Ai96 AiSNALS OF TJiE TURF. 



it safest to rely upon them for all those qualities which they them 

 selves had acquired from their foreign progenitors. 



The early English breeders found the Araljian stock to consti- 

 tute an excellent cross upon the Barb and Turk, as from the Ara- 

 bian blood was acquired speed, stoutness and stride from the Barb, 

 length and height from the Turk. 



But of all the foreign stallions imported into England in early 

 times, the fame of the two great Arabians, the Darley and Godol- 

 phin, has swallowed up tliat of all the rest ; and the best English 

 horses for nearly a century past, have been either deeply imbued 

 in their blood, or entirely deriA^ed from it. They have produced 

 stock of vast size, bone and substance, and at the same time en • 

 dowed with such extraordinary and before unheard of powers of 

 speed and continuance, as to render it probable that individuals 

 of them have reached nature's ultimate point of perfection. The 

 descendants of these Arabians have rendered the English courser 

 superior to all the others, not only in the race, where indeed he has 

 long excelled, but as a breeding stock. 



To such of my readers as are unacquainted with the history of 

 that justly celebrated horse, the Godolphin Arabian, the following - 

 particulars of him may not be unacceptable. He was in colour a 

 brown bay, somewhat mottled on the buttocks and crest, but with 

 no white excepting the oif heel behind ; about fifteen hands high, 

 with good bone and substance. The fame of the Godolphin Ara- 

 bian was greatly increased by the famous picture which was taken 

 of him by the immortal Stubbs, and which sold at his sale for 246 

 guineas. This portrait of the Godolphin is doubtless an admirable 

 piece ; it represents his crest as exceedingly large, swelling and 

 elevated, his neck elegantly curved at the sitting on of the head, 

 and his muzzle very fine. He had considerable length ; his ca- 

 pacious shoulders were in the true declining position, and of 

 every part materially contributary to action, nature had allowed 

 him an ample measure : add to this, there is in his whole appear- 

 ance, the express image of a wild animal, such as we may sup- 

 pose the horse of the desert. Certainly the horse was no beauty, 

 but with his peculiar and interesting figure before me, I cannot , 

 help wondering, that it should not occur to his noble proprietor, 

 a true sportsman as he was, that the Arabian might be worthy of 

 a trial as a stallion. This horse was imported by Mr. Coke into 

 England, and it was strongly suspected that he was stolen, as no 

 pedigree was obtained with him, or the least item given, as to the 

 country where he was bred ; the only notice given, was, that he 

 was foaled in 1724. Mr. Coke gave him to Mr. Williams, keeper^ 

 of the St. James' Coffee House, who presented him to the Earl of 

 Godolphin. In this noble lords' stud he was kept as a teazer to 

 Hobgoblin, during the years 1730 and 1731, when that stallion re- 

 fusing to cover Roxana, she was covered by the Arabian, the pro- 

 duce of which was Lath, not only a very elegant and beautiful 

 horse, but, in the general opinion, the best which had appeared on 

 the turf since Flying Childers. The Arabian served for the re-- 

 mainder of his life in the same stud, producing a yearly succession 

 of prodigies of the species. He died in the year 1753, in his 29th 



