Blaze, the son of Childers, was foaled 1733, and was out of a mare known as “The Confederate Filly,” by Grey Grantham; her dam was by the Duke of Rutland’s Black Barb, and her grandam was a mare of unknown breeding, called “Bright’s Roan.” Here the maternal line runs into the woods, but this is not the only defect in the pedigree, for the dam of Grey Grantham was also unknown. In order to give a clear idea of just how Blaze was bred, taking the Stud Book for our authority, we will here tabulate the pedigree for a few crosses.

Blaze (1733).{ Childers{ Darley Arabian
{ Betty Leeds{ Careless.
{ Sister to Leeds.
{ Confederate Filly{ Grey Grantham{ Browlow Turk.
{ Blood unknown.
{ Daughter of{ Black Barb.
{ Brights Roan, unknown.

Certainly this horse cannot be ranked as thoroughbred under any rule, English or American, that has ever been formulated. Only three generations away we find two animals of hopelessly unknown breeding. Mr. Henry F. Euren, compiler of the English Hackney Stud Book, has given Blaze a new place in horse genealogy, and this new place affects the American trotter, remotely, outside of the line through Messenger. Mr. Lawrence, the best English authority on horse matters in the latter part of the last and the beginning of the present century, had maintained, confessedly on tradition only, that Old Shales, the great fountain head of the English trotters of a hundred years ago, was a son of Blank, by Godolphin Arabian. On this point Mr. Euren has got farther back and found earlier evidence in printed form that Blaze and not Blank was the sire of Old Shales. We combated this claim for a time, but in the introduction to his Stud Book he has made out a very good case, and we have hardly a doubt but that he is correct. In speaking of the breeding of Shales, and of his dam being a “strong common-bred mare,” he says: “It is of interest to examine the pedigree of the sire (Blaze) to determine whether yet stronger racing or pacing elements existed on that side.” After giving a tabulation of the pedigree he continues: “There would thus appear to have been a large proportion of English (native) blood in the dam of Blaze, though no one can say what was its character—whether running, trotting, or ambling.” In referring to the fact that Bellfounder was a descendant of Old Shales, the son of Blaze, Mr. Euren makes this practical application of the incident:

“The fact that in the seventh generation from Blaze, on each side, the reunion of the blood in Rysdyk’s Hambletonian, the sire of so many fast American trotting horses, should have proved to be of the most impressive character, would appear to warrant the conclusion that there was a strong latent trotting tendency in the near ancestors, on one, if not on both, sides of Blaze.”

These two points from a very high English authority—that Blaze was not thoroughbred and that he was the sire of Shales, a great trotting progenitor, must have due weight in reaching sound conclusions.

Sampson, the son of Blaze, was foaled 1745, and he has occupied a very prominent and at the same time unique place in running-horse history. He was not only a great race horse, at heavy weights, but he was considered phenomenal in his size and strength, and in his lack of the appearance of a race horse. Some of his measurements have come down to us, and as they are reliable data as to what was considered a remarkably large and strong race horse a hundred and forty years ago, we will reproduce them here in order that the curious may compare them with the average race horse of this generation:

Height on the withers, 15 hands 2 inches; dimensions of fore leg from the hair of the hoof to middle of fetlock joint, 4 inches; from fetlock joint to bend of the knee, 11 inches; from bend of knee to elbow, 19 inches; round fore leg below knee, narrowest part, 8½ inches; round hind leg, narrowest part, 9 inches.

These measurements may not seem to merit any particular attention at this day, but a hundred and fifty years ago they were considered phenomenal in the race horse. But we are not left to the dry details of a certain number of inches and fractions of an inch upon which to base a just conception of the strength and substance of this horse. A number of historians have told us of the merriment among the grooms and jockeys when Sampson made his first appearance on the turf. The question was, “Has Mr. Robinson brought a coach horse here to run for the plate?” The laugh was on the other side at Malton that day, however, when the “coach horse,” carrying one hundred and forty pounds, won the plate in three heats. The distance was three miles, and Sampson was then five years old. At long distances and at high weights Sampson was a first-class race horse for his day. But, notwithstanding all this, we are told that his blood never became fashionable, for there was a widespread conviction that he was not running-bred on the side of his dam. The historians tell us that he transmitted his own coarseness and lack of the true running type in a marked degree, which was very evident in his grandson, Mambrino.

His pedigree has been questioned from the day of his first appearance to the present time, and we have made a very careful study of all the facts at our command. In the first edition of his Stud Book (1803) Mr. Weatherby gives his dam as by Hip; g. d. by Spark, son of Honeycomb Punch; g. g. d. by Snake and out of Lord D’Arcy’s Queen. This has not been materially changed in any of the subsequent editions, and we think it may be taken for granted that the horse was advertised under this pedigree. Mr. Weatherby commenced work on pedigrees in 1791, and avowedly accepted the best information he could get with regard to old pedigrees, regardless of the source. We are not aware that he ever investigated anything outside of his office work, or if he did he never gave the public the benefit of the details of his investigations. John Lawrence commenced work on horse history long before Mr. Weatherby commenced as a compiler of pedigrees, and he was altogether the ablest writer of his day, or perhaps we might add, of any other day. He was a clear and independent thinker and a vigorous writer. In his “History of the Horse in all His Varieties and Uses,” on page 281, he thus discusses the question of Sampson’s pedigree:

“Nobody yet ever did, or ever could assert positively that Jigg was not thoroughbred, but the case is very different with respect to Sampson; since nobody in the sporting world, either of past or present days, ever supposed him so. Nor was the said world at all surprised at Robinson’s people furnishing their stallion with a good and true pedigree, a thing so much to their advantage. Having seen a number of Sampson’s immediate get, those in the Lord Marquis of Rockingham’s stud and others, and all of them, Bay Malton perhaps less than any other, in their heads, size and form, having the appearance of being a degree or two deficient in racing blood, I was convinced that the then universal opinion on that point was well grounded. I was (in 1778) an enthusiast, collecting materials for a book on the horse. It happened that I wanted a trusty and steady man for a particular service, and opportunely for the matter now under discussion, a Yorkshire man about threescore years of age was recommended to me, who had recently been employed in certain stables. I soon found that his early life had been spent in the running stables of the North, and that he had known Sampson, whence he was always afterward named by us ‘Old Sampson.’ He was very intelligent on the subject of racing stock and his report was as follows. He took the mare to Blaze, for the cover which produced Sampson, helped to bit and break the colt, rode him in exercise and afterward took him to Malton for his first start, where, before the race, he was ridiculed for bringing a great coach horse to contend against racers. On the sale of Sampson this man left the service of James Preston, Esq., and went with the colt into that of Mr. Robinson. His account of Sampson’s dam was that she appeared about three parts bred, a hunting figure and by report a daughter of Hip, which, however, could not be authenticated; and the fact was then notorious and not disputed in the Yorkshire stables.... Mr. Tattersall lately stowed me a portrait of Sampson in his flesh, in which this defect of blood appears far more obvious than in one which I had of him galloping.”