'The Origin of the Thoroughbred // 



dam of Dodsworth also, but she must have produced more than these two for she was 

 twenty years old when she dropped Vixen. This Barb mare was one of the mares 

 in the Royal stud formed by Charles II, on whose death she was sold to Mr. Coke, who 

 bred Vixen from her. 



When the war had subsided, several valuable importations were made, about the 

 best of which was a white stallion imported by Mr. Place, who was stud master to 

 Oliver Cromwell ; and there is hardly an English horse of note that does not show 

 from one to four crosses of this horse, known as "Place's White Turk." He got Com- 

 moner and Hautboy, both great performers in their day. It is a good strain of blood 

 and is specially conspicuous in the pedigrees of Matchem and Woodpecker, as well as 

 in the dam of Snap ; and is also to be found in Lady Thigh and "the Widdington mare," 

 both as conspicuous in their day as are Pocahontas and Ellen Home in our own. His 

 daughters were greater, however, as grand dams and great-grand dams than in the first 

 generation, one of these being the grand dam of Grey Ramsden, Cartouch and Wynd- 

 h'am. They were also the ancestors of Whitefoot by Bay Bolton ; Torismond by Star- 

 ling, Alcides by Babraham ; and Sweepstakes by The Gower Stallion. The Brimmer 

 mare, whose dam was by Place's White Turk, was the dam of the noted Makeless, the 

 grand dam being by Dodsworth (sire of Dicky Pierson) out of the Layton Barb mare, 

 founder of the No. 4 family in Bruce Lowe's system, to which trace Iroquois, Belvidere, 

 Kentucky and Sir Dixon in America ; and Alice Hawthorn, Thormanby, Kisber, Wen- 

 lock and Apology in England. 



The Royal mares purchased abroad by Sir John Fenwick, Master of the Horse to 

 Charles II, at the King's personal expense, produced many good horses but the natural 

 Barb mare which produced Dodsworth must have been clearly the best, for she gave 

 birth to him shortly after her arrival and he therefore, not withstanding he was foaled 

 in England, was manifestly an Oriental horse. If Dodsworth had never gotten any- 

 thing but Dicky Pierson, that alone should have made him famous, for it was to the 

 union of Dicky Pierson with the "Burton Barb mare," founder of the No. 2 family 

 in Bruce Lowe's system, that we owe such equine wonders as Harkaway, Voltigeur, 

 Martyrdom, Lord Clifden and last, but far from least, the Australian phenomenon 

 Carbine, who won the Melbourne Cup with 145 Ibs., two miles in 3 :2&%. But beyond 

 Dodsworth's dam there is but little account of these Royal Mares. Lord D'Arcy, about 

 that time, imported two Turkish stallions, called the D'A*cy Turk and D'Arcy's Yel- 

 low Turk. The former was located at Sedbury, whence he is often called the Sedbury 

 Turk ; and it is to a union of this horse with one of the Royal mares at that place 

 that we owe the origin of the No. n family of which St. Simon (premier sire of Eng- 

 land for nine seasons) is the most prominent exemplar. The Yellow Turk, imported 

 at the same time, was also a success in the stud, being the sire of the famous Brimmer, 

 while from Lord Fairfax's Morocco Barb mare he got the equally celebrated Spanker. 

 The student of pedigrees of noted horses foaled prior to 1750, will find these two 

 Turks very frequently. 



During the reign of Charles II there were also two valuable importations, the 

 Thoulouse Barb and the Curwen Bay Barb. These horses were brought over from 

 France by a Mr. Curwen, of Cumberland, as a present to King Charles from "Le 

 Grand Monarque," who thought more of his mistresses than anything else. They 

 had been presented to him by Muley Ismail, King of Morocco ; and had been brought 

 from Barbary in one of the King's war vessels, commanded by Admiral le Comte de 

 Tholouse, who was one of His Majesty's "catch colts," as they say in Oregon. Another 

 of the King's illegitimate offspring, the Comte de Byram, was Master of the Horse 

 to the King at that very time. The Curwen Barb was just thirteen hands high, but all 

 his progeny were larger, probably owing to such care as he never received himself when 

 a foal. The best of his get was Mixbury, who became a great race horse but a very 

 poor sire. His full sisters, however, were great matrons, one of them being the dam 



