288 THE ENGLISH TURF 



Inbreeding was resorted to very early in the history of the 

 thoroughbred. Whether the English racehorses who were 

 in existence prior to the time of Charles II. were inbred or 

 not one cannot say, because there are no pedigrees to refer to, 

 but I imagine that inbreeding had become a doctrine of faith 

 with breeders at the commencement of the eighteenth century, 

 and in a great measure it has been the keynote to success 

 of all breeders since that time. To cite a very early instance 

 and a curious one we need not quit the pedigree of Eclipse, 

 in which we find that Sister to Leedes was out of a daughter 

 of Spanker, whose dam was (by Spanker) out of Spanker's 

 dam. This was incestuous breeding indeed, but in this 

 particular case the result seems to have been a good one, 

 and it would be most interesting to know the reason why 

 it was resorted to. Again, the Sister to Old Country Wench 

 was out of a daughter of Hautboy whose dam was by 

 Hautboy, and this same Sister to Old Country Wench 

 figures on both sides of Eclipse's pedigree, having been 

 his paternal grandam, and also the great - grandam of 

 his dam Spiletta. By many authorities it has long since 

 been agreed that Eclipse owed his excellence to his great- 

 grandsire, the Barley Arabian ; but it is worthy of notice 

 that only one strain of this famous Eastern horse is to be 

 found in the pedigree, while there are no fewer than nine 

 strains of Hautboy, who represents the blood of D'Arcy's 

 White Turk, five of the Lister Turk, six of Spanker 

 (by the D'Arcy Yellow Turk), and two of the Leedes 

 Arabian. 



Then there are in all thirteen blanks in the pedigree which 

 cannot be traced, and some of the authorities notably 

 Mr. Osborne assume that some at least of these were of 

 purely English blood. Whether this was so or not it is 

 impossible to determine, but as the record seems to have 

 been well kept where foreign or imported blood was used, 

 it seems but reasonable to assume that where there is no 

 mention of such blood it did not occur. From this we may 

 argue that the missing ancestors were all native-bred horses 

 or mares. The Stud Book does not give the dates of the 

 importation of the D'Arcy White Turk, or the D'Arcy 



