Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1906-06-05
FEATs OF HoRsEMANsAIP.
Long Distances Covered In Short Times
by European Riders.


Lonq Distances Covered In Short Times
by European Riders.
For combined speed and endurance
1t Is probable that two riding feats
of some centuries ago have never
been eclipsed. When Queen Eliza
beth died Robert Cary set forth on
the long journey to Edinburgh to
carry the news to her successor on
the throne, James VI Of Scotland.
Riding out Of Whitehall between 9
and 10 o'clock on a Thursday morn
ing, he reached Doncaster, 155 miles
away. the same night. On the next
day he travelled as far as his own
house at Witherington, where ne
spent some time transacting business,
and starting early the next morning
he could have reached Edinburgh by
midday had not an accident by the
way delayed him. AS 1t was, he COM
pleted the whole journey of 400 miles
within three days.
Nearly a century earlier the great
Wolsey, then a royal chaplain, made
remarkably quick journey to the
Low Countries to interview the En-
peror Macmillan. Leaving London
at 4 O'Clock in the afternoon, he tray-
elled by boat to Gravesend, rode
through the night to Dover. and,
crossing to Calais, finished his jour-
ney on horseback, reaching Maxi
milan the same evening. On the fol-
lowing morning he rode post haste
back to Calais, and was at Richmond
by sunset, after travelling to Hol-
land and back i'm little more than two
days.
To find anything like a match for
these feats, says the London Tit-Bits,
we must come down to the last cel-
tury, when South Africa was the
scene Of two astonishing perform
ances. In one, Sir Henry Smith, just
after the outbreak of the Kaffir war,
seventy years ago, carried the news
from Cape Town to Grahamstown in
six days, riding a distance of 700
miles over a wild and almost track
less country; and again Richard King
is credited with notable feat Of EN-
durance in riding 900 miles, from
Durham to Grahamstown, in ten days.
through country infested with enc
mics and over a multitude Of swollen
and bridgeless rivers, every one of
which his horse had to swim.
In recent years the most famous
Of long distance rides was that inau-
gurated by the German emperor thir-
teen years ago, when 200 officers es-
saved to ride from Berlin to Vienna,
distance of $50 kilometres. The
winner was Count Starhemberg, who
completed the long journey in sew
enty-one hours and twenty minutes.
thus securing a silver bust Of the Kali
ser, in addition to a prize OF f1,OOO.
His unfortunate horse did not sur
vive the contest. A little later Capt
Spillberg covered the $40 miles be-
tween 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 Twentieth Hussar Regiment of
France accomplished a wonderful
feat Leaving Gray at o'clock In
the morning, they rode seventy-two
miles to Belfort, arriving at four In
| the afternoon. They then dismount-
ed, put on civilian clothes, and walked
to a town twenty-four miles away;
here they dined, then walked back
to Belfort, saddled their horses, and
completed the journey to Gray which
they reached the following afternoon
at o'clock, having covered 1872 miles
| in thirty-six hours on horseback and
on foot.
A very memorable performance
of the Bell Inn at Stilton, in Hunting
donshire, who made three journeys
between his house at Stilton and
Shoreditch church-a total distance
of 213 miles-in twelve hours and
seventeen minutes, thus winning a
wager of 500 guineas; as was also
that ride of Bernard Calvert of And
over who, leaving Shoreditch at 3
o'clock in the morning, rode to Dover,
crossed to Calais and back and re-
mounting his horse arrived at Shore
ditch at 8 o'clock the same evening,
after covering 142 miles on horse
back.
Squire Osbaldeston once covered
200 miles at Newmarket in eight
hours and forty minutes, using no
fewer than twenty eight horses; Mr..
Wilde rode 127 miles at the Curragh
i'm six hours and twenty-one minutes;
and Leon. the Mexican rider, whom
many of our readers will remember.
rode sos miles i'm less than fifty hours
In February, 1877. In 1854 Jennison
Shafto won a substantial wager by
riding fifty miles on Newmarket
Heath i'm one hour and forty-nine
minutes, using ten horses.
In November, 1898, an officer in
the Ayrshire Light Dragons put
100 guineas in his pocket by riding
fifteen miles on the Chelmsford and
Dunmow road in sixty-nine minutes,
with his face to his horses tail; and
as q 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 to 10 were laid that the ass would
not do the distance in twenty-fOur
hours.