JUSTIN MORGAN 113 



high-bred cattle ' ; his head was light and well-modeled, with superb 

 eyes and small, tapering ears, both set wide apart, denoting high 

 courage and 'the least taste of life' of gentle blood; his fine muzzle 

 and thin, expansive nostril should not he unnoticed ; he was partic- 

 ularly roomy between the jowls, with a large throttle, affording free 

 play to his respiratory organs. One of his finest points was his 

 chest, which was deep and capacious, as if modeled on that of Eclipse ; 

 his broad, oblique shoulders, too, rising high on the withers, with the 

 blades inclining well back, in the way well calculated to give him that 

 fine, spirited action of his fore legs which has been so much re- 

 marked. A Morgan horse strikes out boldly with his fore feet and 

 never stumbles or shuffles. His barrel was of moderate length, but 

 his long, broad ribs almost to his stifle, like the engravings of the 

 King's Plate horses of the last century; like them, too, his back in- 

 clined to a roach, with no more tuck in the flank, or cutting up in the 

 waist, than Shark or Gimcrack. He had great width between the 

 whirl-bones, or points of the hip, muscular thighs and gaskins. and 

 broad, flat hocks. In fact, without any remarkable display of muscle 

 or strength, his wiry, hardy form was so perfectly proportioned, and 

 his propulsive powers so well placed and balanced, that he could 

 sustain with unflinching spirit the most extraordinary tasks imposed 

 upon him, and it is notorious that he has ended journeys in fine plight 

 after fatigues under which horses of less stamina and thorough game 

 have sunk exhausted. The Morgan horse does not take on fat; turn 

 him out for a season to grass, or grain him highly in the stable, or 

 keep him well and work him hard, and no difference is perceptible 

 in him ; he always looks, and is, in condition. He is too lean and 

 light to make a showy city carriage horse, but in a week's journey 

 would improve, while the heavy, lumbering city coach horse in 'mod- 

 ern instances' would melt away and be utterly knocked up. The 

 Morgan horse has not an ounce of superfluous flesh at any time, 

 while the pampered, fat, clumsy brutes that drag their weary lengths 

 along over the pavements before a heavy city carriage can no more 

 match him in action, style or spirit than a pair of Berkshires". 



Such were the statements made by those who knew the original 

 Morgan horse or his immediate progeny. We will now resume the 

 history. After his transfer from Shepard to Hawkins, in February, 

 1797, he had many owners, and was in many different localities, leav- 

 ing few records in the shape of advertisements that have come down 

 to this time, and it is not possible to locate him exactly each year. 



It is not known just how long James Hawkins kept the horse, but 

 he next appears in the hands of the same Robert Evans of Randolph 



