THE HORSE AND HIS RIDER. 67 



accompanied him from station to station, and he con- 

 tinued his journey day and night without halting ex- 

 cept to take a fresh horse. He ate and drank in the 

 saddle, slept in the saddle, leaning forward on a 

 cushion strapped to the high-peaked pummel, and 

 was lifted, saddle and all, from the back of one horse 

 to another's ; for the attempt to mount and dismount, 

 after his heated limbs had been long fixed in one 

 posture, would have speedily disabled him. The 

 postillion who galloped beside him looked to his 

 safety when he slept, and took charge of his horse. 

 In this way couriers with despatches for London from 

 Vienna, have ridden from the latter capital to Calais, 

 without stopping, the distance being about nine 

 hundred miles. 



In 1763, a Mr. Shafto won a match which was 

 to provide a person who should ride one hundred 

 miles a day, on any one horse each day, for twenty- 

 nine days together, and to have any number of 

 horses not exceeding twenty-nine. The jockey 

 accomplished the task with fourteen horses, and on 

 one day rode one hundred and sixty miles on account 

 of the tiring of his first horse. The celebrated 

 Lafayette rode in August, 1778, from Rhode Island 

 to Boston, a distance of nearly seventy miles in seven 

 hours, and returned in six hours and half. 



One of the most extraordinary feats in the way 

 of express riding performed in modern times was 



