THE HACKNEY.] 



THE HOESE, AND 



[the UACKNEr. 



made to trot thirty miles in two hours and 

 a- half, and the accounts state that this was 

 accomplished, leaving four minutes to spare. 



Tom Thumb, an American cob, trotted one 

 liundred miles in harness, over five miles of 

 road on Sunbury-common, in ten hours and 

 twenty-three minutes; and this was con- 

 sidered, and admitted to be, an extraordinary 

 feat. 



Eattler, another American, the property of 

 the same proprietor, beat the celebrated Welsh 

 mare. Miss Turner, over ten miles of ground 

 between Cambridge and Godmanchester, going 

 the distance in thirty minutes and forty 

 seconds ; and this was certainly a feat unpre- 

 cedented in the annals of trotting in this 

 country. The same animal, driven by Mr. 

 Osbaldeston, his then master, performed five 

 miles of road, between Wittlesford-bridge and 

 Eoyston, in thirty minutes fifty-eight seconds, 

 beating Mr. Payne's Eochester, an American 

 entire horse, whose nose touched the wheel of 

 the squire's cart on passing the winning-post. 

 Eattler, ridden by his master, beat Mr. Law- 

 ton's Driver — a pony which had performed 

 seventeen miles within the hour — trotting 

 thirty-four miles in two hours, eighteen 

 minutes, and fifty-six seconds. < 



If, however, the feat of Tom Thumb was 

 considered unprecedented, we have to record 

 a time-match which leaves his performance in 

 the shade — that of a mare, the property of 

 Mr. Dixon, of Knightsbridge, which went over 

 precisely the same ground, and completed the 

 hundred miles in nine hours, fifty-six minutes, 

 and fifty-seven seconds ! A match cart had 

 been provided for the occasion; and, at 

 twenty minutes to six o'clock on an April 

 morning, the mare started, driven by Mr. W. 

 Stacey, a farmer residing in the vicinity of 

 Kingston, under whose surveillance she had 

 been in training since the previous November, 

 when the match was made. She finished her 

 first twenty miles, with great spirit, in two 

 minutes less than two hours, and was then 

 taken out, and had some gruel given her. In 

 three minutes and a-half she was again on the 

 move, and rather increased her speed in the 

 next twenty miles, to make up for her stoppage, 

 but was still within the four hours ; and thus 

 she continued, at the same pace, till she 

 ^ad completed eighty miles, finally winning 

 96 



with three minutes and three seconds to 

 spare ! She showed no symptoms of fatigue ; 

 and, on entering her stable, began to eat her 

 hay as if she had only come off a moderate 

 stage. After resting an hour, she was gently 

 walked to her training-stable, a distance of seven 

 miles, and continued well afterwards. During 

 her match, she was taken out at the comple- 

 tion of every twenty miles, and cordial-balls, 

 washed down with gruel, administered on each 

 stoppage. 



This mare was all English, and no doubt 

 was entertained that she could have accom- 

 plished her undertaking in less time. So con- 

 fident, indeed, was her trainer in her powers, 

 that he offered to back her to do the same 

 distance in nine hours and a-half. 



Captain Halford's match to trot eight 

 miles and a-half in half-an-hour, and to carry 

 eleven stone, with a horse londfide his pro- 

 perty, for one hundred guineas ; and a second 

 match, for a like sum, took place over a two- 

 mile piece of ground at Merston Vale. The 

 ei"ht miles and a-half were done in twenty- 

 nine minutes and fifty-seven seconds. 



A manoeuvre, not dreamt of, was here prac- 

 tised; a jockey of ten stone immediately 

 mounted the same horse, and proceeded on 

 the second match, to the astonishment of all 

 present. The match was lost by thirteen 

 seconds. 



Of the comparative merits of the horse and 

 the pony, as hacks, a good judge thus writes : — 

 " It is, and has for a long time been, a 

 favourite opinion of mine, that a good pony is 

 the best rough-and-ready hack in the world. 

 In a pony is contained, within a small space, 

 what one might call the concentrated essence 

 of strength and speed. 



"It is generally supposed, and I am per- 

 suaded of the correctness of the supposition, 

 that if you want to ruin a young horse, your 

 best plan is to starve him whilst he is young. 

 Every rule, however, has its exception, and 

 the case of the forest ponies is a most marked 

 exception to this one. Starved in his early 

 youth, the Eorester, though small and stunted 

 in appearance, is endowed generally with a 

 more hardy constitution and more untiring en- 

 durance, than any other species of horse in 

 this country. Until he is three years old, the 

 forest pony is scarcelv looked after, and then 



