36 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 
tirst act of the little colt was to tumble into a pit 
where clay had been mixed for making bricks. He 
was rescued from this hole in a very sorry condition, 
and either on account of the accident, or from natural 
weakness, he was unable to stand upright. His pas- 
tern joints bent under his weight, and altogether he 
appeared to be so wretched and worthless a creature 
that Mr. Jeffreys gave orders to have him killed. 
But his wife interceded, begged that the foal’s life 
might be spared, and undertook to look after him 
herself. The colt was accordingly permitted to live, 
a little careful nursing soon brought him round, and 
thus, through the pity of a woman, did the ances- 
tor of all the Clays escape being murdered in his in- 
fancy. It is an odd fact that Vermont Blackhawk, 
founder of the trotting branch of the Morgan fam- 
ily, and one of the handsomest horses that ever 
lived, was also condemned to death by his owner 
because of the weak and ugly appearance that he 
first made in the world. In his case it was the 
groom who successfully interceded for his life. The 
same thing is true of Santa Claus, one of the best 
grandsons of Rysdyck’s Hambletonian. Andrew Jack- 
son was the sire of Henry Clay, founder of the Clay 
family, his dam being a Canadian trotting mare called 
Surrey, of unknown breeding. 
Some writers assert that Henry Clay’s good quali- 
ties as a trotter were derived from the Messenger 
element in his composition; but it is a striking fact, 
that in form, in disposition, and in color he resembled 
his great-grandsire Grand Bashaw very closely. He 
was a coal-black horse with a beautiful white cres- 
cent on his face, “very perfect, the line of it extend- 
