DRIVING AND TROTTING 185 



Eclipse. As Willan had previously got him a capital 

 mount, the Duke started him in business in London as a 

 dealer, and subsequently got the ex-ostler the contract for 

 supplying the British cavalry and artillery with horses. 



A favourite pastime in those days was trotting — not the 

 highly elaborated sport now practised in America, but a 

 much less ambitious test of a horse's speed at that pace — 

 and matches were frequently made to trot against the crack 

 express coaches. Burke, of trotting celebrity, laid a wager 

 that his pony would trot from Bedford to London and 

 back — a distance of 52 miles — in less time than the 

 " Times " coach, which did the distance at the rate of 

 10^ miles an hour, without a pause between the down 

 journey and the up. When within 9 miles of Bedford 

 on the return, the pony broke down and had to be shot. 

 On another occasion he trotted two ponies from London — 

 the Bolt-in-Tun Inn, Fleet Street — -to Hereford, a distance 

 of 137 miles, against the "Mazeppa," and arrived at his 

 destination 12 minutes before the coach, doing the journey 

 in 14 hours and 11 minutes. 



Burke, by the way, was one of the principals in an 

 amateur prize-fight for ;^ioo a side, which created great 

 excitement in the sporting world. His antagonist was 

 a gentleman jockey named Chilcott. They fought for 

 two hours and a quarter under the rules of the Prize 

 Ring, at Grays in Essex, on the 4th of October 1842, and 

 Chilcott won. 



In 1791 a trotting match took place upon the Romford 

 road, between Mr Bishop's brown mare, eighteen years old, 

 and Mr Green's chestnut gelding, six years old, 12 st. each, 

 for 50 guineas a side ; they were to trot 16 miles, which 

 the mare did with ease in 66 min. 10 sec. The same year 

 a trotting match took place from Lynn Gates, 7 miles on 

 the Downham road, and back to the gates (14 miles), by 

 a noted horse called Shuffler, the property of Mr Kent 

 of Unwell, in Norfolk, against time, for 200 guineas. The 

 horse carried 18 st., and was allowed an hour, but per- 

 formed it in 56^ min. In 1793 a Mr Shipway, of Hoxton, 

 trotted his pony Jack, ten hands high, 12 miles on the 

 Kingsland road. He took 10 guineas to 5 that he 



