A short history of the celebrated race-horse 'Eclipse' / [Anon].

  • Bracy Clark
Date:
1835]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A short history of the celebrated race-horse 'Eclipse' / [Anon]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Eleven king’s plates, in all, were won by Eclipse; and the weight he carried was twelve stone, except for one, which was ten stone. His color was a light chesnut, or sorrel- chesnut, the off hind leg white from near the top of the shank to the foot, a white blaze also from his forehead to his nose. His exact height has no where been stated that I have seen; but, those who have seen him living, guessed his height to have been fifteen hands and a half. The best portrait of him is done by the masterly hand of Stubbs, to whose extraordi- nary merits and undeserved neglect we have to hear a sad testimony. This famous horse was not only the best that ever this country saw as a racer, hut he was no less so as a stallion, for his progeny, by their feats upon the course, in 23 years won 344 races, producing to their owners the ex- traordinary sum of one hundred and fifty-eight thousand pounds, various smaller sums and forfeits not included. His exact speed was never known, as no horse could be found to call forth his extreme pace. His collateral ancestor, Flying Childers, was supposed to have done a mile in a minute; if this he admitted, and it were possible he could continue such a pace without intermis- sion, he would in seventeen days and nights and a few hours, measure the belt and circumference of the whole earth, and ar- rive at his stable again, if no obstacle opposed him, before the eighteenth night. The cir- cumference of the globe, from the most correct computation, being stated at 24,855 miles. If we examine his make in the portrait, as well as in the skeleton, the most marked dif- ference is in his croup, which stands particu- larly high, owing to the length of his hind limbs; and his thigh hones are, for a blood- horse, of an enormous size, which, if provided with proportionate muscle and energy, must give him great superiority. It was also re- marked in his gallop, that his hind legs were very wide and separated; the width of the haunch hones and pelvis, which also partook of this increased volume, would account suffi- ciently for this appearance, the hind legs being parallel columns from the haunch, and not approaching upwards, as do the fore limbs. His fore legs are also remarkable for good symmetry, and their exact perpendicularity of direction. His fore feet were dropped in the hoofs and foundered, and his coffin hones were very much rounded and diminished by absorption from undue pressure upon the sole. He was thick winded, probably from some error or exposure in his bringing up. He died at Canons on the 28th of February, 1789, of the gripes, at the age of twenty-five years; and cakes and ale were given at the funeral of his flesh, after the manner of the Godolphin Arabian; for his skin was preserved, and his hones were nicely cleared of every covering but the ligaments that held them together, by the masterly hand of Sainhel, the first professor of the Veterinary College, and an excellent anatomist, in which, more than in any thing else, he excelled. Sainhel has stated, in his work on Eclipse, that his heart weighed fourteen pounds,—a remark- able size for a blood horse. Sixty guineas were offered by the College of Surgeons for this remarkable skeleton, it being intended to be placed in their museum; but the sum was refused. A hundred being the price fixed for this king among horses. C. Richards, Printer, 100, St. Martin’s-lane, Charing-crosa.
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