1623.] HORSEMANSHIP. 313 



Notts, and reached " Sir Oliver Cromwell's, near Huntingdon, 

 by 10 o'clock before noon, near sixty miles, and the next 

 day betimes to Bever, forty miles " (Aulicus Coquinariae). 

 This was a remarkable ride, considering' that the prince was 

 ill, and that he died very soon after. 



The Duke of Alva, in the short space of eight days and 

 nights, travelled all the way from the middle of Hungary 

 to Barcelona, on horseback, where he spent the night with 

 his wife, whom he loved with all the ardour of youthful 

 affection, and returned in the same manner, and in the same 

 space of time, to his post before the enemy. 



" Henry VH., about the year 1500, had occasion to send to 

 the Emperor Maximilian upon a matter that required haste, 

 and thought no messenger would so speedily execute it as 

 Mr. Thomas Woolsey, at that time his chaplain. He accord- 

 ingly gave him his errand, desiring him to use every ex- 

 pedition. Woolsey departed from the king at Richmond 

 about noon, and the next morning got to Dover, and from 

 thence the noon following he was at Calais, and by night with 

 the emperor. He received his answer, and rode the same 

 night back to Calais, and the succeeding night came to 

 Richmond. The next morning he met the king, who blamed 

 him for delaying his journey. Woolsey replied that he had 

 despatched his business, and produced the Emperor's letter. 

 The king wondered much at his speed, and quickly bestowed 

 upon him the deanery of Lincoln. He soon after made him 

 his almoner. This was the cause of the first rise of that 

 afterwards great Prelate, Cardinal Woolsey." — Daniel, Rural 

 Sports, ed. 1812, vi. p. 492. 



" In 1604, John Lepton, Esq., of Kenwich, Yorkshire, who 

 was one of the grooms of his Majesty James I., undertook 

 to ride five times between London and York from Monday 

 morning till Saturday night ; he set out on the 26th of May 

 and completed his undertaking in five days, with no apparent 

 fatigue to himself. — Ibid, (see "Rural Almanac," 1885, p. 15). 



"On the 17th of July, 1619, Bernard Calvert, of Andover, 

 rode from St. George's church, Southwark, to Dover, when 

 he passed by cutter to Calais in France, and from Calais back 



