A letter from Aleppo
From the March 1864 issue of the Sporting Magazine, Vol 43, pp. 179f.. This magazine was identical in content with the Sporting Review, hence the differing references for this letter in later sources. The anonymous Scotch gentleman has sometimes been identified as John Johnstone; his correspondent, the author of the letter, is almost certainly James Henry Skene, the British Consul at Aleppo, as it contains the quote attributed to him about “blood and stride in the desert”.
The following very admirable letter from Aleppo has been handed to us by a Scotch gentleman, who has just imported two Arab mares by way of an experiment:
“I have just received your letter of the 10th inst., and reply to it at once.
“I have made five experiments in horses here—
“1st. Out of thorough-bred English mares, by Arab stallions.
“2nd. Out of the best Arab mares, by thorough-bred English horses.
“3rd. Rearing the best Arab blood on succulent forage, as in England.
“4th. Rearing thorough-bred English stock in the Desert, on dry food.
“5th. Buying colts and fillies superior to those usually sold by the Arabs.
“The first experiment has led to no great results, the produce being merely handsomer than English horses, without being faster than Arabs.
“The second experiment has succeeded occasionally; but, out of four, three are leggy, weak, and unfit for racing.
“The third experiment is a complete failure, excepting in increasing the size. The produce has the defects of the English horse, without having the merits of the Arab.
“The fourth experiment is perfectly successful, the stock, though smaller than their parents, being better able to stay a distance. The heat of the Desert, the dryness, the constant galloping (from their birth after their dams, and ridden by children from a year and a half), the she-camel’s milk with which the Arabs feed their foals (and which, they think, imparts the camel’s endurance), the oxygenation of the blood by being always in the open air, the kind treatment (preventing bad temper, which impedes development), have all a great, combined effect in bringing out the good qualities of a horse. A cubic inch of the tibia of a horse so reared weighs twenty per cent. more than stabled stock. I have now a colt out of Test by Touchstone, dam Tarella by Emilius, got by Chilton by Cowl, which I offered a few days ago, in the Desert, as a present to any Arab who could catch him. They tried their best; but he ran right away from them. I must say, however, that there were none present of those very superior Arabs which form my fifth experiment.
“This fifth experiment is, in my opinion, the surest card of all. One has a greater choice, and need buy nothing without speed and stoutness; whereas, breed what you like, more than half your young stock will never be racers. The fact is this: There is blood and stride in the Desert which has never been seen out of it.
“The Indian market is supplied by the Aghel tribe, who go about the Desert, buying chiefly colts rather than fillies, never paying more than five thousand piastres (£40), and sell, with a small profit, to the great purchasers at Bagdad and Quaid, who pass them on, after a year or two, to the Bombay dealers. The Arabs will not give their best blood and figure for that first price. In fact, as you will have found out by this time, it is difficult to get them to sell it at all. I am perhaps the only one who has ever succeeded. I help them in their business with the Turkish pachas, prevent oppression, enable them to trade in safety with English exporters of wool; and, even after a deal of trouble on my part, I buy a first-class horse or mare from them, as a great favour, and at a long price. I have just sold, for instance, two mares to the Emperor of Russia for £500. One of them was of this class, and cost me £300. She had great speed and stoutness. She belonged to the almost extinct breed of Seglawi Jedran. She would have made a fortune in India. Such a stride! 15 ft. 1 in.! The Arabs say no one ever got such a mare from them before. I have another now in my stable which cost me £300. She is of equal breed (Maneghi Stedrudj), equal height, beauty, and lasting power; but unfortunately she has no great speed, otherwise I would propose to send her to you.
“Banbury Cake, after whom you inquire, is a Sweetmeat mare, very handsome and fast; but she has never started, and I believe her to be internally unsound. Her blood is good—dam by Touchstone. I cannot conscientiously recommend her, however. I have a fine brood mare—Alacrity by Archy out of Strayaway, by Orlando. She has brought me the best crosses with Arabs: one now at her foot, very fine; and she is again in foal to a celebrated stallion of mine. The latter is the nephew of the fine Arab mare described above. He is four years old, and is fast and stout.
“I have several others worth looking at ; but the best thing for you, in my mind, is that I should get you such horses and mares as you want from the Desert. The price of the rare specimens of Arab blood such as I describe can never be calculated at less than £200 for horses and £300 for mares. Only yesterday I was asked, as a last price, £400 for a splendid mare; but £200 and £300 can generally get them, though not without much trouble and long delay. I would agree to supply you at that figure.”
Note that the letter’s author claims that only he has ever acquired genuine purebred Arabians: the author’s claim of having the only access to superior horses obviously has financial benefits for him, considering the sums for which he says Arab mares may be procured!
As for the Thoroughbreds mentioned, Sweetmeat was an attractive but light-boned horse, unbeaten in sixteen races at three, including the 1845 Ascot Gold Vase and the Doncaster Gold Cup. Touchstone, a son of Camel, won the 1834 St Leger and 1835 Doncaster Cup, and was four times the leading sire of racehorses, getting Epsom Derby winner Orlando and St Leger winner Newminster, who both went on to become great sires in their own right. The mare Alacrity (Archy x Strayaway, by Orlando) is inbred through her sire and dam to Camel, as Archy was a paternal half-brother to Touchstone.
Maneghi Stedrudj is probably an error for Maneghi Hedrudj.
That’s nice to read this article coming from the Sporting Magazine. I read it the first time in French when I was 14 in the small book of Robert Mauvy : “Doctrine d’élevage”. He took it from the book :”Les Chevaux de selle en France”in 1904 from Comte de Comminges. And this “Comte” took it from the Sporting Magazine.
I always wanted to know who did the experiment because it was not mentionned in my book. Many thanks to precise that it could be John Johnstone. I do not know this person. Who was it ? Is it a well know Anglo Arab breeder or something else ?
well known, sorry.
From the amounts Skene is quoting here and the amounts the Blunts where purchasing horses for it seems he is taking his cost and multiplying by 10 to get the prices he is quoting in his letter.
Skene by the way, as part of his Vice-Consul position in Aleppo, was not authorized to conduct trade by the British Foreign Office. When he applied for his pension in 1878, the documents he submitted were clear to this effect. Had he been authorized to conduct trade he would have not been eligible for a pension.
It is clear from the correspondence that he was indeed trading. Perhaps this is why he is using a fake name in the passage above.