Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 12.djvu/195

183 THE RACK-HORSE.] HORSE 185 genuine Arab, ati l was imported from Aleppo by a brother of Mr Darley of Aldby Park, Yorkshire, about the end of the reign of William II L or the beginning of that of Anne. The third horse of the famous trio, the Godolphin Arabian or Barb, brought to England about rive and twenty years after the Darley Arabian, will be more particularly referred to further on. All the horses now on the turf or at the stud trace their ancestry in the direct male line to one or other of these three, the Byerly Turk, the Darley Arabian, and the Godolphin Arabian or Barb. In the female line their pedigrees can be traced to other sources, but for all practical purposes it suffices to regard one or other of these three animals as the ultima Tknle of racing pedigree. Of course there is a large interfusion of the blood of each of the trio through the dams of horses of the present day ; indeed, it is impossible to find an English race-horse which does not combine the blood of all three, herace- The Thoroughbred. The third and last epoch of the jrse. British horse, viz., that of the thoroughbred racer, may be taken to date from the beginning of the 18th century. By thoroughbred is meant a horse or mare whose pedigree is registered in the Stud-Book kept by Messrs Weatherby, the official agents of the Jockey Club originally termed the keepers of the match-book as well as publishers of the Racing Calendar. The first attempt to evolve order out of the chaos which had long reigned supreme was made in 1791, f:&amp;gt;r we find in the preface of the first volume of the Stud-Book, published in 1808, that &quot;with a view to correct the then increasing evil of false and inaccurate pedigrees, the author was in the year 1791 prevailed upon to publish an Introduction to a General Stud-Book, consisting of a small collection of pedigrees which he had extracted from racing calendars and sale papers and arranged on a new plan.&quot; It will be seen that the compiler of the volume on which so much depends had to go back fully a century, with little else to guide him but odds and ends in the way of publications and tradition. Mistakes under such circumstances are pardonable. The Stud-Book then (vol. i.), which is the oldest authority we have, contains the names and in most cases the pedigrees, obscure though they may be, of a very large number of horses and mares of note from the earliest accounts, but with two exceptions no dates prior to the 18th century are specified in it. These exceptions are the Byerly Turk, who was &quot; Captain Byerly s charger in Ireland in King William s Wars (1689, &c ),&quot; and a horse called Counsellor, bred by Mr Egerton in 1694, by Lord D Arcy s Counsellor by Lord Lonsdale s Counsellor by the Shaftes- bury Turk out of sister to Spanker all the dams in Counsellor s pedigree tracing back to Eastern mares. There is not the least doubt that many of the animals named in the Stud-Book were foaled much earlier than the above dates, but we have no particulars as to time ; and after all it is not of much consequence. The Stud-Book goes on to say of the Byerly Turk that he did not cover many bred mares, but was the sire of the Duke of Devonshire s Basto, Halloway s Jigg, and others. Jigg, or Jig, is a very important factor, as will be seen hereafter. The Stud-Book, although silent as to the date of his birth, says he was a common country stallion in Lincolnshire until Partner was six years old and we know from the same authority that Partner was foaled in 1718; we may therefore conclude that Jigg was a later foal than Basto, who, according to Whyte s History of the Turf, was a brown horse foaled in 1703. The reign of Queen Anne, however (1702 to 1714), is that which will ever be inseparably connected with the thoroughbred race-horse on account of the fame during that period of the Darley Arabian, a bay stallion, from whom our very best horses are descended. According to the Stud-Book, &quot; Darley s Arabian was brought over by a brother of Mr Darley of Yorkshire, who, being an agenfe in merchandise abroad, became member of. a hunting club, by which means he acquired interest to procure this horse.&quot; The Stud-Book is silent, and other authorities differ, as to the date of the importation of this celebrated Arab, some saying he came over in the year 1700, others that he arrived somewhat later ; but we know from the Stud-Book that Manica (foaled in 1707), Aleppo (1711), Almanzor (1713), and Flying Childers (1715) were got by him, as also was Bartlett s Childers, a younger brother of Flying Childers. It is generally believed that he was imported in Anne s reign, but the exact date is immaterial, for, assuming that he was brought over as early as 1700 from Aleppo, he could scarcely have had a foal living before 1701, the first year of the 18th century. Th? Darley Arabian did much to remove the prejudice against Eastern blood which had been instilled into the public mind by the duke of Newcastle s denunciation of the Markhaia Arabian. Prince George of Denmark, consort of Queen Anne, was himself a large horse-owner ; and it was in a great measure owing to his intervention that so many valuable stallions w r ere imported during her reign. At this period we find, among a mass of horses and mares in the Stud-Book without any dates against their names, many animals of note with the earliest chronology extant, from Grey Ramsden (1704) and Bay Bolton (1705) down to a mare who exercised a most important influence on the English blood-horse. This was Roxana (1718) by the Bald Galloway, her dam sister to Chanter by the Akaster Turk, from a daughter of Leedes s Arabian and a mare by Spanker. Roxana threw in 1732 the bay colt Lath by the Godolphin Arabian, the sorrel colt Roundhead by Childers in 1733, and the bay colt Cade by the Godolphin Arabian in 1734, in which year she died within a fortnight after foaling, the produce Cade being reared on cow s milk. The Godolphin Barb or Arabian, as he was commonly called, was a brown bay about 15 hands in stature, with an un naturally high crest, and with some white on his off hind heel. He is said to have been imported into England from France by Mr Coke, where, as the editor of the Stud-Book was informed by a French gentleman, he was so little thought of that he had actually drawn a cart in the streets of Paris. Mr Coke gave him to a Mr Williams, who in his turn presented him to the earl of Godolphin. Although called an Arabian, there is little doubt he was a Barb pure and simple. In 1731, being then the property of Mr Coke, he was teazer to Hobgoblin, and on the latter refusing his services to Roxana, the mare was put to the Godolphin, and the produce was Lath (1732), the first of his get, and the most celebrated race-horse of his day after Flying Childers. He was also the sire of Cade, own brother to Lath, and of Regulus the maternal grandsire of Eclipse. He died at Gogmagog in Cambridgeshire, in the possession of Lord Godolphin, in 1753, being then, as is supposed, in his twenty -ninth year. He is believed to have been foaled in Barbary about 1724, and to have been imported during the reign of George II. In regard to the mares generally, we have a record of the royal mares already alluded to, and likewise of three Turk mares brought over from the siege of 7 iema in 1684, as well as of other importations ; but it is unquestionable that there was a very large number of native mares in England, improved probably from time to time by racing, however much they may have been crossed at various periods with foreign horses, and that from this original stock were to some extent derived the size and stride which characterized the English race-horse, while his powers of endurance and elegant shape were no doubt inherited from the Eastern horses, most of which were of a low stature^