DELATIONS OF THE AMERICAN PACER TO THE TROTTER. 177 



good deal less than three, appeared to be simply monstrous. 

 The language evidently means, according to all fair rules of con- 

 struction, that the mile was performed nearer two minutes than 

 three, or in other words, considerably below two minutes and 

 thirty seconds. I doubt not my readers will hesitate, and per- 

 haps refuse, to accept such a performance, just as I did my- 

 self till I had carefully weighed not only the character of the 

 author of the statement, but the circumstances that seemed to 

 support it. If the learned divine had known no more of the 

 world and its ways than many of his profession, I would have 

 concluded he was not a competent judge of speed; but he was a 

 man of affairs, and knew perfectly well just what he was saying. 

 The question naturally arises here as to what opportunities or 

 facilities the doctor had for timing those pacers of a hundred 

 and fifty years ago. In a note appended to the above extract by 

 Mr. Updike, the editor of the work, I find the following: 



" The breed of horses called Narra^ansett pacers, once so celebrated for 

 fleetness, endurance and speed, has become extinct. These horses were highly 

 valued for the saddle, and transported the rider with great pleasantness and 

 sureness of foot. The pure bloods could not trot at all. Formerly they had 

 pace-races. Little Neck Beach, in South Kingston, of one mile in length, was 

 the race course. A silver tankard was the prize, and high bets were otherwise 

 made on speed. Some of- these prize tankards were remaining a few years ago. 

 Traditions respecting the swiftness of these horses are almost incredible. 



The facts stated by Mr. Updike in this note are corroborated 

 from other sources, and may be accepted as true. These were 

 the opportunities and facilities the doctor had for holding his 

 watch, and nobody will doubt they were sufficient to enable him 

 to be a competent witness. In connection with this subject, and 

 as another footnote, Mr. Updike introduces a letter from Mr. I. 

 T. Hazard, which brings out another very curious fact in the his- 

 tory of the pacer. The Hazard family was very eminent in 

 Rhode Island, and many of its members have occupied positions 

 of high honor and responsibility for several generations. The 

 date of the letter is not given, and we may infer it may have 

 been written fifty years ago, or perhaps more. Mr. Hazard says: 



" Within ten years one of my aged neighbors, Enoch Lewis, since deceased, 

 informed me he had been to Virginia as one of the riding boys, to return a 

 similar visit of the Virginians in that section, in a contest on the turf; and that 

 such visits were common with the racing sportsmen of Narragansett and 

 Virginia, when he was a boy. Like the old English country gentlemen, from 



