ARABS AT CRABBET PARK

Mr. Wilfrid Scawen Blunt, who has for many years been breeding Arab horses of the purest blood at Crabbet-park, held a sale of his surplus stock there on Saturday. Among those present were the Turkish Ambassador, Prince Wagram, Lady Wentworth, Sir R. Dick Cunyngham, Mr. Greville, Mr. J. H. Walsh, Mr. James Weatherby, Mr. Mannington, Miss Dillon, and many of the neighbours of Mr. and Lady Anne Blunt, who entertained all their visitors at luncheon previous to the sale.

 

At the conclusion of luncheon, Mr. Tattersall proposed the health of the host, and spoke in words of warm commendation of his unselfish efforts to bring about what, in his belief, would be an improvement in the English breed of horses by an infusion of the Arab blood, which had two centuries ago been the means of giving us the race of horses to which we owe the Stockwells, the Glarliateurs, and the Hermits of modern times. Mr. Blunt, in replying, dwelt at some length upon the objects which he had in view, and expressed his conviction that not only was it desirable that Arab blood of the purest quality should be diffused in England, but that in the event of the possible break up of Arab studs in their native country it might be a very good thing that a nucleus should have been formed for the breed in a country where no such catastrophe was to be apprehended.

 

The Times says : Mr. Blunt's heart is in the business, and it is impossible not to hope that his efforts will be appreciated, and that though his object is not to make money, his experiments may not be costly to him. Accompanied in his journeys through the desert by Lady Anne, he has made several visits to the Anazeh tribe in order to secure the best representatives of the five chief families of Arab blood, and the pedigree of every animal in the Crabbet-park stud has been certified to by personal inquiry in the place where the animal was born. He holds that the migration of stock, when removed to a country or district where they get better food, water, and are better cared for, must be attended with advantageous results, and that in this way Arabs will themselves improve in England and then be of value for crossing with English stock.

 

Mr. Blunt did not have so good a sale on Saturday as one would have wished, buyers being very scarce, and several of the twenty lots offered had to be bought in. Thirteen mares came first, and the three opening lots were all sold to Mr. Brown, who gave 100 guineas for a bay mare, ten years old, bred by Mohamed Pasha, a Turcoman chief, who stole her dam from the Sebaa (Anazeh) ; while the second mare, also ten years old, was of the Gornussa tribe of Sebaa (Anazeh), to which Mr. Blunt's best stallion at Crabbet belongs.

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The Hon. Miss Dillon, who herself had two horses in the sale, purchased for 95 guineas Mr. Blunt's bay mare Jedrania, of the Seglawieh Jedran tribe ; and the highest-priced mare was a gray three-year-old of the Hamdanyeh Simri tribe, for which Mr. Greville gave 130 guineas. 'The nine mares sold fetched 710 guineas, after which came four stallions, of whom the best, or supposed best, Proximo, a bay horse, bred by Ibu Khoreysan, who sold him as a three-year-old to a chief of the Fedaan Anazeh tribe, did not come into the ring. Proximo, wile had been exported to India, was purchased there by Mr. Blunt two years ago, and great expectations are entertained of him. He was said to be suffering from slight lameness, but he would not in any event have been sold, as another very good looking Arab sire, Rataplan, who was imported from India at the same time as Proximo, also failed to change hands at 190 guineas, while Jeroboam, a four-year-old, bred at Crabbet-park, was bought in for 95 guineas. Several yearlings and foals by Kars, whose exportation to Australia has been a serious loss to the Crabbet-park stud, were sold for very low prices, after which Mr. Tattersall sold two or three odd lots, including a gray Arab which was bred by the late Lord Strathnairn, who was one of the buyers at Mr. Wilfrid Blunt's previous sale. But the lot which excited the most interest was Kismet, a dark chestnut horse sent from Arabia to Abdul Rahman, of Bombay, in the autumn of 1882, he being then a five-yearold. He won a great many races in 1883 and 1884, at Bangalore, Poona, Hyderabad, and Bombay, among these races being the Mysore Cup and Purse, several of Aga Khan's Plates, and the Bombay Derby. Since he has been in England he has been again put into training, and he has done very well, having beaten Asil, another Arab horse, in two races within the last three weeks. Asil was considered the best of the Arabs in England, but Kismet beat him both for speed and stamina, and should, therefore, be cheap at 90 guineas to Mr. Corbett, if only for riding purposes. With this the sale came to a conclusion, but Mr. and Lady Anne Blunt received a great number of friends at a garden party afterwards.

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The London correspondent of the Liverpool Daily Post says : I went down on Saturday to Crabbet-park, Mr. Wilfrid Blunt's place in Sussex, to be present at the sale of Arab horses, which takes place there every second year. With the exception, perhaps, of Mr. Parnell, Mr. Wilfrid Blunt is the most fascinating of the younger race of politicians. There is indeed a certain resemblance between the Irish leader and the friend of Arabi Pasha and the Egyptian national movement. They both have a certain isolation of mind and reserve, as of men who commune much more with themselves than with other people. Mr. Blunt has the air of a political crusader. He is tall, slight, agile, has deep brown and thoughtful eyes, and a look of singular distinction. In a room you would at once pick him out probably first by the fact that in the midst of a crowd and of conversation he would appear as one apart, roused to an exchange of ideas only when some subject arose upon which he was specially interested. Lady Anne Blunt is Ada's daughter, and granddaughter, therefore, of Lord Byron. From constant intercourse, perhaps, she has come to have a singular resemblance to her husband. They are more like brother and sister than man and wife --a statement that Lady Anne Blunt considers very flattering. Like her husband, she is a woman of strong political ideas, though, as in his ..:a3e, the ideas are veiled under a gentle and almost reserved manner. The two have gone through many strange adventures in all countries and in all circumstances—in India, through the Egyptian deserts, in converse with Mussulman priests over the high mysteries of the Koran, and are as familiar with the garments of the East as with those of the West, and ride with equal ease the horse and the camel.

 

Mr. Wilfrid Blunt, as those who have read his writings well know, has a profound faith in the future of Islam purified and modified, and has risked much to help the efforts of the Egyptians, under Arabi Pasha, to begin the revival of a purer faith and morality in the Egyptian national movement. It was, perhaps, his sympathy with the Arab people that first set Mr. Blunt thinking of the Arab horse. The beautiful breed is threatened with extinction in Arabia. Mr. Blunt resolved to buy and breed sufficient in England to have a reserve in case the breed should go so badly in its own home. Mr. Blunt, besides, believes in the Arab horse. He thinks it a sound and good breed, and especially suited for crossing with the English horse. The animal is rather small for English taste, but beautifully built, and with an especially pretty head. There was a distinguished company to witness the sale, Mr. Tattersall coming down specially to superintend.