274 RACEALONG 



ning attacked in 1921 when he trotted in 1:57%. 

 The following year he changed it to 1:56% and in 

 so doing equalled the best mile ever made by a pacer 

 in the open, that mark being made by Directum I. 

 at Syracuse in 1915. 



TROTTERS IN ENGLAND 



An interesting manuscript, attesting the antiquity 

 of the trotting and pacing horses in England, re- 

 cently turned up in the hands of B. Halliday, a 

 bookseller of Leicester. It is the original toll book 

 of the ancient fair held annually at the village of 

 Market Bosworth, on the borders of Warwickshire 

 and Leicestershire, within a few miles of Shake- 

 speare's birthplace, at Stratford-on-Avon. 



In these toll books, of which this one is believed 

 to be the only surviving example, were recorded all 

 the transactions made at the fairs in the important 

 matters of horse dealing, this having been the main 

 object in holding them three hundred years ago. The 

 record of all transactions includes the names and 

 addresses of buyers and sellers, together with those 

 of a third party, called the 'Voucher," who was ap- 

 parently a surety that the purchase money should 

 be forthcoming and that the horse should be as 

 described in the toll book. 



A specimen entry quoted in the bookseller's cata- 

 logue, refers to a transaction in which the seller 

 was apparently a kinsman of the immortal bard, 



