Kingsbury County independent. (DeSmet, Kingsbury County, S.D.) 1894-1929, 1906-08-24
NOTABLE FEATS
Of WORKMANSHIP
More Than Four Hundred Miles
Has Been Covered in Less
Than Three Days.
BY AN ENGLISH RIDER
In 1729 an Officer in British Army Rods
Fifteen Miles in Slxty-Nins Min
utss Hith His Face to
FIcrcc's Tail.
From Yit-nitS-

From Tit-Bits.
For combined speed and endurance il Is
probable that two riding foass Of some
centuries ago nave never been cclipsed.
When Queen Elizabeth died Robert Cary
set forth on the long journey to Edin-
burgh to carry the news to her successor
on the throne, James VI. Of Scotland. Rid
ing out Of whitehall between Q n 10
O'Clock on q Thursday morning ne reached
Doncasser, l5J miles away, the same night.
on The following day he travelled as far
cs his own house at WiCherington, where
he spent some time i'm transacting bust
ness, and starting early the next morning
ne could have reached Edinburgh by
midday had not an accident by the way
delayed him. As ii was he completed the
whole journey of 400 miles within three
>ays.
Nearly a century earlier the great kol.
sey, then a royal chaplain, made a re.
markedly quick journey TO the low
Nr.es to interview the Emperor Macmillan
Leaving London at 4 O'Clock in the after
noon. ne Travelled by boat to Gravesend
rode through the night to Dover, and.
crossing 10 Calais, finished his journey on
horseback. reaching Macmillan the same
evening. On the following morning he rode
post haste back 10 Calais, and was at
Richmond at sunset. after travelling TO
Folland and back N little more than two
Ways.
To find anything Ike a match for these
feats, we must come down to the last CEN
fury, when South Africa was the scene OF
two astonishing performances. In one, Sir
Henry Smith, just after the outbreak Of
the Kaffr war, seventy years ago, car
ried the news from Cape town TO Ora
Jamestown in six days, riding a distance OF
100 miles over a wild and almost trackless
country; and again Richard King is cred
tied with a notable feat of endurance in
riding coo miles, from Durham to Grahams-
town, in ten days, through a country in
tested with enemies and over a multitude
of swollen and bridgeless rivers, every one
of which his horse had to swim.
Some Recent Records.
In recent years the most famous of long
distance rides was that inaugurated by
the German emperor thirteen years ago,
when 200 officers essayed to ride from Ber-
lin, to Vienna. "a distance of $50 kilometers.
The winner was Count Starhemberg, who
completed the long journey In Il hours 20
minutes, thus securing a silver bust of
he kaiser, in addition to a money prize of
G1.OO0. HIS unfortunate horse did not sur
vive the contest A little later Captain
Spillberg covered the $40 miles between
Saarbrucken, on the frontier of Lorraine,
and Rome In thirteen days, crossing the
st. Gothard Pass and spending twenty
hours each day on horseback.
A few years since five lieutenants of the
Twelfth Hussar regiment of France ac-
compl.shed a wonderful feat. Leaving
Gray at 3 O'Clock in the morning, they rode
seyenty-tWo miles 10 Belfort, arriving at
4 in the afternoon. They then d~ismounted,
put on civilian clothes, and walked TO a
town twenty-four miles away; here they
dined, then walker back to Belfort, sad
died their horses, and completed the jour
ney TO Gray, which they reached the fol-
lowing afternoon at 3 o'clock, having COW
cred 1872 miles in thirty-six hours on horse
back and on foot.
A very memorable performance was that
of Cowper Thornhill. host of the Bell Inn
at Stilton, in Huntingdonshire, who made
three journeys between his house at Still
ton and Shoreditch church-a total dis
lance of 23 miles-in IL hours and II min
utes, thus winning a wager of 800 g%uineas,
as was also that ride OF Bernard Calvert
OF Andover, who, leaving Shoreditch at !
o'clock in the morning, rode to Dover.
crossed to Calais and Jack and, remount.
ing his horse. arrived at Shoreditch at :
o'clock the same evening, after covering
142 miles on horseback.
200 Miles in Eight Hours.
Squire Osbaldeston once covered 2W
miles at Newmarket in s hours 40 minutes,
using no fewer than twenty-eight horses:
Mr.. Wilde rode III miles at the Curragh
in 6 hours q minutes; and Leon, the Next.
can rider, whom many OF our readers will
remember, rode sos miles in less than
fifty hours in February. 1877. In 1854 Jen.
nison Shafto won a substantial wager by
riding fifty miles on Newmarket Heath in
/ hour and 40 minutes, using ten horses.
In November, 1889. an officer IN the
Ayrshire Light Dragons put 100 guineas
I'm his nocket by riding fifteen miles on
the Chelmsford and Dunhow road in sixty.
nine minutes, with his face to his horses's
tail; and as a finish TO these riding feats
a jockey cleverly piloted a donkey over a
Journey Of 100 miles at Newmarket in
twenty-one hours. though odds OF 100 10 &c
were laid that the ass would not do the
distance under twenty-four hours.