The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-04-08
FEATS OF ~HORsEMANsHIP.
Long Distances Covered in Short Times
by European Riders.


For combined speed and endurance 1t is
probable that two riding feats Of some oen-
turtles ago have never been eclipsed. When
Queen Elizabeth 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 0 and 10 o'clock on O.
Thursday morning, he reached Doncaster,
1855 miles away, the same night. On the
following day he travelled as far as his own
house at Witherington, where he spent some
time in 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 It
was, he completed the whole journey Of 400
miles within three days.
Nearly a century earlier the great Wolsey,
then a royal chaplain, made a remarkably
quick journey to the Low Countries to inter-
view the Emperor Macmillan. Leaving
London at 4 O'Clock in the afternoon, he
travelled by boat to Gravesend, rode through
the night to Dover, and, crossing to Calais,
finished his journey on horseback, reaching
Macmillan the same evening. On the fol-
lowing morning he rode post haste back to
Calais. n was at Richmond by sunset,
after travelling TO Holland and back In little
more than two days.
To find anything like a match for these
feats. says London Ti-Bts, we must come
down to the last century, when South Africa
was the scene Of two astonishing perform
anoes. In one, Sir Henry Smith, just after
the outbreak OF. the Kafir war, seventy
years ago, carried the news from Cape Town
to Grahamstown in six days, riding q dis
lance Of 700 miles over a wild and almost
trackless country; and again Richard King
is credited with a notable feat Of endurance
in riding 600 miles, from Durham to Grahams-
town. in ten days, through a country in
tested with enemies and over 0 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 ~inaugurated by
the German Emperor thirteen years ago,
when 200 officers essayed to ride from
Berlin to Vienna, a distance Of $50 kilo-
metres. The winner was Count Starhem-
berg, who completed the long journey
in II hours 20 minutes, thus securing a
silver bust Of the Kaiser, in addition to
a money prize of Ell 900. His unfortunate
horse did not survive the contest. A little
later Capt. Spillberg covered the $40 miles
between Saarbrdcken, 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
accomplished a wonderful feat, Leaving
rode seventy-two miles to Belfort, arriv-
ing at 4 in the afternoon. They then dis
mounted, put on civilian clothes, and
walked to a town twenty-four miles away;
here they dined, then walked pack to Bel
fort, saddled their horses, and completed
the journey to Gray, which they reached
the following afternoon at 3 o'clock, hav-
ing covered 1872 miles in 80 hours on horse
back and on foot.
A very memorable performance was that
at Stilton, in Huntingdonshire, who made
three journeys between his house at Stilton
and Shoreditch Church-a total distance
Of 2lS miles-in IL hours II minutes, thus
winning a wager OF 500 guineas; as was
also that ride OF Bernard Calvert of Andover
who, leaving Shoreditch at 8 o'clock in the
morning, rode to Dover, crossed to Calais
and bach and remounting his horse arrived
at Shoreditch at s o'clock the same evening,
after covering 142 miles on horseback.
Squire osbaldeston once covered 200 miles
at Newmarket in 8 hours 20 minutes, using
no fewer than twenty eight horses; Mr.. Wilde
rode 1877 miles at the Curragh in 0 hours
81 minutes; and Leon, the Mexican rider.
whom many Of our readers will remember.
rode sos miles in less than fifty hours in
February, 1877. In 1854 Jennison Shafto
won a substantial wager by riding fifty
miles on Newmarket Heath in 1 hour 40
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
minutes, with his face to his horses
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
on hours, Thoughts odds Of lGO to 10 we're
laid that the ass would not do the distance
under twenty-four hours.