JUSTIN MORGAN 95 



New Hampshire, of the long-withheld letters of John Morgan. We 

 here give the letters : 



"LIMA, January 9, 1845. 



" Dear Sir : I received your note a few days since and will, with 

 pleasure, give you the desired information. The dam of the Morgan 

 horse was of the Wild Air or Wildare breed ; she was middling size, 

 her color was a light bay, mane and tail not dark, hair on legs rather 

 long ; she was a smooth, handsome traveler. Her sire was the Dia- 

 mond, a thick, heavy horse of middle size ; he had a thick, bushy 

 mane and tail, hairy legs ; a smooth traveler. He was raised in East 

 Hartford, Connecticut. He was kept one season in West Springfield, 

 Massachusetts, by Justin Morgan. His sire was the Wild Air known 

 as the Church horse; his dam was the noted- mare, Wild Air, owned 

 by Captain Samuel Burt of Springfield, Massachusetts. The Church 

 horse was sired by the Wild Air, imported by DeLancey of Long 

 Island ; it was afterwards said that he was sent back to England. As 

 to the second point, I do not remember so distinctly, but believe the 

 Morgan horse's legs were hairy, as the stock of the Diamond were 

 generally so. The Morgan horse was a bright bay, with a very dark 

 mane and tail. You are mistaken, sir, as to the relation which I sus- 

 tain to Justin Morgan. He was a distant relative of mine, but a near 

 neighbor when I lived in Springfield, Massachusetts. Written by 

 the request of my father, John Morgan. Your obedient servant, 



S. P. MORGAN". 



"LIMA, January, 30, 1845. 



"Dear Sir: Yours of the twenty-third instant was received a 

 few days since. As to your first inquiry, of who owned the dam of 

 the Morgan horse, I believe that Justin Morgan himself owned her. 

 She was a very light bay, not sorrel, her mane and tail rather brown- 

 ish, inclined to black, but still what could not be called a dark mane 

 and tail. I kept the True Briton or Beautiful Bay at the time the 

 Morgan horse was sired. The True Briton was a high-headed, hol- 

 low or sway-backed horse, and his stock were of such a class also. 

 The Wild Airs were generally so, too. Justin Morgan kept the 

 Diamond at the time the mare was sired. I do not know any per- 

 son living at Springfield, Massachusetts, who would be likely to know 

 anything about the circumstances, as there were but very few that 

 took any interest in horses at that time in Springfield. 



"Nearly one-half of the True Briton colts were a light sorrel, with 

 a small stripe in the face, not bald-faced, with one hind foot white 

 generally, sometimes both; there was occasionally a very bright 



