BARBS
—are horses brought from the coast of Barbary, and mostly consigned as presents to His Majesty, or some other branch of the royal family. Those arriving under such distinction, are to be considered the true MOUNTAIN BARB, the pedigree of whose blood has been recorded with as much tenacity and care as the genealogy of our most ancient nobility. Barbs (as they are called) are to be found in the possession of many people of fashion and fortune in England, but they are in general of inferior degree, and thought to be only the common horses of the country from whence they came: such there are at all times to be obtained through the intervening medium of Provence and Languedoc in France; but in this kingdom they are held in very slender estimation; not more for their deficiency in growth and strength, than the aukwardness of their action.
Barbs were formerly in great request here; and neither trouble or expence was spared to obtain them, for the sole purpose of improving the speed of our own breed for the TURF, where, upon the various events in RACING at Newmarket, and in the north, immense sums are frequently depending; and from the various crosses in blood, the breeding in and in, with the different fancied interlineations by different individuals, it is affirmed, by some of those best versed in racing pedigree, that there are at this time a very few (if any) thorough bred English horses, but what have a cross of foreign blood in their composition. To elucidate or justify this opinion, reference may be made to the well authenticated list of Barbs and Arabians, who have contributed, as stallions, more or less, to the increase of the most select and valuable studs in every part of the kingdom.
The Helmsley Turk (one of the first we can go back to) was the property of an old Duke of Buckingham, and afterwards of Mr. Place, (studmaster to Oliver Cromwell when Protector,) in whose possession he got Bustler, &c. Mr. Place had also a stallion, called Place's White Turk, who was the sire of Wormwood, Commoner, and other good horses.
The Stradling or Lister Turk was brought into England by the Duke of Berwick, from the siege of Buda, in the reign of James the Second. He got Snake, Brisk, Piping Peg, Coneyskins, &c.
The Byerley Turk was Captain Byerley's charger in Ireland in King William's wars, 1689, and was afterwards the sire of many good runners.
Greyhound was got in Barbary by a white Barb, out of Slugey, a natural Barb mare. After the leap, both sire and dam were purchased and brought to England by Mr. Marshall, where the sire became one of King William's stud, and was called the "White Barb Chillaby." Greyhound was the sire of Othello, Whitefoot, Osmyn, Rake, Sampson, Goliah, Favorite, Desdemona, and others.
D'Arcy White Turk got old Hautboy, Grey Royal, Cannon, &c.
D'Arcy Yellow Turk was the sire of Spanker, Brimmer, and the great great grand-dam of Cartouch.
Curwen's Bay Barb was a present from Muly Ishmael, Emperor of Morocco, to Lewis the Fourteenth, and was brought to England by Mr. Curwen, who procured from Count Byram and Count Thoulouse (natural sons of the French King) the two horses afterwards called the Curwen Bay Barb and Thoulouse Barb, both which proved excellent stallions, getting a great number of winners, and transmitting their blood through the sisters of Mixbury to Partner, Little Scar, Soreheels, and the dam of Crab; as well as to Bagpiper, Blacklegs, Panton's Molly, and the dam of Cinnamon.
Darley's Arabian was brought over by a brother of Mr. Darley in Yorkshire, who being a commercial agent abroad, exerted his interest to procure the horse. He was sire of the famous horse Childers, (who was said to have ran a mile in a minute,) Dædalus, Dart, Skipjack, Aleppo, and other good horses.
Sir J. Williams's Turk got Mr. Honeywood's two True Blues, out of the only thorough-bred mare he was ever known to cover; though he got some middling racers out of common mares, whose pedigrees were not known.
The Belgrade Turk was taken at the siege of Belgrade, and, after passing through the hands of General Merci, the Prince de Craon, and the Prince of Lorrain, became the property of Sir Marmaduke Wyvill, in whose possession he died about 1740.
Croft's Bay Barb was got by Chillaby out of the Moonah Barb Mare.
The Godolphin Arabian was the property of Lord Godolphin, and thought so little of as a stallion, and so little likely to get racers, that he was for some years teazer to Hobgoblin; but, upon his refusing to cover Roxana, the Arabian had the leap, which produced Lath, the first horse he ever got. To Lath succeeded Cade, Regulus, Blank, Babraham, Bajazet, &c. &c. and there can be no doubt, from the success of the progeny of each, but that he contributed more to the value and speed of horses for the turf, than any other foreign stallion ever brought into this kingdom.
The Cullen Arabian was sire of Camillus, Sour Face, the dam of Regulator, &c. &c.
The Coombe Arabian, called also the Pigot Arabian, was sire of Methodist, the dam of Cross, &c.
The Compton Barb, or Sedley Arabian, was sire of Coquette, Greyling, &c.
The Arcot Arabian has been covering a few years in the neighbourhood of the metropolis, but has not produced any thing of note. This may probably happen from a want of interest in procuring thorough-bred mares, without which a stallion for racing blood can acquire no celebrity.
King Charles the Second sent over his master of the horse to procure a number of foreign horses and mares for breeding; and the mares brought over by him, as well as many of their produce, have since been called Royal Mares. Dodsworth, though foaled in England, was a natural Barb; his dam was imported in foal during the time of Charles the Second, and was sold for forty guineas at twenty years old, (after the King's death,) then in foal (by the Helmsley Turk) of Vixen, afterwards dam of the old Child Mare.
However largely this description of horses may have contributed to the improvement of blood in this country, and however grand and majestic they may appear in competition with our more settled, steady, and well-broke studs; yet, when the uniformity of parts which constitute the whole come to be judiciously examined, and every point of perfection precisely ascertained, no doubt can or need be entertained, but the best bred horses in Britain, as Highflyer, Escape, Rockingham, Hambletonian, Diamond, and many others, must stand firmly entitled to the palm of priority. The most accurate must have observed, that the major part of the horses brought to this country as Barbs and Arabians, being submitted to public inspection, are very much inferior in height to our own, few reaching, and none exceeding, fifteen hands: they have mostly a curvilinear hollowness of the back, a narrowness of the chest, (indicative of speed, but the reverse of strength,) and a palpable deficiency in the arm or fore thigh, seemingly disproportioned to their own weight. Their apparent powers are entirely appropriate to the purposes of speed, and not to the common services of the people of this country; being, in general, bad, uneven walkers; and once exerted to a trot, their legs are thrown about in the clambering manner of the German cavalry, much more adapted to the gratification of pompous parade, than the neatness or utility of expeditious action.