172 THK HORSE. 



horse 1 ever saw, and I well know that I never had any thing 

 to do with one that was at all his equal ; and this I will hack , 

 for, if any horse in the world will run against him at any half- 

 way ground, four-mile heats, according to the rules of racing, 

 you may consider me 8^000 with you on him. He was in good 

 condition this fall — 1809 — and has not run with any horse that 

 could put him to half speed towards the end of the race. 



" Yours, W. R. Johnson." 



Sir Archy was got by the imported horse Diomed, his dam 

 the imported mare Castianira — she was got by Eockingham, 

 out of Tabitha, by Trentham ; her dam — ^Tabitha's — out of the 

 dam of Pegasus. Vide Genealogical Tables, IS'os. I. and II. 



Eockingham, the best son of Highflyer, and he the best son 

 of old King Herod. The dam of Eockingham, Purity, by 

 Matchem, out of the famous old Squirt mare. 



Trentham, a hox-se of great power and celebrity of his day, 

 was by Sweepstakes, out of a South mare. 



Diomed — the sire of Sir Arch}'- — was got by Florizel, one of 

 the best sons of old King Herod ; his dam — Diomed's — by Spec- 

 tator ; his grandam by Blank, Flying Childers, Miss Belvoir, 

 by Gray Grantham, Paget Turk, Betty Percival, Leeds Arabian. 



Diomed was one of the best racers on the English turf ; and 

 was unquestionably the finest formed horse ever imported into 

 this country ; and as a foal getter, he has had no equal except 

 in his son. Diomed had the rare faculty of getting colts of size 

 and form from almost all the mares that he covered, and he 

 mare generally got racers than any other stallion that had pre- 

 ceded him ; and as to the celebrity of his colts, as first-rate 

 racers, they have far eclipsed those of any other horse's get, ex- 

 cept those of Sir Archy. What stallion, then, so worthy to be 

 the sire of Sir Archy as Diomed ? Yet a report has been in 

 circulation a dozen years or more, calculated to rob Diomed of 

 this honor, and to confer it on another stallion called Gabriel, 

 sire of Postboy, Harlequin and Oscar. 



This report first originated among grooms, who, of all 

 others, are best calculated to give currency to reports without 

 foundation. Col. Tayloe, who jointly with Col. Eandolph, bred 



