THE HACKNEY. 89 



Most of our readers probably are horsemen. Their memories will supply 

 them with many instances of intelligence and fidelity in the horse, and par- 

 ticularly in the hackney the every-day companion of man. A friend 

 rode his horse thirty miles from home into a country that was perfectly new 

 to him. The road was difficult to find, but by dint of inquiry he at length 

 reached the place he sought. Two years passed away, and he again had occasion 

 to take the same journey. No one rode this horse but himself, and he was 

 perfectly assured that the animal had not, since his first excursion, been in that 

 direction. Three or four miles before he reached his journey's end, he was 

 benighted. He had to traverse moor and common, and he could scarcely see 

 his horse's head. The rain began to pelt. " Well," thought he, " here I am, 

 apparently far from any house, and I know not nor can I see an inch of my 

 road. I have heard much of the memory of the horse, it is my only hope 

 now, so there," throwing the reins on his horse's neck, " go on." In half an 

 hour he was safe at his friend's gate. 



The following anecdote, given on the authority of Professor Kruger of Halle, 

 proves both the sagacity and fidelity of the horse. A friend of his, riding home 

 through a wood in a dark night, struck his head against the branch of a tree and 

 fell from his horse stunned. The steed immediately returned to the house 

 that they had lately left, and which was now closed, and the family in bed, 

 and he pawed at the door until some one rose and opened it. He turned about, 

 and the man wondering at the affair, followed him. The faithful and intelligent 

 animal led him to the place where his master lay senseless. 



A few instances are selected of the speed and endurance of the hackney. 



1703, May 13, a hackney named Sloven, walked twenty-two miles in three 

 hours and fifty-two minutes. In November 1791 she had beaten the then 

 celebrated pedestrian, James Cotterel, by walking twenty miles in three hours 

 and forty-one minutes. It had been previously imagined that no horse could, 

 in fair walking, contend with a man who had accustomed himself to this kind 

 of exercise. 



As for the trotting performances of the hackney, they are so numerous, and 

 yet apparently so extraordinary, that some difficulty attends the selection. 



In 1822, there was a match of nine miles between Mr. Bernard's mare and 

 Captain Colston's horse, near Gerrard's Cross, for 500 guineas. It was won 

 easily by the mare, who performed the distance in twenty-seven minutes and 

 forty-six seconds. The horse went the same distance in twenty-seven minutes, 

 forty-nine seconds which is nearly at the rate of nineteen and a half miles an 

 hour. 



This, however, had been equalled or excelled some years before. Sir Edward 

 Astley's Phenomenon mare, when twelve years old, trotted seventeen miles in 

 fifty-six minutes. There being some difference about the fairness of the 

 trotting, she performed the same distance a month afterwards in less than fifty- 

 three minutes, which was rather more than nineteen miles an hour. Her 

 owner then offered to trot her nineteen and a half miles an hour ; but, it being 

 proved that in the last match she did one four miles in eleven minutes, or at 

 the rate of more than twenty-one and a half miles an hour, the betting men 

 would have nothing more to do with her. 



After this, with shame be it spoken, she lived a life of drudgery and starvation, 

 and, occasionally, of cruel exertion, until, at twenty-three years old, she became 

 so changed as to be offered for sale at 7/. Even in that state she trotted nine 

 miles in twenty-eight minutes and a half being, as nearly as possible, nineteen 

 miles an hour. Within six months afterwards, it is said that she won four 

 extraordinary matches in one day, the particulars of which are not recorded. 

 In her twenty -sixth year she became the property of the late Sir R, C. Daniel, 



