be living. In the War of 1812 the British man-of-war Orpheus
cruised the waters of Narragansett Bay, and her captain endeavored
through agents to obtain a Narragansett Pacer as a gift for his wife,
but in vain--not a horse of the true breed could be found.

It has been said that the reckless exportation to the West Indies caused
this extermination, but it is difficult to believe that so shrewd a race
as were the Narragansett planters ever would have committed such a
killing of a goose of golden eggs. The decay of the race was the action
of a simple law--cause and effect. The conditions which rendered the
pacer so desirable did not exist after the Revolution. Roads were
improved, carriages became common, the saddle less used, and the
American trotter was evolved, who was a better carriage horse, and a
more useful one, as he could be employed for both light and heavy work,
while heavy draughting stiffened the joints of the pacer, and destroyed
the very qualities for which he was most valued. Thus, being no longer
needed, the Narragansett Pacer ceased to exist.

There died in Wickford, R. I., a few years ago, a Narragansett Pacer that
was nearly full blooded. She was a villainously ugly animal of faded,
sunburnt sorrel color. She was so abnormally broad-backed and
broad-bodied that a male rider who sat astride her was forced to stick
his legs out at a most awkward and ridiculous angle. That broad back
carried, however, most comfortably a side-saddle or a pillion. Being
extremely short-legged this treasured relic was unprecedentedly slow,
and altogether I found the Narragansett Pacer, though an object of great
pride and even veneration to her owner, not all my fancy had painted
her.

From the earliest days when horses were imported, women rode on pillions
behind the men. Lechford in his note-book refers to a "womans pillion"
lost on the Hopewell. A pillion was a cushion strapped on behind a man's
saddle, and from it sometimes hung a small platform or double stirrup on
which a woman rider could rest her feet. One horse was sometimes made
also to carry two men riding astride. Horseflesh was also economized by
the ride-and-tie system: two persons would start on horseback, ride a
mile or two, dismount, tie the animal by the road-side, leaving him for
another couple (who had started afoot) to mount, ride on past the first
couple, and dismount and tie in their turn.

Coaches were not a wholly popular means of conveyance in th