Part 4 - Arabians, Barbs, and Turks.

The date of the importation of the horses named below is in many cases unknown, and can only be guessed at by the date of their produces, besides which they may not have been imported at all, but bred in this country, it being common to call horses Barbs, Turks, etc., that were only of that breed; and it is evident from the old records that there was a class of horses kept apart as "running horses," and described as Barbary horses, Spanish Barbs, etc., the greater part of the Barbs coming no doubt by way of Spain, though some are distinguished as Morocco Barbs. The horses called Arabian were probably from Persia and Syria.

The following are arranged in about the order of date.

MARKHAM ARABIAN. James the First bought an Arabian of Mr. Markham, a merchant, for 500 gs., said (but with little probability) to have been the first of that breed ever seen in England. The Duke of Newcastle says, in his Treatises on Horsemanship, that he had seen the above Arabian, and describes him as a small Bay horse, and not of very excellent shape; also that he was bought for 150 gs., and to run, and ran so badly that he brought Arabians into disrepute.

GUISE. The Duke of Rutland's Barb.

LORD FAIRFAX'S MOROCCO BARB.

PLACE'S WHITE TURK, was the property of Mr. Place, stud-master to Oliver Cromwell, when Protector, and was sire of Wormwood, Commoner, and the great-granddams of Wyndham, Grey Ramsden, and Cartouch.

DODSWORTH, though foaled in England, was a natural Barb. His dam, a Barb Mare, was imported in the time of Charles the Second, and was called a Royal Mare. She was sold to Mr. Child by the stud-master, after the King's death, for 40 gs., at twenty years old, when in foal (by the Helmsley Turk)  with Vixen, dam of the Old Child Mare. He was the sire of Dicky Pierson (called in some pedigrees The Son of Dodsworth).

ROYAL MARES. King Charles the Second sent abroad the Master of the Horse, to procure a number of foreign horses and mares for breeding, and the mares brought over by him, (as also many of their produce) have since been called Royal Mares. Charles I. had at Tutbury, Staffordshire, in 1643, a number of mares and stallions described as race-horses, a list of which from the records includes three Morocco mares.

PULLEINE'S CHESTNUT ARABIAN. Rockwood, see p. 382, is also sometimes called Pulleine's Arabian. [p. 382 - ROCKWOOD, Pulleine's, out of the Lonsdale Tregonwell Barb Mare.]

The DARCY YELLOW TURK, was the sire of Spanker, Brimmer, and the great great grand dam of Cartouch.

The DARCY WHITE TURK, also called Sedbury Turk, was the sire of Old Hautboy, Grey Royal, Cannon, etc.

The WHITE-LEGGED LOWTHER BARB.

The HELMSLEY TURK, from the stud of Lord Fairfax, Helmsley, became the property of the Duke of Buckingham, and got Bustler, etc.

LAMBERT TURK.

SHAFTESBURY TURK (sire of the Lonsdale Counsellor).

GRESLEY'S ARABIAN, called BAY ROAN.

The STRADLING, or LISTER TURK, was brought into England by the Duke of Berwick, from the seige of Buda, in the reign of James the Second. He got Lister Snake, the Duke of Kingston's Brisk, Piping Peg, Coneyskins, the dam of Hip, and the grandam of the Bolton Sweepstakes.

ELY TURK (sire of Old Pert).

OGLETHORPE ARABIAN (sire of Makeless). This may be the horse described as Mr. Oglethorpe's son of the Yellow Turk.

DARCY CHESNUT ARABIAN.

The BYERLY TURK, was Captain Byerly's charger in Ireland, in King William's wars (1689, etc.) He did not cover many bred mares, but was the sire of Jigg, the Duke of Kingston's Sprite, who was thought nearly as good as Leedes; the Duke of Rutland's Black Hearty and Archer, the Duke of Devonshire's Basto, Lord Bristol's Grasshopper, and Lord Godolphin's Byerly Gelding, all in good forms; Halloway's Jigg, a middling horse; and Knightley's Mare, in a very good form; and Bowes' Mare.

LEEDES ARABIAN (sire of Leedes, Bay Peg, and Dyer's Dimple).

KING WILLIAM'S BLACK BARB, without a tongue.

OXFORD (Lord Oxford's) DUN ARABIAN.

The MARSHALL or SELABY TURK, was the property of Mr. Marshall's brother, stud-master to King William, Queen Anne, and King George the First. He got the Curwen Old Spot, the dam of Windham, the dam of the Derby Ticklepitcher, and the great grandam of the Bolton Sloven and Fearnought.

FENWICK BARB (sire of OLD WHYNOT).

The TAFFOLET or MOROCCO BARB, he got the Honeycomb Punch about 1692.

BROWNLOW TURK (sire of Grey Grantham).

WILKINSON'S BAY ARABIAN.

CHILLABY, King William's White Barb (sire of Greyhound).

WASTELL'S TURK (sire of the Pet Mare).

HOLDERNESS TURK (sire of Hartley's Blind Horse), was brought from Constantinople by Queen Anne's Ambassador, about 1704.

GREYHOUND. The cover for this foal was in Barbary, after which both his sire and dam were purchased and brought into England by Mr. Marshall. He was got by Chillaby, out of Slugey, a Natural Barb Mare. Greyhound got the Duke of Wharton's Othello, about 1812, said to have beaten Chaunter easily in a trial, giving him a stone, but who falling lame, ran only one match in public, against a bad horse; he also got Panton's Whitefoot, a very good horse; Osmyn, a very fleet horse, and in a good form for his size; the Duke of Wharton's Rake, a middling horse; Lord Halifax's Sampson, Goliah, and Favourite, pretty good 12 stone Plate horses; Desdemona, and other good mares; and several ordinary Plate horses, who ran in the North, where he was a common stallion, and covered many of the best mares.

LITTLE MOUNTAIN BARB (Duke of Marlborough's).

HUTTON'S GREY BARB, was given by King William to Mr. Hutton in 1700.

STANYAN ARABIAN.

CROFTS'S BAY BARB, or the CRIPPLE BARB, at Hampton Court, was got by Chillaby, out of the Moonah Barb Mare.

SIR E. HALE'S TURK.

CURWEN'S BAY BARB, was a present to Lewis the Fourteenth from Muley Ishmael, King of Morocco, and was brought into England by Mr. Curwen, who, being in France when Count Byram, and Count Thoulouse (two natural sons of Lewis the Fourteenth), were, the former, Master of the Horse, and the latter, an Admiral, he procured of them, about the end of the seventeenth century, two Barb Horses, both of which proved excellent stallions, and are well known by the names of the Curwen Bay Barb, and the Thoulouse Barb. Curwen's Bay Barb got Mixbury and Tantivy, both very high-formed galloways, the first of them was only thirteen hands two inches high, and yet there were not more than two horses of his time that could beat him, at light weights; Brocklesby, Little George, Yellow Jack, Bay Jack, Monkey, Dangerfield, Hip, Peacock, and Flatface, the first two in good forms, the rest middling; two Mixburys, full brothers to the first Mixbury, middling galloways; Long Meg, Brocklesby Betty, and Creeping Molly, extraordinary high-formed mares; Whiteneck, Mistake, Sparkler, and Lightfoot, very good mares; and several middling galloways, who ran for plates in the North. He got two full sisters to Mixbury, one of which bred Partner, Little Scar, Soreheels, and the dam of Crab; the other was the dam of Quiet and Sloven. He did not cover many mares except Mr. Curwen's and Mr. Pelham's.

The THOULOUSE BARB became afterwards the property of Sir J. Parsons, and was the sire of Bagpiper, Blacklegs, Mr. Panton's Molly, and the dam of Cinnamon.

SIR J. WILLIAMS'S TURK, (more frequently called the HONEYWOOD ARABIAN, but also Sir C. Turner's White Turk), got Mr. Honeywood's two True Blues, the elder of them was the best Plate horse in England for four or five years; the younger was in a very high form, and got the Rumford Gelding, and Lord Onslow's Grey Horse, middling horses, out of road mares. It is not known that this Turk covered any bred mares, except the dam of the two True Blues.

ALCOCK'S ARABIAN, got Crab in 1721, was also known as Mr. Pelham's Grey Arab, and was afterwards Duke of Ancaster's.

SIR H. HARPUR'S BARB.

The ST VICTOR BARB (sire of Bald Galloway), brought from France by Captain Rider of Whittlebury.

The AKASTER TURK (sire of Chaunter).

OYSTERFOOT ARABIAN.

DARLEY'S ARABIAN, probably a Turk or Syrian horse, was brought over from Smyrna by a brother of Mr. Darley, of Yorkshire, who being an agent in merchandize abroad, became member of a hunting club, by which means he acquired interest to procure this horse. He was sire of Childers, and also got Almanzor, a very good horse, and Aleppo his brother; a white legged horse of the Duke of Somerset's, full brother to Almanzor, and thought to as good, but, meeting with an accident, he never ran in public; Cupid and Brisk, good horses; Daedalus, a very fleet horse; Dart, Skipjack, and Manica, good Plate horses, though out of bad mares; Lord Lonsdale's Mare, in very good form; and Lord Tracy's mare, in a good one for Plates. He covered very few mares except Mr. Darley's, who had very few well bred besides Almanzor's dam.

CYPRUS ARABIAN (the Duke of Rutland's), probably the same as the Hampton-Court chesnut Arabian, about 1720.

The STRICKLAND TURK, described as a foreign horse, of Sir W. Strickland's, also as Carlisle's Barb, about 1712.

HAMPTON COURT CHESNUT ARABIAN.

HAMPTON COURT LITTON ARABIAN.

HOWE'S PERSIAN (sire of Antelope).

BASSETT'S OXFORD BLOODY-SHOULDERED ARABIAN (sire of Bolton Sweepstakes).

HUTTON'S or MULSO BAY TURK.

LONSDALE BAY ARABIAN (sire of Monkey, Sultan, etc.).

LEXINGTON GREY ARABIAN.

THE PIGOT TURK, also called Mostyn's Bay Barb.

BETHELL'S ARABIAN.

LONSDALE BLACK ARABIAN.

JOHNSON'S TURK.

SIR M. NEWTON'S BAY ARABIAN.

WYNN ARABIAN (sire of Driver).

WIDDRINGTON or BRIDGEWATER GREY ARABIAN.

CROFTS'S EGYPTIAN.

CONYERS ARABIAN.

HALL ARABIAN (sire, in 1722, of Heneage's Whitenose).

SUTTON TURK, Duke of Devonshire's, covered in 1719.

MORGAN'S GREY BARB.

MORGAN'S BLACK BARB.

ORFORD or WALPOLE GREY TURK.

The BELGRADE TURK, was taken at the seige of Belgrade, by General Merci, and was sent by him to the Prince de Craon, from whom he was a present to the Prince of Lorraine; he was afterwards purchased by Sir Marmaduke Wyvill, and died in his possession about 1740.

LORD MORTON'S ARABIAN.

The GODOLPHIN ARABIAN, was a brown bay, about fifteen hands high, with some white on the off-heel behind; there is a picture of him and his favourite Cat in the library at Gogmagog, in Cambridgeshire, at which place he died, in the possession of Lord Godolphin, in 1753, being then supposed to be in his twenty-ninth year.

Whether he was an Arabian or a Barb is a point disputed (his portrait would rather lead to the latter supposition), but his excellence as a stallion is generally admitted. In 1731, then the property of Mr. Coke, he was teazer to Hobgoblin, who refusing to cover Roxana, she was put to the Arabian, and from that cover produced Lath, the first of his get. It is remarkable that there is not a superior horse now on the turf, without a cross of the Godolphin Arabian, neither has there been for many years past. He was imported from France in 1730 by Mr. Coke, and given by him to Lord Godolphin. He was over 15 hands high, and his stock generally taller.

There is an original Portrait of this Horse in Lord Cholmondeley's collection at Houghton; on comparing which with Mr Stubbs's print of him, it will be seen that the disproportionately small limbs, as represented in the latter, do not accord with the painting.

BEAUFORT ARABIAN.

CRAWFORD'S TURK, imported by Lord Crawford, afterwards called The Stamford Turk.

BLOODY BUTTOCKS. (Pick says bred at Barforth.) Nothing further can be traced from the papers of the late Mr Crofts, than that he was a Grey Arabian, with a red mark on his hip, from whence he derived his name.

ASHTRIDGE ARABIAN.

ORFORD BARB.

FLETCHER'S ARABIAN (sire of Cumberland, etc.)

H.R.H. THE DUKE OF CUMBERLAND'S GREY ARABIAN, called Muley Ishmael.

CULLEN ARABIAN, a brown bay (really a Barb), brought over by Mr Mosco, from Constantinople, with the Mosco Grey Arabian. They were presented to the British Consul by the Emperor of Morocco about 1745; the first was sold to Lord Cullen.

GODOLPHIN GREY BARB or DEVONSHIRE GREY TURK or ARABIAN.

NORTHUMBERLAND GOLDEN ARABIAN.

DEVONSHIRE CHESNUT ARABIAN.

DAMASCUS ARABIAN, bl. h. foaled in 1754, and imported 1760, sold to Mr Coates of Smeaton, Northallerton.

WOLSELEY BARB, probably the Black Barb which stood at Woolsey, Staffordshire.

NORTHUMBERLAND BROWN ARABIAN (afterwards Leedes's Brown Arab).

BELSIZE ARABIAN, imported about 1759, when 3 years old.

MOUNTAIN BARB.

The NEWCOMBE BAY ARABIAN, bought by Captain Burford, in 1756, when 3 years old, from the Sheik of St John Diracki (? St Jean D'acre), sold to Mr Newcombe.

BELL'S GREY ARABIAN (imported about 1764).

MARTIN'S BLACK ARABIAN (afterwards Jelfy Arabian).

WARD'S ARABIAN.

VANE ARABIAN, imported by Mr Mosco, about 1714.

GIBSON'S GREY ARABIAN (late Barrington Arabian), purchased in Arabia Felix.

The COOMBE ARABIAN (sometimes called the Pigot Arabian, and sometimes the Bolingbroke Grey Arabian), was sire of Methodist, the dam of Crop, etc.

The COMPTON BARB, more commonly called the Sedley Arabian, was the sire of Coquette, Greyling, etc.

GREGORY ARABIAN.

The WELLESLEY GREY and CHESNUT ARABIANS (so called), were brought from India by Mr Wellesley (brother of the Marquis of Wellesley), in 1803, but evidently not Arabians but Gulf, i.e. Persian, Arabians; the former was a horse of very good shape, with the size and substance of an English hunter.

WILSON'S CHESNUT ARABIAN (really a Turk), was brought to England by Lord Kinnoul, from Constantinople, where he cost 200 guineas; he stood for several seasons at Oran, near Catterick.

ALI BEY, given to Count Orlow in 1771, and by him to Lord Pembroke, afterwards Lord Percy's.

OXLADE or CLEMENT'S ARABIAN, called Dowla (imported by Captain Clements in 1767).

The VERNON ARABIAN, was a small chesnut horse (imported 1769). He covered at Highflyer Hall, and was the sire of Alert, etc. Alert had good speed for a short distance.

WOODSTOCK ARABIAN, also called Williams's Arabian.

RUMBOLT'S ARABIAN, 1797.