150 THE HORSE. 



It appears by a letter from the American correspondent of the 

 English Sporting Magazine, published in August, 1829, and 

 quoted in tlie November number of the American Turf Register, 

 that " Topgallant, Whalebone, Sir Peter, Trouble and Shakes- 

 peare, were got by Hambletonian ; that Betsey Baker was by 

 Mambrino ; Screwdriver, dam. Bull by Mount Holly ; Kattler 

 by an imported English horse out of a Canadian mare, and Tom 

 Thumb a Narragansett, an excellent breed of trotters, but their 

 origin unknown," 



This is peculiarly worthy of remark, as I have not else- 

 where seen any notice of the pedigrees of these animals ; and 

 this is generally likely to be correct, as written probably by an 

 Englishman for an English periodical, who would naturally 

 strive to obtain accuracy on a point likely to create so much 

 attention as the origin of this new race of extraordinary trotters 

 was sure to do in the English sporting circles. 



There are two Hambletonians in the Stud Book, one by Sir 

 Archy out of Bellona, a Carolinian horse; the other by im- 

 ported Messenger, out of a southern mare. 



It is of course the latter horse, which is the sire of these 

 trotters, as he is known to have served many common mares, 

 and it is claimed that the Morgans have some of his blood. 



The trotting stallion Mambrino was by Messenger, and must 

 not be confounded witli the racehorse by American Eclipse. 



Mambrino was owned in Philadelj)hia. There is some 

 blunder here as to Btdl, who could not well be any one's dam, 

 and I cannot iind how Mount Holly was bred, though I belicr3 

 he was by Mambrino. Nothing, probably, is known of the sire 

 of Rattler, but the chances are that he was a well-bred horse. 



Tlie statement that Tom Thumb was a Narragansett, I take 

 to be an error, from confounding the breed of pacers with that 

 of trotters, natural enough to an Englishman, to whom both 

 were strange. 



I have often seen the horse, which had not the sliglitest 

 resemblance to the Narragansetts, either in shape or color, but 

 closely resembled an Indian pony of the Canadian type. 



In this same year, it appears that a Trotting Club was estab- 

 lished at Baltimore — I believe on what has been known since as 

 the Kendal Course — and, since that time trotting has continued 



