312 THE HISTORY OF NEWMARKET. [Book V. 



inherited the estates, in the reign of Charles II., these race- 

 courses or training-grounds were discontinued and let for 

 farming purposes. His son and heir, however, is said to 

 have re-instituted racing and breeding thoroughbred horses 

 at Ickles, where, leading a short and merry life, he died in 

 1 70 1, when that branch of the family became extinct. 



Pr'ythee, speak, 

 How many score of miles may we well ride 

 'Twixt hour and hour .'' 



Cymbeline. 



Some remarkable feats of horsemanship are men- 

 tioned about this period. 



On the demise of Queen Elizabeth, Sir Robert Carey,* 

 who had been anxiously hovering about the deathbed of 

 his kinswoman and benefactress, set off, with the lamen- 

 tations of her women still ringing in his ears, to announce 

 the important tidings to King James ; an act quite as 

 indelicate as it was unauthorized. It appears, by Carey's 

 own statement, that he must have ridden the distance 

 between London and Edinburgh (about four hundred miles) 

 within the space of sixty hours, notwithstanding he received a 

 dangerous fall from his horse, which retarded him on the road. 

 He rode to Doncaster, a distance of 162 miles, the first night. 



Carey informs us, in his Memoirs, that he had, some years 

 previously (1599), won a wager of ;^2000 by walking in twelve 

 days to Berwick, which, he says, " bettered him to live at court 

 a good while after." The distance is 337 miles from London ; 

 but probably in those days it was much greater, and the 

 roads unquestionably were much worse. 



Shortly before the death of Henry, Prince of Wales — the 

 Marcellus of his age — he set out one morning early, and rode 

 from Richmond to meet his father, James I., at Bever, in 



* Fourth son of Henry, ist Lord of Hunsdon, created by James I., 

 Feb. 5, 1625-6, Baron Carey and Earl of Monmouth. His Memoirs were 

 first published by John, Earl of Cork and Orrery, in 1759. He died in 

 1639 (see ante, page 138). 



