The American Thoroughbred 



It is also given that his third dam was foaled in 1800. She could not have been foaled 

 earlier because the English stud book gives imported Driver as having been foaled in 

 1806, so that he must have served the Follower mare as a yearling. 



Now comes the second pedigree under which Timoleon stood for mares in North 

 Carolina. According to that, his dam was five years younger than himself and his 

 grand-dam one year younger. This would make Symmes' Wildair forty-four years 

 old when he got the second dam of Timoleon ; and she would be, by this showing, one 

 year younger than her grandson. Still further, it makes Timoleon's third dam just 

 two years older than himself and seeks to establish the proposition that she was the 

 daughter of a horse that had been dead for thirty-five years when she was begotten. 



In the third pedigree, under which he stood in Alabama, before being taken back 

 to Virginia, he is said to have been begotten by Sir Archy, which is correct enough ; 

 his dam (also the dam of Jenny Cockracy) being gotten by Saltram when he was 

 thirty-four years old ! There is no mistake about Saltram's dates, for he won the 

 Epsom Derby of 1783 and was imported at ten years old. The Stud Book is silent 

 as lo when he died. Then Symmes Wildair, according 'o this third pedigree, way 

 forty-one when he got the grand-dam of Timoleon ; and that the great grand-dam was 

 foaled in 1809 or else she could not have been by imported Driver, whose dates were 

 as well authenticated as those of Sir Archy or Diomed. 



Why did not Col. Bruce expose this fraud? Perhaps he was not aware of it, 

 but that seems hardly credible, for John S. Skinner had exposed it about 1853 in an 

 agricultural journal called the "Plow, Loom and Anvil." At the time Col. Bruce com- 

 pleted his first two volumes of the Stud Book, both Ringgold and Lexington sons of 

 Boston were alive; and about twenty sons of Lexington were doing stud service in 

 Kentucky and Tennessee. To have published the above three pedigrees (probably all 

 of them most deliberate forgeries) would have been to set the stamp of bastardy on 

 every one of those stallions. The truth is that Timoleon, great performer as he was 

 beyond doubt, was only a half-bred horse. To have said this, in so many words, 

 however, would have given his American Stud Book a black eye in his native State 

 and subjected him to a heavy pecuniary loss; and we all know that Kentuckians are 

 nothing if not clannish. The advertising portion of this book should be sufficient 

 proof of that. 



In 1859 John P. Welch came to this country by way of Panama, bringing with him 

 the stallion Rifleman and the mare Mary Chilton, both by imported Glencoe. The former 

 was traced back to just where it now stands, being almost identical with that of Novice, 

 dam of Norfolk. The great Hermis traced to the same tap-root. But the mare's 

 darn was given as by American Eclipse out of Queen Mary by Bertrand. In Volume 

 I of the American Stud Book, Colonel Bruce, who knew the American families better 

 than any three men now alive, traces Queen Mary back to a mare foaled prior to the 

 Revolution, claimed to be by imported Whittington. Now, if that be correct, why is 

 not the Whittington mare to be found in the Stud Book? Mr. Bruce gives Queen 

 Mary's dam as by Brimmer, while the tabulated pedigree of Longfellow, given in 

 Bruce's book of 1892, gives her as "by Blue Beard, a son of. imported Sterling." Quiz, 

 the dam of Nantura and second dam of Longfellow, was a full sister to Queen Mary. 

 In 1861 William M. Williamson was offered Mary Chilton for $400, but declined on 

 the ground that her breeding was deficient and did not prove her to be thoroughbred. 

 She was then sold to Alexander Gamble and produced Thad Stevens while his prop- 

 erty. Now they carry the pedigree away back to a mare foaled in England ; and give 

 Longfellow, Thad Stevens and Ten Broeck the number 26 in Bruce Lowe's system. 



Just so with Eolus, Fanny Washington, Slasher, Scathelock and Lizzie Mc- 

 Donald. I had seen Slasher, by Child* Harold out of Sarah Washington, at the Long 

 Island races in 1857; and when I heard he was broken down, wrote to Tom Battelle to 

 see what the horse could be gotten for. The price was $1500 and the pedigree given 



