BUTCHER CUMBERLAND.

Northern Advocate, 3 December 1887, Page 3

BUTCHER CUMBERLAND.

Among the earliest of our scientific breeders of horses was "Butcher" Cumberland, the hero of Culloden, who reared the best horse of his,_ or perhaps any period, the magnificent Eclipse, "'built i' the eclipse," or rather foaled, during the portentious darkness of the great solar eclipse of 1761. Cumberland sold Eclipse as a colt to one Wildman for 46gs, and Colonel O Kelly bought the horse subsequently for 1700gs. Never beaten, never touched by whip or spur, the magnificent chestnut ran a short but glorious career upon the turf, and retired to the stud, where he proved a fortune to his owner, and became the sire of the best horses of succeeding times. For some years Eclipse and his less distinguished owner lived at Epsom, where Colonel Kelly occupied a house on Clayhill. Eclipse Cottage is still in existence to preserve the memory of the fani6us horse, whose hoof, set in silver, is one of the precious insignia of the Jockey Club. When Colonel O'Kelly left Epsom for Cannons, a carriage was specially built tojeonvey the horse to his new quarters. At that time the notion of a horse driving in his carriage instead of drawing it himself, was a novelty to the public, and crowds thronged to see the triumphal progress of the favourite. He'Vas as good as he was swift and beautiful, without a particle of vice} in his composition, and with his head out of his carriage window Eclipse benignantlv surveyed, and seemed to give bis parting blessing to the crowd.

It is not everybody who is acquainted with the wonderful capabilities of bicycies and tricycles when these machines are ridden by . expert men. Even amongst Australian cyclists there only a few who have more than a superficial knowledge of the great' of English and American riders^ for, although there are nearly a d6?eiiU weekly papers devoted exclusively to c^flung edited in the above-mentioned countries;- few of these ever find their way" to' these shores. In this part of the world (says the Australasian), we have good riders and the best of machines, but oup men can hardly hope to excel the performances made in the Old World, because we have not roads nor tracks of such excellence an England can boast of. In travelling about Victoria on a bicycle farmers and other people in the country often it incredible that one can ride 50 miles or so in the day on the steol horse, but this distance is trifling compared to what has been accomplished on the good roods of England. Three hundred miles of road havo been ridden on a bicycle in 24 hours, and 2GG miles on a tricycle in the same time, while on the racing path 2 1£ miles have been covered by a bicycle in the space of one hour. This is but a brief outline, and wonderful as these records are, it is not safe to predict that they will not yet be eclipsed, for the manufacture of cycleß is now an important industry, arid braiis are always busy devising new ideas for attaining increased speed', and lightness and and stability of build.; One thing yet remains to be discovered, how to driver cycles without the aid of muscular poweiyand he wh« mokes the discovery will doubtless reap assure fortune. - ' :