Captain Parfet undertook to run four miles in twenty-four minutes at four starts, the whole however to be done within three-quarters of an hour, which he accomplished on the Hampton road, on the 27th of December 1808. He ran the first mile in five minutes and a second. After waiting five minutes he did the second mile in five minutes and a half; and the third mile in six minutes and forty-nine seconds. Having rested twenty minutes, the captain started again, and performed the fourth mile in five seconds less than the time allowed. This gentleman stands only five feet four inches, and is of thick stature. On the 21st of July 1777, Joseph Headley of Riccal near York, ran two miles on Knavesmire, in nine minutes and forty-five seconds, for a wager of one hundred guineas. About a month before, he ran four miles over the same ground in twenty-one minutes. He was allowed to be the swiftest runner at that time in the kingdom. Joseph Beal of Welburn Moor-houses, near Castle Howard, Yorkshire, ran two miles in nine minutes and forty-eight seconds, on the York race-course, the 9th September 1811, beating Isaac Hemsworth of Bolton in Lancashire. Beal is one of the swiftest runners in the kingdom, and he challenged all England for a four-mile match. The Lancashire men accepted it, and were allowed one month to find an antagonist, and one month for training him. The noted Abraham Wood was fixed upon as the competitor of Beal. These pedestrians accordingly started about one o’clock, on Wednesday the 13th of October. Wood took the lead, and kept it for nearly a mile, when Beal passed him with ease. Wood again headed his opponent, but before he reached the two-mile post, Beal passed him, and, keeping the lead, won the race apparently with ease, beating Wood about two hundred yards, and performing the whole distance in twenty-one minutes and eighteen seconds. Beal is a youth only nineteen years of age, five feet seven inches high, and weighs no more than nine stones and seven pounds. To run a mile within five minutes requires great agility, and none but swift runners could accomplish it, yet that distance has frequently been performed in less time. Mr. Wallis, a gentleman residing in Jermyn Street, ran two miles in nine minutes, at two starts, in February 1808. And on the 17th of the same month, a mile was performed at one start by Mr. E. Haslern, in four minutes and fifty seconds.--Captain Anning, on the 3d of March 1809, ran a mile in the same time near Hampton, having been matched against a man named Forbes, from Eaton, whom he beat by two hundred yards.--Captain Hewetson ran two miles on the Uxbridge road, on the 21st of March 1809, at two starts, in three seconds less than ten minutes, for a bet of fifty guineas.--A mile was performed in four minutes and ten seconds, by John Todd, a Scotchman, in 1803, who ran from Hyde Park corner to the first mile-stone on the Uxbridge road.