MODERN FARRIER. 609 



In Italy, tlie charming diversion (horse racing) is 

 not unfrequent. — The horses are not, in general, like 

 ours, mounted and managed by a jockey, but are 

 left at perfect liberty to exert their power in the 

 greatest degree, to attain the goal. At the time of 

 carnival in Rome, these races are generally run in 

 the long-street called in Italian, il Corso ; the length 

 is nearly 865 toises, or rather more than one English 

 mile. They are generally Barbary horses that are 

 employed in this amusement. In appearance, these 

 animals are small, and very far from handsome. 

 They are all kept equal by a rope, against which 

 they press with their breasts till the signal to start 

 is given ; the rope is then dropped, and the affright- 

 ed horses start away at full speed. At Florence they 

 endeavour to increase the speed of their horses, by 

 fixing a large piece of leather, not unlike the flaps 

 of a saddle, on the back of each horse ; the under 

 side of this is armed with very sharp prickles, which 

 keep perpetually goading them all the while they 

 run. In order that the horses may not run out of 

 the course, a strong railing runs along each side of 

 the course, and a rope is fixed across at each end, to 

 prevent them leaving the course at the extremities. 

 The speed, however, of these Barbary horses, though 

 considerable, is very inferior to that of the English 

 racer. The course of 865 toises, at Rome, is run 

 over in 151 seconds. — An English mile is about 826 

 toises; so that these horses run very little more than 

 a mile in two minutes, which an ordinary ri;cer is 

 able to do in England ; not to mention Childers, 

 who is said to have run a mile in one minute; and 

 to have run round the circular course at Newmarket, 

 which is 400 yards short of four miles, in six minutes 

 and forty seconds. — Starling is said also to have per- 

 formed the first mile in a minute. Childers run the 

 Beacon course in seven minutes and a half. The 

 Round Course is asserted to have been more than 

 once run round in six minutes and six seconds. The 



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