BLOO D-HORSE, ENGLISH. The history of the blood-horse in England has been so accurately and carefully traced by the late William Henry Herbert, one of the most accomplished writers of horses and field sports, in America,from an Eng lishman's view, that we excerpt therefrom so much as will give a correct idea and history of the origin and growth of the blood-horse in England. Our authority says: It being, in the first place, admitted that the English blood-horse is the most perfect animal of his race, in the whole world, both for speed and endurance, and that the American blood-horse directly traces, without mixture, to English, and, through the English, to Oriental parentage, it is absolutely necessary t o revert to the origin and original creation of the former variety, in order to come at the ped igree, characteristics, and history of the latter. With American blood-horses, it is not as it is with American men; the latter may, in many cases, trace their descent to an admixture of the blood of many nations; the former, on the con• trary, must trace to the blood of the English thoroughbred; or, if it should fail to do so, must suffer in consequence of the taint of any foreign strain. I do not, of course, mean to assert that, in a horse of unquestioned excellence and per formance, it would be a defect to trace to a new and recent cross of Arab or Barb blood; but I do mean to say, that such pedigree would be of no advantage to the character of the animal; since it is clear that, by no Oriental horse recently im ported into Great Britain has the Briiish blood horse been improved-the Wellesley Arabian having got hut one offspring of even moderate racing celebrity, Fair Ellen-while no horse of the pure blood of the desert, by any allowance of weight, has been enabled to win a race on the. English turf, though, within the last twenty years, many have been started for prizes. It is believed that no Barb, Arab or Turk, imported into America, has ever got a horse of true pre tensions on the turf, or which has an impor tant race; and yet, within a few years, or during the second quarter of the century, a considerable number have been introduced to this country, many of them gifts from sovereign potentates to different Presidents of the United States, reputed to be of the noblest breed, and surely, as regal gifts, presumable to have been of true blood. The theory and presumed cause of the worthlessness of Arab Sires at the present day, will be discussed hereafter, when we come to treat of breeding and the influence of lineal descent on the production and transmission of hereditary qualities in the horse. It suffices, at present, to observe that the English race-horse is now on all hands admitted to be an animal of superior hereditary qualities to the pure-bred horse of the desert; and that the race horse in America-the only country wherein he does not appear to have degenerated from his an cestry-is identical in breed and qualities with the progenitors, to whom he traces his pedigree. Quot ing from various sources the author continues: That horses were introduced into Britain long be fore the Christian era, we have abundant evi dence, and that the inhabitants had acquired great experience in their use is equally certain. In the ancient British language rhediad is the word for a race-- rheder, to run—and rhedeefa, a race. All these spring from the Gaulish rheda, a chariot. Here, then, is direct evidence that horses were introduced from Gaul, and that chariot races were established at a very early period. I would here observe, that this evidence is not to my mind direct or conclusive, as to the fact of the introduc tion of the horse from Gaul; although it is so, as to the antiquity of chariot-racing in both coun tries, and to the non-Roman descent or introduc tion of the British or Gaulish animal. And my reason for so saying is that, as the blood, the re ligion and the language of the Britons were cog nate if not identical with those of some, at least, immediate moment, and is more curious and in teresting to the scholar and the antiquary, than to the horsemen or horse-breeder. From the differ ent kinds of vehicles, noticed by the Latin writers —the carruea, the covinfus, the essedum, or war chariot—it would appear that the ancient Britons had horses trained to different purposes, as well domestic as warlike. It is well observed by Youatt, in his larger work on the horse, that from the cumbrous structure of the car and the fury with which it was driven, and from the badness or non existence of roads, they must have been both active and powerful in an extraordinary degree. Caesar, he adds, though without stating his authority, thought them so valuable, that he carried many of them to Rome; and the British horses were, for of the Gallic tribes, it is no more certain that the Gallic rheda is the theme of the British rheder, than that it is derived therefrom. It does, how ever, in a great degree prove that the Gallic, and British horses were identical, and descended not from any breed transmitted through Greece and Italy, but from one brought inland to the north ward of the Alps; perhaps by those Gauls, who ravaged Greece and Northern Italy, almost before the existence of authentic history; perhaps by their original ancestors; at all events, of an tique Thracian or Thessalic descent, and, there fore, of remote but direct Oriental race, in all pro bability again improved by a later desert cross, derived from the Numidian cavalry of the Carth aginian Barcas, long previous to the Caesarian campaigns in Gaul or the invasions of the sacred bland of the Druids. This; however, is of small a long time after, in great request in various parts of the Roman empire. I regret that, owing to the omission of giving authority, I have been unable to verify the latter statement; I have failed to discover any allusion to the facts stated in the writings of Caesar himself; nor can I recall to mind any mention of British horses, in any of the classical authorities, whether in prose or poetry; nevertheless, I presume, from the general care and truthfulness of this able writer, that there is no doubt as to the accuracy of his assertion. During the occupation of Eng land by the Romans, the British horse was crossed to a considerable extent by the Roman horse—continues The author in the volume first quoted; for which I would myself, for reasons above stated, _prefer to substitute by the foreing horses of the Roman mercenary or allied cavalry, and yet strange to say, no opinion has been given by any historian, Roman or British, as to the effect of this. After the evacuation of England by the Romans and its conquest by the Saxons, considerable attention was paid to the English breed of horses, and we know that after the reign of Alfred, running horses were imported from Germany; this being the first historical intimation we have of running horses in Eng land. It is scarcely to be doubted that this im portation produced a marked effect on the char acter of the native breed ; but here, as before, no historian has thought it worth his while to record the fact of either improvement or deteri oration. English horses, after this, appear to have been highly prized on the continent, so that the horses which were presented by Hugh Capet to Athelstan had been turned to good account. The English themselves, were, however, anxious to preserve the monopoly of the breed, for in 930 A. D., a law prohibited the exportation of horses. In Athelstan's reign many Spanish horses were imported, which shows the desire of the English, even at that early period, to improve the breed. It is no wonder that their descendants should have produced the finest horses in the world. Shortly before the Norman conquest a horse was valued at thirty shillings, a mare or colt at twenty shillings, an ox at thirty pence, a cow at twenty-four pence—these prices in case of their being destroyed or negligently lost—and a man at a pound. Money, it should be noted, then being equivalent at least fifteen times its present value. William the Conqueror took great pains to improve the English breed, introducing many fine animals from Normandy, Flanders and Spain. This monarch owed his success at Hastings chiefly to his cavalry ; his own horse was a Spanish one. In this reign we have the first notice of horses being employed in agriculture. They had been used for the saddle for many centuries—Bede informing us that the English began to use horses as early as 631 A. D., and that people of rank distinguished themselves by appearing frequently on horseback. During the Conqueror's reign, the then Earl of Shrews bury, Roger de Belesme, brought a number of Spanish horses to his estate of Powisland. The breed issuing from these is highly eulogized by Giraldus, Cambrensis and Dayton. In the reign of Henry I. we have an account of the first Arab horse imported into the country. It was pre sented by Alexander I., King of Scotland, to the church of St. Andrew's, with many valuable accoutrements, and a considerable estate. His tory; however, is silent as to the purposes to which this animal was devoted, and as to what ultimately became of him there is no record. Coming down to the time of King John, we find, according to Youatt, that he imported many chosen stallions, 100 on a single occasion, aLd such was his anxiety to possess the best, that ha would accept strong horses for the rent of crown lands, and as fines for the renewal of leases, and that his personal stud was both numerous and excellent. Edward III. bought fifty Spanish horses and such care was taken that a formal ap plication was made to the King of France for safe conduct to the troop having them in charge. This monarch, says M. Youatt, had many run ning horses, though M. Youatt professes himself not clear whether it meant speedy horses in opposition to war horses, or those used specially for racing purposes. Mr. Herbert says: In the reign of Richard II. horse-jockeyship and the tricks of dealers had increased to such an extent, that a special proclamation was issued, regulating the price of animals of various kincls, and fixing a maximum value. Like all other sumptuary laws and prohibitory statutes effecting to regulate trade, this proclamation proved wholly useless and fell dead. It is curious, however, as proving the great increase in the value of horses, since the preceding reign, and showing what were, four hundred and fifty years ago, and what are still, the chief breeding districts. It was ordered to be published in the counties of Lincoln and Cam bridge, and in the north and east ridings of York. The price was restricted to that determined by former sovereigns. Exportation of horses was strictly forbidden, especially to Scotland, as a kingdom with which England was constantly at war; and it is remarkable, that even in the time of Elizabeth, it was felony to export a horse to Scotland. These prohibitions, how contrary, so ever, to recent and more enlightened views as to the injurious effects of such restrictions on the freedom of trade, distinctly proved two things. First, that the people and monarchs of England had now become fully awake to the value of race and breed in horses; and second, that the supe rior quality of English horses was thus early acknowledged abroad, and that the demand for them was supposed to be greater than the super fluity. We can now—quoting again from Mr. Youatt—collect but little of the history of the horse until the reign of Henry VII. at the close of the fifteenth century. He continued to pro hibit the exportation of stallions, but allowed mares to be exported, when more tham two years old, and under the value of six shillings and eight pence. James I. coming to the throne of England,
purchased the Markham Arabian for £500 (an extraordinary price in those times), but he was found to be deficient in speed. Race meetings were now regularly held at Newmarket, and vari ous other places, in addition to those already held at Chester, there being an account of a race being run there in 1665. Mr. Youatt also mentions races previous to King James' time, and says those of King James were in great part, matches against time, or trials of speed and bottom for absurdly long and cruel distances. Thus, from the time of James, the history of racing and English race horses, and of course increased care in breeding and management,may be said to commence. Com ing down to the time of Cromwell, Mr. Herbert says: During the protectorate, though he was compelled by the necessity of conciliating the ab surd prejudices of the Puritans, to forbid racing, was yet an ardent lover of the horse, and an earn est promoter and patron of all that belongs to horsemanship, purchased of Mr. Place, afterwards his stud-master, the celebrated' White Turk—still recorded as the most beautiful southeastern horse ever brought into England, and the oldest to which our present strain refers. To him succeeds Vil liers, Duke of Buckingham, his Helmsley Turk, and to him Fairfax's—the same great statesman and brave soldier, who fought against Newcastle at Marston—Morocco Barb. And to these three horses it is that the English race-horse of the old time chiefly owes its purity of blood, if we except the royal mare, specially imported by Charles II., to which it is—mythically, rather' than justly— held that all English blood should trace. Of all succeeding importations, those, which are princi pally known and referred to, as having notorious ly amended our horse—by proof of stock begot ten of superior qualities, and victorious on the turf ,through long generations—but few are true Arabs. We bave, it is true, the barley Arabian, the Leeds Arabian, Honeywood's White, the Ogle thorpe, the Neweome, Bay Mountain, the Damas cus, Cullen's Brown, the Chestnut, the Londsdale Bay, Combe's Gray and Bell's Gray Arabians; but what is generally called the Godolphin Arabian, as it seems now to be the prevailing opinion—his origin not being actually ascertained—was a Barb, not an Arab from Arabia proper. Against these, again, we find Place's White Turk, D'Arcey's Turk, the Yellow Turk, Lister's or the Straddling Turk, the Byerly Turk, the Selaby Turk, the Ams ter Turk; Curwen's Bay Barb, Compton's Barb, the Thoulouse Barb, Layton's Barb Mare, great- \ great-grandam of Miss Layton; the Royal Mares, which were Barbs from Tangier, and many other Barb horses, not from the Eastern desert, heading the pedigrees of our best horses. In this connec tion, I would observe that the very reasons for which the Marquis of Newcastle condemned the Markham Arabian, viz., that when regularly train ed he could do nothing against race-horses—on ac count of which condemnation he has received a sneer or a slur from every writer who has discussed the subject, are those which, at this very moment, prevent prudent breeders from having recourse to to Oriental blood of any kind. They can not run or last against the English horse. , They haye not the size, the bone, 'the muscle, or the shape, if we except the beautiful head, the fine neck, thin withers, and admirably long, deep and sloping shoulders, which are the inevitable characteristics of the race. Therefore, all men who breed with an eye to profit—and howsoever it might have been in the olden times of the turf, there are few now who have not an eye to it, either as hoping to win on the turf, or to produce salable stock —prefer to put their mares to known English winning horses, proved getters of winners, of unquestioned bottom and stoutness, rather than to try stallions of the desert blood, concerning which nothing is known beyond the pedigree. It is not necessary to follow the history of the English blood-horse further. It has been written voluminously by various English and American writers. From the writings of Youatt in Eng land, and Herbert in America, the horseman may thoroughly inform himself. He is not a pure breed, but made up of various bloods, and in herits from Oriental blood, style, and soundness in wind, limb and hoof. By careful breeding. through many generations, his speed has been increased,/ while the general constitution of the thoroughbred, • has not specially suffered. Arti ficial care has made an artificial animal of him, yet certainly, the blood-horse of the present day is far superior to his masters either on the Orien tal or British side, as far superior in speed and stoutness, as is the modern Short-horn and Here ford cattle superior in beef points to their pro genitors of 150 years ago. Fleet and enduring i as is the English thoroughbred in Great Britain, the American descendants, have fully kept pace with them, as is well attested in many hard fought races in England and America. As to the thoroughbred twenty-five or thirty years ago, Stonehenge, an English writer, as honest as he was graphic, says: By an examination of the racing time-tables as recorded of late years, it will be seen that from thirteen and a half to four teen seconds per furlong is the highest rate of speed attained in any of our races, above a mile, and with eight stone, seven pounds, carried by three-year-old horses. In 1846, Surplice and Cymba won the Derby and Oaks, each running the distance in two minutes forty-eight seconds, or exactly fourteen seconds per furlong. This rate has never since that time been reached; the Flying Dutchman having, however, nearly at tained it, but failing by two seconds—making his rate fourteen seconds and one-sixth per fur long. But the most extraordinary three-year-old performance is that of Sir Tatton Sykes over the St. Leger Course, one mile six furlongs, and 132 yards in length, which he ran in three minutes and sixteen seconds, or at a rate of as nearly as possible thirteen and a half seconds per furlong. With an additional year and the same weight, this speed has been slightly exceeded by West Australian, even over a longer course, as at Ascot in 1854, when he defeated Kingston by a head only; running two miles and four furlongs in four minutes and twenty-seven seconds, or as nearly as possible at the rate of thirteen and a half secornis and one-third per furlong. This performance is the best in modern days, consid ering the weight, the age, and the distance; and it will compare very favorably with the often quoted exploit of Childers over the Beacon Course in 1721, when, being six years old, he beat Al manzor and Brown Betty, carrying nine stone two pounds, and doing the distance in six min utes forty seconds, or at the rate of fourteen seconds and one-third per furlong. Thus, allow ing him his year for the extra mile in the course, and for the two pounds which he carried above Kingston's weight, he was outdone by the latter horse at Ascot by one second per furlong, and likewise by West Australian at the usual allow ance for his age. Again; comparing these per formances on the English turf with the recently lauded exploits of the American horses, it will be found that there is no cause for the fear lest our antagonists in the "go-ahead " department should deprive us of our laurels. On the second of April, 1855, a time-match was run at New Orleans be tween Leeomte and Lexington, both four years old, in which the latter, who won, did the four miles, carrying seven stone five pounds, in seven minutes nineteen and three-quarter seconds, or, as nearly as may be, thirteen and three-quarter seconds per furlong. This is considered by the Americans the best time on record, and is un doubtedly a creditable performance ; thoughwhen the light weight is taken into account, not so near our best English time as would at first sight appear On the 14th of April, Brown Dick and Arrow ran three miles over the same course in five minutes twenty-eight seconds, or at the rate of thirteen seconds and two-thirds per furlong; the former a three-year-old, carrying six stone two pounds, and the latter five years old, six stone twelve pounds. Thus it will appear that Kingston, of the same age as Arrow, and carry ing nine stone instead of seven stone twelve pounds, ran two and a half miles at a better rate than Arrow did his three miles, by one-third of a second per furlong. And it has been shown that in the year last past, two horses exceeded the greatest performance of the olden times by a second per furlong, and beat the best American time of modern days by one-third of a second per mile. The assertion, therefore, that our present horses are degenerated in their power of staying a distance under weight, is wholly without foun dation; since I have shown that, even taking the time of the Childers' performance as the true rate, of which there is some doubt, yet it has recently been beaten very, ,considerably by West Australian and Kingston. Many :oose assertions have been made as to the rate of the horse, for a single mile in the last century, but thero is not the slightest reliance to be placed upon them. That any race-horse ever ran a mile within the minute, is an absurd fiction; and i I. out of the question to suppose that if Childers could not beat our modern horses over the Beacon Course, he could beat them a shorter distance. Stoutness was undoubtedly the forte of the early race horses; they were of small size, very wiry and low, and could unquestionably stay a distance, and could race month after month, and year after year, in a way seldom imitated in these' days; but that they could in their small compact forms run as fast in a short spin as our modern three-year olds, is quite a fallacy, and no racing man of any experience would admit it for a moment. The size and shape of the modern thoroughbred horse are superior to those of olden days, if we may judge by the portraits of them handed down to us by Stubbs, who was by far the most faithful animal painter of the eighteenth century. In elegance of shape we beat the horses of that day very considerably, more especially in the beauty of the head and the formation of the shoulders, which have been much attended to by breeders. In size, also, there has been an immense stride made, the average height of the race-horse hav ing been increased by at least a band within the last century. This enlargement is, I believe, chiefly due to the Godolphin Arabian, who was the sire of Babraham, the only horse of his time which reached sixteen hands, and sire or grand sire of several which were more than fifteen hands, much above the average height of horses at that time—as, for instance, Fearnough t, Genius, Gower Stallion, Infant, Denmark, Bolton, Cade, Chub, Lofty and Amphion. Indeed it will be pound, by an examination of the horses of that time, that out of 130 winners in the middle of the eighteenth century, there were only eighteen of the height of fifteen hands and upwards, of which eleven were by Godolphin or his sons, three de scended from the Darley Arabian, two from the "Byerley Turk, and two from other sources. It may therefore he assumed, with some degree of probability, that the increase in size is in a great measure due to the Godolphin, in addition to the extra care and attention which the horse has re ceived during the same time. Nevertheless, all the care and forcing in the world will not increase the size of some breeds; and unless there was this capability of being forced, no amount of attention would have brought the horse to the present average, which may be placed at about fifteen hands three inches.