ANOTHER MATCH AGAINST TIME 39 



Father Time, by whose defeat he had earned racing 

 fame, Lord March entered, in 1753, on another 

 attempt again to lower the colours of the synchron- 

 ising deity. In this neither horse nor vehicle played 

 a part, though the conditions of the wager make it 

 difficult, at first sight, to see how either was to be 

 dispensed with. Indeed, its performance in these 

 days of train and electric or pneumatic traction 

 would not be bad. 



The contest with earthly man's greatest enemy. 

 Time, by which his lordship sought to attain further 

 eclat, was a match he made with another noble sports- 

 man, for a large stake, that he would cause a letter to 

 be conveyed fifty miles ^ in an hour. To accomplish 

 this almost seeming impossibility. Lord March en- 

 gaged twenty expert cricketers, famed for their skill 

 in throwing and catching. The letter was enclosed 

 in a cricket-ball, and a rough calculation was made 

 how far the cricketers should stand apart by his lord- 

 ship, with the necessary number of throws each would 

 have to make in circuit to fully cover the distance 

 named. This being computed, on an appointed day 

 Lord March's agile cricketers stood in a circle and 

 nimbly threw the ball containing the letter one to 

 another ; but their dexterity was so great that, on the 



^ Some records say a hundred. 



