TIME V. DISTANCE.

Taranaki Herald, Volume XIII, Issue 665, 29 April 1865, Page 4

TIME V. DISTANCE.

(From Porters Spirit of the Times.)

Dear Spirit^-I was not a little surprised, in reading you? issue of the 7th inst, to find that so ■jrorW-renowned an authority' as BeU's Life in L&iidon, should fall into such an egregious error as tfce editor has done, in stating that " the best authentic tima on record of a mile in England is 1 48*. If ho bo not greatly wide of the mark, all , &c old authorities of England are entirely at fault in regard to their records of speed, and the more freoent ones have fallen into the same error 5 and yet, one can scarcely put his hat»a upon cither of them that does n«t m&ko particular mention of the < fabulous flight of speed attained by Flying Childora and English Eclipse— the " mile in ft mmute , and, in botbc of them, " the rate" fairly haunts you and the positive assertion that, "in 1772, Firetail , j ran a mile in 1 'minute 4 seconds", is invariably j preacnted to your view. If there exist any authentic record of the performances of Flying Childers, he ran over the Round | Course at Newmarket (3 mile 3,6, 6 furlongs, 93 yards), in 6 minutes 40 seconds ; and over the Beacon j Course (4 miles, 1 furlong, 138 yards), in 7 minutes 30 seconds. The former, at the rate throughout of 1 45 and a fraction ; and tho latter, at the rate of i1 47 and a fraction per mile. I have not at hand an account of Eclipse's performances. His best record is very short and comprehensive — lie never was beaten, and never paid forfeit. But neither he nor any other horse ever ran at the rate of a mile iv a minute, the impossibility of which I shall presently attempt to prove. The more rocent exploit of Sir Tatton Sykes will add, perhaps, more satisfactorily to the proof that Bell's Life is in error. In 1846, St Loger Course, he ran 1 mile, 6 furlongs, 132 yards, in' 3 minutes 16 seconds, which is at tho rate of 1 47 and a fraction per mile. And how can it be accounted for, that Mr. Langley has entirely overlooked one of the performances of one ol the best .horses that has appeared in England during the present century ?

In the memorable race of 1854 between West Australian and Kingston, at Ascot, they ran 2£ miles, the former winning by a head only, in 4 minutes 27 seconds, being at the rate of a fraction less than 1*47 per mile. At Liverpool Inheritor, when three years old, carrying 861 b, ran two miles in 3 minutes 25 seconds, which is an average of I' 42£ per mile. All the above-named are upon the record. In the mile-race between the celebrated Queen of Trumps andAinderby (subsequently imported to this country), a gentleman well know as one of the most successful turfmen in the Southern country was present, who measured the distance and timed the horses for his own satisfaction ; and lam quite certain that I do not err in stating that the time mado on that occasion was 1 minute 42 seconds. I have such confidence in his accuracy as a timer, and in his manifest good sense and judgment in all turf matters, that I do not doubt its correctness. _ These last-mentioned performances bring again to mind the oft-repeated statement of Firetail's mile in l'O4, which can only be reasonably explained by a mistake very natural for a printer to make in a transposition of figures, which should have stood 1.40, rendering it, even then, very ex-traordinary—-but'palpably absurd in its original shape. The best carrier pigeons in thorough training, have rarely been known to fly more than 45 miles in an hour, and to accomplish this the weather must be clear and the bird in excellent condition. He starts at his best speed and maintains it throughout. This speed is at tho rate of a mile in 1 miv. 20 sec, and covers 66 feet of ground in a second. Now*the " stride" of a race-horse is more generally 22 feet than over it Instances are rare of their striding. 24, though they sometimes occur. To run, therefore, as fast as the bird can fly, he is compelled to make three strides of 22 feet each within the second. What man of sound mind, at all acquainted with the powers of the horse, does not know positively that he cannot make three strides of any length within a second, and the farther lie strides the fewer he is compelled to make within that time ? What possible chance then was there that Childers, Eciip3e, or Firetail could have made fou* strides in the same time, which they must necessarily have done to go at " the rate of a mile a minuta "? In the name of common sense," let us have no more of this absurd and ridiculous fiction.