest, having, 

 through her sire, American Eclipse, Diomed, Messenger, Bed- 

 ford and Medley crosses, and by her dam. Lady Lightfoot, Sir 

 Archy and Shark crc 



From that time 

 one constant and continued succession of good, nay ! great 

 horses on the turf, and meeting after meeting, year after year, 

 spring and fall, from Long Island to New Orleans, there was 

 one constant promise, and that promise made good, of fine sport 

 for sportsmen. Tliose were the days of such mares as Trifle, 

 Bonnets of Blue, Fasliion, Peytona, Reel, and many more sec- 



