A TROT, AND A DINNER PARTY. 65 



equal both in smoothness and consistency to the best 

 of American race-tracks. 



As they reached the angle, which was a very sharp 

 one, Fairfax took them in hand ^ little, soothing them 

 at the same time with a whispering word, and slack- 

 ing his hand to them a trifle after the pull, when they 

 came up quite handily with a toss of their proud heads, 

 and a snort or two, and dropped into a rapid square 

 trot of about ten miles the hour, as steadily and with- 

 out a fret, as if they had been going no faster from 

 the start, and as if the Cossack thorough-bred, fierce, 

 fiery and intractable, had not been plunging, wheel- 

 ing, and cui'veting like a wild horse, side by side with 

 them, impatient of the restraint which would not suf- 

 fer him longer to maintain with his rival trotters, that 

 hard gallop which could have availed in the long run 

 nothing, against the steady and supported speed of 

 his American antagonists. 



" This is astonishing, indeed !" said Beaufort, ad- 

 miring the perfect breaking no less than the admira- 

 ble condition of the trotters, which had not cast a gout 

 of spume over their shining coats, nor dimmed the lus- 

 tre of their glancing chestnut hides by one stain or 

 shade of moisture. '^ We must surely have been go- 

 ing, then, at the rate of twenty miles an hour." 



" I suppose you know, duke," replied Fairfax, " that 

 twenty miles has actually been done recently in New 

 York, within the hour, at a trot." 



" Indeed, I did not ; nor would I have believed it 

 possible. Why twenty miles in an hour is good gal- 

 loping for a thorough-bred." 



" Undeniably it is ; nevertheless, a half-bred colt, 

 out of a trotting chestnut mare known as Fanny Pul- 

 len, got by imported English Trustee, did it handily. 

 These little nags of mine have done seventeen and a 

 half together in the hour, and at any moment ; and at 

 a moment's notice, I would back them to go a single 

 173 



