186 SPORTING STORIES 



did not cover the distance in less than an hour, and Jack 

 did it in 41 1 min. 



In 1796 the Honourable Mr Cavendish betted another 

 gentleman 200 guineas that he would trot his English mare 

 15 miles over the Curragh in one hour, and accomplished 

 the feat in 51^ min. A brown gelding once trotted a mile 

 on the Denham and Norwich road in 2 min. 49 sec. 

 One of the best trotting matches on record was that for 

 100 guineas between Charles Herbert and Richard Wilson. 

 The bet was that Mr Herbert's horse could not trot 17 

 miles an hour on the Highgate road (which, as everybody 

 knows, is the hilliest outside of London), to start from 

 St. Giles's Church. Six o'clock in the morning was the 

 time chosen, as the road was then free, and the task was 

 actually accomplished in i min. 20 sec. under time. 



In the year 1797 a gelding belonging to a pork-butcher 

 in the Blackfriars Road, whose daily employment was to 

 run in a cart, was matched against time to trot on the 

 Romford road, 12 miles an hour, for 5 guineas. The 

 appearance of the poor animal was so miserable that con- 

 siderable odds at starting were laid against it — 20 guineas 

 to 5. Yet, notwithstanding his meagre appearance, the 

 gelding did the distance in 58 min. 57 sec. 



But these sink into insignificance in comparison with 

 the wonderful achievements of trained trotting horses in 

 America, where the time for a mile has been reduced to 

 2 min. 2 sec. The present holder of the record, Crescens, 

 is credited with 2 min. 2f sec, and possibly I may live to 

 see the mile trotted in even time. Indeed, the pacing mile 

 has already been done in i min. 50J sec, by Star Pointer, 

 in 1897. 



Lady Suffolk's record of 2 min. 28 sec in 1849 ^^^ 

 thought nothing short of miraculous, and it was generally 

 prophesied that this time for the mile would never be 

 beaten. How utterly wide of the mark that prophecy was 

 I have already shown. Of Maud S. the same was 

 prophesied. This mare belonged to Mr Vanderbilt, who 

 gave 20,000 dollars for her, and was afterwards offered 

 25,000 dollars by a patent pill vendor if he would change 

 her name to that of the medicine he was advertising. 



