THE THOROUGHBRED IN AMERICA 45 



late Josiah Quincy, with the consent of the pub- 

 lishers, Messrs. Little, Brown & Co., of Boston. 

 Here is what Mr. Quincy wrote from his diary. 



" ECLIPSE " AGAINST THE WORLD 



"On the 27th of May, 1823, nearly fifty-seven 

 years ago, there was great excitement in the city 

 of New York, for on that day the long-expected 

 race of 'Eclipse against the world' was to be de- 

 cided on the race-course on Long Island. It was 

 an amicable contest between the North and the 

 South. The New York votaries of the turf — a 

 much more prominent interest than at present — 

 had offered to run Eclipse against any horse that 

 could be produced, for a purse of $10,000; and 

 the Southern gentlemen had accepted the chal- 

 lenge. I could obtain no carriage to take me to the 

 course, as every conveyance in the city was en- 

 gaged. Carriages of every description formed an 

 unbroken line from the ferry to the ground. They 

 were driven rapidly, and were in very close con- 

 nection; so much so that when one of them sud- 

 denly stopped, the poles of at least a dozen car- 

 riages broke through the panels of those pre- 



