The pedigrees of some of our best race-horses can, it is said, be traced back to Lord Lonsdale's Bay Arabian, sire of Monkey and Spider. The name of the Coombe Arabian, sire of Methodist, may also be included in the catalogue of those celebrities which came to England from a foreign land. The history of Mr. Bell's Grey Arabian must be given at some length. It was industriously circulated that this horse had cost much more money in purchase, bribes, and transport than any animal of the kind previously brought to England. He was bought at a place that was thirty days' distance from the port at which he would have to be embarked for England, namely, St. Jean d'Acre. Mr. Bell, his ultimate owner, employed a person named Philip John, an Armenian, to negotiate the purchase at any price of a first-rate Arabian to be sent to England for breeding purposes. Philip John did his very best in the way of bribing and bullying, and was granted the favour in the end of purchasing Bell's Arabian, as the horse was called, out of the personal stud of Berrysucker, a chief of Arabs, receiving at the same time a certificate of its pedigree and of it being of the right Jelfz's blood—a perfect descent and a true Arab steed of the desert. The covering fee for this Arabian was ten guineas, and he stood at Mr. Carver's, Goulder's Green, near Barnet, in the year 1765. He was the sire of Sir C. Bunbury's Orlando and many other good horses. Nothing romantic is connected with those horses; they were sought for and purchased as a matter of business, and doubtless in the hope they would some day leave an impressive mark on British racing stock.

Another foreign horse which proved of undoubted value to the British stud, was the Godolphin Arabian.

Different tales have been told regarding the history of this notable animal, particularly that he was found in the ignoble employment of a Parisian carter, so little was the value put upon his possession at one time. Although called an Arabian, more likely the horse was a barb, as his "points" were chiefly of that caste. This animal was supposed to have been foaled in the year 1724, and when he attained full growth he stood about 15 hands high. The probability is that Godolphin was sent from the Emperor of Morocco as a present to Louis XIV. He was brought to England by a Mr. Coke, who gave him to Roger Williams, of the St. James's Coffee House. The horse was presented by Mr. Williams to Earl Godolphin, who kept him in his stud till the period of his death. The Godolphin Arabian was the sire of Lath, one of the finest animals of his day. In Whyte's History, in addition to other valuable information utilised in these pages, a list of forty colts got by this Arabian is given; as also of twenty fillies. "Every superior race-horse since his time up to the present day partakes of his valuable blood." The Godolphin Arabian "died at Gog Magog in Cambridgeshire in 1753, being supposed to be then in the twenty-ninth year of his age, and is buried in a covered passage leading to the stable with a flat stone over him, without any inscription."

The roll of distinguished foreigners is not completed by the Godolphin Arabian. Louis XIV. received another present from Muley Ishmael, King of Morocco; that was a horse known afterwards as the Curwen bay barb, from the name of the gentleman who brought him to England. He was not much used, except in the case of Mr. Curwen's own mares. Among the horses of the desert, which had been brought to England, there was also the Sedley Grey Arabian, he was the sire of Coquette and also of Bistern, who was the property of Lord Bolingbroke; there was likewise the Toulouse barb, sire of the famous Ryegateman, dam of Cinnamon. The Marshall of Selaby Turk, which played an important part among the race-horses of the period, ultimately became the property of Mr. Marshall, the stud-groom of King William, Queen Anne, and George III. The Byerly Turk cannot be passed without some notice: he was ridden by his owner as a charger in Ireland, during King William's wars, and became the sire of Sprite, a really good horse, the property of the Duke of Kingston. The names of Ancaster Turk, the Belgrade Turk, the White Turk, can only be mentioned.[3]

Much scorn has been evinced at the poor part which was played by some "horses of the East" on Newmarket Heath, when they ran in one or two races, alongside, or rather behind some of our national bred horses. Racing critics have perhaps been rather hurried in coming to a conclusion, they have apparently forgotten that these Eastern animals have not been accustomed to do what our horses are trained to accomplish. Although these imported Easterns are not fit to figure on a race-course alongside our English animals, they may yet become of value, by invigorating the race-horses of a future day. What has been done before may be done again. As is well known, many good judges are of opinion it is "in-breeding" which is depriving the race-horses of the period of stamina, and that, in consequence, it may prove advantageous once more to resort to the fountain-head. Mr. Blunt, some years ago, brought this matter before the Jockey Club, and he deserves commendation for doing so. His argument was that the speed which characterises the English horses of the turf was developed from Arabian blood, and that we should, in short, begin again to breed from the Arab.

This idea has been ridiculed by many racing men; but much that is useful and profitable has been born of ridicule, and there is no reason why the experiment advocated by Mr. Blunt should not be tried, and, moreover, meet with sympathy. Who can tell what the result might prove to be? not of course in one year, or even four or five years, but ultimately. Let the blood be given time to tell. The splendid animal, the galloping machine which is now in use, has taken hundreds of years to make; it is unfair to expect, therefore, that any great improvement of our old stock, or the making of an entire new breed, can be accomplished off hand. The blood of the Darley Arabian has had a long descent in its two lines from his sons, and how it has become mixed with the blood of the Godolphin horse and the Byerly Turk in a line of splendid horses, any pedigree-table will show.

It has been argued that in the days of old there was really good work to be done, as English horses, previous to the advent of the illustrious foreigners, were "nothing to speak of," and, consequently, in need of the very elements which the Arabian horses were formed to supply, and which, having been got, now remain with us for all time. As has been pointed out by competent authorities, there are horses in the East, other than those of Arabia, which deserve consideration; the difficulty is how to obtain good examples of them. It is supposed that not one of the really fine Eastern Barbs or other horses can be purchased for any amount of money. As a matter of fact stallions are rare, being owned chiefly by the heads of tribes, who only can afford to keep them; poorer persons are quite contented to have a mare—"a mare," they say, "that produces a mare is the head of riches," and all Arabs are strong believers in the proverb of their country that "the foal follows the stallion."

FOOTNOTES:

[1] In Whyte's "History of the Turf" it is stated that the earliest mention of running horses is of those in the 9th century sent by the founder of the Royal house of Capet, in France, as a present to King Athelstan, whose sister he was soliciting in marriage.

[2] Bribing.