10 THE HORSE. 



of the White Turk and a Royal mare, and Grey Grantham son 

 of the Brownlow Turk, who were both sons of unknown and 

 uncelebrated mares — Rockwood, of whom nothing is recorded, 

 but that he was out of the Lonsdale Tregonwell mare, and many 

 other horses and mares of established character in the history 

 of the turf. 



This does not show, nor, in my opinion, does it even give rise 

 for a just suspicion, that these unknown ancestors were of ignoble 

 blood ; it is only, as I regard it, a necessary consequence of the 

 remote period, the incorrect and careless habitudes of the 

 times, and the want of regularly authenticated documents, on a 

 subject, wliich, althougli now of the most general interest, was 

 at the origin of racing and the turf, a mere individual concern. 



In the same manner, many American horses, whose blood is 

 undoubtedly pure, cannot be traced, for the reasons above given, 

 to the fountain-head of imported ancestors of pure blood, on 

 both sides. 



It must be understood, that to prove a horse to he of coarse 

 and cold-blooded descent, is one thing certain and conclusive ; 

 while not to prove a horse of pure blood establishes nothing be- 

 yond a doubt. And, while on this point, I will observe that 

 recent writers in America on the English Turf, are falling into 

 a general error, as to what, in England, is held to constitute a 

 thoroughbred. I have often seen it stated, of late, that eight 

 crosses of pure blood, constitute a thorougbred horse, even if 

 the ninth cross be unknown, or, what is worse, actually /bj^Z. 



^ beg to explain, and to assert that no such opinion prevails, 

 either among breeders, or among the sporting world in general, 

 in England. 



No horse, now in the year 1856, can possibly trace to any of 

 the old unknown mares or sires, of wliich I have been speaking, 

 in eight generations — scarcely in twice the number. 



For the last century, at the least, every mare of thorough- 

 blood is entered by name in the stud-books, and all her foals 

 recorded, the oldest and most remote of these mares, tracing 

 back their eight, nine, or more generations to the worthies in 

 question, whose dams are unknown. 



No horse or mare is counted, or would be held, thoroughbred 

 in England, the dam and sire of which is not in the stud-book. 



