190 Silk and Scarlet. 



though her sire, Sandbeck, was rather mulish that 

 way ; and so was his son, Redshank. The Dutch- 

 man's did not get him through dirt ; and we have 

 heard it stated (and as flatly contradicted), by men 

 whose judgment we should be sorry to question, that 

 his doubtful Derby performance was perhaps more 

 owing to a lack of knee-action than anything else. If 

 a horse does not bend his knee well, in nine cases out 

 of ten the Epsom hill puts him wrong, as he cannot 

 lie away so far at first, and trust to his horse's coming 

 back to him, as in the St. Leger. 



THE DARLEY ARABIAN. 



" To talk with him of other days, 



Seemed converse with Old Time ; 

 He remembered feats of Banbury, 



And Mellish in their prime : 

 Hamhletonian and Diamond 



Seemed but yestreen ; from his lips 

 Fell tales of young Bay Malton, 



And the colts got by Eclipse." 



Ecii se'sOri-in T HAVING this renowned Arab, 



" ' J J Bartlett Childers, and Squirt amid 



the olive-tinted haze of time, we come to "Marske,dam 

 by Blacklegs," who is always drawn as standing among 

 the rocks on the sea-coast, in honour of the mansion 

 from which he was named. Mr. Tattersall, who was 

 quite a literary ferret in these matters, and was never 

 beaten except over " The Ratcatcher's Mare," left it 

 as his Scrap Book opinion that — to judge from colour, 

 style, and everything else — Shakspeare, and not 

 Marske, was the sire of Eclipse. " Shakspeare," he 

 observes, " was a chestnut with a white face and legs, 

 and a good runner, whereas Marske was a bad colour 

 and small." He was sold to a farmer after the Duke 



