74 THE MORGAN HORSE 



Lawrence adds : ' I paid particular attention to his shoulders, 

 which, according to the common notion were, in truth, very thick, 

 but very extensive and well-placed ; his hinder quarters or croup 

 appeared higher than his forehand'. The progeny of this low, thick- 

 shouldered horse, who was one inch higher behind than before, pro- 

 duced to their owners $790,295, various prizes not included. 



"Is it not a mistaken impression thatthe turf horse has generally 

 more daylight under him than any other horse in proportion to 

 height on the withers ? And has hot that impression been made by 

 the fact that race horses, when they most attract notice, are, in racing 

 form, tucked up and much reduced in bulk, making them look more 

 leggy than they really are ? As to the height of the race horses, 

 there is good reason to believe that the true Arabians were none of 

 them over fifteen hands. In a list of sixty-three celebrated turf 

 horses arranged alphabetically, there are but seven over fifteen hands, 

 while there are thirty-one that do not rise above fourteen hands two 

 inches, and ten that are under fourteen hands so that the number of a 

 list of sixty-three that rise above fifteen hands is not so great by about 

 one-third as that of the celebrated turf horses under fourteen hands. 



"But to the pedigree of the dam of the Morgan horse, which in 

 truth was all that I meant to give when I put pen to paper. I hap- 

 pened to anticipate your intelligent and respectable correspondent 

 'G. B.' in his wish to procure some information about the dam our 

 hobby and in answer to a letter which I took the liberty to address 

 to Mr. John Morgan of Lima, New York, he sent me the following 

 memorandum : 



" 'Dam of the Morgan Horse was sired by a horse called Diamond. Dia- 

 mond was sired by a horse called Wild Deer (Wildair). Wild Deer was 

 sired by the old imported horse Wild Deer and out of an imported mare of the 

 same breed. Wild Deer was sold and taken into Virginia when about nine- 

 teen years old\ 



"Now, Mr. Editor, consider that these pedigrees, embracing the 

 names, at least, however confused the connection, of True Briton, 

 which was also a horse got by imported Othello ; also the name of 

 imported Traveler that the sire, True Briton, belonged to Gen. De 

 Lancey, importer of Wildair himself, a star of no mean luster ; and 

 that now the dam, according to the recollection of these gentlemen 

 not of a race-horse region, was by a horse got by Wildair, and he out 

 of an imported mare by imported Wildair, and I leave you to say 

 whether the evidence does not at present preponderate in favor of the 

 opinion that there was a heavy dash of the pure blood in the 

 veins of the Morgan horse. Consider the time that elapsed, and that 



