14 



been transmitted principally through the Birdcatcher 

 family, Hermit having, as it were, "recovered" the colour 

 after it had missed some generations. 



Birdcatcher's chestnut son, the Baron, got both Stock- 

 well and Rataplan from the bay Pocahontas, a mare full 

 of Eclipse blood. St. Albans was by Stockwell, out of the 

 chestnut Bribery, who inherited Eclipse blood through his 

 brown sire, The Libel. Blair Athol inherited it through 

 his brown dam, Blink Bonny, through her bay dam. 

 Queen Mary, as well as from his chestnut sire, StockwelL 

 Doncaster, another son of Stockwell, was out of the 

 chestnut Marigold, by the chestnut Teddington, who traces 

 back to Whalebone ; and thus we might trace the influence 

 of Eclipse through the pedigrees of all the horses named. 



Hermit furnishes an example of a great chestnut sire 

 who, though his more immediate ancestors — Newminster 

 and Touchstone, on the sire's side, and Tadmor and Ton, on 

 his dam's — were bays, derived his colour, in all probability,, 

 from his great granddam, the chestnut Palmyra, and 

 through his great grandsire, the black Camel, both of 

 whom trace their pedigrees (Palmyra through her dam 

 Hester, b}' Camel) through Whalebone to Eclipse. The 

 prepotency of the Eclipse blood, as shown by the colour, 

 makes the case of Hermit particularly noteworthy. Many 

 of his best sons and daughters inherited the rich whole- 

 coloured chestnut from him — Peter, Timothy and Ascetic,, 

 for example. 



A horse named Aurelius was one of the first Eclipse 

 sires who inherited the chestnut coat. This stallion is 

 advertised in the Irish Racing Calendar of 1791 as standing 

 to cover at the Curragh in the following terms : — 



" The only son of Eclipse, out of a Blank mare, he is very 

 like Eclipse, being the same size, shape, growth, colour. 



