ROAD HORSES. 119 
Many private breeders also added to the Arabian stock 
in England ; but it was not until the first half of the 
eighteenth century that the three horses were im- 
ported who have exercised the greatest influence upon 
the race of English thoroughbreds. These were the 
Byerly Turk, the Darley Arabian, and especially the 
Godolphin Arabian, or Barb, — probably the latter. 
The last named was a dark bay horse about fifteen 
hands high (Arab horses seldom exceed 142 hands), 
with a white off heel behind. He is said to have been 
stolen from his owner in Paris, where he was em- 
ployed in the menial task of drawing a water-cart, and 
his pedigree was never ascertained. It is the fashion 
of English writers to decry the Arabian blood; and it 
is true that the present thoroughbred, owing to many 
years of good food and severe training, is a bigger, 
stronger, swifter animal than the Arab;+ but the 
latest and perhaps the highest authority on this sub- 
ject, William Day, makes the significant admission, 
that all the best thoroughbreds now on the English 
turf trace back to one or more of the three Arab 
horses whose names have just been mentioned. 
The chief reason why a good roadster must have 
1 Some years ago, Haleem Pacha, of Egypt, who had inherited 
from his father, Abbass Pacha, a stud of Arabs estimated to have 
cost about $5,000,000, made a match with certain merchants at Cairo 
to run an eight-mile race for £400 a side. The Cairo merchants 
sent to England and bought Fair Nell, an Irish mare, thorough- 
bred, or nearly so, that had been used by one of the Tattersalls as 
a park and covert hack. She was a beautiful bright bay mare, 
with black legs, standing about 15 hands 14 inches. The match 
took place within two weeks after Fair Nell landed in Egypt, and 
she won with ridiculous ease, beating the Pacha’s best Arab by a 
full mile. She did the eight miles in 18} minutes, and pulled up 
fresh. 
