COMMANDER.—This was a grey horse, fully sixteen hands high and of massive proportions. He was a son of imported Messenger and out of a mare by imported Rockingham. This Rockingham was not a thoroughbred horse. Commander was bred in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, and found his way to Long Island about 1812, where he was liberally patronized. His name frequently occurs among the remote crosses of good pedigrees, but his fame rests wholly on the progeny of his son, Young Commander, who was the sire of Screwdriver, Screws, Bull Calf and other good ones. This horse Young Commander was sometimes called “Bull” and sometimes “American Commander.” MESSENGER, (BUSH’S), generally known as BUSH MESSENGER. This son of Messenger was bred by James Dearin, of Dutchess County, New York, and was foaled 1807. His dam was a Virginia mare, named Queen Ann, by Celer, son of imported Janus, and out of a mare by Skipwith’s Figure, son of imported Figure, and she out of a mare imported by Colonel Miland, of Virginia. This pedigree was not accepted without some misgivings, but as it was possible and as it had been indorsed sixty years ago by Cadwallader R. Colden and published before that by Mr. Dearin, I am disposed to accept it as reliable. He was sixteen hands high, a light grey, becoming white with age. He was excellent in form and probably the most handsome and attractive of all the sons of Messenger. The first public notice we have of him, he was advertised at the stable of his breeder, six miles south of Poughkeepsie, in 1813. Soon after this he became the property of Philo C. Bush, and this was the first horse, he says, that he ever owned. This Mr. Bush was a noted “character” in his day. From early manhood, through good and evil report, and until he died a very old man in poverty and want, he was a habitue of the race track. He knew all about race horses and their breeding, and he could prattle pedigrees from morning till night. Added to this knowledge which his life pursuits had placed in his possession, he was endowed with a most vivid imagination which was brought into the most active play whenever he found it necessary. To maintain his “reputation” it seemed to be a necessity that he should be able to extend all pedigrees laid before him and give the remote crosses, whether he knew anything about them or not. He was the author of the running pedigree given to the dam of Major Winfield—Edward Everett, son of Hambletonian—and on it money was won in a bet. An investigation of just two minutes disclosed the facts that by established and known dates the whole thing was utterly impossible. He was literally a very “racy” _raconteur_, but his reminiscences soon became tedious, notwithstanding their brilliancy, and it was always important to have a call to some business that cut off further entertainment from his _répertoire_.