SOME MEMORABLE MATCHES 279 



'mile in one minute, four seconds and a half* 

 to Firetail and Pumpkin) assures us, neverthe- 

 less, that ' I minute 46 seconds is a good general 

 average for a mile, 2 minutes 46 seconds for a 

 mile and a half, and 3 minutes 46 seconds for two 

 miles.' 



Our usual authorities give us i minute 42*- 

 seconds (Amphion), i minute 43 seconds (Galo- 

 pin), and i minute 45 seconds (Diophantus) as 

 the best times for the Rowley Mile, which has 

 varied from a mile and seventeen yards to a mile 

 and one yard (perhaps by a misprint for one mile 

 eleven yards, the present distance), and instances 

 could be quoted of horses that have been 



* clocked ' at shorter times for a mile at Lincoln 

 and elsewhere in England ; but, unfortunately, we 

 have no * clocking' which appears to be ' officially' 

 recognised. 



The reader, however, will be pretty safe in 

 striking an average between the times given by 



* The Druid ' (unless, perhaps, in the very ques- 

 tionable case of the 'half a mile in 37 seconds') 

 and by the American record (which seems to be 

 ' official '), and, as regards the distances not timed 

 by *The Druid,' in taking the American 'clock- 

 ings ' as certainly ' favourable '; and, if he finds 



