134 THE HOUSE OF AMEKICA. 



as the Narragansett and the pacer generally will be fully con- 

 sidered in another part of this volume, the reader is referred to- 

 the chapters wholly devoted to those topics. 



That racing was a common amusement of the people of Ehode 

 Island is fully established by the very best of contemporaneous 

 evidence, and by the silver plate prizes won, that are said to be still 

 in existence in some of the old families. Attempts have been 

 made to laugh this statement out of court, on the grounds that 

 Khode Island was a Puritan colony, and such a thing as a horse 

 race would not be tolerated for a single day. This attempt shows 

 a great deal more smartness than knowledge, for Ehode Island 

 was not a Puritan colony, as that term is generally understood, 

 but had for its very foundation opposition to the spirit of intoler- 

 ance that prevailed in all the other New England colonies. But, 

 what is still more conclusive, the legislature of the colony in 

 1749 enacted a law prohibiting all racing, under a penalty of 

 forfeiture of the horse and a fine of one hundred dollars. As in 

 other colonies not in New England racing and betting had be- 

 come so common that the moral sense of the people rose up and 

 abolished it. If there had been no racing there would have been 

 no law to wipe it out. 



When the Rev. Dr. McSparran, of Rhode Island, made a trip in 

 Virginia and rode the Virginia pacers some hundreds of miles, 

 early in the last century, he seems to have observed them closely 

 and spoke very highly of them, but he said they were not so 

 large and strong as the Narragansetts, nor so easy and gliding in 

 their action. It might be suggested that this opinion was the 

 natural result of esteeming one's own as better than those of a 

 neighbor, but he was certainly right in the matter of size. In 

 1768 the Rhode Island horses averaged fourteen hands one 

 inch, while the Virginia horses averaged (1750-52) thirteen hands 

 one and three-quarter inches, making a difference of three and 

 one-quarter inches in height. In the matter of gait they were 

 not all natural pacers, for out of thirty-five there were eight that 

 did not pace, and some of the others both paced and trotted. 

 From this it may be inferred that breeders, in order to increase 

 the size, had incorporated more or less of the blood of the early 

 Dutch importations. 



