CR.ESCEUS, 2:02 /4 



But he was a good trotter for his day ; a good individ 

 ual as well ; a sturdy, hardy, and long-lived, much- 

 enduring horse. His temper was bad, and what this 

 cost him may be conjectured; but it certainly cost him 

 popularity, prestige, all but the poorest opportunities, 

 and during the greater part of his life subjected him to 

 all manner of vicissitude and abuse. Yet he fought 

 through twenty-seven stormy years and died at last in 

 a burning stable. 



Major Edsall's dam is given in the books as by Har- 

 ris's Hambletonian, almost surely nothing but con- 

 jecture. She was gray and came from Vermont and 

 was a famous road mare, and that is all that is known 

 about her. It was the late F. J. Nodine, of Brooklyn, 

 N. Y., who brought her with her mate from the Green 

 Mountain state, and in their day they were a noted 

 metropolitan road team. Conversely, Katy Darling, 

 the dam of Alexander's Abdallah, has no official pedi- 

 gree, but so far as acceptable evidence is concerned, 

 there is much more tending to show that she was by 

 a son of Andrew Jackson, and out of a mare by a son 

 of Biggert's Sir Henry, than that Edsall's dam was by 

 Harris's Hambletonian ; and the tabulation includes 

 this version, which the late George W. Nelson brought 

 forward after long research in 1885. The Stars as a 

 family were small, but Nancy Whitman, Robert Mc- 

 Gregor's dam, was of fine size, and a very elegant mare 

 physically. 



Mr. R. I. Lee, who bought Robert McGregor of his 



