Although trotting is admitted one of the natural paces of a horse, yet it will admit of great improvement, by the persevering exertions of _art_. It is a long-standing remark, that "a _butcher_ always rides _a trotter_;" and why is it? because they invariably make them so: they in general ride them _no other pace_: they all know they have the credit of "making _trotters_," and they are incessantly alive to the preservation of their professional reputation. That horses may be taught, by time and patience, to exceed their original trotting, _two_ or _three_ miles an _hour_, is as certain, as that blood horses exceed their former speed a full _distance_ in _four miles_ by training. It is within the memory of many, that _fourteen_ miles within an hour was thought excellent trotting, and _fifteen_ was considered a wonderful performance, all which is long since buried in oblivion, by the almost incredible exploits of the last few years. Famous trotters have undoubtedly been produced from different parts of the kingdom; but Essex, Suffolk, Cambridgeshire, and Norfolk, are said to have exceeded all others in their proportion; and this may probably with justice be attributed to those famous trotting stallions, "_Old Shields_," "_Useful Cub_," and "_Hue_ and _Cry_," who principally _covered_ that scope of country. The celebrated trotter _Archer_ was descended from _Old Shields_; he was a remarkably strong horse, master of fifteen stone, and the fastest trotting horse of his time; but was cruelly destroyed, by being inhumanly matched to trot upon the road _sixteen miles_ within the hour in the midst of a very severe frost: the poor persevering animal performed it in less than _fifty five minutes_; but the violent concussions sustained by the body, and the battering upon the feet by the dreadfully hard state of the road, produced symptoms which soon put a period to his existence. A brown mare, the last proprietor of whom was MR. BISHOP, trotted upon the Epsom road, _sixteen miles_ in fifty-eight minutes and a half, carrying twelve stone; and it was then said to have been the first time that distance had ever been trotted within the hour. In 1791, being eighteen years old, she trotted on the Essex road, sixteen miles in fifty-eight minutes and some seconds, beating a famous trotter of Mr. Green's for fifty pounds; and it was the opinion of the sporting parties concerned, that she would have trotted thirty miles within two hours; a distance which was actually trotted in two hours and ten minutes, by the celebrated chesnut mare of Mr. Ogden's. A grey mare, called the _Locksmith's_, trotted _seventy-two_ miles in _six hours_. In 1793, a grey mare, of Mr. Crocket's, trotted _one hundred_ miles in _twelve hours_, and had twenty minutes to spare. A five year old, son of young _Pretender_, (who was got by _Hue_ and _Cry_,) trotted in Lincolnshire, sixteen miles in fifty-nine minutes, carrying fifteen stone.