THE HORSE AND HIS RIDER. 65 



the giant power of steam ? As it was, she gallantly 

 kept ahead for full five miles, when just as the flying 

 pursuer reached the Mark's Tey bridge, the poor 

 animal caught her foot against a stone or part of the 

 rail, and rolled headlong on to the down-line. The en- 

 gine, with a parting shriek and puff, passed on ; and 

 the mare was found, when daylight appeared, nothing 

 the worse for her race and tumble, and in due time 

 was restored to her owner." 



It is not certain that a trotting speed of twenty 

 miles an hour has ever been attained, but the distance 

 has been done in six seconds over that time. Pheno- 

 menon, a mare belonging to Sir Edward Aslley, when 

 twelve years old, trotted seventeen miles in fifty-six 

 minutes, and performed the same distance a month 

 afterwards in less than fifty-three minutes ; that is 

 to say, at the rate of more than twenty-one and a 

 half miles per hour. The American horses are 

 celebrated for their trotting. In general they are 

 not ridden, but driven, and that in a peculiar manner. 

 The driver leans back in his seat and keeps up a 

 steady pull on the reins ; as long as this continues 

 the horse runs, but stops the moment the reins are 

 relaxed. Tom Thumb, a celebrated American horse 

 belonging to Mr. Osbaldiston, was matched in 1829 

 to perform the wonderful feat of trotting a hundred 

 miles in harness in ten and a half successive hours. 

 The vehicle did not weigh more than one hundred 



