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Maryland and the Thoroughbred First Installment. Maryland has always been a sporting community. From the earliest days the gentlemen of Maryland were interested in the horse, and, wanting the best of his race, they turned their attention to the English thoroughbred and to the Arabian. By frequent importations and careful breeding and raising, they became, together with their near neighbors and kinsmen from Virginia, the pioneers and the leaders in the thoroughbred industry of the new world. Present-day Marylanders do not realize what serious attention was given in those early days to the study and development of the thoroughbred ; how carefully their progenitors seleeted the importations from the old world and what remarkable animals were brought over to this country. VICTORY FAILS AS A SWIMMEK. We hardly have time, for instance, to picture the landing in the early days of the thoroughbred horse. Victory, from England, at Philadelphia, and his "drowning in dock." What a disappointment to those who imported him! In wnat sort of a ship did he come? How was he taken from the ship to the dock? Would he have walked a number of score of miles to his destination? Or, how Commodore Jones brought to this country in 14 in the frigate Constitution from the Barbary States a certain Arabian stallion, which is mentioned in the stud books as follows: Jones Arabian, gr., foaled, 1820. Purchased at Tunis by the American consul for Commodore Jones, who . imported him in the frigate Constitution, 1824. He was a good specimen of his race. Think of this a moment ! How was he. loaded? Was he boxed on the gun deck? It is an interesting illustration of the interest in the horse in the older days. Nor is it easy for us to picture the importation to this country in 1799, within sixteen years of the Revolution, of the winner of the iirst English Derby Diomed to a new home in Virginia, That was done, however, by Colonel John Hooraes. Nor later on, a hundred years or so ago, the importation of the horse which ran the St. Leger twice in one day, owing to a false start, and won it the second time : his importation was to Boston, in the cold and chilly climate, where he had some, but only moderate, success as a stallion. That was Barefoot ; imported by Admiral Sir Isaac Coffin, a natie of Massachusetts. EARLY AMERICAN BREEDERS. In taking Wallaces American Stud Book and running over the names of those who were Maryland breeders of horses in those early days we find Governors Sprigg, Ogle, Eden and Paca. Colonel Tasker, General Forman, George W. Duvall, Edmund Duvall, Walter and Robert Bowie,, Philip Wallis of Baltimore ; W. Tilghman, Robert W. Harper. George Semmes, II. G. S. Keys, St. Marys County ; James Ringgold of Annapolis ; Robert Gillmore, N. Stonestreet, Colonel Sili-man, Joseph N. Burch, Dr. Reeder, Overton Carr and many others These were the distinguished men of the state in their time. There is another point of view equally interesting. The breeding of the thoroughbred is intensive and the lines of blood appear time and time again. In looking up pedigrees, anyone soon recognizes that the lines of pure blood are limited in number, and then the confusion which at first appears to exist ceases. When the people of Maryland see the performers on the turf today at Pimlico, Laurel, Havre de Grace or Bowie they see many lineal descendants of the horses that lived in or about the present farms with which many of them are closely associated. One who approaches the subject from this angle becomes interested, and has an affection for it, wholly irrespective of the question of what horse wins a race, and par ticularly apart from the question of bet-tir.g. The breeding end of the business and the farm are so totally divergent from the letting end that there exist two distinct points of view ; and no one can be long interested in the thor.oughbred unless interested in the breeding end of the business. Maryland has, from earliest days, imported the best, has raised the best, has sent out the best, and has provided foundation stock whose progeny have lasted well over one hundred and fifty- years. That is a community industry well worth while, one of importance to any state, one which the citizens should take interest in generally, and one which aids in accumulating wealth for a state, through the honorable and profitable employment of many individuals. To draw the picture of the early days it is really essential to glance for a moment at the first development of the British thoroughbred. Accounts of the royal stud in the day of Henry VIII. show that the racing of horses was regularly practiced. Under date of April, 1532, there was a charge of .79 for making a bath for one of the Arabian racers training at Windsor. Thomas Ogle was described as the gentleman rider of the stables. Queen Elizabeth is said to have become a liberal patroness of racing and maintained the royal stud founded by her father. Royalty was present at the Croydon meetings in 1587 and 15S8. STUD AT TUT BURY. James I. paid a visit to Newmarket at the end of February, 1605 ; and it is quite evident from contemporary writings that racing matters had progressed considerably during the reign of Charles I. He had a stud of race horses at Tutbury, in Staffordshire, an inventory of which was taken when it came into the possession of the Parliamentary forces. Six of them animals of j eastern origin were given to one Colonel Jones, who was at the head of the forces that defeated those of the Duke of Ormond in Ireland, and they were eventually taken over to Ireland. Then came the Commonwealth Puritanism and the turf did not mix very well, although Sir Oliver Cromwell, uncle of the Protector, kept horses and had won a race at Huntingdon in 1602. One of the earliest acts of the Council of state was to prohibit horse racing. Hunting, hawking and football were also forbidden. Later, in the reign of William and Mary, the king again formed a racing stud under the charge ot Tregonwell Frampton, a man of sporting prominence at that time, and in the importation of eastern horses William III. gave his subjects a good lead. He sent one MarshalL-to Moroco to obtain thoroughbreds from the Arabs. Private breeders followed the kings example, and many Barbs, Arabians and Turks were imported into England. The most notable arrival at this period was the horse which subsequently became known as the Byerly Turk, founder of the great Herod family of thoroughbreds. He was imported by a Captain Byerly, who used him as a charger during King Williams campaign in Ireland. Herod was his great great grandson through Jigg, Partner and Tartar. About this time the Darley Arabian was also imported. The Daiieys were a Yorkshire family merchants, who had traveled abroad a good deal, and the horse was purchased on one of Mr. Darleys journeys, at a moderate figure. Bred to a mare, Betty Leeds, there was produced Bartlets Childers, to which it has been stated that nine-tenths of the thoroughbreds of the present day trace. He was the sire of Squirt, he the sire of Marske, he the sire of the great Eclipse. In 1727 George II. succeeded to the throne, and at about that time the Godolphin Arabian, or Barb, arrived in England. He established a distinct line, called the Match-ems ; Matchem himself being the grandson of the Godolphin, foaled in 1748. The Godol- j phin was originally found in Paris bj Mr. Coke of Norfolk, who brought him to L j-land, and the horse eventually passed i .to the possession of the Earl of Godolpiiin. So we have the three great male li-tft- ot England in Matchem 174S, Herod IT , and Eclipse 1764. Volumes could be written in regard to Eclipse in fact, they have been writt " but suffice it for our purpose to reaU? the origin of the three great male lines of th r-oughbred blood, greatly developed by tho breeders of England, exported to all lands, and developed by the breeders of these countries. To return to Maryland and to ran ov some of the facts and stories of its breeding industry. It is a pleasure to go over the first volume of the American Stud Book and to pick out the great horses of the time, and to find, time after time, the name of a new brcddar or owner in Maryland or Virginia, which indicates that "another county has been heard from," in other words, such a review shows clearly that, in spite of drawbacks of distance, travel and lack of association, the breeding industry was in the early days remarkably well diversified in tho various farms of Maryland, principally, of course, in and about Annapolis, Prince George County and Baltimore County, and sonr what on the eastern shore. Two men deserve special notice in the early days: Governor Sharp of Whitehall and Benjamin Tasker of Belair. Their respective importations were Othello and Selima. Thcsa names should always be borne in mind from tho Maryland standpoint. Closely alliod were the importations of Spark, presented to Governor Ogle by Lord Baltimore in about 1750 ; of Tanner, imported in Maryland by Daniel Wolstenhomc in 1757 ; Fearnought m 1764 by Colonel John Bayler of Virginia; in 1754 Moretons Traveller, which stood at Richmond courthouse ; Medley in 17S4 by Mr. Hart of Virginia, Then came the great Diomed in 17D9 by Colonel ITo: mes of Virginia. To be Continued.
