That racing was a common amusement of the people of Rhode Island is fully established by the very best of contemporaneous evidence, and by the silver plate prizes won, that are said to be still in existence in some of the old families. Attempts have been made to laugh this statement out of court, on the grounds that Rhode Island was a Puritan colony, and such a thing as a horse race would not be tolerated for a single day. This attempt shows a great deal more smartness than knowledge, for Rhode Island was not a Puritan colony, as that term is generally understood, but had for its very foundation opposition to the spirit of intolerance that prevailed in all the other New England colonies. But, what is still more conclusive, the legislature of the colony in 1749 enacted a law prohibiting all racing, under a penalty of forfeiture of the horse and a fine of one hundred dollars. As in other colonies not in New England racing and betting had become so common that the moral sense of the people rose up and abolished it. If there had been no racing there would have been no law to wipe it out. When the Rev. Dr. McSparran, of Rhode Island, made a trip in Virginia and rode the Virginia pacers some hundreds of miles, early in the last century, he seems to have observed them closely and spoke very highly of them, but he said they were not so large and strong as the Narragansetts, nor so easy and gliding in their action. It might be suggested that this opinion was the natural result of esteeming one’s own as better than those of a neighbor, but he was certainly right in the matter of size. In 1768 the Rhode Island horses averaged fourteen hands one inch, while the Virginia horses averaged (1750-52) thirteen hands one and three-quarter inches, making a difference of three and one-quarter inches in height. In the matter of gait they were not all natural pacers, for out of thirty-five there were eight that did not pace, and some of the others both paced and trotted. From this it may be inferred that breeders, in order to increase the size, had incorporated more or less of the blood of the early Dutch importations. CHAPTER XI. COLONIAL HORSE HISTORY—PENNSYLVANIA, NEW JERSEY, MARYLAND, CAROLINA. Penn’s arrival in 1682—Horse racing prohibited—Franklin’s newspaper—Conestoga horses—Sizes and gaits—Swedish origin—Acrelius’ statement. NEW JERSEY—Branding—Increase of size—Racing, Pacing, and Trotting restricted—MARYLAND—Racing and pacing restricted 1747—Stallions of under size to be shot. NORTH CAROLINA—First settlers refugees—SOUTH CAROLINA—Size and gait in 1744—Challenges—No running blood in the colony 1744—General view.