The Darley Arabian, 191 



of Cumberland's death, and stood for a long time at 

 half-a-guinea ; but the Earl of Abingdon, in 1776, 

 asked 200 guineas for his services, when he was rising 

 twenty-seven, and he commanded a hundred when he 

 died. Wahtever Mr. Tattersall may have thought 

 privately, he was keen enough to buy Marske mares to 

 cross with Highflyer ; while O'Kelly looked out Hke a 

 falcon for Herod ones. These two proud owner rivals 

 were widely different in temperament. The English- 

 man only trained once, and let others take the risk ; 

 while the Irishman matched everything. Eclipse's 

 stock were all light-fleshed, active, and excitable, and 

 could be got ready to run at very short notice. 

 Those who put mares to him felt quite certain that 

 the foals would be after this type, and chestnuts with 

 white legs and faces to boot, 



He died of nephritic colic at Ca- His Funeral and 



nons, in Middlesex, in 1789, whither he Epitaph. 

 had been drawn in a van. Ale and cake was given at 

 his funeral ; and Mons, Vial de Saintbell made his 

 fame as an anatomist by dissecting him. His heart 

 scaled-in at I3lbs., which was 81bs. less than Mr. 

 Davis's equally immortal Hermit ; and O'Kelly 

 chivalrously hired a poet to fling his last defiance at 

 Highflyer and his owner. One verse, which aims at 

 being the most biting, runs thus — 



** True, o'er the tomb in which this favourite lies, 

 No vaunting boast appears of lineage good \ 

 Yet the Turf Register's bright page defies 

 The race of Herod to show better blood." 



Fifteen years before, Mr. O'Kelly's grey colt, 

 Horizon, scored the first race to his credit at Abingdon, 

 at two years old ; and in the twenty-three succeeding 

 years, 344 of his winners made 518,000/., an enormous 

 sum for those cautious days. 



The direct Eclipse lines of Alexander, The Young 

 Mercury, and Joe Andrews have been Eclipses. 



