66 THE HORSE AND HIS RIDER. 



pounds, nor the driver more than ten stone three 

 pounds. The gallant little horse, which was but 

 fourteen hands high, completed the task in ten hours 

 and seven minutes ; twenty-three minutes within the 

 allotted time, without being in the smallest degree 

 distressed. 



It used to be thought that no horse could in fair 

 walking contend with a man, who was a first-rate 

 pedestrian ; but the opinion was refuted by the per- 

 formance of a hackney named Sloven, that, in 1791, 

 beat a celebrated pedestrian by walking twenty miles 

 in three hours and forty-one minutes. Two years 

 afterwards the same animal walked twenty-two miles 

 in three hours and fifty-two minutes. 



The preceding statements are sufficient to display 

 the absolute powers of the horse ; let us now consider 

 what can be done by horse and man. Wonderful 

 things are related of the Tartar couriers, who used to 

 ride from one end of the Turkish empire to the other 

 in an incredibly short space of time, with a pacha's 

 head dangling at their saddle bow ; but we have had 

 European couriers whose feats were not less aston- 

 ishing and better authenticated. In the days when 

 as yet railroads were not, government expresses that 

 required great dispatch used to be carried by men on 

 horseback, though ordinary messengers usually tra- 

 velled in carriages. Relays of horses were kept 

 ready for the courier all along the road ; a postillion 



