RECOLLECTIONS OF MEN AND HORSES 



land and Mr. Clay's last letter to Mr. Thorne was 

 in 1859: 



" I think that you and I, after Harper's Ferry, 

 will have to shake hands across the line." 



After the Civil War Henry C. McDowell, who 

 married a granddaughter of Henry Clay, purchased 

 Ashland, and restocked it with trotting horses. 



It was after the thrilling 1882 campaign of the 

 chestnut gelding Edwin Thorne that Mr. Thorne 

 wrote me a somewhat petulant letter in relation to his 

 namesake : 



" He is as sound as the day he was foaled, hasn't 

 an out about him anywhere, even the wart that was 

 on his side has disappeared. He is being driven 

 from six to eight miles a day and was never in bet- 

 ter condition for winter work. He weighed 1088 

 pounds a few days since. He has considerably more 

 than paid for himself since I bought him. My barns 

 are well filled with good hay, my bins are full of 

 oats and bran, my cellars are well-stocked with sweet 

 apples and carrots, and the horse is not for sale." 



It was in 1870 that I published a lively exchange 

 of compliments between Robert Bonner and Edwin 

 Thorne, the irritating cause being the speed claimed 

 for the mare Gazelle and the gelding Joe Elliott 

 by Edward Everett. I give an extract from one of 

 Mr. Bonner's letters: 



'' Peerless and Bruno have trotted quarters in 

 thirty seconds — the fastest time ever made for a 



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