The chaise match, run on Newmarket Heath, Wednesday 29 August, 1750

This fine work by Sartorius is based on a picture by Seymour in the Mellon Collection (loc. cit) which records a celebrated match against time. This was undertaken for a wager of 1,000 guineas laid by the 3rd Earl of March and the 10th Earl of Eglinton, and taken on by Theobald Taafe, supported by Andrew Sproule, that a team of four horses could draw a four-wheeled carriage with one passenger 19 miles in one hour. The earls were victorious having designed a special light-weight vehicle, built by Wright of Long Acre, drawn by a team of racehorses (the leaders ridden by jockeys), the passenger being a young boy. William, 3rd Earl of March, later 4th Duke of Queensberry, was famous for his many and varied wagers including bets that Mr Pigot's father would outlive Mr Codrington's father (which ended in litigation), and that his man could eat more at a sitting than Sir John Lade's man - the next morning he received a note informing him that 'your man beat his antagonist by a pig and an apple pie'.