No. 145. 1 71 



maintaining a supply. Yet nothing would be more agreeable as 

 a rural pursuit, or pay better. 



Blood or lineage must not be a theme overdone, or ridden as a 

 hobby; but it is an essential truth, that purely blood sires should 

 alone be relied on to Improve the mixed or general breeds. Per- 

 haps the instances of two well-known American sires, and the 

 subsequent influence of their blood, respectively, on their descend- 

 ants, may be practical and in point — Sir Archy and Potomac. 

 The former was not only a first-rate race-horse, but was probably 

 the very best native stud horse that has ever, as yet, appeared. 

 For many years, every race-horse of any note partook of his blood, 

 and his influence on the general stock, particularly of the south, 

 has been of no small or limited account. His lineage was English, 

 and very certified and pure, and this whether his sire were assu- 

 redly Diomed, or putatively Gabriel. His dam, imported in 

 1799, was Castianira, by Rockingham, out of Tabitha, the dam of 

 several first rate race-horses. Diomed was by Florizel, out of a 

 celebrated Spectator mare. Gabriel was by Doremant, out of a 

 Highflier mare, also of celebrity as a dam. Sir Archy, by blood, 

 turf performances, and family connections, stood very high — no 

 horse could stand much higher — and what he inherited he be- 

 queathed. Potomac was also a first rate race-horse, and is said 

 never to have been beaten. He, too, was sired by Diomed. As 

 a stud horse he had some of the best mares of Virginia sent to 

 him. Yet he got no race-horses, at least none of any note, and is 

 represented to have seriously and widely injured the blood stock 

 of that region. And if it be asked, as has been done, why this 

 should have been the case, with a horse of fine form and a distin- 

 guished runner — the only reply which can be given is, " Ask his 

 pedigree?" The pedigree of Potomac, as rendered in the Turf 

 Register, is, "Sired by Diomed; dam by Pegasus; gr. dam by 

 Yorick ; g. gr. dam said to be very high bred." His actual pedi- 

 gree was '• by Diomed ; dam by Pegasus ; gr. dam, Nancy Mc 

 Culloch, by Young Yorick ; g. gr. dam, by Silver Eye, out of a 

 common farm mare." Young Yorick was not a thorough bred 

 horse, and Silver Eye was a half-bred animal. This accounts for 

 the non-success of this fine horse as a stud horse, and which has 



