138 SPORTING STORIES 



knocked up. The other was also so tired that he could not 

 even trot. After this they walked round the course with 

 their riders on their backs, people going before them with 

 bowls of oats and wisps of hay to entice them on. By 

 the time the roan had done his 80 miles Crop had only 

 accomplished 94, and consequently lost. 



A Yorkshire clothier once, for a bet, rode his pony, 

 which was well stricken in years and under 13 hands 

 high, 80 miles in 11 hours and 55 minutes on the Mor- 

 peth road. The time allowed was 13 hours. The man 

 weighed 14 st. 8 lbs. The pony was only of the 

 common cart-horse breed, which renders the feat the more 

 remarkable ; and when it was over he seemed none the 

 worse for his exertions. 



A still more astonishing feat was performed many years 

 ago by a horse which had never been bred to the business. 

 A coachman weighing 14 st. was sent post-haste from 

 Arlington to Exeter for a physician, his master being 

 dangerously ill. The distance is 47 miles : the road was 

 then a bad one ; the horse did it in just under 3 hours. 



Mr Cooper Thornhill, of the Bell Inn, Stilton, made a 

 match for a large sum to ride three times between Stilton 

 and London, 213 miles, in 15 hours, no limit being placed 

 on the number of horses he might use. The following 

 shows the result : — 



From Stilton to London (Shore- 

 ditch) .... 

 From London to Stilton . 

 From Stilton to London . 

 This was 3 hours 26 minutes and 8 seconds under the time 

 allowed. 



In 1790 a gentleman drove a single-horse chaise 50 

 miles on the Hertford road in 4 hours 55 minutes, the time 

 allowed being 5 hours. In the same year a man rode from 

 the fourth milestone on the Essex road to Chelmsford twice 

 and back again, 100 miles, in 15^ hours, though he had 

 16 hours to do it in. Soon afterwards Mr Samuel Bendall, 

 of Dursley, Gloucestershire, at the age of seventy-six, rode 

 1000 miles in 1000 consecutive hours on the same horse. 



A man has been known, more than once, to beat a horse 



