1 90 The Post and the Paddock, 



and Matchem, down to Trumpator, " the head of the 

 negroes," as some were wont to term him, and his 

 sons Paynator and Sorcerer. From Paynator (who 

 was only small, like his sire), sprang the sire of Bees- 

 wing, the evergreen Dr. Syntax, whose muscular 

 frame still lives, along with Phantom, in Ward's won- 

 drous horse-studies. He was the result of a cross 

 with a Beningboro' mare, and the staying propensities 

 of the family were studiously preserved through the 

 Lottery, or rather the Tramp strain in The Doctor, 

 whose tight little son Black Doctor so completely re- 

 vived the fortunes of Ashgill. Tomboy strains back 

 to Sorcerer (a great fine black horse, who would run 

 any length), through Jerry and Smolensko ; and Mel- 

 bourne claims the same relationship, through the high- 

 blowing Humphrey Clinker and Comus. 



Eclipse originally passed as a yearling into the 

 hands of little Wildman for 75 guineas. Captain 

 O'Kelly buying half of him when he was a four-year- 

 old for 250 guineas, and the remainder soon after for 

 750 guineas. The only record we can find of his 

 latter days, when his fifty-guinea fee was considerably 

 reduced, is in a mock epistle, where he says, " Old age 

 has come upon me, and wonder not, King Fergus, 

 when I tell thee I was drawn in a carriage from 

 Epsom to Cannon's, being unable to walk even so 

 short a journey. I am glad to hear my grandson, 

 Honest Tom, performs so well in Ireland. P.S. — 

 Myself, Dungannon, Volunteer, and Vertumnus are 

 here. Compliments to the Yorkshire horses." His 

 four sons — Mercury, Joe Andrews, King Fergus, and 

 Pot-8-os — transmit the Darley Arabian blood to us in 

 its purest form. Gohanna and Catton form two of the 

 links in the stout " catenary chain" between Slane and 

 Mercury ; Tramp stands halfway between Lanercost 

 and Joe Andrews ; and King Fergus may be traced, 

 through Beningboro', Orvile, and Emilius, to Priam, 

 on the one side, and through Hambletonian, White- 



