SOME MEMORABLE MATCHES 299 



bald Taaffe, alias Count Taaffe, and Sprowle, 

 of the other part, in which ' a carriage with four 

 running wheels, and a person in or upon it,' was 

 to be ' drawn by four horses nineteen miles in one 

 hour.' The match was won by the two Earls, 

 in ^ fifty -three minutes and twenty-seven seconds' 

 The carriage weighed about twenty-four stone ; 

 the four horses were all ' trained for racing ; the 

 two leaders, including riders, saddles, and harness, 

 carried about eight stone each, and the wheel- 

 horses about seven stone each.' There was a 

 rider on each of the four horses, of course. 



A.D. 1750 : On September i a stupid and cruel 

 match was run at Epsom, between Mr. Girdwood's 

 Crop and Mr. Harris's roan horse, for 100 guineas. 

 Crop was to go one hundred miles before the roan 

 went eighty. By the time the roan had gone 

 eighty, Crop (having run ten times round the 

 course, or about twenty miles, in the first hour) 

 had done only ninety-four, and both horses had 

 long been so dead beat that they could hardly 

 crawl, and people walked in front of them, 

 enticing them on with sieves full of oats. Crop 

 was so bad that he was expected to die, and was 

 accordingly sold by his humane and considerate 



