THE HACKNEY. 91 



a half miles an hour, the betting men would have nothing more to do 

 with her. 



After this, with shame be it spoken, she lived a life of drudgery and 

 starvation, and, occasionally, of cruel exertion, until, at twenty-three 

 years old, she became so changed as to be offered for sale at 71. Even in 

 that state she trotted nine miles in twenty-eight minutes and a half — 

 being, as nearly as possible, nineteen miles an hour. Within six months 

 afterwards, it is said that she won four extraordinary matches in one day, 

 the particulars of which are not recorded. In her twenty-sixth year she 

 became the property of the late Sir R. C. Daniel, by whom she was well 

 fed, and had no disgraceful tasks imposed upon her ; and in a few months 

 she looked as fresh and clean upon her legs as in her best days. So far 

 as speed was concerned, there was nothing in the annals of trotting com- 

 parable to her performances. 



Of stoutness, whether confined to this pace, or the accomplishment of 

 great distances with little or no rest, there are too many instances ; and 

 the gTeater number of them were accompanied by circumstances of dis- 

 graceful barbarity. 



]\Ir. Osbaldestone had a celebrated American trotting-horse, called Tom 

 Thumb. He matched liim to trot 100 miles in ten hours and a half. It 

 seemed to be an amazing distance, and impossible to be accomplished : but 

 the horse had done wonders as a trotter ; he was in the highest condition ; 

 the vehicle did not weigh more than 100 lbs., nor the driver more than 

 10 st. 3 lbs. He accomplished his task in ten hours and seven minutes ; his 

 stoppages to bait, &c., occupied thirty-seven minutes — so that, in fact, the 

 100 miles were done in nine honi's and a half. He was not at any time 

 distressed ; and was so fresh at the end of the ninetieth mile, that his owner 

 offered to take six to four that he did fourteen miles in the next hour. 



An English-bred mare was afterwards matched to accomplish the same 

 task. She was one of those animals rare to be met with, that could do 

 almost anything as a hack, a hunter, or in harness. On one occasion, 

 after ha^'ing, in following the hounds, and travelling to and from cover, 

 gone through at least sixty miles of country, she fairly ran aAvay with her 

 rider over several ploughed fields. She accomplished the match in ten 

 hours and fourteen minutes — or, deducting thirteen minutes for stop- 

 pages, in ten hours and a minute's actual work ; and thus gained the 

 victory. She was a little tired, and, being turned into a loose box, lost 

 no time in taking her rest. On the following day she was as full of life 

 and spirit as ever. These are matches which it is pleasant to record — 

 and particularly the latter ; for the owner had given positive orders to the 

 di'iver to stop at once, on her showing decided symptoms of distress, as he 

 valued her more than anything he could gain by her enduring actual 

 suffering. 



Others, however, are of a different character, and excite indignation 

 and disgust. Rattler, an American horse, was, in 1829, matched to trot 

 ten miles with a Welsh mare, giving her a minute's start. He completed 

 the distance in thirty minutes and forty seconds — being at the rate of 

 rather more than nineteen miles an hour — and beating the mare by sixty 

 yards. All this is fair ; but when the same horse was, some time afterward, 

 matched to trot thirty-four miles against another, and is distressed, and 

 dies in the follo-wdng night — when two hackneys are matched against each 

 other, from London to York, 196 miles, and one of them runs 182 of these 

 miles and dies, and the other accomplishes the dreadful feat in forty hours 

 and thii'ty-five minutes, being kept for more than half the distance under the 

 influence of wine — when two brutes in human shape match their horses, 

 the one a tall and bony animal, and the other a mere pony, against each 



