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1 ; i . i I i i . . QUEER ENGLISH ENDURANCE MATCH. Some Sporting Events Over Distances cf Ground in Days of Long Ago. Thormanby, in the London Sportsman, writing of equine endurance, tells these tales: 1 "A very extraordinary match was run at North Hampton races in 1791, between a bay and a black pony, at two four-mile heats. The black was thirteen hands two and one-half inches high, the bay mare barely thirteen hands. They ran the first four miles, carrying 190 pounds each, in twelve minutes, the second in thirteen and one-half min- utes. The odds were 10 to S on the black, which won by about half a length. "A curious match was made at Epsom in 1791, for 25 between Mr. Grisewoods horse, Crop and Mr. M. Harris roan. Crop was to go one hundred miles before the roan went eighty. Crop ran his fiist twenty miles in one hour and a minute, but going around the eleventh time was nearly 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 be- fore them with" bowls of oats and locks of. hay to entice them on. By the time the roan had done his eighty miles. Crop had only accomplished ninety- four and consequently lost. "A Yorkshire clothier once for a wager rode his peny, which was well stricken in years and under thirteen hands high, eighty miles in eleven hours and fifty-five minutes on the -Morpeth Road. The time allowed was thirteen hours. The man weighed 201 pounds, the horse was only of the common carthorse breed and had previously been used in that capacity, which renders the feat much more remarkable, and when it was over he seemed none the worse for his exertion. "A still more astonishing feat was performed : many years ago by a horse, which had never been j bred to the business. A coachman weighing 19G pounds was sent post haste from Arlington to Exe- , ter for a physician, his master being dangtrously j ill. The distance is forty-seven miles, the road , was then a bad one, and the horse accomplished . it in forty-seven seconds under three 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 fifteen : hours, no limit being placed on the number of horses he might use. The feat was accomplished on April 29, 1745, and the following shows the result: From Stilton to London 3.52:59 From London to Stilton 3.50:57 From Stilton to London 3.49:50 "This was three hours, twenty-six minutes and eighty seconds under the time allowed. "In 1790 a gentleman drove a single horse chaise fifty miles on the Hertford Road in four hours and fifty-five minutes, the time nllowed being five hours. In the same year a man rode from the fourth mile stone on the Essex Road to Chelmsford twice and back again, one hundred miles, in fifteen hours and a half, though he had sixteen hours to do it in. Soon afterward Mr. Samuel Bendall, of Dursley, a Gloucestershire, at the age of seventy-six, rode a thousand miles in a thousand consecutive hours on the same horse. "A man has been known more than once to beat a horse in speed. In 1751 a noted pedestrian named Pinwire, for a bet of 50, walked against a horse for twelve hours and beat it easily. This was not the only time his two legs came off victorious against four: in several successive years he beat some of the best roadsters in England. "The late Mr. Edward Haywurd Budd, one of the finest all-round athletes of his own or, indeed, anv other day, and an especially good sprint runner, tells the following story of how he was once matched to run against a horse. One day after dinner a son of General Archdale offered to back his horse to do a hundred yards against me for 0. I entirely forgot to make it fifty yards out and back, added "to which disadvantage on my side he brought his horse to the post in a complete lather. withstanding my mistake, we started, and, as I had expected, I was beaten, but he did not get away from me until we had run eighty yards, and then he splashed the mud in my face, as the ground was much softened by rain. It was in Hyde Park, and not much to my credit on a Sunday morning. Races between pedestrians and equestrians have, of course, been a familiar spectacle in the great circus shows, but then these are probably arranged affairs and the horses are not flyers. "A singular story of equine sagacity and emulation, perhaps almost without parallel in sporting annals, is the following: In September, 1793, at a race at Ennis, in Ireland, Atalanta, a mare belong-. iug to Mr. Eyre, took the lead of three other horses entered for the race. She had, however, scarcely run half a mile when she fell and dropped her rider. Recovering herself immediately, she dashed forward riderless, and preserved the lead to the end of the heat, during which she passed her stable and the winning post twice; nor did she stop until the flag was dropped to the winner; then after trotting a few paces she wheeled around and came up to the scales to weigh. During the race she frequently looked behind, and quickened her pace as she saw the other horses gaining on her." t to r 1 d v t t c f J. t j j j f , , j j , ,
