VOLUNTEER. 131 



way of note, to the gentleman who. bought her for Mr. 

 Thorne : 



"You are surprised to hear me pronounce the dam 

 of Volunteer a dunghill. I bought her for a dunghill, 

 and I know she is a dunghill ; and that is not all — she 

 is the most worthless piece of horseflesh that I ever 

 owned." 



This was not much of a recommendation for Vol- 

 unteer, as a competitor of the greatest trotting stallion 

 in the country. 



Nothing was ever known of the breeding of the 

 dam of Lady Patriot. She was a bay mare, brought by. 

 Lewis Hulse from Rockland County, adjoining Or- 

 ange, was both a running and trotting mare, and as 

 such was held out under a challenge to run or trot 

 against anything that could be led into the county. 

 "I have seen the statement," wrote H. T. Helm in 1876, 

 "that she was held as a standing challenge to run 

 against any horse, and then to trot against the 

 same one." This scrap of history, though brief, 

 casts much light on the character and qualities 

 of the Lewis Hulse mare, and from this and the local- 

 ity whence she came some inference may be drawn 

 concerning her probable blood. It was the region 

 where the blood of the two families of Messenger and 

 Diomed, through Duroc, Henry, and Eclipse, was the 

 chief element in running and trotting circles. This 

 mare was bred by John Cape to a horse called Young 

 Patriot, which was brought into Orange County by 

 parties who stated that he came from Oneida County, 

 and that he was by Patriot, he by Blucher from a mare 

 by Messenger Duroc, son of old Eclipse. 



