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LIGHT ON ANTECEDENT OF THOROUGHBRED. In the chapter on Foreign Horses in Col. R. F. Meysey-Thompsons book, just published in England, the author lias much that is new to say concerning one of the three great fountain heads of the British thoroughbred, the famous Darley Arabian, to which he awards a higher position than either the Bycrlcy Turk or the Godolphin Arabian. He prints for the first time an exact copy of an interesting letter forwarded by Thomas Darley from Aleppo to his brother at Aldley Park, giving an exact account of the purchase of the famous sire of Flying Childers. This letter Miss Darley discovered when looking through some old family documents. In furnishing the author with a copy of it, that lady has set at rest any doubt that might exist as to the Darley Arabians origin. In his letter, which bears date "Ye 21st December, 1703," Thomas Darley says: " Since my father expects I should send him a stallion, I esteem myself happy in a colt I bought about a year and a half agoe, with a desygne indeed to send him ye first good opportunity. He comes four the latter end of next March, or the beginning of April next; his color is Bay, and his near foot before with both his hind feet have white upon them; he has a blaze downe his face something of the largest. He is about 15 hands high, of the most esteemed race among the Arabs both by syre and dam, and the name of the said race is called Mannicka. The only fear I have at present about him is that I shall not be able to get him aboard this war time...." As Colonel Meyscy-Thompson points out, this letter of Thomas Barleys proves the statement that the Darley Arabian belonged to the Kehilan Ras el Fe-dawi breed, or family, was incorrect and also stamps him as having been foaled In the spring of 1700, a point which has hitherto been in doubt. The author apparently believes with Lady Anne Blunt, owner of the well-known magnificent stud of Arabians at Crabbct Park, that the "Godolphin," although nowadays often referred to as the Godolphin Barb, was originally correctly called the Godolphin "Arabian." He is so styled in Vol. I. of the General Stud Book, although the compilers, in a note, say: "Whether he was Arabian or Barb is a point disputed his portrait would rather lead to the latter supposition . .. ." Lady Anne Blunt, in a letter to Colonel Meyscy-Thompson. on the other hand, gives excellent reasons for crediting the statement that the Godolphin was an Arabian. His personal stable name, "Sham," the Arabic word or Syria, implies importation via Syria, probably from the desert. Lady Anne Blunt further remarks: "His portrait is not a bit like any of the many Barbs I saw in Algeria, wheras in 1SS1. I saw a beautiful four-year-old mare in All Pasha Sherifs stud in Cairo with a crest the image of Godolphin Arabians, and otherwise resembling him." Moreover, she says: "If the Emperor of Morocco wished to give a present to the King of Franco Louis XIV., to whom the Godolphin was originally sent, he would certainly have preferred to give a stalljon brought from Arabia rather than a local one. To this day it is, and has been for centuries, customary in North Africa to send to Arabia for anything wanted to be specially good."
