" FAIR Ni;r,].. l!t 



lusty : in g-eneral they are strong, nimble, and of good courage 

 capable of enduring excessive fatigue, and both in perseverance 

 and speed surpass all the horses in the world/' 



34. — For nearly two hundred years after the English race 

 horse was admitted to be the fastest horse in the world for the 

 short distances run on an English race course, doubts were from 

 time to time raised in various quarters as to whether he would 

 prove the fastest in a very long distance. The most cruel 

 distances were often proposed but seldom accepted, but whenever 

 they have been accepted the distance has only exhibited the 

 superiority of the Thoroughbred in a stronger light. A most 

 disgusting race came off in 1825, between two Cossack horses 

 and two English horses, for no less a distance than forty-seven 

 miles. The English horses ran away to begin with more than 

 a mile, off the course, and one of them was lamed. Besides this 

 two miles extra, the unlamed horse (Sharper), did the distance 

 in two hours and forty-eight minutes, carrying towards last 

 double the weight of his best opponent, and beating him by 

 eight minutes. A much more decisive and less barbarous race 

 came off in Egypt some 30 or 40 years later, between an Arab 

 horse and an English covert hack, known as Fair Nell, but not in 

 the Stud Book. The challenge was given by Haleem Pacha, who 

 inherited from his father, Abbas Pacha, what was supposed to be 

 the best stud of Arabs in the world. His challenge was accepted 

 by some Cairo merchants, who sent to England and purchased 

 Fair Nell for the purpose. The distance was fixed at eight 

 miles, over a rough stony course, and the mare had to run a 

 fortniglit after her passage from Eugland to Egypt, against 

 the best horse the Pacha could select from his large stud of 

 Arabs. 



35. — Fair Xell ran the distance in eighteen and a lialf 

 minutes, beating her opponent by a mile, and pulling up quite 

 fresh. Thus meeting the Arabs on their own ground and at 

 their own distance, Fair Nell seems to have settled the question 

 of long distances even more decisively than short ones were 

 settled before. Although not in the Stud Book, Fair Nell was 

 evidently thoroughbred, and a tine specimen of her race. Besides 



