312 THE IMPROVED ART OF FARRIERY. 



of the former, as four to three, or nearly. (We aie 

 not to forget that the English race-horse carries a 

 jockey, and frequently weights on his back, the Barb 

 nothing). The horse that passed over a mile in a 

 minute would evidently go faster than the wind, for 

 the greatest swiftness of a ship at sea has never been 

 known to exceed six marine leagues in an hour ; and 

 if we suppose that the vessel thus borne partakes one- 

 third of the swiftness of the wind that drives it, the 

 latter would still be no more than eighty feet a second^ 

 which would be two feet and a half less than the 

 quantity of ground covered by Childers and Starling 

 in that time. For this calculation, we are indebted to 

 M. de la Condamine's Journal of a tour through Italy. 

 Buifon, in his Natural History, mentions an example 

 of the extraordinary speed of the English horse. Mr.. 

 Thornhill, the postmaster of Stilton, laid a w^ager that 

 he would ride in fifteen hours three times the road 

 from Stilton to London, the distance being two hun- 

 dred and fifteen miles. On the 29th of April, 1745, 

 he set out from Stilton, and after mounting eight 

 different horses, arrived in London in three hours and 

 fifty one minutes. Instantly leaving London again, 

 and mounting only six horses, he reached Stilton in 

 three hours and fifty- two minutes. For the third 

 course, he used seven of the same horses, and finished 

 it in three hours and forty-nine minutes. He thus 

 performed his undertaking in eleven hours and thirty- 

 two minutes. Buffon observes, " I suspect that no 

 example of such fieetness was ever exhibited at the 

 Olympic games." A horse the property of a gentle- 

 man in Bilter Square, London, trotted on the 4th 

 of July, 1788, for a wager of thirty guineas, thirty 

 miles in an hour and twenty minutes, though allowed 

 an hour and a half. These instances of speed arc; 



