8R2 



THE MODERN SYSTEM 



those, who breed and train Horses for the 

 course. Shark was taken from this country, 

 for the paltry sum of 139Z. ! 



The gentleman who writes under the name 

 of Nimrod says : — The greatest stake on 

 record, depending on a single heat, was 5,200 

 guineas. This was won by Dorimont, a Horse, 

 four years old, the property of the Earl of 

 Upper Ossory. at Newmarket, in 1776. This 

 fortunate animal, the Bay Middleton of that 

 day, also won for his noble owner, the same 

 season, in matches and sweepstakes, eight 

 other races, making the sum in hard cash, 

 of 7,899 guineas, and the Grosvenor Stakes 

 and Clermont Cup. The grand stakes already 

 made to be run at Goodwood, in 1839, has 

 twenty-three subscribers at 300 sovereigiiS 

 half forfeit: 6,900/. if all run, but 4,000/. 

 at the least. 



EARLY STATE OF TRAVELLING. 



In a former part of this work, we alluded to 

 the state of public travelling by coach, and 

 the state of the roads, about the beginning of 

 the present century. We shall now take a 

 more retrospective glance, which will trace 

 the commencement of the use of carriages, 

 as well as an account of some feats of pedes- 

 trianism, which necessarily must have been 

 the means of communication antecedent to the 

 making of roads. Our ancestors then, instead 

 of communicating by post, were obliged to 

 use running footmen, whose extraordinary 

 performances rival, we suspect, the Barclays 

 and the Turners, of our more modern times. 

 In referring to the olden time of travelling and 

 the present, our bosoms swell with triumph- 

 ant satisfaction at the immense improvement 

 whicli has taken place, so honourable to us 

 03 a nation, and which proves at once our in- 



dustry and our scientific attainments. Watt 

 has not toiled in vain. His invention of the 

 steam engine has been adapted to all pur- 

 poses. The genius of England has adapted 

 it to ride on the bosom, or to stem the billows 

 of the mighty Atlantic. The steam engine is 

 the means of civilization ; it has united tlie 

 metropolis of the empire with the smallest of 

 its isles, and is the conductor of commerce, 

 which adds so much to our comforts, as well 

 as to our wealth. In fact, fifty years ago, the 

 men, the most advanced in knowledge, and 

 the most sanguine in the expectation of realiz- 

 ing improvements, would be overwhelmed 

 with astonishment at the advance of the arts 

 and sciences of the present day. To illustrate 

 the inconvenience which our ancestors must 

 have suffered, and to make the present gene- 

 ration feel grateful for those altered circum- 

 stances, we shall proceed to speak of by-gone 

 limes. 



In Scotland (says that useful and talented 

 periodical. Chambers' Journal,) they had a 

 class of officials called running footmen, of 

 whose pedestrian powers many surprising ex- 

 amples are noticed by tradition. For instance, 

 in the Duke of Lauderdale's house, at Thirl- 

 stane, near Lauder, on the table-cloth being 

 one morning laid for a large dinner-party, it 

 was discovered that there was a deficiency of 

 silver spoons. Instantly, the footman was sent 

 off" to the Duke's other seat of Lethington, 

 near Haddington, full seventeen miles off", and 

 across hills and moors, for a supply of the ne- 

 cessary article. He returned with a bundle 

 of spoons in time for dinner. 



Again, at Hume Castle, in Berwickshire, 

 the Earl of Home had one night given his 

 footman a commission to proceed to Edin- 

 burgh (thirty-five miles off,) in order ta 



