Indeed, as one writer exclaims in an access of unchecked emotion, “from the period when the noble animal became debased and prostituted in this country from the purposes for which he was intended by his Maker—the purposes of war and agriculture—he has gradually sunk, and those who have helped to debase him have at great length followed his example.” Out of consideration for this writer's feelings—for it is to be hoped that by now he has recognised the error of his judgment—I refrain from mentioning his name. William met his death through a riding accident. Mounted upon his favourite “pleasure horse,” described as “a steed of mean stature, named Sorrel, which had a blind eye,” the king, so it is said, for some reason lost his temper and struck his mount a violent blow upon the head with a heavy riding-stick. Instantly the animal bounded forward, and William, thrown suddenly off his balance, was unhorsed and fell heavily on his side. Personally I think the story more likely to be true is that Sorrel stumbled over a molehill, and, in trying to recover himself, fell on to his side. The king, thrown violently, received an internal injury from which he never recovered. Other stories of what took place have also been handed down to us. * * * * * No less liberal a supporter of the Turf than William of Orange was Queen Anne, his successor. A modern tautological historian quaintly tells us that “Good Queen Anne had many horses, and they were numerous and costly,” a phrase reminiscent of the newspaper reporter's description of a bride's wedding gifts. That Anne should have loved horses and been an enthusiastic “turfite” is not to be wondered at when we bear in mind the sort of atmosphere in which she had been reared. The Duke of Cumberland's breeding establishment at Cumberland Lodge in Windsor Great Park—where later on Eclipse and the almost equally famous Herod were to be foaled—probably was the best known in England. According to Mr Theodore Andrea Cook, our modern authority upon the thoroughbred, its origin, and all that has to do with it, the finest breed of horse ever produced was the result of the cross between the pure Arab and the animal that was in England towards the end of the seventeenth century. The Darley Arabian, foaled about the month of March, 1702, and his line of distinguished successors, in reality started the long and baffling process which eventually ended in the production of the beautifully shaped animal we see in the modern thoroughbred. Probably less than fifteen hands, the Darley Arabian was a dark bay descended from the race the most esteemed among the Arabs. Captain Upton maintains that it was of the Ras-el-Fadawi breed, but the mass of the evidence obtainable points rather to its having been a pure Managni.