86 The American Tboroiigbbred 



War. Already in this volume it has been related 

 how the first thoroughbreds came to this country 

 byway of the colony at Jamestown. The plan- 

 tation owners continued to import English thor- 

 oughbred stallions and mares, buying the best 

 which could be had. 



Virginia, in years immediately preceding the 

 Revolution, was an exceedingly prosperous com- 

 munity. Agricultural products, and particularly 

 tobacco, brought high prices in the home and 

 foreign markets, and the gentlemen who presided 

 in such princely way over the old plantations 

 along the Rappahannock and the James had 

 ample means with which to satisfy their almost 

 luxuriant tastes and to procure for themselves, 

 either by importation or home breeding, as good 

 horses as stood upon iron. 



Three of the early importations from England 

 made instant impress upon the stock of Virginia. 

 They were Janus, Jolly Roger, and Fearnought. 

 These had come out of the most approved Eng- 

 lish families. At the time of their leaving the 

 old country, the thoroughbred was still a com- 

 paratively young horse in England. The three 

 original line^ of blood which combine to make 

 the English thoroughbred — that is, the lines 



