354 THE HOUSE. 



adopted in the two countries. This question, moreover, can 

 hardly be tested satisfactorily, so different are all the conditions 

 of the turf here and there, as regards weiglit, distance, and me- 

 thod of riding, and so imperfectly understood, even now, is the 

 influence of weight, on the same horse, as against time — timing 

 itself being still but little practised, and until lately wholly dis- 

 used and uncomprehended as a test, on British race-courses. 



The general assumption of degeneracy rests mainly on the 

 stories — "wonderful tales," as "Cecil" justly calls them, which 

 have been related concerning Flying Childers and Eclipse, of 

 both which nndeniably good and unbeaten horses it is com- 

 monly asserted and as commonly believed, that they ran a mile 

 in a minute, there being not a shadow of evidence to the point, 

 but directly the reverse, and it being all but demonstrable that 

 the feat is a physical iuipossibility, 



" These wonderful tales," — I proceed to quote at length from 

 " Cecil," who has gone deeply into this subject, and, to my idea, 

 entirely disposed of the question, — " like the snowball, have in- 

 creased in their progress ; therefore a brief digression is neces- 

 sary to unfold these romantic conceptions. It is related that he 

 gave Fox twelve pounds over the Beacon Course, and beat him 

 a quarter of a mile in a trial. Every racing man would natu- 

 rally inquire if Fox could not have got nearer at the end, and few 

 indeed would place much reliance on trials without substantial 

 evidence to corroborate reports. It is also said, that he ran a trial 

 against Almanzor and Brown Betty, nine stone two each," aliter, 

 he carrying 9 stone 21bs., they, 8 stone 21bs., each — over the 

 Round Course at Newmarket, three miles, six furlongs, and ninety- 

 three yards, which distance, according to many accounts in 

 print, " he ran in 6m. 40s." — aliter 6m. 42s. — " to perform 

 which," it is farther absurdly stated, " he must have moved at 

 the rate of eighty-tAJOo and a half feet in a second of time, or 

 nearly at the rate of one mile in a minute.'''' The inaccuracy of 

 this is patent. If a horse moved at the rate described he would 

 get over the ground in a trifle less than four minutes and a half. 

 No horse that ever was foaled ever went at the pace spoken of. 

 The rate of fifty feet in a second is very great, and more than 

 the average pace required to run the distance of the Beacon 

 Course, four miles one furlong and one hundred and thirty-eight 



