NOTES ON MEMORABLE MATCHES. 159 



ferred to — shooting matches, cocking matches, 

 racket matches, and sometimes even mail coaches 

 were matched to run one against the other. A 

 contest of this description may just be mentioned 

 in passing, as an example of what was called 

 sport ninety years ago. In the year 1802 the 

 London and Plymouth mails raced for a sum 

 of 500 gs. from St. Sydwells to Honiton, a 

 distance of sixteen miles, when the London 

 coach, driven by Mr. Browne, won the race, 

 doinof the distance in one hour and fourteen 

 minutes. 



Fifty-two years previous to the decision of 

 that match, a still more curious event of the 

 kind occurred at Newmarket, when a wager of 

 100 gs. was made that a carriage with four 

 running wheels, to be drawn by four horses 

 and driven by a man, would run nineteen miles 

 on Newmarket Heath within one hour. A 

 vehicle was made expressly for the occasion by 

 a London coachmaker of celebrity, and when all 

 was ready this race against time began at seven 

 o'clock in the morning, and finished in fifty-three 

 minutes and twenty-seven seconds, so that backers 

 of the horses won their money. 



Captain Newland's wager to ride one hundred 

 and forty miles in eight successive hours on hack 

 horses excited much attention. The event took 

 place on the 2nd of April, 1801. The captain 

 won, as he performed the distance in seven hours 

 and thirty-four minutes. Many matches, or rather 

 wagers to ride horses against time, might be 

 recorded of even earlier date, as for instance one 

 which took place in the year 1606, when "John 

 Lepton, Esq., of York, for a considerable sum, 



