298 HORSE-RACING IN ENGLAND 



three times (making 213 miles altogether) within 

 fifteen hours, and accomplished his task (on the 

 performance of which ' many hundred pounds, 

 if not thousands, were depending ') in 11 hours, 

 2,2) minutes, 52 seconds (from Stilton to London, 

 3 hours, 52 minutes, 59 seconds ; from London 

 to Stilton, 3 hours, 50 minutes, 57 seconds ; from 

 Stilton to London, 3 hours, 49 minutes, 56 

 seconds). Mr. Thornhill's house, the Bell Inn, 

 at Stilton, Huntingdonshire, was a little short 

 of seventy-one miles from Shoreditch Church ; 

 still, his performance was thought quite the 

 'cheese,' and elicited the admiration of the 

 famous naturalist, Count de Buffon, who wrote 

 an account of it to the Earl of Morton. Mr. 

 Thornhill (whose weight is not recorded) em- 

 ployed fourteen different horses, eight in the 

 first journey, six in the second, and seven of 

 those in the third. 



A.D. 1750: On August 29 was run at New- 

 market Heath the match (too often described 

 to need a circumstantial account), for 1,000 

 guineas, between the ingenious Earl of March 

 and Ruglen, afterwards 'old O.,' and the Earl 

 of Eglinton, of the one part, and Messrs. Theo- 



