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SYDNEY R. SMITH SPORTING BOOKS

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CROSS COUNTRY
REMINISCENCES

BY

FOX RUSSELL

REMINGTON AND CO PUBLISHERS

HENRIETTA STREET CO VENT GARDEN

1887

[All Rights Reserved]

THIS VOLUME IS, BY PERMISSION,
DEDICATED TO

HIS GRACE THE DUKE OF BEAUFORT, K.G.,

BEST OF CROSS-COUNTRY RIDERS

AND

BRITISH SPORTSMEN,
BY HIS OBLIGED AND GRATEFUL SERVANT,

THE AUTHOR.

Digitized by the Internet Archive

in 2009 with funding from

Boston Library Consortium IVIember Libraries

http://www.archive.org/details/crosscountryremiOOruss

'

CONTENTS.

CHAP.

PAGE

I.

Introduction

I

11.

With Foxhounds

... 19

III.

With Staghounds

- 43

IV.

With Draghounds

... 57

V.

With Harriers

... 78

VI.

Steeplechasing and Hurdle Racing

... 86

VII.

Conditioning and Schooling

.. 126

VIII.

The Show Yard in relation to Hunters ...

153

IX.

Crossing a Country

166

X.

Ladies in the Field

187

XI.

Steeplechase Courses and Point-to-Point

Races

195

XII.

The Mudbury Hunt Dinner

205

CHAPTER I.

INTRODUCTION.

Pleasant it is for a man whose hand has
oftener grasped a hunting crop than a pen,
to sit down and try to put a few notes on
paper, of some of the good things he has
had the luck to participate in, and indulge
in some homely-printed chat — to coin an
expression — of good horses and good men.
It is, perhaps, the next best thing to
'' fighting one's battles o'er again " over
the walnuts and wine ; and what more de-
lightful thing is there than that same talk

B

2 CROSS CO UNTR Y REMINISCENCES.

— after a rattling burst over a good country
— when, with a bottle of the '47 and the
prospective cigar, a bright, cheery log fire,
and a genial spirit, who has shared your
day's pleasures and pains, you chat over
your own luck, and your friends' misfor-
tunes ? — the latter, I am grieved to say,
affording considerably more satisfaction to
us than we should care to acknowledge in
so many words.

Long may the day be distant when Eng-
lishmen shall cease to reckon the subject
of such chat amongst their pleasures !

I have often wondered which man gets
the keenest enjoyment out of hunting : he
who makes it the business of his life, and
goes out regularly four or five days a week,
or the busy toiler in big cities, snatching
his chance day here and there, stopped, it
may be, by a telegram, as he buckles on his
second spur, and dragged unwillingly up to

INTRODUCTION. 3

his office by a change of markets, or to
his chambers by an unexpected Brief. One
would naturally think the latter was the
keener of the pair ; but the closest observa-
tion has left me still in doubt. A good
sportsman is never anything hut keen, and
in discussing this question, one is always
reminded of the octogenarian who had been
a four-days-a-w^eek man all his life : on his
death-bed he said he had but one regret —
that he had not smoked less and hunted
more ! It is certainly just one of those
pfood thing's in life, that one can never have
too much of.

In the way of comfort, I venture to think
that between hunting from home, and
hunting from a distance, there can be no
comparison, and no man would take the
latter as a pure matter of choice. In fact
so patent is it, upon a moment's reflection,
that it would be absurd to dilate upon the

4 CjROss country reminiscences.

difference between hurriedly resigning the
good beast, who has carried you all day, to
a hireling, without the opportunity of know-
ing whether he is well ''done" or not;
bolting into a stuffy, draughty railway car-
riage, in which, hungry, sleepy, and mud-
stained, you are rushed up to town, and
perhaps transferred to a still more un-
pleasant conveyance in the shape of a cab,
which eventually lands you at home at so
late an hour, that appetite is gone, and a
natural disinclination for the bother of
'' changing " induces you to crawl miser-
ably up to bed without delay. Then again,
unless you are a naturally — or, shall we
say, an ^///naturally — early riser, recall, oh
my reader, the horror you went through at
being called at 6.30 a.m., fighting your way
dismally into that forbidding-looking '' tub "
in the grey light, and how the first sponge-
ful of its contents wrung from your agonized

INTRODUCTION. 5

body a deafening screech that would shame
a Sioux Indian ; then the candle-illuminated
chin-chopping, called, by courtesy, a shave ;
the hurried and unsatisfying breakfast, and
the final scurry for the train ! '' Enough to
make a man sit up and have his breakfast
over-night," as a friend once said to me.
I agree with him ; but I am afraid the
coffee and rolls would not^ at that unaccus-
tomed hour ! I am of opinion that that
'' breakfast " would have been, for the most
part, taken out of a tall tumbler and accom-
panied by sundry strong cigars — not the
best way in the world to keep one's nerves
steady for the following day's work. No !
compare this with the leisurely morning
muffin and newspaper, and the quiet jog on
to covert afterwards ; the comfort of being
able to personally superintend your horse's
dressing and feeding, and then attending
at once to your own, after the day's work is

6 CROSS COUNTRY REMINISCENCES.

done. No, there is no doubt which we
should choose I But then we don't all get
our choice in this life, and having been my-
self, for several seasons, accustomed to go
off to different countries to report the doings
of various packs for the London Press, 1
speak feelingly on the subject !

Whilst speaking of hunting, away from
home, I may say, thankfully, that I have
very rarely been guilty of the weak-
ness of taking a horse of my own.
Hiring is far and away the better
plan. First, because you are spared the
intolerable nuisance of boxing and un-
boxing, the danger of a horse, stiff and
tired, standing still for hours, in the most
favourable circumstances for catching cold,
a matter in which he will be sure to attain
a certam measure of success ; secondly,
because it is long odds he will not know
the country when he gets there ; thirdly,

INTR OD UCTION. 7

because it is generally cheaper in the
end.

I don't know whether the experience
of most men coincides with my own, or
if I have been exceptionally fortunate, but,
taking them all round, I have very pleasant
memories of hired hunters. One youngster
— a four-year-old, by King of Trumps —
I well remember fairly raced his field to a
standstill at the end of a long run, with my
8st. 7lbs. on his back ; another carried me
gallantly throughout one of the fastest
hour-and-a-half's runs that the Blackmoor
Vale have had for many a season, and
finished in the first four. I could multiply
such instances by the dozen, and it is
comparatively rarely that one of this much-
abused class has put me down. Of course
it may well be that my phenomenally light
weight has something to do with it, but
still there is a great deal of good in them,

8 CR OSS CO UNTR V REMINISCENCES.

and a wise owner will always, for his own
sake, do well to give you a ''performer,"
because, of course, should he fall, and harm
come to him, he alone has to pay the
piper. To all who are obliged to hunt
away from home, I would certainly say,
*' Don't take your own horse, if you can
manage to hire ; " and do we not all go a
bit straighter (especially in a strange
country) when we feel that it will make no
difference to the exchequer if ''grief"
should, by chance, result ?

If a man has a week or two to spare
from business, and wants to get as much
sport into the time as he conveniently can,
I would certainly recommend him to go to
a place like Leamington, for instance.
From here, the Quorn, the Pytchley, the
Heythrop, the Bicester, the Duke of
Grafton's, the Warwickshire, and the
Atherstone packs can all be reached ;

INTRODUCTION. 9

so one need never want for a gallop. In
addition to its hunting attractions there is
generally plenty to keep one amused there,
and it is within comparatively easy reach
of town. Cheltenham is another handy
centre, but the country is not so good as
that get-at-able from the Warwickshire
town. I say '' get-at-able," and not '' im-
mediately surrounding," because, as a
matter of fact, the country just outside
Leamington is not, by any means, the best
obtainable.

Hunting on the foregoing plan, the
advantage of hiring becomes at once mani-
fest. Assuming you are at any convenient
centre for hunting, and want to get in, say,
iive days in the week you are there, that
would mean at least three horses ; and by
the time you had paid for their railway
expenses, standing at livery, and your
groom's bill, you would probably find

1 0 CR OSS CO UNTR V REMINISCENCES.

that, had you hired, you would have been
considerably In pocket ; your own horses
would have had a rest. Instead of being
hard-worked and harassed by railway
journeys and fresh stabling, and you
yourself would have been spared a very
great deal of anxiety and bother about
them. I am quite prepared to admit, how-
ever, that If one Is no longer young, or If
one's nerves are not as they used to be,
&c., the matter Is a different one ; and It
may well be that the extra expense is
worth Incurring, for the sake of being on
horses that one knows. '' Nerves " have a
long list of sins to answer for : how many
falls might yearly be averted but for the
possession of these undesirable adjuncts to
the human frame ! How many a horse is
pulled Into his jumps because of the slight
shake of the rider's hand, or the quiver of
his body ! Whilst denying the danger of

INTRODUCTION. 11

riding to hounds, in /6'/<9, would be ridiculous,
yet I do venture to say that that danger is
not really so great as people generally
think. Look at the total number of men
who hunt ; then take into consideration the
large proportion of '' duffers " amongst
them, and it is really surprising how few
deaths are heard of, nay, how few bad acci-
dents occur, in each season. And, again,
there are very many men who '' know how
to fall," and show^ an astonishing smartness
in getting out of the way of their own, and
other people's, horses, whilst on all fours !
Dick Christian was a notable example of
this — quite a professor, indeed, of the art.
He used to say that he tucked his head in
and rounded his shoulders when he '' knew
it was coming ; " but I don't think it is an
art that can come to any of us, except by
means of the bitter school of experience.
UnHke our friend Ally Sloper's advice to

12 CROSS CO UNTR Y REMINISCENCES.

people about to be kicked, to '' take it
slack/' we cannot either do this, or reduce
falling to a science, and lay down rules
thereon. Personally, I have had my fair
share of falls, have been laid on by a
steeplechase horse, kicked on the head,
my ribs broken, and a few other little
matters of the kind, but never really hurt.
The human carcase is fairly tough, I fancy ;
and though not a particularly strong man,
I remember getting two rattling falls in one
run, receiving a pretty smart kick just over
the knee, and then riding home in time to
go to a ball and dance until four o'clock
the next morning ! The fall itself so rarely
hurts anybody ; it is the injury inflicted
by the horse, either in rising, rolling over
you, or kicking you, that is most to be
feared. Again, there is the risk of being
jumped on, or galloped over, by other
animals ; and nine out of ten of the

INTRODUCTION. 13

bad accidents, happen in one of these
ways.

On the subject of wire fencing I must
say a word. Some men have now put up
barbed wire, and on this point the Hon.
Ralph Nevill, Master of the West Kent
Foxhounds, has written an eloquent letter
to the papers, telling how his hounds have
been injured by this cruel contrivance.
Surely such things should find no place in
a hunting country. Wire is bad enough,
and has been the cause of many a valuable
life being sacrificed ; but to put in barbs is
both unnecessary and cruel. I can't help
thinking that it would be — well, not an im-
possible task, for each hunt to come to
some arrangement with the farmers within
its precincts, for the removal of wire-fencing,
except in such parts as horses and hounds
are not likely to penetrate. Members of
the several hunts would willingly make

14 CROSS COUNTRY REMINISCENCES.

some pecuniary sacrifices for such a desir-
able object — after all, it is only paying
a small extra premium by way of life assur-
ance ! — and the main body of the farmers
have got sportsmen's hearts concealed within
them, though some have hidden them rather
deep beneath their waistcoats ! The truth
is that they have had bad times for many
years, and wire-fencing being cheap, they
very naturally use it. Still, in so doing I
know that, with many of them at all events,
good fellows at bottom, they can say with
the apothecary in Romeo and Juliet, '' My
poverty, but not my will, consents."

To men who must, perforce, hunt from
London, I would say, '' Don't be afraid of
going a few extra miles for the sake of a
better country." Practically it takes you
out of bed, very little, if any, earlier than
travelling down to the countries nearest to
town ; not that there is a word to be said

INTRODUCTION. 15

against the packs there In any one respect,
be It understood. It Is merely of the
country, to which a cruel fate has relegated
them, that I speak, for, what with a trot —
often you can't shake your horse up to go
any faster than this — over the cruel, holding
clay, a crawl up hills like the side of a
house, and a spirited burst over fifty acres
of flint stones, ending the performance by
falling over a wire-fence into a market-
gardener's cucumber frame, and you are
reluctantly obliged to own that the game is
hardly worth the candle. I am speaking
more particularly of the nearer suburban
meets.

Some of the fixtures of the West Kent,
near the Kennels at Otford, or round Pens-
hurst way, are as good as anything that
can be expected so near London ; and
the Surrey Stag, and Old Surrey Fox-
hounds have each some very good meets.

16 CROSS COUNTRY REMINISCENCES.

The Mid-Kent Staghounds, having their
head-quarters at Waterlngbury, near Maid-
stone, run over a far better Hne of country
than any of the above-named packs, and
are Infinitely to be preferred by the metro-
politan contingent ; another recommenda-
tion is that they do not meet till twelve
o'clock. The Crawley and Horsham Fox-
hounds can also be reached fairly easily,
and with these last two packs I have had
some really good spins. The Warnham
Staghounds go, three days a fortnight, over
the same country as the Crawley and Hor-
sham.

In Essex, the farmers don't seem to take
kindly to pasture, and the amount of heavy
plough there is not inviting. Mr. Garth's
hounds are handy, but I regret that, never
having had the pleasure of meeting them, I
can say nothing of the sport usually ob-
tained. To my mind, nothing so well repays

INTRODUCTION. 17

the Londoner for his trouble, as hiring from
Leighton, or Aylesbury, and going for a
spin with Lord Rothschild's splendid stag-
hounds over the glorious Vale of Aylesbury.
What a country ! Grass, grass, and splen-
did grass too ! so springy that your horse
seems to strike it lighter and bound from it
quicker, than any other. Then the fences
— are they not positively made to be
galloped over ! All of them fair, most of
them big, and not one trap in a hundred of
them ! Yes, that is the country for the
brain-worker to go to and '' knock the
stuffing out " of his cares and troubles !
The deer are straight runners, the pack and
the whole establishment undeniable, the
country perfection, and the farmers, trumps
to a man ! A good mount, a fine day, and
a fast fifty minutes over the Vale, ought to
make a man of one, if anything can on
earth !

C

18 CROSS COUNTRY REMINISCENCES.

Apropos of a fast fifty minutes I was
riding home after hunting, some two or
three years back, with half-a-dozen other
men ; we were all in capital spirits, having
had a fifty minutes on the grass, with
'' fencing to match," that was calculated to
gladden the heart of an undertaker, when
the following conversation ensued : —

'' What's become of Jones, of the — th ?
Never seems to come out at all now."

'^ No," was the reply ; '^ sold off his
horses, don't you know."

^^What on earth for?"

'' What ! haven't you heard ? Going to
be married next week."

'' Married, and sold off his horses ! " came
in tones of intense disgust from the first
speaker. " Why, I wouldn't have missed
to-day's gallop for a harem ! ''

CHAPTER II.

WITH FOXHOUNDS.

Foxhounds seem to assume the premier
place, naturally, in the affections of most
hunting men — that is, with men who go out
to hunt, in contradistinction to the men who
go out to ride. For the latter class, by far
the best fun is to be had with stag or drag
hounds, of which more hereafter. But he
who wishes to follow the '' httle red rover"
will, I think, have far better sport than the
others, modified, of course, by here and
there a blank day, here and there an un-
satisfactory run. These are exigencies we

20 CROSS COUNTRY REMINISCENCES.

must all be prepared for. Now, as in
everything else, there are degrees in fox-
hunting : there is foxhunting and fox-
hunting ; galloping over flints, clay, and
boulders is one thing, galloping over soft,
springy turf another ; scrambling over im-
possible stone walls one thing, and jumping
clean timber another. It has fallen to my
lot to hunt in a country where, with heaps
of foxes, we never got a run, except for
about the space of three minutes at a time,
which was occupied in rushing our quarry
from one big wood to the next big wood.
We usually got one of these ''runs " each
day we were out, and spent the rest of the
time in mournfully wandering round and
round the covert in which Reynard was, no
doubt, safely ensconced, and chuckling at
his own smartness ; then we heaved sighs,
and departed severally to our respective
domiciles. Well, it was foxhunting ; but it

WITH FOXHO UNDS. 2 1

might as well have been needle-hunting in
the proverbial haystack, for all the sport we
had out of it.

Coming home after one of these depress-
ing days, a disconsolate companion once
said to me, desperately —

'' I shall give this up, and invite all the men
I know to a meet at the foot of my stairs,
and hunt blackbeetles in the back kitchen ;
we've a better chance of a kill there, any'
how ! " To this he added some painfully
wrought-up joke about '^ kitchen a lot of
them," which I must decline to repeat in
extenso.

Compare this kind of thing to a glorious
burst over the grass, with really good
fencing, and there you see the two ex-
tremes. But between these Poles there is
a big range of ground, containing much
that is pleasant — much that will afford
excellent sport both for young and old.

22 CROSS COUNTRY REMINISCENCES.

Such writers as Whyte Melville and the
joint authors of the '^ Badminton Library"
have written of the '^ swell" countries so
well, and so exhaustively, that I feel it would
be more useful for me not to attempt to
follow where they have '^ gone before," but
to confine myself rather to those others
that they have not dealt, or have but super-
ficially dealt, with, in their respective works
on the subject.

I venture to think that there is just as
much good fun to be had outside Leicester-
shire as there is in. Look, for instance, at
the Blackmoor Vale Foxhounds. Who can
reasonably wish for anything better than to
follow this splendid pack from Jack White's
Gibbet, or Cheriton, right across the huge
pastures, interspersed with the big doubles
and brooks, for which this district is famed.
You must have one that will face water and
jump boldly at everything here, or you had

WITH FOXHOUNDS. 23

better go back at once ; it is cheaper in
the end. Or, nearer home, if you cast in
your lot with anything going across the
Vale of Aylesbury, and '^ happen on," as
our American friends would say, a good
thing, you must be hard to please if you
don't oro back satisfied, inviororated, and
feelinof enabled to '' make thino^s hot " for
everybody in business next day.

One more example : take the Crawley
and Horsham Foxhounds. ^// their country
is not good ; a large proportion is, perhaps,
only passable, but 1, for one, shall look back
to some of the runs I have had with them,
and some of the country I have crossed
after them, with the keenest pleasure to the
end of my life, despite the contemptuous
and, I must add, silly remark of a distin-
guished soldier, who, when asked if he had
ever been out with these hounds, blurted
out, '' No, sir ; I have never hunted with

24 CJ^OSS COUNTRY REMINISCENCES.

any hounds in my life but the Quorn and
the Pytchley, and I'll take d — d good care
I never do ! " chronicled by Whyte Mel-
ville, who, I am sure, was far too good a
sportsman to have subscribed to an obser-
vation half so absurd.

It is not given to everyone to hunt in
the Shires, but it is given to a good many
(with an effort) to hunt somewhere or other,
either in their own neighbourhood, or within
reach of London, and, as the inimitable
Jorrocks observes, ''the iron horse is the
best kiver 'ack in the world."

What would our forefathers have thought,
I wonder, of a man working hard at his
business overnight, rising with the — we
had better say sparrow — there are no
larks in London, at least not from the orni-
thologist's point of view ! — travelling fifty
or sixty miles to the scene of his day's
hunting, enjoying that, and returning the

WITH FOXHOUNDS. 25

same night to dine at eight, In the neigh-
bourhood of Hyde Park? And yet how
many do so, year after year.

You may, however, get plenty of sport,
even from London, without having to work
for it quite so hard as this ; and by taking a
pack, say about thirty to forty miles from
the great metropolis, you can get Into a
decent country, and yet not have to do any
violence to your feelings In the way of
early-rising. Indeed, I knew of a '' counsel,
learned In the law," who appeared before
the late Vice-Chancellor Malins — himself a
lover of the horse, but a terribly bad man
on one!— in leathers, boots, and spurs,
which were barely hidden by his gown, and
who made an application at the sitting of
the Court, and was even then in time to
catch his train and turn up punctually at
the meet !

" What a cruel thing foxhunting Is ! "

2(^ CROSS COUNTRY REMINISCENCES.

exclaimed a lady of my acquaintance, who
is nothinor if not humanitarian.

'' Who to ? the hounds or the horses ? "
queried the man she addressed, and I think
there is a good deal of truth in his remark.
If a good fox gets away with that fair
start which is, or ought to be, the ambition
of every man in the field to give him, I
think he has a bit the best of the deal, and,
bar accidents, will make both hounds and
horses sob, before he is beaten himself.

And bear in mind, too, that when he is
beaten, for absolute running, the end may
be still a remote contingency, for a fox is
as full of tricks as an Qgg is of meat (this
may not be an exactly happy metaphor, as
I have never yet found either beef or mutton
in an Qgg- I have chicken, though ! )
First of all, he can swim like a duck, run
like a race-horse for a mile, climb a tree, or
crawl through a key hole — if it is large

WITH FOXHOUNDS. 27

enough ! Add to this that he is perfectly
an courant with the mysteries of scent, and
a master of the art of destroying it, is a
perfect perambulating atlas of the surround-
ing country, and is as game as a pebble,
and we see at once that hounds have their
work cut out to successfully compete with
Nature's smartest production. You will
always notice that a fox's first instinct is
to get out of sight, and it is fairly astonish-
ing to see how cleverly he effects this, even
in the most open country. His next move
seems to be to determine, in his own mind,
the particular point he will make for ; he
will remember the existence of a friendly
earth, perhaps some five miles off, and for
that he goes. Watch how he lays himself
down to his work, lookincr back over his
shoulder, now and then, at his pursuers,
until he has, at least, deprived them of the
pleasure of hunting him by sight ; then,

28 CROSS COUNTRY REMINISCENCES.

taking advantage of anything that may
turn up to aid him In folhng the scent,
onward he goes, disdaining to sneak up
hedgerows, or He in ditches, until the pace
begins to tell upon him ; then It Is that he
no longer feels himself equal to taking the
straight line across the open, but looks
about him to see where he may find a
temporary haven In which to recruit his
falling strength. Finding none, he again
resolutely faces his task, the hounds, by
superior staying powers, slowly but surely
gaining on him. A park paling looms In
sight, and Reynard Is quick to take ad-
vantage of it. Running along the top, he
seems to chuckle at the thought of even
temporarily bothering his pursuers. Gain-
ing three or four minutes by this ruse, he
scrambles onwards, his back now arched
and brush almost dragging on the earth
as he goes. At last he sees the little fir

WITH FOX HO UNDS. 21)

patch, concealed within which is the
longed-for hiding place. Hounds are now
within a hundred yards of him, and throw-
ing tongue in sounds that convey news of
joy to all the field within hail, and death
to the quarry, unless he can make good his
point. They come nearer and nearer, but
plainer and plainer gets the belt of firs ;
now the leading hound, straining every
nerve, overhauls him, stride by stride,
until she gets to within twenty yards of his
brush. Foxey looks sharply over his
shoulder, and then, distressed as he is by
the severity of the pace, seems to coolly cal-
culate his chances. Only a space of a hun-
dred yards or so remains to be traversed.
Melody does all she knows to lessen the
gap between them ; she is closely followed
by another old hand, Madrigal j they are
metaphorically licking their chaps over the
anticipated '' blood," they get closer and

30 CJ^OSS COUNTR V REMINISCENCES.

closer to his brush, it is almost within
reach, they have him ! No ! with one ugly
snap round, he dives like an eel into the
unstopped earth and is safe !

*' Capital spin, as near as possible half-
an-hour. No good trying to dig him here,
you know," are some of the remarks made,
as the first flight come up, by twos and
threes.

No, my friend, it's no good digging
him, under most circumstances ; to my
mind it always savours too much of
butchery, and taking a dirty advantage,
this same digging. He has given you a
good run ; what more did you come out
for ? For my part if I only wanted to see
an animal killed, I could have achieved my
object by going to a slaughter-house.

'' But the hounds want blood ; they have
deserved it," cry a chorus of sportsmen.

Well, in this world, we all want a great

WITH FOX HO UNDS. 3 1

many things, but we don't get them ; we
all, at least in our own estimation, deserve

a good many things, but we don't get them

for all that. As to the plea that hounds

lose their keenness by being occasionally

deprived of their reward, I simply don't

believe it. Depend on It, they will be just

as fond of the game next time they run.

Then, again, you can hug yourself with

this, that a fox who has given you one

good run may very likely afford you another

upon some subsequent occasion. Leave

him now, eat your sandwich and take a

pull at the flask ; trot off to draw for a

fresh fox, or, if it Is too late, light your

Laranaga and jog quietly home, thinking to

yourself that there's nothing quite so good

as foxhunting after all, and mentally settling

with yourself that every man on earth who

doesn't subscribe to your theory must

perforce be '' written down an ass."

32 CROSS COUNTRY REMINISCENCES.

We all ought to remember one most
important thing about foxhunting : the
easiest thing in the world is to spoil the
sport. A man who will walk or, worse
still, trot, his horse round a covert or
through a ride, at inopportune moments,
a woman who will give a little scream
because a squirrel runs up a tree beside
her, and Tommy, just home from school,
who insists upon shouting to Billy, the
other side of a copse, to inform him that
'' Pa said he musn't have the pony to-day,
so he took it," are all distinct terrors to
the Master and the rest of the field. Of
course, we all know by heart the maxims
taught us by our forbears as to never
pressing hounds at a check, being careful
never to head the fox, cii7n viultis aliis, and
to these, I think, we might usefully add one
more — to keep quiet. Beckford tells the
young sportsman wJiat to holloa under

WITH FOXHOUNDS. S3

given circumstances. With the big fields
of modern days I would say, *' Don't holloa
at all ; " that is, of course, if you are not
an experienced hand at the game. If you
are, you don't want my advice or that of
anyone else to guide you, but to a rider in
his first season or so, I would say, '^ Keep
your mouth rigidly closed and never seek
to use your whip thong ; " in the same way
that I should say to a man about to ride
his first steeplechase — '' Sit still," and
consider it the most practical piece of ad-
monition possible to give.

A thing which not only the young, but
also the experienced amongst us, are pain-
fully apt to forget, is never to lose sight
of hounds from the moment they are
thrown into covert. Neglect of this pre-
caution often loses you so much start that
you have to drive your horse to catch them,
and so distress him that you cannot enjoy

D

34 CROSS COUNTRY REMINISCENCES.

the spin when you do get up. If they go
away very fast, the probablHty Is that you
don't catch them at all ! This is an
especially cheerful situation if you have
travelled from town for the express purpose
of hunting. When you do get well away
with them, then try to ''go into every field
with the hounds," as the great Tom Smith
recommended. That piece of advice calls
to mind the story of the sporting old
parson, who, encountering his Bishop at a
ball, was by him taken to task for the ''high
crime and misdemeanour" of foxhunting.

" But," said the parson, " your Lord-
ship, I see, goes to dances."

''Ah," replied the wily Bishop, "but I
am never in the same room with the
dancers."

" Well, my Lord," said the parson, with
the suspicion of a twinkle in his eye, " my
horse and I are both growing old, and

WITH FOXHOUNDS. 35

ive are never in the same field with the
hounds ! "

To my mind, a really good run is indeed
a rara avis. It takes such an alarmingly
large combination of circumstances to
obtain — a good fox, a good country, a
good scent ; then that you shall be on a good
horse and get a good start. Only one of
these things may be lacking, and away
goes all your enjoyment, but, granted all
the requisites, bear in mind this axiom :
having got well off in front, keep there !
Foxhunting is essentially a sociable sport,
and remembering this, we ought to pursue
a give-and-take policy ; not riding solely
for ourselves, but having a due regard for
others' comfort. There is no excuse for
spoiling the sport, however much a man
may talk about going out to please him-
self, &c. Such stuff savours not only of
selfishness, but of "bounce" as well.

36 CJ^OSS COUNTR V REMINISCENCES.

Of stone-wall countries I have a very
slight experience, but have been told by
those best qualified to judge, that they are
not so formidable to ride over, as we, who
know little about them, imagine. As a rule
— almost an invariable one, I believe — there
are no ditches on either side, and the great
thing to be cautious of is that you do not
land in a chalk- pit ! Of course the best
amongst stone-wall-country packs is that
kept by the noble owner of Badminton, the
Duke of Beaufort, to whom hunting men
owe so much in a variety of ways. The
Duke's great courtesy, and the goodness
of heart he displays to his inferiors, are well
known, and I, personally, have experienced
such kindness and consideration at his
hands as I shall not easily forget. The
Heythrop, in some parts, have a good
many walls to surmount. On the Glou-
cestershire side they get a good allowance

WITH FOXHOUNDS. '61

of grass, and, in the other direction, much
too large a supply of woodland.

The Injuries caused to horses In failing
to clear these obstacles, are usually of a
severe nature, especially if they ''knee"
them at all. Some time since, hearing of a
good horse who had struck a wall pretty
hard in the Cheltenham country, I went
down, and, finding the injury to the knee
comparatively slight, bought him. His
jumping powers at everything are undeni-
able, but he has never forgotten that it was a
wall that " rose up and hit him," and nothing
will Induce him to leave less than a foot
between himself and the top of any obstacle
of the kind now, though it is nearly three
years since his mishap.

The fashion of modern writing Is to decry
the horse, hound, and man of to-day, and
always to elevate the celebrities of a by-
gone time at their expense. And this

38 CJ^OSS COUNTRY REMIMSCENCES.

glorification of the past, is not confined to
writing. Who is it that has not, at some
time or other, been speaking of Cannon or
Archer, and been immediately awed into
silence with the mystic names of ''Nat"
and Jim Robinson ? Who, again, has ever
dared to mention the best cross-country
riders of to-day, without having Osbaldes-
ton and Sir Harry Goodricke fired off at
him, by some pre-historic fossil, who goes
on the principle that nothing is right
except what took place in his day ! Be-
cause horses don't run four-mile heats now-
adays, it by no means follows that we
have none at Newmarket that could ac-
complish those slightly dreary perform-
ances ; and if the hounds of to-day don't,
as a rule, make fifteen and twenty-
mile points, there is a solid reason for it
quite apart from any question of decadence.
The simple explanation is contained in the

WITH FOXHO UNDS. 39

one word, pace. The horse that can gallop
for a mile, at the speed required to win a
Royal Hunt Cup, would make many of the
old four-mile-heaters — could they be re-
suscitated— look extremely silly at the end
of a race over the Newmarket Beacon
Course, and the victor in the Liverpool
Grand National, four and three-quarter
miles, over about thirty big fences, and
with some eleven or twelve stone on his
back — a journey which is ordinarily ac-
complished under ten minutes — would have
small difficulty in losing the old-fashioned,
dock-tailed, half-bred, bestridden by our
forefathers, in a run of any length, and
over any country in the world ! Horses
are better bred than they used to be, they
are faster, by far, than they were, and every
child knows that the higher the pressure,
the shorter time it can be kept up. Given
a slightly decreased rate of speed, and our

40 CROSS COUNTRY REMINISCENCES.

horses would be found not only as good,
but better stayers, in my humble ophilon,
than any that have made themselves
famous In a past age. The Frenchmen
are pretty smart In securing our best
staying blood, but they haven't got It all
yet.

I think he would be a bold man who
" stood" even the mighty Eclipse against
Robert the Devil, over a two or three mile
course, both coming to the post In their
best form ; and If Prince Charlie could
have been matched over the Rowley Mile,
with anything that ever saw the light
before him, I, for one, should have been
tempted to ^' have a dash," and a big one
too, on the bonny chestnut son of Blair
Athol !

Amongst the farmers over w^hose land
hounds run, there is, in most countries, a
very friendly feeling ; and provided that

WITH FOX HO UNDS. 41

riders know the difference between wheat
and weeds, and use their heads in crossing
the land, very little real harm is likely to
result. We should never be guilty of little
pieces of inconsiderate behaviour, such as
passing through a gate and leaving it open
behind us, when stock are in the field ;
knocking down sheep hurdles, or unneces-
sarily pulling fences about in order to get
through, &c. Then, also, we must remember
we hunt on sufferance, and that if a man
objects to our riding over his land, he is
quite within his strict rights, and we are
bound to respect his prejudices. I re-
collect a pleasant little incident, in connec-
tion with this subject, in the Crawley and
Horsham country. Our fox had gone
straight across a big piece of wheat, whither
the whole field followed him, and he was
finally rolled over right on the owner's
front lawn. In the midst of the "worry"

42 CJ^OSS COUNTRY REMINISCENCES.

the farmer came pounding along on his fat
old horse, out of breath, and in a high state
of excitement. The Master rode up to meet
him, and said very courteously —

'' I am very sorry, Mr. R — , I'm afraid
we've cut your wheat about, very much."

'^ D — n the wheat, sir ! Have you killed
your fox ? " was the panting and sports-
manlike reply.

CHAPTER III.

WITH STAGHOUNDS.

The three principal packs of these hounds,
the Queen's, Lord Rothschild's, and the
Mid- Kent, are all within easy reach of the
metropolis. The two former are pretty
close to each other, on the Great Western
and North - Western lines respectively.
Some of the Queen's, and nearly all of
Lord Rothschild's country, is excellent.
These are both of them non-subscription
packs. The Mid-Kent, when they get into
the district round Sevenoaks, or near the

44 CROSS COUNTRY REMINISCENCES.

kennels, in the immediate neighbourhood of
Maidstone, enjoy some really fine spins, with
plenty of grass and big fencing, but the
country is not so good on the Farningham
side. They meet at 12, and may be reached
by either the South-Eastern, or London,
Chatham, and Dover Railways. Essex is
catered for by the Hon. H. Petre, and you
have only to go either to Croydon or Red-
hill, if you are desirous of patronizing the
Surrey. The Warnham are a little further
afield, crossing the same country as the
Crawley and Horsham Foxhounds. If,
however, your soul soars above hunting the
carted deer, you must repair to the West,
and follow the Devon and Somerset over
their wild and picturesque heather and
moorland. It need hardly be remarked
that this is not the pack for Londoners.
It is rather the fashion to rave about the
sport here, and, as every August comes

WITH STAGHOUNDS. 45

round, the stereotyped rhodomontade is
hurled at us, in the shape of an account of
the opening day, probably penned in Fleet
Street, by some enterprising youth, who, if
he got on a horse one side, would be sure
to fall off the other :— " Cloutsham "— " the
old harbourer " — " warrantable deer " —
" vast expanse of moorland" — " far-famed
Dunkery Beacon " — " tufting " — '' the wild
Red Deer," &c., &c. All these are dragged
out to do duty, year after year, and to people
who have never seen the country, the pros-
pect certainly seems entrancing. As to the
beauty of the scenery, that is undeniable ;
but the newspaper paragraphist omits to
mention, First: hogs, ad libitum. Secondly:
scrambling over eternal boulders, and slid-
ing down one hill, in order to clamber up
another. Thirdly : no jumping ! All this
is somewhat melancholy, and seriously de-
tracts from the enjoyment of the fun. Still

46 CROSS CO UNTR V REMINISCENCES.

it is, without doubt, a soul-stirring thing to
see hounds run here, and if, by carefully
following someone who knows^ you avoid
getting bogged, miss breaking your neck
over a boulder, and don't always find your-
self at the bottom of one hill, when hounds
have just reached the top of another, the
very picturesqueness of the surroundings
may make it well worth your while to pay
this pack a visit. Native horses are the
things to ride ; most of them that have
been bred on the moor are not to be cajoled
into a bog. To a stranger going down into
this country, no better advice could be
given than that he should place himself in
the hands of Mr. John White, of Taunton,
who always has a large stud fit to go. I
have never availed myself of his services in
this country, but he has mounted me, right
well, with the Blackmoor Vale, and I speak
as I find.

WITH ST A GHO UNDS. 47

As far as I have ever been able to see, a
fresh deer has no particular choice as to
whether he runs up wind or down ; in fact,
there is no calculating how they are going
to run. It by no means follows that be-
cause they know the country, or because
that country is an open Down, that they
mean going ; equally uncertain is it whether
they will choose the hills, or the vales, and
sometimes, in the stiffest-fenced countries,
they will go as straight as a gun-barrel, for
miles. These remarks apply as much to
the wild, as to the carted deer. Even more
than in foxhunting, therefore, should we
stick tight to the hounds, if we wish to get
to the end of a run at all ; there is nothing
upon which we may, with any safety, base
our calculations in case of getting thrown
out.

In the way of stratagem, a hunted deer,
though giving pride of place to the '^ thief

48 CROSS COUNTRY REMINISCENCES.

of the world," as friend Jorrocks calls him^
is a very long way from a fool ; as witness
his prowess when he ''runs to herd," i.e.,
pushes up another deer and lies close him-
self, a plan that, of course, can only be
pursued where the wild animal is hunted.
A deer will often, also, manage to obliterate
the scent by '' taking soil," as getting to
the water is called, though his principal
object in doing this, is, undoubtedly, to
refresh himself by his bath.

Nowhere can the hunting of the carted
deer, in my humble opinion, be seen to such
advantage as in the Vale of Aylesbury,
following Lord Rothschild's pack, one of
the very best extant. The thanks of all
true sportsmen are due to the munificent
master of Ascott for his unselfish conduct
in maintaining this princely establishment in
the style he does, and for affording so much
enjoyment to the public, free of all cost to

WITH S TA GHO UNDS. 4 9

them. In Frederick Cox and Mark How-
cott, the Hunt have two as able servants as
it is possible to get, and in spite of the
former's many and honourable scars, which
have affected his seat on a horse, he still
contrives to be with his hounds in their
fastest spins. I believe Mark would ride
at a furniture van, if necessity arose, and in
that respect he reminds me strongly of
George Loder, huntsman to the Crawley
and Horsham, who created a profound im-
pression upon me, on an occasion, some
twelve years back, when at the finish of a
hard run, he rammed the almost dead-beaten
chestnut mare he was on, at about four feet
six of stiff, new timber, and just won the
deal!

I have already brie% alluded to the Vale
of Aylesbury ; it is one of the most essen-
tially hunting and riding countries in the
kingdom, and the fences are all that the

E

50 CJ^OSS CO UNTR Y REMINISCENCES.

heart of man could desire. Add to this,
th^t it is, for the Londoner, extremely ac-
cessible by means of a goodly train service,
and what more can we want ?

The charge of '' coming out to ride," in
contradistinction to '' coming out to hunt,"
is frequently levelled at followers of stag-
hounds, and no doubt there is a good deal
of truth in it ; but those who indulge in un-
pleasant observations of this kind are usually
men whose timiC is their own, and who can
therefore afford a blank day, now and then,
with foxhounds. But how about the busy
man, snatching his day here and there,
just as he gets the opportunity ? A blank
day comes very hard upon him, and this he
obviates by going with staghounds. Be-
sides this, the pursuit of the carted deer
occasionally affords hounds an excellent
chance of showing something more than
galloping and staying power, and gives the

WITH ST A GHO UNDS. 5 1

huntsman as much real work to do as his
brother of the vulpine chase. Of course,
with fox-hunting enthusiasts, such as Mr.
Jorrocks, we can expect no quarter in dis-
cussing what that distinguished sportsman
likened to '' turning outahass, and 'unting
'im," but then we are not all as intolerant
as the worthy grocer. I have just been
talking to-day to a good sportsman of
the olden type, a friend of the ever-to-
be-lamented Rev. ''Jack" Russell. He
was in the habit of staying with the cele-
brated Parson, for the stag-hunting, and,
joined by Mr. Granville Somerset, no less
famed for his prowess across country, than
for his powers at the Parliamentary Bar, the
trio must have formed a right merry party
at dinner, after their healthful day upon the
purple heather. My friend has hunted with
most packs, both of fox and staghounds,
and nothing, in his opinion, comes up to the

52 CROSS COUNTRY REMINISCENCES.

chase of the red deer, whether on the Quan-
tocks or across Exmoor.

One of the funniest things I ever re-
member in connection with the sport,
happened some years ago, whilst going in a
run with the Old Surrey Foxhounds. We
had been running somewhere about twenty
minutes, when, in getting through some
woodland, about half-a-dozen of us went
down a ride, and soon after emerging there-
from I came in view of the hounds running
hard. Pushing my horse a bit, I got up
to the front rank, and immediately after we
came to the top of a hill. Judge of my
intense astonishment when I saw, away to
the left, a deer^ with the pack in hot pur-
suit ! We had actually changed packs in
the woodland, and I had unwittingly fol-
lowed the staghounds, and let my own pack
go!

I never had the opportunity of seeing

WITH ST A GHO UNDS. 53

Lord Wolverton's bloodhounds, but have
learnt from those who have, what a rare
treat it was to watch them at work. The
head of the Glyns has sold them now, and
started a pack of harriers in their place.
Speaking of the Glyn family, one cannot
help remembering how well Sir Richard of
that ilk has deserved of Somerset and
Dorset men for the able way in which, for
seventeen years, he discharged the duties
of Master to the Blackmoor Vale, spending
enormous sums on the pack out of his own
pocket, and less than two years since I had
the pleasure of seeing him going, as well
as ever, with these hounds. He could not
have resigned them into better hands than
those of Mr. Merthyr Guest, the present
Master, whose ability is no less remarkable
than the never-failing courtesy he extends
to " all sorts and conditions of men" who
hunt with him.

54 CJ^OSS COUNTRY REMINISCENCES.

The paddock-fed deer seldom exhibits
much fear when uncarted before hounds.
Plenty of them, in fact, have to be fairly
driven away from the field they are turned
out in, and even then, go away at a leisurely
trot. Properly trained, by being hustled
round the paddock regularly every day, the
lady gives as good runs as her lord, who
would often be a nasty customer for the
huntsman and whips to tackle, if not bereft
of his antlers. Even as it is^ they can
often make a very spirited resistance to
the '' take," and the inexperienced had
better be chary of offering assistance in
the process, to the hunt servants. Such,
at all events, is the advice feelingly given
by a gentleman whose zeal exceeded his
discretion, a little time ago, and who was
vigorously forwarded into a cucumber frame,
by way of reminder, for his pains !

Some runs of staghounds of late years

WITH S TA GHO UNDS. 55

have been a trifle astonishing for their
duration, and how horses and hounds can
keep going for four hours or more, at a
stretch, is mystifying. The deer Moon-
light, a celebrated customer pertaining to
the Mid- Kent pack, was uncarted about 12
one day, two or three seasons ago, and was
not taken till eight o'clock at night ! One
horse, I believe, comprised the ''field" at
the finish, and how he got there is a
puzzle ! It is no unusual thing for a run
of twenty to thirty miles to be chronicled,
and with Captain Kerr's pack, in the
County Down, there are one or two even
longer than that, on record. The old Nor-
folk staghounds used to get some lengthy
gallops over a capital country. The 19th
Hussars, fresh from their Egyptian glories,
have now taken them over, and may good
luck attend the conjunction of capital
sportsmen and a right good pack.

56 CJ^OSS COUNTR V REMINISCENCES.

In concluding this chapter, let me pay
a slight tribute of respect to poor Dawkins,
who had, only shortly before, come to hunt
the Surrey staghounds, when he met with
his death by his horse coming back on
him. An abler, more civil and well-con-
ducted hunt servant did not exist, and both
in the field and in his private life he left a
character and example that were, as he,
poor fellow, was, across a country, '' hard to
beat."

CHAPTER IV.

WITH DRAGHOUNDS.

'' People who ride with the Drag amply
prove their title to trespass on the hos-
pitality of the local Lunatic Asylum," said
a first-rate cross-country rider, senten-
tlously, one day when the subject was
being hotly debated, and the observation
sank all the deeper into my ivAnd from the
fact that, for years, I have been an ardent
follower in " the pursuit of the red herring "
myself. Dearly as I have got to love this
afternoon scurry, much as one enjoys the fun

58 CJ^OSS COUNTRY REMINISCENCES.

of racing over the grass, and charging the
somewhat formidable fences that are In-
variably crossed by the human runner, I
must confess to thinking that after a man
has passed the ^' forties," he would do well
to take to some rather less exciting pas-
time. It Is the best game In life for
bachelors to play at, but If a man has a
family depending on his exertions, It might
be better that he should give up anything
so likely to necessitate a coroner's Inquest.
'^ It's steeplechasing," says one, con-
temptuously. So It Is, practically, my
friend, and steeplechasing, let me say,
is about as pretty a sport as a young man
need wish for. Drag-hunting has one
advantage over steeplechasing, too, by no
means to be lost sight of ; there Is no
money depending on your horse, and, there-
fore, you can just pull him up whenever he gets
beaten, without the consequence of having

WITH DRAGHOUNDS. 59

mud (both literal and metaphorical) thrown
at you, as you ride back into the paddock !

I believe the proportion of falls got, out
with Draghounds, is something like twenty,
to the one, incurred with other packs. This,
of course, arises chiefly from the pace ;
there is no time, generally speaking, to
pull your horse back and let him take his
own time at the fences. You must send
him along from end to end, and unless he
either fhes everything, or has got the pace
of a Derby winner to make up lost time on
the flat, you very soon find yourself '^ out
of it."

There are a few packs of these hounds
within easy reach of London, but, as far as
I know, they are all in private hands. I
suppose the best known are those belonging
to the Household Brigade, near Windsor,
and the smart little pack owned by the
Royal Artillerymen at Woolwich. Chiefly

60 CROSS COUNTR V REMINISCENCES.

with a view to the farmers' interests, their
meets are kept strictly private, and, as a
rule, a very select field is the result. Thank
goodness for it, say I ! If we had a
hundred horsemen charging the first fence
together, jealous as girls, and each trying
to get a good start, it would really come
cheaper in the end to have an undertaker
attached to the Hunt, at an inclusive
salary !

Many of the advantages offered by stag-
hunting, are also obtainable here, such, for
instance, as being sure of your gallop, no
waiting about covert, &c., and the late
hour of starting — frequently not till
three o'clock — is, of course, unique. A
mistake is often made, I think, in choosing
a '^ rasper" for the first obstacle. Were it
done with the object of shaking off a crowd,
sifting the chaff from the wheat, it would
be understandable, but with the very small

WITH DRA GHO UNDS, 61

number who usually assemble for the gallop,
this cannot be — yet it is almost invariably
done. A horse can't be expected to jump
at the first go off, as he will do later on ;
he has not warmed to the work, or perhaps
he is of an excitable temperament, and the
sight of the refusing, rearing, and kicking
crowed of his fellows — there is generally
this little performance going on at the first
fence — upsets his nerves, and then what
happens? — there is more scrimmaging, and
we see, oh frequent occurrence ! that Mr.
Eager, w^hose horse refused the first time,
turns him short round at it again, without
letting Captain Shortemper have his chance
first. The consequence is that amidst the
din of tongues, amidst the whipping and
spurring, an ominous ''thud" announces
a collision.

"D — n it, sir! w^here the devil are you
going ! " shout both the excited sportsmen,

62 CROSS COUNTRY REMINISCENCES.

simultaneously, at each other. A third
then gallops up and gets over ; then
another comes at it, a bit too fast, his
horse slips on taking off, and '^ an imperial
crowner " into the next field is the result.
The huntsman, whip, and half a dozen more
of us have already got nearly down to the
next obstacle, a flight of post and rails.
One after the other we all manage to
negotiate them, our leader landing on knees
and nose ; but scrambling up again, without
a scratch, he keeps his place at the head of
affairs, and, sailing gaily away again, sends
his horse at, and surmounts, a quickset and
ditch on the far side. The said ditch
claims its victim in the shape of the fourth
man essaying it. The last we see of the
mishap, after discovering that he is not
hurt, is his horse's four legs waving
aimlessly about in the air. Hounds are
still racing away in front, and putting a

WITH DRA GHO UNDS. 63

longer distance than ever between them-
selves and the nearest of the horsemen.
There Is no baffling of scent to contend with
here, and nothing that need hold their noses
down for a second ; all they have to do is
to gallop ! Now we begin to rise a slight
hill, which rapidly brings our leader's flashy,
non-staying weed, back to us, and a stiff-
built, powerful little chestnut, who has been
plodding doggedly along In the rear of the
first flight. Immediately goes to the head of
affairs. On the summit of the incline we
are confronted by a forbidding looking,
stubbly hedge, which the gallant chestnut
at once proceeds to tackle. Judiciously
taking a slight pull at him, his rider catches
him hard by the head and sends him at the
weakest place. Well, there Isn't fmcch to
spare, but he gets to the other side '' all
standing ! " Three others get over In
safety, but the severity of the pace has

64 CROSS COUNTRY REMINISCENCES.

been too much for the rest, most of whom
either fall or decline the business alto-
gether.

At a reduced pace, we go on over the
next field, and then, turning right-handed,
descend a long piece of stubble, jump a
low rail, and heave in sight of the one
obstacle that now divides us from the ever-
welcome '' check." This said obstacle is
a formidable-looking brook, about sixteen
feet of open water. We are going to it
downhill, so are not afraid to push our
somewhat blown horses to an increased
pace as we approach it. The first man
gets over, the second comes clean in, the
third succeeds, with a flourish and one
hind leg dropped in, and the next two
refuse point blank. Hounds have already
stopped where the drag has been lifted,
and, puffing and panting, we slip off our
horses, who, with heads down, flanks

WITH DRA GHO UNDS. 65

heaving, and tails distended, are only too
thankful for the breather. Some minutes
elapse before the first of the stragglers
appears over the brow of the hill ; the hoof-
marks on the wet ground, and — shall we
confess it ? — the ominous gaps, here and
there, in the fences, have effectually marked
our track, and shown him the way we came.
Seeing hounds at a standstill, he, like a
wise man, declines the brook, and crosses
by the little low bridge, higher up the
stream. Some half-dozen more eventually
arrive ; the rest have either given it up, or
the line has proved a '' stopper" for them.
Refreshed by the halt, hounds are slowly
moved off again. We jog along half a
mile of road, and then, turning in at a gate,
start across a big bit of pasture, rather
holding, but splendid going for all that.
We are bearing away to the left now, and
the first thing that bars our progress is a

F

6 6 CR OSS CO UNTR Y REMINISCENCES.

real stiff quickset, something that you
instinctively rise in your stirrups to have a
look over, directly you come within range.
" Nothing the other side," we murmur to
ourselves, thankfully, and then Number One
crams his hat down on his head and
charges it. Number One may have meant
to p^et over it, but Number One's horse dis-
tinctly didn't! His refusal causes the
next man's animal to whip round, too, and
then one old hunter, fired all round, and
who couldn't trot on the hard road to save
his life, cocks his ears forward and gallops
right between the refusers, topping the
hedge in splendid style ; with his lead,
two more get over, and are soon joined on
the far side by most of the others, who
have galloped up the hedgerow to an open
gate. Surmounting an easy flight of hurdles,
we find ourselves in a field which gives us
the choice, by way of egress, of a high hog-

WITH DRA GHO UNDS. 67

backed stile, a five-barred gate, and a rasp-
ing blackthorn hedge. One man goes for the
gate, but, unfortunately, the gate retaliates
and ''goes for" him, turning him over in
real business-like fashion. Nobody seems
to fancy the stile, but one adventurous
sportsman comes at the blackthorn at
about forty miles an hour ; neither he nor
his horse see a stiff rail that is run through
it, and which catches the latter's near hind
leg, with the effect of hanging them up,
struggling head downwards, for several
seconds, until the timber snaps across and
lets them into the next field '' knees and
nose." However, it has tunnelled a way
through for the rest, who follow without a
moment's delay.

Then come three or four enjoyable,
breakable fences ; the grass here Is all
sound going, and the pace a racing one.
An open ditch looms in sight ; down we

68 CJ^OSS CO UNTR V REMINISCENCES.

go at it ! It is a big one ! Two men are
racing for the honour of being first at it,
and charge it almost abreast ; result, one
in, the other over. Following them much
too closely, the next — a youth who labours
under the delusion that he can ride — un-
able to pull up, literally jumps ditch, horse
and man together, and after landing safely,
promptly falls over his horse's head, and
takes up a position on his back, admi-
rably adapted to the study of astronomy.
'' Thank goodness he' s down," murmurs
an old hand, as he lets in the Latchfords
and clears the obstacle in safety. ^' I
never feel my neck's safe with that young
ass careering all over the place ! " Three
others get over, and then we sit down in
our saddles to make the best of our way to
where the pack have already finished the
spin. A flight of hurdles and an unsub-
stantial rail, which is chested and smashed

WITH DRA GHO UNDS. 69

by the foremost horse, brings us to our
journey's end.

The huntsman, leaving his smoking
steed to take care of himself — he won't
stray very far after this, depend on it ! —
fetches the paunch from the runner's cart,
and, after a blast or two on the horn, dis-
tributes the spoil. Whilst the hounds
devour it, we light our cigars and look out
for the stragglers. We, who happen to
have had the best of the luck to-day, are,
of course, feeling an inward superiority to
the rest of mankind, that we wouldn't part
with for a five-pound note ! Here comes
one man with a dirty coat, talking to
another who has broken a stirrup leather.
Why, it's our friend Shortemper, chatting
in most amicable fashion with Mr. Eager !
They are fastest of friends again, and now
the latter takes one of the gallant captain's
proffered Cabanas. They are overtaken by

70 CROSS COUNTRY REMINISCENCES.

a riderless horse, whose bridle has broken
and come off. His groom, who has just
appeared on the scene, will have an ex-
citing, if laborious, half-hour's work before
catching him. Three more closely follow,
each explaining that had he been on some-
thingdse he would have finished some7£^^^r^
else. Then, in the far distance, appears a
man leading his horse, which has broken
down in front. We don't wait any longer,
but with a cheery ''Good-night!" jog
quietly off, on our respective homeward
journeys, each hugging himself with the
idea that he, individually, has had a bit the
best of it, and mentally resolving that his
particular horse is ''worth his weight in
gold." Next time we go out we shall pro-
bably get " pounded " at something or
other, and then say that we would " sell
him for a tenner ! " Such is Hfe, and such
are the ways of hunting men !

WITH DRA GHO UNDS. 7 1

The rustics, who congregate round the
jumps, are a terrible nuisance sometimes,
with their shouting and yelhng, enough
to make any young or nervous horse ''turn
it up " at once. Then, when he has satis-
factorily brought about the refusal, Chaw-
bacon is thoroughly delighted, and indulges
in unlimited derision. I remember a scene
of the kind at a big brook once. "' You'll
fall in, gov'ner," shrieked the yokel, grin-
ning all round the back of his head at his
own witticism. " Yes, I should if it was
anything like as big as your mouth is,"
was the prompt reply, and thereupon did
the said yokel " curl up " and retire,
amidst the merciless laughter of the crowd.
They are ever too ready, also, to block up
every practicable place in a fence with their
unwelcome presence, and to increase the
size of a jump whenever it lies in their
power so to do.

72 CJ^OSS COUNTR V REAIINISCENCES,

Draghunting, at its worst, is a very plea-
sant substitute for the real thing, and in
case no pack of regular hounds is within
reach, or where the country is a bad one,
it is especially acceptable. In a country
that is bad for natural hounds, you may
often get a small Leicestershire, by means
of the human runner, who, of course, es-
chews the plough, and takes every bit of
grass land possible. He also has the option
of the fences, and can choose those only
with a fair take off and no traps. Then,
again, in a "' wired " district, the track
being known beforehand, the little white
flags give you friendly warning of where
you may dispense with the '' nippers," and
jump with comparative safety. The worst
part of the whole business seems to me to
lie in the harm it undoubtedly does the
horses, on account of the butchering way
they have to be ridden. Big fence after

WITH DRA GHO UNDS. 78

big fence has to be faced, at a pace more
like racing than hunting, and I have seen
countless good horses turn cowards after a
season of this work. Indeed, I cannot call
to mind a single animal that w^as ever any
use for the game after his third season at
it. To those who argue that it is no worse
than steeplechasing for them, I would say
that the steeplechase horse rarely has to
gallop more than three miles over fences,
and also that he is not called upon, as a
rule, to do this, anything like twice a week
throughout the season. To my mind,
the best of all mounts, for this sport, is a
steeplechaser who has got a bit too slow to
win races, but has, with that very slowness,
become pleasant and temperate at his
fences ; he has the pace to keep in front
without distressing himself, and can cover
plenty of ground at his leaps. If, however^
you must choose between a slow horse that

74 CJ^OSS CO UNTR Y REMINISCENCES.

is a certainty at his fences, or one with any
amount of speed, but an unreliable jumper,
don't hesitate a moment, but take the
former by all manner of means. As a
general rule, there is so much jumping to
be done, in this style of riding to hounds,
that refusals are too serious to be compen-
sated for by mere speed on the fiat. There
is no better school for getting a steeple-
chaser fit to run, and giving him some
jumping practice at the same time. Talk-
ing of that subject reminds me of a spin I
once rode in with Draghounds, when we had
some 'top-sawyers," in the steeplechasing
way, forming the major part of the starters,
and for " quality " in the riding line, I have
only to mention that, included in the twelve
or fifteen who composed the field, were Mr.
W. H. Moore, Mr. Harry Beasley, and
another less known but quite as able a gen-
tleman rider ; John Jones and Arthur Hall,

WITH DRA GHO UNDS. 7 5

the Epsom steeplechase professionals, I
think C. Lawrence, one of the ablest of cross-
country jockeys, and two or three more of the
same type, whose names have escaped my
memory. I don't think there was one there
who had not ridden in silk ! That field was
a comparatively safe one to ride in. No
fear of Inexperience jumping on top of you
there! I have seen a man, off his horse
on the top of a bank, the animal being
fairly bogged in the adjoining open ditch,
have his velvet cap (he was hunting the
hounds) taken off by the next man, who
almost jumped over him ! That sort of
thing is just a little too exciting for peace-
ful enjoyment ! I myself have been knocked
almost out of the saddle by an impetuous
youth, who just missed jumping on top of
me, by a miracle. It afforded me, I am
bound to confess, a calm and tranquil satis-
faction to see that the result was an '^ im-

76 CROSS COUNTRY REMINISCENCES.

perial crowner " for the aggressor, who so
humbly apologized, however, that I relented
and caught his horse for him ! It really
was too close a thing to be pleasant. I lost
one stirrup iron, and was shunted so far out
of the saddle that I had to hang on, like a
fly to a ceiling, half over the next field.

Very few of the fair sex, as may be
imagined, come out with draghounds, and
I think they are wise. Still, the few I have
seen go with them at all, have gone right
gallantly. One in especial, whom I had the
honour of piloting throughout one season, I
once saw jump an obstacle of mixed timber
and *' quick," over five feet in height, with
a drop on the other side, on a cob that
could walk under the standard at 14.3.

Nothing puts a man out of conceit with
himself so much as going with these hounds.
The best of jumpers will occasionally re-
fuse, or fall, going the pace they do over

WITH DRA GHO UNDS. 11

what is, practically, an unprepared steeple-
chase course. Then it is that the men
who secretly hug themselves with the idea
that they '^ can get to hounds on any-
thing" — and their name is legion- -find
themselves so grievously humiliated. A
refusal, unless you can get your horse
round and over at the next attempt, is
almost as fatal to your chance here as it
would be in a steeplechase, and therefore
it continually happens that many of the
crack men out, find themselves lobbing in
at the finish, with the ruck. This, repeated
two or three times, will convince a man
that, ride he ''never so wisely," he is but
mortal after all !

CHAPTER V.

WITH HARRIERS.

No better example of how harriers should
be handled could be found than in Mr.
Fellowes's celebrated pack, the Shotes-
ham, near Norwich. A good banking
country, plenty of hares, friendly land-
owners, an unusually smart, lot of hounds,
and, above all, Mr. Fellowes himself,
constitute an amalgam of attraction for the
hound-lover, not often to be met with. Some
of the hares here, run like foxes, and give
just as good sport. An ideal huntsman.

WITH HARRIERS. 79

the Master still slips over a country in
wonderful fashion, not, truly, as of yore,
when he was wont to make the hardest of
them cry '^ enough " in the grass countries,
but riding slowly at everything, never hurry-
ing, but always being there !

Well do I mind me of my first introduc-
tion to this pack. I was young, on a
strange horse — such a beast ! — and had
never ridden in a banking country before.
Consequently, when my mount persistently
declined to fly the obstacles, my supreme
ignorance prompted me — never dreaming
that banking should be done slowly I — to
ram him at everything at forty-miles-an-
hour pace. The result was, of course,
inevitable ! Over we all came in the most
approved fashion — unluckily for me, horse
being on top ! — and by the time I re-
covered enough of my senses to know one
end of the animal from the other, the

80 CROSS CO UNTR Y REMINISCENCES.

hounds must have been about a mile this
side of the North Pole !

In spite of Mr. Jorrocks's severe remark
that '' I never sees a man a-trudgin' along a
turnpike with a thick stick in 'is 'and and
a pipe in 'is mouth, but I says to myself,
' There goes a man well mounted for
'arriers ' " — there is no better school, from
a really hunting point of view, for young-
sters than this. Here they can pick up
the method of hunting, the canons of that
great mystery, scent, and such invaluable
things as not pressing hounds, and being
patient under all circumstances, far better
than they could acquire them with more
rapidly working packs, because time Is
given them to see, and w^ork things out for
themselves. Again, after a man passes
that time of life when other hounds go a
bit too fast for him, I venture to say that
no pleasure in this way is greater than

WITH HARRIERS. 81

watching harriers at their work. Do not let
It be supposed, for a moment, that I would
relegate harriers to those, In either their
first, or second childhood. Such a thought
is far from my mind ; still I presume there
are few men the sunny side of fifty, who
would prefer a day with them, to a spin
with foxhounds. Hares will run rings for
the most part, though here and there you
do get a straight-necked one — still, it must
be confessed, these latter are rather the
exception than the rule. The present
huntsman of Mr. Lubbock's harriers, the
redoubtable ''Jack," will tell you that a
Kentish hare, capable of standing fifty
minutes or an hour, before hounds, Is no
uncommon thing, and the pack has for
many years shown excellent sport In a
rather bad country, both In rts present
ownership and when kept by that sterling
sportsman, Mr. George Russell, of Plum-

G

82 CROSS COUNTRY REMINISCENCES.

Stead, to whom, with his equally well-known
brothers, hunting men in West Kent owe
so much.

There is one thing we are all rather apt to
overlook, and that is, that farmers are much
more sorely tried by harriers, than by any
other hounds. In the nature of things, the
former will often cross and recross a field,
perhaps of seeds, roots, or wheat, a dozen
times, where the latter traverse it but once.
For this reason we ought to be doubly
careful of the way we ride, so as to do as
little damage as possible. For the enthu-
siastic schoolboy, magnificent opportunities
are lavishly given for jumping unnecessary
fences, a performance that he can execute
with the consoling reflection, that, after he
has consistently fallen off at each, there
will be plenty of time for him to resume the
perpendicular before hounds have got very
far away.

WITH HARRIERS, 83

In drawing for a hare, not only do the
hounds scatter widely, but the field is also
supposed to transform itself into an auxiliary
pack and assist. In spite of all endeavours
to '' rouse him," however, I am quite confi-
dent that many a hare has been literally
walked over, and never put up, so closely do
they lie. Generally speaking, these hounds
do not hunt a hedgerow as thoroughly as
they should ; if they do, they usually put in
a little rabbiting on their own account,
which is distinctly not in the programme.
I have seen it suggested, somewhere, that
terriers might be used for this purpose,
but while agreeing that they would do the
work better, I fear that trouble would arise
from the quarrelsome nature of harriers, and
there would also be some difficulty in getting
terriers to keep up with them when they
run. The experiment of hunting hare with
foxhounds is a failure ; they have too much

84 CROSS COUNTRY REMINISCENCES.

dash and are too impetuous for the work.
A harrier's greatest virtue is patience, and
an abiHty to hunt without human assistance.
It must have struck many how strangely
ahke a hare and a bagged fox will run, the
latter not knowing the country, and perhaps
his having been some time in captivity
accounts for this, and for choice, a pack
of harriers would give much better sport
with such a quarry than a pack of foxhounds.
Not that I would venture to insinuate that
my readers are likely to indulge in such a
mongrel entertainment as hunting a bagman.
A tom-cat would generally give about as
much sport !

I do not think I have ever been out with
half a dozen different packs of harriers in
my life, although I have acted as whip to
two, and I frankly confess that I should
take them only when other hounds are not
within reach. To me, the most interesting

WITH HARRIERS. 85

incident which ever occurred, in connection
with harriers, was when a great friend of
mind put his horse at a fence, fell clean
over it, and came down on his nose. Upon
rising to his feet and rubbing the offended
organ with rueful countenance, he was
greeted with this consoling remark from
the irate owner of the field into which he
had so unfortunately landed, '' Get out o'
this, will 'ee ? Ware wheat then ! " '' And
considering," said the unhappy victim to
me, afterwards, '' that all I'd done to his
beastly wheat was to plough it up with
my nose, I think it ivas rather rough upon
me!"

CHAPTER VI.

STEEPLECHASING AND HURDLE-RACING.

For '' pretty " sport, one might go a long
way before being able to beat the sight
of half a dozen crack steeplechase horses
sweeping down, almost abreast, at one of
their jumps. To hear the quick thunder
of the hoofs, the hard breathing of the
horses, mingled with the hard swear — I
mean, speaking — of the riders, is enough
to make the blood stir and tingle in any
human being, except, perhaps, the '' pro-
fessional beauty," who I once saw, at Good-
wood, deliberately put up her sunshade and

STEEPLECHASING, ETC. 87

turn her back on the finish of a race !
Most decent riders to hounds entertain
the curious Idea that they are well fitted
to ride In steeplechases. As far as the
fencing Is concerned, they are doubtless
not far wrong, but a good deal more than
that Is wanted In order to become a success-
ful pilot '' between the flags." Judgment
of pace, and that Indescribable something
known as " hands," which I always think
means a sort of Intuitive perception of what
your horse Is doing, and what nature of
assistance. If any, he stands in need of
from his rider, a feeling which Is, or ought
to be. Instinct in the fingers. True that
the hunting man should know these things,
but the jockey viiist. Then again the tricks
— I use the word in its best sense — of race-
riding, the use of the whip with either hand,
and above all the iron nerve and cool calcu-
lating head, are not given to many a man who

88 CROSS COUNTRY REMINISCENCES.

can, and does, go right well at the tail of a
pack of hounds. In hurdle-racing I think
there is even more in jockeyship, and the
clever way in which men like Mr, E. P.
Wilson will half jump, half rush a horse
over the obstacles, must have been noticed
by all observant race-goers. A steeplechase
rider should always be a strong man on
a horse, and this by no means depends on
whether he is a powerfully-built man, in
reality. Plenty of men of wretched physique,
light and weedy in appearance, would not
be in the least distressed, and would be
well able to hold a big, awkward horse
together, at the finish of a three or four mile
steeplechase, where the more stoutly made
one would be rolling about helplessly in his
saddle, unable to get an ounce out of his
mount. Being pow^erful on a horse seems
to be a happy combination of hands, good
condition, courage, and general " knack.'*

STEEPLECHASING, ETC. 89

Never shall I forget the finish of a two and
a half mile steeplechase in which I was
riding, and where the race was fairly thrown
away by the inexperienced jockey of the
second. He was helplessly endeavouring
to use his whip, letting his horse at the
same time, sprawl all over the course, and
with his mount going twice as fast as the
winner, he was beaten a short head ! Had
he taken example by his conqueror's de-
meanour— an experienced jockey, who sat
as still as a mouse, merely riding his
horse with his hands — he must have won
by many a length ! The best thing for the
amateur to do is to train himself. He requires
it, just as much as the animal he is going
to ride. This was the plan adopted by
Lord Manners in 1882 when he won the
Grand National at Liverpool, on Seaman,
by a head, after a desperate finish with Mr.
Tom Beasley on Cyrus. Where would he

90 CJ^OSS COUNTRY REMINISCENCES,

have been had be not been as fit as he
was ? The verdict iniist have been reversed,
and victory would have rested with his more
practised opponent, over such along, trying
course. This win, by the way, must have
been very galling to the owners of the
second, considering that they had sold the
winner, not long previously, out of their
own stable.

The '* gentlemen " have more than held
their own against the professionals, in this
greatest of cross-country contests, during
the past few years. Mr. '' Thomas," with
Anatis, The Lamb, and Pathfinder ; Mr. T.
Beasley, with Empress and Woodbrook, a
reputed roarer ; Lord Manners on Seaman ;
Mr. J. M. Richardson, with a brace in con-
secutive years. Disturbance — Commotion's
best son — and Reugny ; Mr. E. P. Wilson,
with Voluptuary and the ill-tempered
Roquefort ; Mr. F. G. Hobson, with one

STEEPLECHASING, ETC. 91

of the best horses that ever won, Austerlltz ;
and Count Kinsky on Zoedone, all occur to
the mind.

The innovation of the open ditch has not
found favour on the part of owners and
riders, and either with or without the guard
rail, I cannot regard It as being anything
like what Its advocates claim for It : a fair
hunting jump. Going at It at the pace
they do, steeplechase horses are very liable
to gallop almost Into It before they see it at
all, and I remember some time back at San-
down Park standing beside an open ditch
without a rail, and seeing a horse literally
gallop Into It, and disappear from view !
Things are better now, it Is true, In that the
ditches are made shallow, Instead of deep,
but anyhow, to take these jumps at racing
pace is a proceeding fraught with danger, and
It is difficult to see what useful purpose can be
served by retaining them. Most men found

92 C/^OSS COUNTRY REMINISCENCES.

quite sufficient excitement In steeplechase
riding without these " open graves," and I,
for one, should be glad to see them abol-
ished, and a '' double " substituted. Should
these lines catch the eye of any of the
merry little party who went down to Esher,
to ride at the first steeplechase meeting
there, I wonder If he will remember the
cheerful observation of one of the officials,
who Informed us, with great gusto, that '' a
surgeon was In readiness at the stand, and
an ambulance waggon would be in attend-
ance, in case " It was well meant, no

doubt ; still it takes a somewhat keen sense
of humour on the part of jockeys about
to ride to appreciate the unconsciously
grim joke of the thing, at the time.

Mention of this excellently conducted
meeting reminds one of the sad death
of poor Mr. Greville Nugent ('' Mr. St.
James"), one of the pluckiest and best

STEEPLECHASING, ETC, 93

of cross-country riders. Many of us re-
member how, on one occasion, in ridinof
Melita, he broke his leg against a post, but
persevered to the end of the race, in the
gamest fashion, and was only just beaten
into second place at the finish. If there
be any such thing, in reality, as luck, poor
Greville Nugent had the cruellest, in his
last fall. Riding in a Selling steeplechase,
he came down, quite clear of his horse,
Longford, and was rising unhurt from the
ground, when a horse struck him with his
forefoot, right on the base of the skull, and
killed him. He was '' all heart and no
peel " with a vengeance ! I believe he
never turned the scale at eight stone in his
life.

Provided that a man does not fall on his
head, there does not seem much fear of
serious injury in this sport, except from
the horse. Very few men get hurt if they

94 CJ^OSS COUNTRY REMINISCENCES.

can keep clear of their own and other
people's horses ; in not being able to do
so, undoubtedly, lies the danger. To find
one's-self down, with an animal on top of
one, is an extremely trying situation ! Some
years ago a steeplechase horse fell and
then rolled completely over me, without
breaking a bone. '' Not a bad get off,"
thought I to myself afterwards, and with
the exception of being severely cut about
the head and one leg, and having a general
vague idea that someone had been amusing
himself by passing the garden roller over
my much flattened carcase, I sustained no
hurt at all. A capital plan it is — when
practicable — to immediately cover your
head and face with your arms, so as to
escape injury, as far as may be, there.

There would be fewer bad falls if men,
when they find their horses hopelessly
beaten, would have the moral courage to

STEEPLECHASING, ETC. 95

pull them up, and not persevere. I know
that the jeers of even the ignorant jack-
asses who hardly know a horse from a cow,
and certainly have no clear perception of
whether an animal is '^ done " or not, are not
pleasant to bear, but surely it is preferable
to thus run the gauntlet, than to cruelly press
your horse and endanger your own neck ?
Young Goodwin probably lost his life
through driving a blown horse at a fence,
instead of ceasing to persevere, able and
steady horseman as he was. Poor fellow !
he lay for eleven or twelve days in the
Grand Stand at Sandown, without moving
a muscle, before he died. One cannot
help admiration for his pluck, but cui bono ?
Of course, it is different to hunting ; other
people's money and other people's interests
are concerned, and all must have weight
with the rider. Now, in hunting, when a
horse is beaten, it is sheer brutahty to

96 CJ^OSS COUNTRY REMINISCENCES.

butcher him along after his sobbing sides
have plainly told you the tale of his dis-
tress ; nothing is involved except his
rider's pleasure, and if the rider can get
''pleasure" out of his good horse's suffer-
ings, I do not think the community would
be the losers if he did break his neck !

About as unpleasant a ride as a man can
have, fell to my lot some time since, and
thinking of it always brings a laugh up
again, though I somehow failed to appre-
ciate the joke at the time. It was in a
Maiden steeplechase, and the day was
more than diabolical. Snow was falling
slightly, half the course was frozen and
the other half '' slush " ; still, by laying
straw, &c., on the landing side of the
jumps, racing was considered practicable
— by the stewards, who didn't have to ride.
Shivering down to the post in thin silk
jackets, with numb, blue fingers and — by

STEEPLECHASING, ETC. 97

way of pleasing contrast — red noses, we
waited about for the starter, who had ap-
parently been mislaid. By the time this
important functionary turned up (wiping
his mouth with the back of his hand, and
smelling suspiciously of cloves !) horses'
coats were all sticking up the wrong way,
and I am afraid the riders' tempers were
all '' sticking up the wrong way," too !
However, at last we did get off, and down
to the first fence, where every horse in the
field refused. I was lucky enough to get
mine over first, and went on with a long
lead. Jumping the fence on the far side,
my hair fairly stood on end to see that a
plough had been left, with grossest care-
lessness, so close that we landed within a
yard of it ! I managed to keep my
mount in front till over the final obstacle,
and from that point to the finish I had,
perhaps, as hard work — physically, I mean

H

98 CROSS COUNTRY REMINISCENCES.

— as It would be possible to compress
Into the time. My horse was one of the
slow, staying sort, but game as a pebble ;
the finish was up a stiff hill, and the only
man I had to beat almost lying on me.
I dared not use my whip, and all I could
do was to sit down and drive him home to
the best of my ability. By the time I got
there (just a short head In front) I was not
inclined to complain of the cold ; rather
was I requiring to be pegged up on a
clothes line, and hung out to dry !

It Is only since commencing this chapter
that poor Fred Archer's brief span of Hfe has
come to a tragic close. He was a wonder-
ful example of a weakly man on foot, but
perhaps the most powerful jockey ever seen
on a horse, not even excepting Custance, a
really splendid cross-country rider, by the
way. In connection with Archer, I remem-
ber well that Derby day in 1877, when the

STEEPLECHASING, ETC. 99

horses galloped past me, as I stood at the
Paddock gate. The race was over, and I
called to the great jockey to know who had
won. White as death, he pointed to him-
self, indicating, as he swept past, that he
was too breathless to speak. Directly he
pulled his horse up (Silvio), he turned and,
addressing me, said, " I've won." I asked
'' How far ? " and he replied '' A head or a
neck, I think," and then rode back to scale.
It was his first Blue Riband win, and gained,
most fittingly, in the colours of the man
who had made his fortunes, more than any-
one else. Lord Falmouth. A tragic and
curious circumstance in connection with
this incident is, that, of the friend I was with
that day, Archer, and myself, all three com-
paratively young men, the premier jockey
and my unfortunate friend have since died,
both by their own hands, and both by
bullet wounds.

100 CROSS COUNTRY REMINISCENCES.

Asking my reader's pardon for this some-
what gloomy digression, I turn to the
subject of education. Don't shudder; I do
not intend by that expression to mean the
discussion of School Board statistics ; I
refer to the kind of education that converted
Emblem, Lord Coventry's famous mare,
from a bad refuser, into a winner of the
Liverpool. I do not think a more striking
instance of the efficacy of this education
can be found, than in calling to mind the
very recent case of Voluptuary. Mr. E. P.
Wilson bought this horse, at a sale of
''rubbish" by Lord Rosebery, for the sum
of ^^150. The sale was effected during the
second October meeting at Newmarket, and
the following March, starting at a very
remunerative price, the son of Cremorne
negotiated the big course without putting a
foot wrong, and won easily, Mr Wilson
himself being in the saddle. '' Quick horse

STEEFLECHASING, ETC. lOJ

and clever teacher," In this case ; and I do
not think there are many instances on
record to beat it. Mr. Garrett Moore, 1
remember, effected a marvellous improve-
ment, some years since, with the savage
Furley. Furley, a nice-looking colt by
Honiton, I saw win the big steeplechase at
Croydon, when he was five years old, Mr.
J. M. Richardson up. At that time the
horse jumped freely and well, but soon
after he turned a perfect '' pig/' and would
not look at his fences. A little later, he
passed into the hands of the redoubtable
" Garry," and, somehow or another, he
effected quite a reformation with him ;
he came out afterwards, and won several
steeplechases, amongst them the big race
at Croydon again, this time ridden by his
trainer. He had not to do much on this
occasion, it is true, beyond standing up, but
that was more than seven out of his eight

102 CROSS COUNTRY REMINISCENCES.

or nine opponents could manage, in conse-
quence of the awful condition of the course.
Two very unpromising things to make
first-class steeplechasers, judging by their
initiatory performances, were the famous
sisters, Emblem and Emblematic, both sub-
sequently Grand National winners. One, I
forget which, declined to jump even a little
ditch, and always walked into it, only to be
driven out again by a man with a whip !
To put it mildly, this was not a cheerful
beginning, yet we see what judicious educa-
tion made of them. Congress, who was
afterwards one of the finest jumpers ever
seen on a race course, had to be pulled over
his fences by men with cart ropes ; and it
was not until poor Sam Daniels' life had
been lost in schooling Thunder, that the big
chestnut would jump hurdles properly,
though he afterwards took to it kindly
enough.

STEEPLECHASING, ETC, 103

Thoroughbred ones learn quickest, pace
that great authority Whyte-Melville, who
rather incHned to the opinion that they are
more troublesome to teach than the cock-
tails. The circus ring-masters think other-
wise, however, and for what are known as
trick horses they almost invariably go to the
racing stables. A few years back I was
strolling through Sanger's stables at Nor-
wich, when the ever popular and famous
show was visiting the Cathedral town, and
came across an old race-course friend, the
costly Somerset. I am afraid to trust my
memory to the extent of saying how many
thousands his owner was supposed to be
out of pocket over him altogether, but it
was something very large, and he passed
into Mr. Sanger's possession for twenty-six
guineas ! The poor old chap was looking
fat and well, though naturally minus the
bright, lustrous bloom I remember on him

104 CROSS COUNTRY REMINISCENCES.

that Derby day when, with Custance up, he
ran very fast, but had had enough of it a
long way from home.

Most of our best horses on the flat are
gifted with good looks. Here and there
one finds the exception that proves the
rule, but casting a hurried glance back over
the '' giants " of recent years, we find that
such as Prince Charlie — fastest of '' milers "
— Cremorne, Doncaster, Marie Stuart, Ison-
omy, Petronel, Wheel of Fortune, Spring-
field, Peter, Bend Or, Robert the Devil,
Melton, Ormonde, and The Bard were, or
are, all handsome horses. Gladiateur was
certainly an exception to the rule, and a
good story is told of a friend of Mr. Tom
Jennings's, in connection with the Derby-
winner's appearance. Meeting the cele-
brated trainer one morning, the friend,
whom we will call A., said —

"Well, Tom, have you got any 'rips'

STEEPLECHASING, ETC. 105

you want to get rid of, at about ^20,
that'll do to run in harness ? "

'' Yes, I have," said Jennings ; '' come
along in."

Having adjourned to the stables, they
entered a loose-box, and the trainer told
a boy to strip the horse standing in it.

" Oh, here, you know," said A., in tones
of deep disgust, ''you're not going to ask
me ^10 for that three-cornered-looking
brute? What's his name, boy?"

'' Gladiateur, sir ! " replied the astonished
youth.

However, although most good ones on
the flat are good-looking, the rule by no
means seems to apply to cross-country
performers ; and some of the best have
been "mean-looking little beggars," as a
famous jockey once described them. Casse-
Tete, who won the Grand National of
1872, was an under-sized, weak-looking

106 CROSS COUNTRY REMINISCENCES.

little chestnut mare, but her stamina was
undeniable. Page, her jockey, however,
had to use his whip heavily to keep her
on her legs, coming over the last hurdles.
Lord Coventry's celebrated brace of win-
ners, Emblem and Emblematic, were very
mean-looking. Shifnal and Pathfinder
were a long way from handsome, and The
Lamb — grandest and gamest of steeple-
chasers— was little more than a pony.

Two of the most unlikely horses to win
steeplechases that I have ever had to do
with were The Crow, by Flying Dutchman,
and Lord Waldegrave, by Orlando, from
Marionette, by Stockwell. The former
carried me to hounds for a season, and a
better — provided one could hold him — no
man need wish for. Never did he turn his
head from anything if you would let him
have it at his own pace — about that of an
express train 1 — yet the horse could never

STEEPLECHASING, ETC. 107

carry ten stone with comfort In his life !
He would fairly bend under eleven, and yet
he won several steeplechases with upwards
of twelve stone on his back ; how, I never
could understand. Lord Waldegrave, who
accounted for, I think, sixteen of these
events, was a little crabbed-tempered horse,
as narrow as a knife, and apparently not
half big enough to gallop over a country,
carrying anything like weight. His habits
were very amusing, and one of his fixed
ideas was that he would never be Induced
to '' turn on the steam " in his three-mile
training gallops till we reached the final
bend for home ; from that point to the
finish — which he knew as well as I did — I
had to do all I knew to hold him. In the
early part of the journey, however, you
might hit him, spur him, kick him if you
liked, but never a jot did he alter from the
easy canter he was In. Another of his

108 CROSS COUNTRY REMIMSCENCES.

peculiarities was that, in running, unless it
was " his day," no power on earth would
induce him to jump the first fence ; and
when he '' turned it up " there, and com-
menced a stately walk back to the paddock,
it was best to let him go without fighting
the point out. I never met the man that
could stop him.

Few men there are who went racing
much during the past decade, that do not
remember old Breach of Promise, who
came out as lame as a cat, and hobbled
down to the post like a bear on hot bricks
every time he ran, and yet the number of
steeplechases he won was surprising.
Robert I'Anson, to my mind the finest
professional cross-country rider I ever saw,
used generally to ride him in his races.
The famous jockey did not look much like
riding at racing weights last time I saw
him, on which occasion he was officiating

STEEPLECHASING, ETC. 109

as starter at Redcar races. Blessed with
a fine frame, and no longer obliged to
reduce himself to ride, you look at him
and wonder how any man so big could
ever have donned silk ; yet not only was
he most successful in his calling, but,
considering the amount of riding that he
did, his allowance of falls was a remarkably
small one. He had a wonderful escape
when, in riding old Scarrington, at Croydon,
he, feeling the horse swaying about be-
neath him, threw himself off, only a few
seconds before the poor old slave came
crashing to the ground, stone dead. On
Sir George Chetwynd's Lord Clive, he had
a nasty spill in a hurdle race at Brighton,
and was carried into the stand considerably
more dead than alive. Still, on the whole, I
think he would agree with me that he has been
lucky in public, and what was probably his
worst fall, occurred on the schooling ground.

110 CROSS COUNTRY REMINISCENCES.

Taking into consideration all the chances
of steeplechase riding, it is really surprising
how little serious harm is done, year after
year. I confess that the views I held
at twenty {i.e., that steeplechase riding
was about on a par, as regards danger, with
travelling along in a goat-chaise) have
been modified. A horse falling at a
fence, and lying on top of me for some time,
induced a distinct and immediate altera-
tion of opinion, on that subject. Still, I
think it is not so dangerous as it looks,
especially if only old hands are riding. It
is from the youth, whose chief anxiety it is,
to know whether Tottie and Lottie are
looking at him from the stand, and who is
really riding excitedly and in a funk at one
and the same time, that the element of
danger comes. Should you, when going
in front, have a bit of ill-luck and come
down, be sure that it is this gentleman who

STEEPLECHASINGy ETC. Ill

will land on top of you. If, in coming
over a fence, you suddenly feel a shock
which half knocks you out of the saddle,
causes you to lose a stirrup-iron, and makes
your horse stagger and pitch on his nose,
be satisfied that it is the same hopeful
being who has collided with you. If kind
fate ordains that he should get the worst
of the collision, and turn over, mentally
present an address of congratulation to
yourself and fellow-riders on the happy
event, for you will do the rest of the
journey in comparative safety.

Of handsome steeplechase horses — and
they run in all shapes, veritably — Congress
always struck me as one of the best.
He was a very unlucky horse in not taking
the highest of cross-country honours, as he
most assuredly deserved to do. Chandos,
again, was a splendid specimen of the
English thoroughbred, but it always oc-

112 CROSS COUNTRY REMINISCENCES.

curred to me that hurdle-racing was more
in his line, than getting over a country,
despite his starting favourite for the Liver-
pool, won by Regal. He used to gallop
with his head tucked into his chest in a
way that suggested his not looking where
he was going, and that mostly means an
unsafe conveyance. As a hurdle-jumper,
however, he was facile princeps.

Another of the handsome division was
The Scot, a son of Blair Athol, who never
showed much form on the flat. He, how-
ever, developed into a jumper of the highest
class, and won the Great International
Steeplechase at Sandown, and the Great
Metropolitan at Croydon in 1 88 1 , carrying
big weights. H.R.H. the Prince of Wales
subsequently bought him, and, trained by
J. Jones, of Epsom, who also donned the
purple jacket, scarlet sleeves, and black
cap in the race, he started first favourite

STEEPLECHASIJSiG, ETC, 113

for the Liverpool In 1884, but unluckily
came down, when going well.

The late Mr. Studd's Despatch was as
near a certainty at his fences as it was
possible to get, in spite of his being an
awful '^ star-gazer." What a lot of good
horses there were runnins^, about this horse's
time ! Disturbance, the winner of the Liver-
pool in 1873; Ryshworth, owned by Mr.
Henry Chaplin, whose connections thought
defeat impossible, and who was beaten for
speed at the finish of that race, just the
point where it was confidently anticipated
he would shine ; Snowstorm ; Scarrington,
whose death has been before alluded to,
and who should have won in '72 ; The
Lamb, w^ho once performed the feat of
jumping over no less than four prostrate
horses and riders at one fence ; old Scots
Grey, one of the grandest jumpers that
ever ran, and who, if my memory does not

I

1 14 CROSS CO UNTR Y REMINISCENCES.

deceive me, kept on winning until he was
over fourteen years of age ; Marin ; Foot-
man ; Schiedam, whom, I believe, Mr. J. M.
Richardson considers the best he ever
rode ; Chimney Sweep, who fairly revelled
in jumping, and did not know how to
make a mistake ; Silvermere, a very useful
sort, in spite of being awfully '' dicky" in
front ; Master Mowbray ; Phryne, always
invincible at Cheltenham ; Royalist, on
those rare occasions when he condescended
to keep in the course, instead of bolting into
the adjoining parish ; Crawler ; Primrose ;
and last, but not least, Mr. Arthur Yates's
Harvester, winner of several good chases.

I never saw The Colonel — twice a winner
of this coveted prize — but have heard that
he was '' as good-looking as he was good."
He had '' h. b." written after his name, as
had Captain Machell's Hesper ; though the
latter never soared above hurdle-topping, he

STEEPLECHASING, ETC. 115

was a grandly-built one, and could carry
lumps of weight at his own game. The
same remark applies to Lowlander, who,
with Hampton, was found far too valuable
for the ^' sticks," and taken back again
to the '"' legitimate " sport. Seeing the
sprinter, Lollipop, win his races always
caused me to think what a wonderful
chaser he should have made, and had the
Duke of Hamilton cared to turn the atten-
tion of this horse and Wild Tommy to
cross-country work, they would have been a
pair ''bad to beat" over any course. It
will be remembered what a remarkable
fight Wild Tommy made of it, in Petrarch's
St. Leger. Vigorously ridden by Custance,
he reached the winner's girths, and then his
neck, but could get no farther, and Lord
Clifden's son just got home, " all out."
Wild Tommy, Lowlander, and Lollipop
were, perhaps, three of the most powerful

116 CROSS COUNTRY REMINISCENCES.

horses that have been seen on the turf for
years — 16 stone would not have troubled
either of them to carry to hounds.

For the generality of horses, I do think
our weights are a bit too heavy. In
the same way that the raising of the
weights on the flat, say to a 6st., Instead
of, as now, a 5st. 7lbs. minimum —
would be an unmixed blessing, so do I
think that at least ylbs. might be
taken off steeplechasing weights, mak-
ing the minimum here, 9st. ylbs. You
may own a remarkably smart horse, who
is put up In the handicap scale so much,
that, although he might stand a fair
chance of giving the weight away to the
rest, yet is not big and powerful enough to
carry I3st. or i3st. ylbs. three or four
miles across country, and then, as in many
cases, to race up a hill with It, to the finish.
In my opinion, nothing is gained by put-

STEEPLECHASING, ETC, 117

ting these crushing weights on a horse,
and surely, if it be right for an animal ever
to carry them, then it would be for a com-
paratively short distance, on the flat, and
not when he has to lift them over big
jumps, at a time of the year when the
ground is almost invariably in a heavy
state, and under conditions which make
the course two miles in length, at the very
least.

Although instances are not wanting of
unlikely-bred ones taking kindly to jump-
ing^ there is no doubt that it '' runs in the
blood" in most cases. All the Solons and
the Uncas's, the Flash-in-the-Pans and The
Lawyers, seem to have the gift, and in such
a list we must not forget Xenophon and New
Oswestry. Lothario has got some good
chasers, and hunters to boot ; and here and
there — as with Industrious, winner of the
big hurdle race at Croydon, Sweet Gahn-

118 CJ^OSS COUNTRY REMINISCENCES.

gale, and The Scot — Blair Athol is repre-
sented between the flags in a favourable
light. Still, partial as I am to him, I
cannot put forward the latter sire as any-
thing like so famous in this way as most of
the others named. Roughly speaking, one
may say that all the Irish horses jump,
and probably for the very simple reason
that they are taught their business earlier
in life than our own.

With the abolition of the suburban race-
courses, very much that was ruffianly and
disgusting was swept away, though one
cannot help a sigh of regret for Bromley's
natural fences and running water, that had
to be negotiated in real hunter-like style. It
was on this course that one of the worst out-
rages ever committed took place, Charles
Lawrence the steeplechase rider being the
victim. I had the story from his own lips, and
feel that no excuse is needed for giving it

STEEPLECHASING, ETC. 119

here. In this particular race, there were four
starters, and whilst going round the far
side, some miscreant hurled a brick, which
struck him full in the face, felling him like
an ox. " He might have saved himself
the trouble," said Lawrence, to me, in his
nice, quiet way; ''I was on the worst horse
of the four that started." Unhappily, the
scoundrel has never been discovered, from
that day to this. Had he been caught,
and handed over to the tender mercies of
the law, 'Svith any luck, and Hawkins up,"
as they say, such an amount of retirement,
at the expense of a paternal Government,
would have been meted out to him, as would
have satisfied a very glutton. Once '' in,"
he would certainly have been converted
into a ''stayer," by the sport-loving judge !
Casse-Tete, Shifnal, Pathfinder, and
Zoedone may all be accounted a bit lucky,
in being returned winners of the Grand

120 CROSS COUNTRY REMINISCENCES.

National, and it would be an easy thing to
name several others, of the same periods,
who never enjoyed the distinction, but yet
were infinitely more worthy of it: such, for
instance, as Harvester, Scarrington, Schie-
dam, Scots Grey, Mohican, Cyrus, Too
Good, Congress, and The Scot.

In Casse-Tete's year there was a regular
chapter of accidents. About half the
journey had been accomplished, when Prim-
rose fell, and Schiedam was brought to grief
by coming over on top of him. Mr. J. M.
Richardson, who was on the latter, was un-
hurt, but of course the contretemps put his
chance out, and soon after Mr. Arthur
Yates had to pull Harvester up, as the
horse cut his hind foot very severely, and
Scarrington seemed to be wall<ingin, when,
to I'Anson's unspeakable disappointment,
the old horse cut himself so badly at the
last hurdles, that he could do little more

STEEFLECHASING, ETC. 121

than hobble past the post, and Casse-Tete
finished practically alone.

Shifnal had nothing much but '' crocks "
to beat when he won, and his victory is chiefly
pleasing for the fact that, by it, the name
of Eobert I'Anson was enrolled, as it thor-
oughly deserved to be, amongst the winning
riders of the cross-country Blue Riband.

Pathfinder, again, in '75, was opposed
by a poor field, and was certainly a long
way the worst of '' Mr. Thomas's " three
winners. Not long after riding in this, his
eighteenth Grand National, this gentleman,
a most resolute man on a horse, got a
horrible fall at Sandown, which affected his
sight, and, of course, he was never seen in
the saddle afterwards in public.

Zoedone, ridden by her owner, Count
Kinsky, a good man over a country,
plodded on and won in 1883, from the
smallest field on record. The mare could

122 CROSS COUNTRY REMINISCENCES,

stay for ever — at her own pace ; but that is
not, as a rule, good enough for Liverpool,
and one wag suggested that she should be
started overnight.

At her next essay, the following year, the
mare blundered badly two or three times,
and finally fell. It was pretty generally
understood that some miscreant had got
at her whilst she was in the Paddock, just
before the race.

Of the brace of winners that Mr. J. M.
Richardson so brilliantly rode, Reugny was
not supposed to be nearly so good as Dis-
turbance. It must have been hard work to
get the former home at all ; he was so done,
that he went right through the final hurdles,
never rising an inch, and very nearly landing
on his head.

Many essays have been made, with
varying success, to win big steeplechases
with horses in the '^hunter " class. Eurotas,
invincible amongst the '^ certificated " divi-

STEEPLECHASING, ETC. 123

slon, proved only a splendid failure, when
flying higher. Pathfinder and the Liver-
pool '^^6 hero, Old Joe, on the contrary,
were fully equal to the occasion. No
grander horse than The Sinner, by Barab-
bas, another hunter, has been seen on a
racecourse for many a year, and had he
been left in the Grand National of 1887, I
do not think list. lolbs. would have
checked his extraordinary career. I think
I am correct in saying that this horse was
ridden to hounds by a lady before Mr. Craig
had the good fortune to secure him and The
Gloamin for 600 guineas. I wonder what
would be his price now ! The strange thing
about him is, that he seems equally good
whether he is carrying Mr. Thirlwell on the
flat or across a country ; and as to weight, he
is so big and powerful that it seems to make
no difference to him at all. Withal, he is, I
am told on high authority, as easy to ride
as a pony. His race at Croydon, in March,

124 CROSS COUNTRY REMINISCENCES.

'87, wherein he met the crack hunter, St.
Galmier, and conceding him weight, beat
him with ease, was a real treat to witness.
At the same time, Count Kinsky's horse is
by no means to be under-rated, and he
would undoubtedly have gone closer but
for making a serious blunder at the Farm-
house open ditch, and nearly coming down.
This obstacle Is really a very formidable
one, and if the Croydon Executive could
manage to soften Mr. BevIU's heart, on this
point, they would have a course, leaving
absolutely nothing to be desired. Mr.
George Lambton rode St. Galmler, and
although unsuccessful on him, decidedly
had all the best of the meeting In other re-
spects, winning the Grand International
Hurdle on his great fine mare Bellona, and
on the following day taking the Great Metro-
politan Steeplechase on Sir W. Throck-
morton's Phantom. He rode a brilliant
finish on each occasion, especially in the

STEEPLECHASING, ETC. 125

hurdle race, when Bellona appeared to have
a bit the worst of it with Silver Sea, until
close home.

Prominent amongst cross-country horse-
men who have ceased practice recently
occur the names of Captain Arthur Smith
(better known as *' Doggy '' Smith), Mr.
J. M. Richardson, the Hon. Greville Nugent
('' Mr. St. James"), Robert I'Anson, Lord
Melgund ("Mr. Roily"), Mr. Garrett
Moore, Mr. Arthur Yates, '' Mr. Thomas,"
and one may include Mr. Arthur Coventry,
now that he has confined his attention to
flat racing.

Of those now riding, Mr. E. P. Wilson,
Hon. George Lambton, Mr. Brockton, Mr.
D. Thirlwell, James Adams, Jewitt, C. Law-
rence, Captains Owen and Lee Barber, the
whole family of Beasleys, Mr. W. H. Moore,
Skelton, Mr. C. L Cunningham, Sensier,
Barker, and '' Gus " Lowe must be named
as artists of the highest stamp.

CHAPTER VII.

CONDITIONING AND SCHOOLING.

Since the "summer at grass" system of
resting hunters has almost been numbered
with the things of the past, the question of
conditioning does not enter so largely into
the scheme of horse management as it did.
Coming up from grass, meant, in most cases,
a weak-looking neck, coupled with an in-
flated carcase to begin work upon : endless
physicking, and a very gently graduated
system of dietary, and months, or, at the
least, many weeks, before daring to give a

CONDITIONING AND SCHOOLING. 127

gallop of any kind. AH that is altered
now, and men at last recognize the para-
mount importance of never letting a horse
get out of condition. A roomy loose-box,
well ventilated and clean, with, perhaps, a
couple of hours' run in the day, in a pad-
dock, and about two feeds of corn, is the
way to summer hunters ; they are not
torn to pieces with the flies, and allowed to
get weak from want of corn, neither do
they knock their feet to pieces on the turf,
at a time of year when it is mostly as hard
as adamant. Then when you take them
up there is something to work upon ; they
are fat, clean on their legs, and all that is
needful is to get their wind clear, whereas
if they had been depending chiefly upon
grass for their sustenance, you would have
weakened, and, poor animals, have io fatten,
as well as train.

The first thing to be done when a horse

128 CROSS COUNTRY REMINISCENCES.

is brought up is to get his coat off, if it is
at all a heavy one ; nothing is more weaken-
ing than for him to have a coat like a
blanket, to do his work in, nothing freshens
him up so much as clipping it off. Then
a mild dose of physic, such as a four-
drachm aloes ball, having, of course, pre-
viously prepared him for its reception by a
short course of bran mashes, &c., and when
quite over its effects, you can go to work
on him in earnest. Two hours a day
walking exercise for the first week will be
enough, and then some slow, steady canters,
gradually increasing in length, should be
added to the walking exercise. Never let
a horse get to his fullest speed, on any
account, whilst either conditioning for
hunting, or in training for steeplechasing.
Horses always run best when a bit above
themselves ; the leading trainers of the
day have long since recognized this, and

CONDITIONING AND SCHOOLING. 129

the consequence is that far fewer of the
dejected, hunted-to-death-looking wretches
that used to be seen in the saddHng pad-
docks of our racecourses, are visible now.
In short, the Chifney school theories have
been relegated to the '' forgotten limbo
of the past," and humanity and common
sense, joining hand-in-hand, have swept
away much that was harmful in the train-
ing stable, as they have practically smashed
up the blood-letting quackery that our un-
happy forefathers groaned under. Half-a-
dozen good rousing gallops for the con-
cluding week of your conditioning, and
your horse is fit to go.

As to the time occupied In getting a
horse fit, much, of course, must depend on
the individual temperament of the animal. If
he be of the light-fleshed sort, half the work
needful for the gross feeder will be sufficient
for him. Again, a horse that sweats very

K

130 CROSS COUNTRY REMINISCENCES.

freely will usually ''come to hand" much
quicker than he of slower actioned skin.
Then, also, it depends a great deal upon the
condition you find him in to start with, and
also upon his peculiar constitution. No
hard and fast rule as to time could possibly
be laid down, but, roughly speaking, from
six weeks to two months ought to be long
enough to get the generality of horses fit
to go with hounds.

In schooling horses for jumping, whether
you want them for hunting or steeple-
chasing, no amount of time or patience
can be too much for the business. The
smaller the obstacle the better chance you
have of getting him over it, at first. I
have found that riding a horse over a farm,
walking him through gaps in hedges, leap-
ing little ditches, &c., is valuable by way
of introduction, and after that a small
obstacle made up of sharp, prickly gorse.

CONDITIONING AND SCHOOIING. 131

and not exceeding three feet in height,
will induce him — after, perhaps, once
blundering through it — to rise nicely at it,
as he will discover that his legs are not
proof against prickles ; if, however, he per-
sists in blundering again, have a stiff rail
run through it within a few inches of the
top — when he has '' rapped his knuckles "
on this, he will probably find it worth his
while to do it properly. If he won't have
it in any other way, get off and lead him
over ; most horses will let you do this, and
follow over almost anything.

After the gorse has been properly sur-
mounted, the pupil will probably raise no
very strong objection to a flight of sheep
hurdles, and when these obstacles have been
got over, something in the shape of timber
may be thought of. When this period of
the training arrives, most of the riders re-
member important engagements elsewhere !

132 CROSS COUNTRY REMINISCENCES.

Truth to tell, this form of entertainment Is
more exhilarating than peaceful ! Well do
I remember, In the days of my '^ giddy
youth," being put up on a wretch, with the
heart of a mouse, who had never been in-
duced to jump a straw up to that moment.
I had a scheme, a colossal scheme for
making her jump a low rail, bushed up with
furze. I made a bet I would get her over ;
the trainer thereupon indulged In the remark
of '^ Didn't I wish I might get It ? " or some-
thing to that effect, and then I commenced
operations. Taking her right back to the
other end of the field, I started at a hand
gallop, and gradually pressed her till we were
going as hard as she could lay legs to the
ground. Then I pulled her round the corner
of a park paling, that had hidden the jump
from view, and she was almost on it before
she saw it at all. The moment her eye rested
on the obstacle, she began to '' curl," and

CONDITIONING AND SCHOOIING. 138

shutting up like a telescope, every stride,
she made a frantic effort to stop herself,
but two yards away from It I let the spurs
In, and giving her '' one, two," with the whip,
she kneed the rail, smashing It to atoms, got
half round, and then fell head over heels,
bringing down a young fruit tree, the made
obstacle with it, and my astonished self, at
one fell swoop ! The bet we made is in
abeyance to this day, I maintaining that I
'' got over it," and my opponent that I '' fell
into It." I don't know who is right, but I
humbly confess that if I did win that bet.
It was not in the way I contemplated, at the
time of making it !

Mr. William Day, In his excellent book,
" The Racehorse in Training," strongly
disapproves of the system of clipping, al-
though he advances no particular reason
for his dIsHke. Now, half the horses used
for hunting, and a great many employed at

134 CROSS COUNTRY REMINISCENCES.

the steeplechasing game, would be fearfully
handicapped if their coats were left on. I
have ridden several who would fairly stop
with you, after galloping a couple of miles
with hounds, enveloped in the long hair
that comes in the winter season ; and no
less an authority than '' Stonehenge " dis-
tinctly approves of removing the coat. Pro-
bably, however, Mr. Day was only alluding
to flat-race horses, and in this particular I
would not presume to offer an opinion,
although I once owned a three-year-old
Rosicrucian filly, carrying such a coat as
would have been, to say the least of it, a
very powerful argument in favour of the
cHpping machine. Personally I venture to
go so far as to say that it acts as a power-
ful tonic, and will frequently enable a horse
to throw off a slight cough or cold by its
invigorating action. In the same chapter,
Mr. Day quotes Buffon in support of his

CONDITIONING AND SCHOOLING. 135

Statement that "' horses Hke a med

lum

climate, bordering on cold rather than
heat," and here I am quite of his opinion,
instances too numerous to mention occur-
ring to the mind of animals who never seem
well except in the cold weather.

The system of sweating has very much
gone out of late, but a steady three or four
mile gallop, with the clothing on, will do no
harm, provided it is not too often repeated :
once a fortnight will be found quite suffi-
cient, and great care should be exercised in
rubbing down, and drying afterwards, to
avoid the risk of a chill, as far as may be.

No better schooling than that obtainable
with a pack of harriers, can be given to a
beginner across country. The pace is slow
as a rule, there is the gentle stimulus of
hounds running to give zest to the work,
and deprive it of the suspicion, always
hanging about the pupil's mind, that he is

136 CI^OSS COUNTRY REAIINISCENCES.

being taught a lesson, and believing, as I
do, that horses like hounds as much as men
like them, it is only natural that they
should, for their own satisfaction, try to
surmount all obstacles that come in the
way, whilst following them. "This," says
Whyte-Melville, '^ is why the hunting-field
is such a good school for leaping. Horses
of every kind are prompted, by some un-
accountable impulse, to follow a pack of
hounds, and the beginner finds himself
voluntarily performing feats of activity and
daring, in accordance with the will of his
rider, which no coercion from the latter
would induce him to attempt. Flushed
with success, and, if fortunate enough to
escape a fall, confident in his lately-dis-
covered powers, he finds a new pleasure in
their exercise, and, most precious of quali-
ties in a hunter, grows " fond of jumping."
There is one thing about which no doubt

CONDITIONING AND SCHOOLING. 137

whatever can be entertained : that con-
fidence on the part of the rider will inspire
confidence on the part of the ridden. A
short time back, I was forcibly reminded of
this at Kempton Park Steeplechases, on
seeing the redoubtable ^'Gus" Lowe bring-
ing the mare, by Ethus out of Candia, right
along, in front of everything, and slashing
over each obstacle, including those unholy
open ditches, as though he had half-a-
dozen spare necks in his pocket for self
and horse. This mare, be it remembered,
had never been over a country before, her
previous efforts having been confined to
hurdle racing. She won easily at the
finish. Now, a man like that would do
more to " make " a horse, in an hour, than
a good many would do, in a week. In fact,
the least bit of indecision is ruinous to
an animal's nerve, when he is learning to
jump. Not that I mean by this that a

138 CROSS COUNTRY REMINISCENCES.

horse should be '' butchered " at his
schooHng ; that process is equally wrong ;
patience does not mean timidity, any more
than butchering means pluck. Indeed, the
last-named style of riding is very often
adopted in order to hide the fact that the
man is a member of that well-known regi-
ment, the ist Royal Hard Funkers. What
a man Tom Cannon would make for the
game, with his delicate hands, easy seat,
and perfect patience ! The Hampshire
horseman, however, holds the opinion that
married men, with families, have no business
with steeplechasing and all its works, and
I think he is about right. I am not aware
whether the master of Danebury ever does
any of the schooling in propria persona,
but he certainly turns out some admirable
jumpers from his establishment. These
used to be steered by Mr. Arthur Coventry^
until that prince of gentlemen jockeys gave
up cross-country riding.

CONDITIONING AND SCHOOLING. 139

An amusing thing it is to see a whole
string of weedy wretches, cast-offs from
the flat, ridden by large-headed and small-
bodied boys, turn up at covert side in
order to '' qualify " for hunt races. Lash-
ing out in all directions, and with '^ training
stable " written palpably on their snaffle
bits, saddle-cloths, and bandaged forelegs,
they certainly look like anything htit hunt-
ing. The crafty way, too, in which their
riders watch the M.F.H., from whom they
have to get their certificates, until he
happens to be looking, and then rush their
steeds, more often through, than over, a 2ft.
fence, is very edifying. ''What the devil
do you want breaking down men's fences
for ? " yelled a much-harassed master of
foxhounds, in my hearing, once. " Here
you, boy, you can have your certificate and
take yourself off out of my sight at once^
and be d — d to you ! "

I believe of course in power, thighs, quar-

140 CROSS COUNTRY REAIINISCENCES.

ters, muscle, &c., for jumping essentials, but,
above all, do I believe in confidence on the
horse's part ; without this, all the other
qualifications go for nought. Once es-
tablish thorough confidence in your pupil's
mind, and you need not fear but that
success is close at hand.

One more allusion to '^ The Racehorse in
Training " I must make, before concluding
these few remarks. In the chapter en-
titled '^Jockeys," Mr, Day makes some
admirable comments on the system of
light-weight boy riders, and calls especial
attention to the ignorance and incompe-
tence existing, to so large an extent,
amongst them. He is right, with a ven-
geance ! Speaking generally, you might
as well put up so many Marmoset monkeys
to ride. The veteran trainer points out how
grossly over-paid they are by winning owners,
&c., giving douceurs^ out of all proportion to

CONDITIONIXG AND SCHOOLING. 141

the services rendered, and remarks that
such a method of procedure Is one emi-
nently calculated to lead them, and does, as
a fact, lead a large number of them, to
ultimate ruin, besides being a great in-
justice to those owners who, from prin-
ciple, or because they cannot afford it,
refuse to follow suit. I have reproduced
the substance of his observations, for the
purpose of comparing the position and pay
of these manikins, with those of the hard-
working steeplechase rider, and the schooler
of steeplechasers — men who, very often
exiles from the flat for no other reason
than that of increasing weight, daily risk
life and limb on racecourse and training
ground, and get comparatively little for
it. If owners, instead of pampering
ignorant, and for the most part bump-
tious, little boys, turning their heads with
cigars and champagne, and giving them

142 CJiOSS COUNTRY REMINISCENCES.

the wherewithal to surround themselves
with a pack of yellow-haired '' ladies,"
would reward older men, whose necks are
constantly risked both in public and in
private, in a more substantial fashion, it
would be better for all concerned, and I
would certainly extend these remarks so as
to include a flat-race rider who had kept
his master's secrets, or had had much wast-
ing for any particular race, or ridden in the
trial, or, in short, shown himself a faithful
servant, win or lose. The dangers of the
schooling ground are considerable, and de-
serve to be well requited. It was in teach-
ing the gigantic Thunder (who afterwards
made a very successful performer over the
sticks) that poor Sam Daniels lost his
life, and Robert I'Anson, the hero of a
hundred victories between the flags, got
his worst fall on the training ground. I
believe Mr. Arthur Yates, Mr. Lambton,

CONDITIONING AND SCHOOLING. 143

and Captain Fisher could also relate some
personal experiences concerning injuries
and broken bones, got in the same way.

I fancy that it is by no means so common
a practice as it ought to be to have the
spring bars of the saddle left open, so that
if the foot gets fast in the stirrup iron, you,
at least, have one extra chance of escape
from dragging. All my life I have been in
the habit of ridinof thus ; but not lone ao^o,
a new hand adjusting the leathers, one
hunting day, shut the spring bars up, and,
as ill luck would have it, I got a rattling fall.
My horse fell over a quickset, and pitched
on the bank of a deep ditch, into which he
rolled, my right foot firmly wedged in the
iron. Three times did he struggle up and
fall back again, missing me at each attempt.
Now, it is ten to one that had those spring
bars been open, my leather would have
slipped comfortably out, and I should have

144 CROSS COUNTRY REMINISCENCES.

been free. A short time since, I picked up
a well-known master of hounds, after a bad
fall, in which he would assuredly have been
dragged, but for his stirrup leather parting
company with the saddle, as the horse rose
and galloped on. There are many kinds of
patent safety stirrup invented, but though
in pretty general use amongst ladies, men
do not seem to take to them, somehow, and
as far as I know I never saw one in use,
except with the fairer part of creation. I
have examined every invention of the kind,
and though I have never seen them put to
the proof in '^ actual warfare," several of
them, doubtless, will answer their purpose.
Some, however, are so manifestly ridiculous,
that no practical horseman would give them
a second thought. One of these latter
articles, consisting of one stirrup inside
another — there are several made that way
however — would no doubt answer admirably,

CONDITIONING AND SCHOOIING. 145

if you could make an arrangement with the
Fates that, when you came off, you should
be allowed to describe an exact semi-circle,
ending well in front of your horse ; but
deviate an inch from that line, and this par-
ticular stirrup would, I venture to say, hang
you up, much more securely than the old-
fashioned iron ! The best I ever saw, is one
in which the whole inner iron turns over
when pressure is applied, and, without any
springs, opens naturally and lets out the
foot. I don't know whose invention it is,
nor the maker's name — if I did I would
gladly give both, and take the risk of my
reader's suspicions as to its being a puff !
From its very simplicity I believe failure to
be impossible, and it has as neat an appear-
ance as the ordinary stirrup.

To give a horse two or three falls over
timber, purposely, is, I think, a very doubt-
ful expedient for making a jumper of him ;

L

146 CROSS COUNTRY REMINISCENCES.

but when we find such '' past masters" as
Thomas Assheton Smith advocating, and
Dick Christian condemning the practice,
who shall take upon himself to decide the
knotty point ? The latter authority says :
'' They talk about a young horse wanting
falls. If a young horse gets a very bad fall
it frightens him. A couple of falls with
low fences are well enough — bict not if you
hurt himy Now, perhaps the real strength
of this expression of opinion lies in the
words I have italicized. You must by no
means hurt, or frighten, your horse. If you
do, you destroy his confidence, and possibly
ruin him for ever for learning the business.
From my own small experience, I am still
in '' open mind," having tried the experi-
ment with four horses, and failed with two
of them ; neither would ever look at a
fence again. Many horses, after getting a
severe fall, lose heart and courage, and
become determined refusers. Whenever

CONDITIONING AND SCHOOLING. 147

this happens to a horse who has been a
good jumper he should be thrown up at
once, for at least a month. By the end of
that time, he will probably have got his
pluck up again, even if he has not forgotten
his tumble, for horses' memories are incon-
veniently long, on all points !

Captain Machell, at Kennett, near New-
market, and Mr. Arthur Yates, at Bishop's
Sutton, Alresford, have jumping schools
for the early teaching of beginners. Stiff
posts and rails, about ten feet high, enclose
a track, in which, on a graduated scale, all
sorts of obstacles are fixed, from the small
hedge to the uncompromising wall, which
will not bear playing with. Into this, the
learner is turned loose, and driven over the
jumps by men behind him with whips.
This is an excellent plan for many reasons,
one of which is that it involves no risk to
human life or limb, and another that the
horse gets into the way of taking his leaps

148 CROSS COUNTRY REMINISCENCES.

in the manner most comfortable to himself,
and, therefore, In the safest way. Of course
these schools are for steeplechase horses
solely, but, were they obtahiable, there
would be no better way of teaching a
young hunter his business.

The orreat difference between the educa-
tion of the hunter and the steeplechase
horse is that the former may be taught in
the way that allows him to take his own
time on landing over his fences, whilst the
latter's chance of success in his calling
would be absolutely nil^ unless he can
*' get away " as quick as a rabbit after his
leaps. Dick Christian said, '^ I never rode
a steeplechaser yet but I steadied my horse
on to his hind legs, twenty yards from his
fence, and I was always over, and away again
before the rushers." True wisdom this,
but I am afraid that nowadays there are
some steeplechase jockeys who would beat
anyone following this advice, by their reck-

CONDJTIONING AND SCHOOLING. 149

less habit of '' chancing" the last fence in
a race. If they don't come down, they
gain an immense advantage, in the run
home, over the men whose horses really
make a jump of it. Then the veteran rider
goes on to say that a horse should land
over his jumps on his hind legs, i.e.^ that
his hind legs should touch ground before
the fore legs. I hope, in the face of so
great an authority, that I shall not be
deemed presumptuous if I venture to think
that such a thing is a physical impossi-
bility. I do believe that the hind legs
should follow up the fore legs so closely
as to make their respective landing almost
simultaneous ; but I would ask all men
who are in the habit of constantly riding
jumpers whether they do not always dis-
tinctly feel the fore legs touch first ?

Very often a horse is pronounced fit to
run in a steeplechase, long before his
jumping education has been completed.

150 CROSS COUNTRY REMINISCENCES.

The animal who has managed to brush
over a few flights of hurdles, and win his
race, is considered quite fit to tackle a
steeplechase course, after scrambling once
over the jumps on the schooling ground,
probably not half the size of the obstacles
he will have to encounter in public. No
first-class trainer would be guilty of such
culpable recklessness, of course, but, un-
fortunately, there are a large number of
men, who, not having the piloting to do
themselves, care little whether their charges
jump or fall and break their riders' necks.
Education, to be of any use, should be
thorough In every detail, and whether for
profit, as in steeplechasing, or for pleasure,
with hounds, experience plainly tells us we
should aim at getting a '' performer."
One would be safe in saying that over
ninety per cent, of the steeplechase horses
of recent times, have spent their whole
lives before entering upon their career as

CONDITIONING AND SCHOOLING. 151

jumpers, In flat race training stables, and
have done nothing else. There are some
curious instances, though, of animals having
come from unlikely spots, and of having
even done '^general utility business"
before running over a country. Mr. Studd
picked up his Grand National winner, Sala-
mander, out of a wretched Irish hovel, with
a coat on him like a polar bear. Baron
Finot, greatest of French steeplechasing
owners, once drove a horse in his brougham
to the course, took him out of harness, had
him saddled and a jockey put up, and he
won his race in a canter. Conservative —
one of the most wonderful jumpers I ever
saw, and, by the same token, the ugliest,
commonest-looking beast in the world —
was bought out of a drove, and, being a
black, put to the business of '' corpse
collecting," as an irreverent friend of mine
expressed it ; but after making a bolt with
the hearse one day, was turned over to a

152 CJ^OSS COUNTRY REMINISCENCES.

butcher, and driven, for some time, in his
cart. Whilst in this humble vocation, he
was seen and bought by a gentleman, who
rode him with staghounds, and then put
him into training. I myself saw him run
second in a good field at Sevenoaks steeple-
chases, after twice bolting with so accom-
plished a horseman as Captain Fisher on
his back. So fond of jumping was he, that
I have seen him, when turned out in a
field, jump backwards and forwards over a
quickset, big enough to stop most horses,
for the pure fun of the thing !

The Liberator was popularly supposed
to have been drawing bricks before he ran
in his last Liverpool (though I do not
vouch for the truth of this) ; and a horse
I knew well, was doing ordinary carting
work on a farm, when he was not wanted
for schooling a string of half-a-dozen
steeplechase horses over their jumps.

CHAPTER VIII.

THE SHOW-YARD IN RELATION TO
HUNTERS.

■'^ If a horse will jump in a show-yard, he'll
jump anywhere " is an expression we often
hear used, and doubtless there is a orood
deal of truth in it. But will he jump so
big ? '' Not by a long way " is the answer
that experience unhesitatingly makes, nor
can anything be plainer than the reason
why. All conditions are favourable for the
effort in the show-yard — the horse is fresh,
has only just had exercise enough to stretch
his muscles, the ground where he takes off
is light and sound, the jump itself free
from traps of any kind, and the rider

154 C/^OSS COUNTRY REMINISCENCES.

(usually a light-weight) is therefore enabled
to send him at it freely, and with perfect
confidence. Now, in hunting, the horse is
called upon to perform under very different
circumstances — the ground is generally
deeper, the weight he carries heavier, and
perhaps he has been half-blown by a hard
gallop, over ridge and furrow, before being
asked to do a big thing in the way of jump-
ing. There are, it is true, a few pheno-
menal leaps on record ^' in the open," such,
for instance, as Chandler's extraordinary
effort on the Warwick steeplechase course,
when he cleared thirty-nine feet ; Mr. Tom
Smith's horse, who, after one refusal,
jumped the wall of Elcot Park, in the
Craven country, which said wall was a
solid six feet, two inches in height ! Sir
Charles Knightley, on Benvolio, cleared
thirty-one feet, over a fence and brook.
Jem Mason succeeded in topping a five-

THE SHOW-YARD, ETC. 155

foot-sIx gate, made of stiff, new timber, In
a steeplechase, and I am afraid to say the
exact height of the Marden deer park rails
over which Gregory, the jockey, was carried
by a runaway youngster he was training.
I know the place w^ell, and '^ Gregory's
leap " Is certainly one of the most formid-
able obstacles I ever saw. Then there Is Em-
blem's leap at Liverpool of 33ft. Still, after
all the examples of big things done with
hounds, steeplechasing, &c ., they pale before
the show-yard record, and, as I have endea-
voured to point out, It Is only natural they
should. The high jump at the Agricultural
Hall at Islington Is, to my mind, an unfair
thing to ask horses to try, and those that
do get over it, do not, and cannot, jump it In
anything like business fashion : they cannot
see over It, to go no farther. Every time I
have seen a horse jump this obstacle — I
will not pledge myself to the exact height,

156 CjROSs country reminiscences.

but believe it to be something about six
feet six — he has sprung into the air in a
half-maddened manner, and with no very
definite idea as to where he will land. I
do not think such feats as these are a true
test of a horse's merits, nor do they prove
anything about him, one way or another.
Were I going to purchase, from the per-
formances in the Ring, I would much
rather take the animal that topped the gate
neatly, and then showed cleverness in
getting in and out of the '' double," than
the one that succeeds, by a wild and un-
natural effort, in clearing the high jump.
On the whole, the show-yard hardly seems
to be a reliable testing-place for hunters.
How many are there, I wonder, who — real
*' flyers " in the hunting field — simply
decline to look at their fences when
brought out in a tan-covered arena and
surrounded by a noisy crowd ? Plenty
won't jump in cold blood at all, and any-

THE SHOW-YARD, ETC. 157

where, let alone in a circumscribed space,
with the crowd thrown in. One chestnut
mare I knew of, on the contrary, would
jump almost anything you liked to put
her at, so long as she did not see hounds
— once let her catch sight of them, and
good-bye to comfort and the chance of
getting her over fences. She went fairly
mad, and would — after making frantic
efforts to dislodge her rider — put her
head down and rush like a bull at the
first obstacle, then whip round and bolt in
the opposite direction, thereby affording
any rider in search of a little healthy ex-
citement about as much as would last the
average man for a month ! Another, be-
longing to a friend of mine, who hunts
down in the happy Vale of Aylesbury, used
to serve him in much the same way, her
performances culminating in the breaking
of her own jaw, and nearly drowning her
rider, by falling into a brook on top of him,

158 CROSS COUNTRY REMINISCENCES.

and my unfortunate friend thought himself
a lucky man to escape with a broken leg.

I have said enough to show that, in my
humble estimation, not too much reliance
should be placed in show-yard performances
when choosing hunters ; the conditions
under which they act are so different that
this is hardly to be wondered at, when care-
fully thought over. '' Men talk of blood,
make and shape, muscles, quarters, backs,
&c.," said an old sportsman once, ^' but
I say, give me a horse with brains. He
has to take care of the bigger fool of
the two, and think for both." Now, some
jumpers have a wonderful supply of brains
— and some, I am inclined to think,
have them not at all. As an example of
the latter, what brains does the average
"rusher" possess, I wonder? The per-
verse beast, who will have everything at
forty miles an hour pace, whether there is
a chalk pit beyond or not ? or the brute

THE SHOW'YARD, ETC. 159

who goes boldly to his jump, and then, half
^' turning it up," drops, faint-heartedly, into
the middle of it ? But look on the other
side of the picture, and there you see the
full force of the old man's remark — '' Give
me brains." See the extraordinary clever-
ness, which guides so many of the best
hunters, season after season, and gets them
over, and out of, so many difficulties. There
are few greater treats, to a true sportsman,
than to watch an old hunter's performances,
over every variety of fence, and especially
to see the way in which he will extricate
himself from any trouble that may — I had
almost said must — befall him in the ordinary
course of his career.

There were some extraordinary jumpers
at the Aquarium, some time ago. I under-
stand that the equine '^ boss " of the show
was an Australian, and, ridden by Miss
Nellie Reed, he was in the habit of clear-
ing a gate 5ft. Sin. high, daily, whilst

160 CROSS COUNTRY REMINISCENCES.

another, picked up for £^o at Tattersall's,
did almost as well. I wonder if Miss Reed
would have cared to take her mount at a
five-foot gate, out with hounds, especially
if the ground was at all poached by cattle ?
The highest recorded jump in the show
yard is, I believe, that of the American
horse, Hempstead, who successfully ne-
gotiated an obstacle 6ft. Sin. in height, at
the New York Horse Show, in the autumn
of ^^6. Australian horses seem to share
with Irish-bred ones, a natural gift for
jumping, and though the '' walers " are
not the easiest things in the world to ride
over fences, their prowess is undeniable.
A horse called Leo, an American, belong-
ing to Mr. '' Freddy" Gebhardt, and
standing seventeen hands high, did 6ft.
6in., before coming over here to compete
at the Agricultural Hall, in the weight-
carrying class, in June, '86. At that Show,
the most extraordinary jumper, to my mind.

THE SHOW-YARD, ETC. 16]

was an evil-tempered iron grey, admirably
ridden, by a man whose name I do not
know. This horse, after standing on his
hind legs, and fighting the air, suddenly
dropped and almost flew at the high jump,
launched himself madly into the air, and,
somehow or other, got over in safety ; one
or two more accomplished the feat, but all,
as I before said, with the air of not know-
ing where they were going to land.

There have been some enormous leaps
recorded out of the show yard, but doubt
has been thrown on a good many. For
instance, many men say that the measure-
ment of Chandler's historical effort at
Warwick— 39 feet — is unreliable, and that
Emblem's 33 feet in running for the Grand
National at Liverpool — when she is said to
have taken off, 12 feet in front of the
obstacle, and cleared three or four feet
beyond the brook — is ^' stretched," but

M

162 CROSS COUNTRY REMINISCENCES.

there can be no question that a tremendous
lot of ground was covered by the latter on
that occasion, though it may not have been
quite what is stated ; for my own part, I be-
lieve both measurements were accurate.
There is no doubt as to Mr. Tom Smith's
leap over the park wall already alluded to,
a stupendous and desperate performance.
To my mind, fifteen feet of water is quite
big enough for any horse to attempt, and
there are remarkably few '' certainties" in
the country at that. A good twenty feet
would have to be covered '^ to do the
thing well,'' and that is a lot of space to
get over anywhere, but on paper.

At some of the horse shows, in this
country, an open field is available for the
jumping trials, and, in such cases, a much
more natural test of a horse's capabilities
can be applied than in a covered-in and
limited space, especially if the crowd can
be, to any appreciable extent, got rid of.

THE SHO W- YARD, ETC. 163

In choosing hunters from the performers
at such places, one is far less likely to go
wrong in the open than on the ordinary
tan track. Given one's choice, however,
and there can be no doubt at all about the
fact that more is learnt about a horse in a
ten minutes' fast spin, over a good country,
with hounds, than by any amount of trials
in cold blood, wherever they take place.

One word upon the subject of the pivot
swung jumps : are they an unmixed bless-
ing, or not ? It is true that they give way
when rapped hard, but I have seen a horse
turned over, very nastily, by them, for all
that. I incline to the opinion that a made
jump, lightly resting against supports that
will give way on being struck, is the safer
of the two. In fact, it is very difficult to
see how an accident could happen, when
such obstacles as these are used. The
pivot-fence swings its lower part very
awkwardly in the way of a jumping horse,

164 CROSS COUNTRY REMINISCENCES.

and is somewhat apt, on occasions, to
catch his hind legs whilst in the air.

What an interesting study it is to stroll
through the Agricultural Hall, when the
Horse Show is on, and watch the won-
drous and fearsome '' get-up " of 'Arry. A
splendid type of this genus presented itself
to my marvelling gaze one day when I was
up there. His hat was tip-tilted over his
left eye, and a rakish-looking covert coat
enveloped the upper half of his manly
form (by the way, why will counter-jumper
youths persist in wearing these com-
fortable riding garments, when never do
they, by any chance, get on a horse?).
Tight, leggy trousers, of projionce stripe,
and a twopenny white tie, with a large
horse-shoe pin, completed his costume.
Evidently well satisfied that his attire was
calculated to impose on the credulous, and
make people believe in his profound know-

THE SHOW-YARD, ETC. 165

ledge of horseflesh (which, by his remarks,
I should say, was confined to that retailed
on little sticks for the benefit of the feline
race), he fixed his eyes upon a spare,
cadaverous-looking man, dressed in a
brown loose wrapper, dark trousers, and a
none too new top hat, who was looking
fixedly at a little blood chestnut, then going
into the ring. Quoth 'Arry to his pal —
" 'E looks as if 'e knew a lot about 'orses,
/ don't think," with great demonstrations
of disdain. The spare man's face was a
study ; he had overheard the remark, and
had to turn away to hide a grim smile.
He was a well-known gentleman rider, and
probably the finest horseman, either on the
flat or across country, in the whole of the
Southern part of England ! Poor little
'Arry ! Well was it for thee that thou Avast
unaw^are of what an elaborate ass thou
wast making of thyself at that moment !

CHAPTER IX.

CROSSING A COUNTRY.

Before attempting this '' labour of love,"
every man, who values his own comfort and
safety, should run a careful eye over his
horse's appliances. *' Not one groom in a
hundred knows how to bridle a horse
properly," says the author of '' Riding
Recollections," and certainly an astonish-
ing amount of ignorance does exist upon
this very simple matter. The throat-lash
is almost invariably too tight, and so are the
saddle girths. Another common fault, also,
is not having the head-stall long enough to

CROSSING A COUNTRY. 167

let the bit lie comfortably in your horse's
mouth without ^' crumpling up the corners
of his lips," to quote the same writer
again. Most grooms seem to think that in
girthing a horse up the correct thing is to
pull and drag until the animal can hardly
breathe, and they themselves get black in
the face, from their w^holly unnecessary
exertions. To fix the curb-chain properly
also seems quite beyond them, their one
idea being to make it as tight as possible.
All these matters require the careful atten-
tion of riders themselves, and a few
moments spent in this way will not, by
any means, be wasted. For most horses,
the best possible bit is the short hunting
curb and snaffle. The proportion of horses
tender-mouthed enough to ride to hounds
in a plain snaffle is comparatively small.
For a hard puller, nothing beats a sharply-
twisted snaffle, with a double rein and

1 68 CJ^OSS COUNTR V REMINISCENCES.

martingale. As to the gag, I never saw
the hard puller who cared twopence about
it. It is a hideous and ridiculous contri-
vance, and the most useless of the many
devices invented for stopping this sort of
horse. A band or net, across the nose, is
much more effectual.

How amusing it is to hear men telling
their friends at covert side, in tones for
everyone to hear, that they are '^ not going
to ride to-day ; they have only come out to
look on ! " Well, who on earth wants them
to ride ? If they are in a funk, by all
means let them stay away, and not make a
pretence of hunting when their nerve has
left them. It is surely no discredit to a
man to lose his nerve, but it is a very
ridiculous thing trying to conceal the fact,
under this flimsiest of disguises.

Now, I venture to think that, in cross-
country riding, the power of the legs is, or

CROSSING A COUNTRY. 169

ought to be, paramount. Here it is that
the fair sex are placed at such a terrible
disadvantage ; it is true they can, by means
of the pommel, get a certain grip of the
saddle and security of seat, but they have
no method of communicating what they are
thinking about to their horses — a very
serious drawback to equitation. A man
should do everything by the pressure of the
thighs and calves, and especially should he
tell his horse by that means the exact
moment at which he ought to take off at
an awkward place, or, indeed, at any place,
or else let him alone altogether! Half
the secret of success lies in this — take off
a stride too soon, and see what it adds to
the size of the leap. Do so a stride too
late, and probably you will not see, hut feel
what the effect of so doing is, with stiff
timber ! In order to get the full effect out
of this leg power, both the hands ought to

170 CJ^OSS COUNTRY REMINISCENCES.

be on the horse's withers, a rein in each.
So riding, it will be far easier to steer him at
his jumps, and far harder for him to get
the chance of refusing them.

Assheton Smith laid down three canons
for crossing a country, that we may all well
lay to heart. The first was that " there is
no place you can't get over, with a fall ; "
the second, '^ no man can be called a good
rider till he knows how to fall," and as the
writer averaged over sixty falls a season, he
ought to be a judge ; and the third, '' throw
your heart over, and your horse is sure to
follow." This last maxim deserves special
commendation. You must make up your
own mind about the matter, or surely you
can't expect your horse to do so. Put
your eye on a place, and say to yourself,
'* I'm going to have it there, '^ then let him
swing along freely at it, tell him with your
legs when to take off, and trust him for the

CROSSING A COUNTRY. Ill

rest. Assheton Smith certainly practised
what he preached ; notably so when, going
to covert one morning, he rode the young
one he was on, three times at a stiff 4ft.
rail, each attempt resulting in a fall ; the
fourth time he cleared it successfully ! It
takes a man tolerably hard for this style of
schooling, I fancy ! Headis an all impor-
tant thing in the field ; without discretion,
what is the use of pluck and resolution ?
And the converse, of course, equally ap-
plies ; a man may have the judgment of a
Solon and the wisdom of the snake, but
minus courage, and where is he ? And echo
answers, where ? Certainly not at the finish
of a run — unless he came round by the road !
As to the former class, old Jim Hills, the
huntsman of the Bicester, used to say of
the Oxford undergrads, who rode at or
over his hounds, in addition to anything
else that came in their way, '' Bless you,

172 CJ^OSS CO UNTR V REMINISCENCES.

sir, they fears nothing, ^ cause they knows
nothing V^

Now, men of this stamp are bound to
come to grief, seriously, sooner or later,
and the sooner the better for the safety of
the rest of the field. See the finished
horseman, as he goes down to a fence, on
excellent terms with his mount, neither
pulling at him nor letting him out-pace
himself, but gently restraining him, so that
his head Is nicely " In hand," and he can
feel him well, and know exactly what he Is
doing. A big open ditch, and strong-
staked and bound fence beyond, form the
obstacle. The rider sees that his horse
must be roused, and encouraged to jump
his biggest ; he catches him well by the
head and sends him resolutely at It. The
horse, knowing by the touch (this is not a
good way of expressing what I mean, but
It is the best I can think of at the moment)

CROSSING A COUNTRY. 173

of his pilot that he Is intended to jump,
gallops up to It, straight as a die, takes off,
in obedience to the pressure of his rider's
legs, at the right moment, and clears It all
in good style. He Is Immediately followed
down to the leap by the man who Is all
pluck and no head, and what happens ? He
has been sending his horse along a bit
too freely, and In consequence thereof he
is a little blown. Directly our friend catches
sight of the task before him, he says,
'' This Is a big one ! " and thereupon does
he cram his hat on his head, and drive his
horse as hard as he can at It. '' When
you see a man going a hundred miles an
hour at his fences, depend upon It that man
funks," said Assheton Smith. Quite true,
as a general rule, but not so in this instance ;
this man feels no touch of funk, but having
no discretion and head, pace is his one idea
of tiding over the more formidable obstacles

174 CJ^OSS COUNTRY REMINISCENCES,

he meets with. But to resume. Our ex-
ample's horse, hurried off his legs, and with
his head sticking awkwardly up in the air,
takes off too soon, strikes the top of the
fence very hard, and turns a complete
somersault into the next field. Both these
men had courage, but only one had head
with it.

The exception only proves the rule, and
in reference to the '' hundred miles an
hour " system, I have known it to be of
considerable value in the case of a deter-
mined refuser. In fact, one wretch that I
was condemned to ride (for my sins, I
suppose) a whole season, could only be
induced to jump anything when sent at it
so fast that she had to go either ''in or
over ! "

It has always been, more or less, a
matter of surprise to me, to notice how small
a margin a clever hunter will allow himself,

CROSSING A COUNTRY. 175

either in landing on the farther side of a
brook — when sometimes it looks to you,
who are riding, as if only his forelegs could
possibly reach the bank and the hind ones
must go in — or at a high jump, when
you will often either hear the smallest per-
ceptible rattle of the hoofs on the top bar
of a gate, for instance, or find, by careful
watching, that he has cleared it with barely
an inch to spare. A horse's discrimination,
and power of measurement with the eye, are
remarkably correct, and even when so
beaten that he feels rather disposed to
^' chance " his fences, he yet, in most cases,
makes a very accurate shot at what is re-
quired, as a minimum of exertion, for clear-
ing them. Aproposoi chancing fences, the
one fall that a man has no excuse for is
that which is caused by a horse being so
blown that he comes down. This is fre-
quently the worst kind of '' downer," too.

176 CROSS COUNTRY REMINISCENCES.

as a beaten horse falls '' all of a heap,'^
and perfectly helpless ; if he Is on top of
you, then It Is usually a bad business. The
rider may always know when his horse has
had enough of it ; his laboured breathing
and heaving sides, the '' flop " of the ears
and constant changing of his leg, tell the
pitiful tale all too eloquently, and the man
who goes on after such warnings, does so at
his peril. One might add, that the man who
goes on after such warnings ought to be
kicked ! But this is detail.

Perhaps men who tell you that the only
way to ride to hounds is to '' take your own
line, and keep it," don't quite reaHze the
force of what they are talking about. In
most countries you have to follow in single
file over many of the fences, which perhaps
only boast one practical place apiece.
Again, you are probably not on the fastest
horse In the field, and, given that single file,.

CROSSING A COUNTRY. 177

or something like it, is the order of the day,
you can't either take the lead, or keep it.
Neither is it desirable so to do, and many
horses won't jump, unless with a lead. In
addition to this, it would not be pleasant to
see men continually racing to be in front,
nor is it a sportsmanlike thing to do. '^ Cir-
cumstances alter cases," and when one gets
into the Vale of Aylesbury, for instance, it
is easy enough to ride one's own line, as
most of the fences are as jumpable in one
place as another. Of course the same
observation applies equally to many other
countries, such as most parts of Leicester-
shire, Northamptonshire, Gloucestershire,
the Blackmoor Vale, cum miiltis aliis, too
numerous to mention.

Lots of men shirk timber, and prefer
anything in the shape of a natural obstacle,
even with the chance of an uncertainty
beyond. Assuming that the former is only

N

178 CROSS COUNTRY REMINISCENCES.

of reasonable height, I think it, with most
horses, is infinitely preferable; it is clean,
you know exactly how much you have got
to do, and nine animals out of ten like it
better than a thing they cannot see through.
By saying this, I don't mean to recommend
anything in the shape of Jem Mason's five-
foot-six gate, be it understood !

Why do many men still stick to the old-
fashioned practice of throwing up the right
hand in the air, as they go over a fence ? I
never could understand the '^ why " of it, as
the Yankees say, any more than Mr. F. G.
Hobson's curious habit of putting his hand
on the cantle of the saddle, under the same
circumstances. Both seem to unnecessarily
weaken the rider's powers, and you want
both your hands, not only before rising at,
but also in landing over, your fence, to col-
lect, and assist your horse into his stride
again.

CROSSING A COUNTRY. 179

Another thing is, that throwing your
whip-hand into the air must alter the posi-
tion and balance of your body at the criti-
cal moment when your horse is '^ taking
off ; " nothing is more likely to cause a
flounder, if not a fall. A man who rides at
his fences with both hands, one on each
rein, well down, has twice the power of the
one who voluntarily sacrifices the use of
one of those hands.

Some men seem to steal, orghde, imper-
ceptibly over a country, as it were, and
others to butcher across it. Naturally
there is a great deal of difference in the
animals ridden : some only want holding,
some driving at their fences ; still, so much
depends on whether a man wants to
''flourish," or whether he has simply the
sportsman's desire to be with hounds.

Although it may not be either practicable
or desirable, in many countries, to take a

180 CROSS CO UNTR Y REMINISCENCES.

line of your own with hounds, it cer-
tainly is both practicable and desirable
in steeplechasing. There the fences are
as good in one place as another; there
is no '^ uncertainty " to look out for on the
other side, and if a man will persist in fol-
lowing exactly in another horse's track,
naturally he must come to grief, should any-
thing happen to his leader. It is not nice,
either in hunting or steeplechasing, to have
a man riding in your pocket, and no one
fancies being danced on by a follower when
he comes down. Constantly is this glaring
fault committed on the racecourse, and
even putting aside the question of danger,
both to horse and man, it doubles the odds
against your standing up to the finish, be-
cause, assuming that you, who are following,
get safely over your fence, if your leader
should peck and come down, over you must
go with him, to a certainty.

CROSSING A COUNTRY. 181

In the few observations at the beginning
of this chapter will be found one upon the
subject of tight girths, and being anxious
not to be misunderstood on this subject, I
venture to recur to it again. Though
I am no advocate for tight girths, believing
that when moderately girthed, and a breast-
plate used, the horse is far more comfortable,
and quite as safe, still I have in my mind
too sad an incident to recommend that they
should be left, in the least, slack. I daresay
many of my readers will remember to what I
refer. The accident happened in a steeple-
chase at Cambridge several years ago. As
the first and second horses actually passed
the winning-post, The Priest's saddle
slipped round, and his rider broke his neck
on the spot. Strangely enough, the man
who was second to him told him of the
condition of his girths at the starting-
post, but, unhappily, the ill-fated man paid

182 CJ^OSS COUNTRY REMINISCENCES,

no heed to the advice given, to tighten
them.

One of the most useful things possible,
to teach a hunter — and the process of
teaching him is extremely simple — is to
follow you about. In case of a tumble,
which necessitates your letting go the
reins, your horse, instead of galloping off,
and leaving you to cross a country, un-
comfortably attired in boots and breeches,
will remain standing still ; should your foot
hang up in the stirrup iron, you will find it
even more valuable than in the former case.
An officer of Artillery, himself a good man to
hounds, first called my attention to this.
He made all his horses follow him about,
like so many dogs, simply by coaxing
and caressing them, feeding them with
sugar, &c. One morning, waiting for
hounds to come up, he gave me a per-
formance, with a hunter, in an Inn yard.

CROSSING A COUNTRY. 183

where some twenty vehicles were standing.
The gallant Major dodged in and out these
things like a rabbit, but his horse was just
as quick, and would not be denied. I was
so impressed with the performance, that
every horse I have had since then has
undergone a short and always successful
(they learn so quickly) training in the
trick, and on three occasions since I have
found it of the utmost value, in falls. My
friend said that he always had a curious
idea that some day, in action, the fact of
his horse standing by him in the event of
an upset, might be more than useful.

A separate chapter of the excuses made
by a certain class of humbugs who follow
hounds — when they don't run — would be
amusing, but would take up too much space
here. The man who, on approaching a big
fence, invariably believes that he has *' lost
a shoe," the man who '^ would have had "

184 CROSS COUNTRY REMINISCENCES.

something that he palpably shirked, had he
'' been on the bay, instead of the chestnut,"
and the man who has ''only come to look
on to-day, and not to ride, you know," are
familiar characters to us all. They have
an explanation for every piece of funking,
and really delude themselves into the belief
that people are as big fools as they could
wish them to be, in order to swallow the
rubbish that they talk. If a man is afraid,
why on earth doesn't he say so, and stop at
home?

A keen eye for a country is a gift we all
underrate in youth, and naturally, for our
motto then should be that of Assheton
Smith — '' to go into every field with the
hounds," and in such case we do not
require the knowledge that enables us to
ride to points. But when the nerve has
gone — wholly, or in part — when old age or
ill-health have robbed us of the precious

CROSSING A COUNTRY. 185

gift of going, then does this science enable
us to see much that is pleasant, much that
recalls for a few brief, happy moments, the
more stirring scenes of a time when we
were able to ride with the best and hardest
of them. I speak with especial envy of this
knowledge, as I have it not, In the remotest
degree, myself. In fact, If I once lose sight
of hounds, nothing but a lucky acci-
dent enables me to fall In with them again,
and I invariably lose my way coming home
from hunting, even in the country I have
been constantly riding over for nearly
fifteen years !

I dearly like to see an old man, past
riding straight, struggle gallantly along
through gates, gaps, and lanes, arriving in
time to see the finish of a good run. One
game old Post Captain I know, sees a great
deal of the runs, in the Blackmoor Vale
country, in this fashion, and I well re-

186 CROSS COUNTRY REMINISCENCES.

member that my own grandfather, when
past going straight, was never so happy as
when engaged in the same manner.

Should any man be doubtful in his mind
as to the spirit in which to ride across
country let him take a copy of the following
hnes with him, and refresh his memory
by perusing them at covert side. Here
they are, and Egerton Warburton, good
man as he was at the game, never wrote
truer words than these —

Give me the man to whom nought comes amiss,
One horse or another, that country or this,
Who, through falls or bad starts, undauntedly still
Rides up to the motto, he with them I will !

CHAPTER X.

LADIES IN THE FIELD.

Nothing causes greater divergence of
opinion than the advisability, or otherwise,
of ladies riding to hounds. Now, there are
riders and riders, amongst the fair sex, as
amongst the inferior part of creation, and
most hunting men have, at some period or
other, suffered severely, by reason of the
vagaries of those, no doubt, charming
ladies who, for instance, look winningly at
you just as you are putting a horse at a
gate, and coolly ask you to stop and lift it

188 CROSS COUNTRY REMINISCENCES.

off its hinges ! And, again, at the hands of
the equestrienne who comes out with her
husband, or brother (who are never at hand
when wanted), but without a servant, and
who persistently drops her crop, or her
handkerchief, and mutely appeals to you
for the restoration of her missing property.
But the lady riders who suffer from an
over-abundance of pluck, and correspond-
ing lack of discretion, are they who,
seriously speaking, cause the terrible heart
sickness we all, alas ! know too well. It is
a most peculiar thing that they seem to
have so little knowledge of when a horse
has had enough of it, and so small an
appreciation of the size of obstacles. In
saying this I am, of course, not speaking of
the very front rank of lady riders, but of the
general mass. Some years back I remem-
ber being, with some ten or twelve other
men, fairly stopped, after hounds had been

LADIES IN THE FIELD. 189

running hard for a quarter of an hour, by an
apparently unjumpable park paling. Whilst
we were cursing our luck, and consulting
hurriedly, as to the best way out of the trap,
a lady, who had got a bad start, galloped
up, with slack rein, breathless, and excited.
Immediately she saw the situation, she
turned, and, unhappily fixing her eyes upon
me, said, ^^ Oh, zvoiild someone give me a
lead over ! " Well, there was no help for
it. I was, luckily, on a steeplechaser, and
was too great a moral coward to refuse, so,
hardening my heart, I caught him by the
head and rammed him at it. There was an
unholy rattling of hoofs, but we got over —
with a scramble ! Needless to remark that
the beautiful cause of this exhilarating
occupation never got her horse over at all,
although she tried most pluckily, half a dozen
times. Their pluck is in nearly all cases
undeniable, but — they are not judicious.

190 CROSS COUNTRY REMINISCENCES.

Watch how the average woman rides at her
fences. No attempt made at holding a
horse together, always the slack rein, and
often the whip accompaniment, whether it
is wanted or not ! Not pleasant this, for
the pilot, assuming that she is riding to
one— much the safer and wiser way, be it
said. To assume the somewhat difficult
post of '' leading " a lady, a man should be
facile princeps at the game himself, it is
needless to say, as he has to be responsible
for the safe conduct of two, instead of one,
in getting over a country. He should also be
gifted with the strongest possible nerve, and
ride a horse pretty smart at getting away,
on landing over his jumps, as ladies are apt
to be a little too quick and close on their
pilots, and especially if their horses pull hard,
or are of an excitable nature. I have, more
than once, looked over my shoulder and
seen the fore-feet of my charge's animal

LADIES IN THE FIELD. 191

apparently over my horse's back. In a big
jumping country some years ago, I, in a
weak moment, offered, on the morrow,
to pilot my then host's daughter. I did
so — but ''never again." I had to jump
every fence, and then jump back again to
persuade her to try it, although she was
on a finished performer ! After the first
three minutes of the run, we saw hounds
no more ! But, with the average fair rider,
it is only necessary that she should not
follow you too closely, and that she should
keep an eye on you, to watch for any signal
to stop. This should be given by throwing
the whip-hand up, in case of, for instance,
a big drop, which you don't think safe for
her to attempt. I piloted one excellent rider
throughout a whole season, over a biggish
country, and by her watchfulness for, and
implicit obedience to, the signals, all but the
most insignificant mishaps were avoided.

192 CJ^OSS COUNTRY REMINISCENCES.

Whyte-Melville very properly says that
''even If their souls disdain to follow a
regular pilot, I would entreat them not to
try * cutting out the work,' as it is called, but
rather to wait, and see one rider at least over
a leap before they attempt it themselves."
He goes on to say : '' It is frightful to think
of a woman landing in a pit, a water
course, or even so deep a ditch as may
cause the horse to roll over her, when she
falls. With her less muscular frame, she
is more easily injured than a man ; with
her finer organization, she cannot sustain
injury so well. It turns one sick to think
of her dainty head between a horse's hind-
legs, or of those cruel pommels bruising
her delicate ribs and bosom. It is at least
twenty to one In our favour every time we
fall, whereas with her the odds are all the
other way, and It is almost twenty to one
she must be hurt."

LADIES IN THE FIELD. 193

It is of the first importance that a lady's
hunter should be perfectly broken, naturally
temperate, and have plenty of brains. I
once saw a lady's horse fall into a V-shaped
ditch. The mare rocked to and fro, but
judiciously let alone, she steadied herself,
and with one big effort, and without the
least appearance of excitement, she strug-
gled out successfully. It was head alone,
here, that saved a '' crushing match."

Personally, I have always failed to under-
stand how on earth any grip can be
obtained on a side-saddle. Ladies, I know,
say that it affords a much safer seat than
our own, on account of the second pommel
enabling them to press the left knee up-
wards from the stirrup. I have tried
cantering on a side-saddle — it was uncom-
fortable, very. I started trotting — it was
agony ! Nothing would induce me to ride
over even a flight of hurdles on one !

O

194 CJ^OSS COUNTRY REMINISCENCES.

Again, they are deprived of that invaluable
*' touch " of a horse which their — I was
about to say ''lords and masters," but will
substitute " slaves and servants," have.
However, the fact remains that they can
and do ride on these saddles, in a way that
we cannot beat on our own, and so no
good purpose can be gained by arguing
the matter. The safety stirrup, before
alluded to, should always be used, and an
active servant (the fat old family coachman
is not the man), or friend, told off to attend
them during the day. These things being
granted, there surely can be no valid
reason advanced against ladies in the
hunting field.

CHAPTER XL

STEEPLECHASE COURSES AND POINT-
TO-POINT RACES.

There has been a great cry at the down-
ward course of steeplechasing of late, and
undoubtedly there has been, if not a decline,
certainly a " depression," in the sport, in
recent years. Local meetings, in especial,
have suffered, and chiefly because the
farmers, and men who own hond-fide
hunters, feel that they have no chance
against the man with a thing out of a
racing stable, which has hardly ever seen
hounds in its life. People indolently say,
'' What a pity," and then add, '' It's rather

196 CROSS COUNTRY REMINISCENCES.

sharp practice, you know ; " but as to
taking any vigorous steps to remedy the
abuse, that is the very last thing they
think of. I wish the words '' sharp prac-
tice " had never been invented ; perform-
ances such as these should be called by
their right name — obtaining money under
false pretences. The owners of such
horses well know that little local meetings
are not got up, nor the money subscribed
for their benefit. Nevertheless, a pack of
unscrupulous ruffians are always ready to
sneak unfair advantages, and spoil the
sport. Lots of men who have their two or
three hunters, animals that have honestly
done their work with hounds all the season,
would run them for the sport's sake, in-
dependently of any monetary value to the
stake, and the farmer, who owns a good
jumper and fairly fast one, would often be
willing to try conclusions with those of a

STEEPLECHASE COURSES, ETC. 197

similar stamp, in public ; but they argue,
*' What is the use ? Something in the
shape of a racehorse is sure to be entered,
and mine, of course, stands no chance
against that." This accounts, in great
measure, for the paucity of entries and
consequent slackness of the interest taken
in meetings. Be the conditions what
they may, some clever rogue seems
always able to drive the proverbial coach
and six through them. The question
is, whether the evil cannot be attacked
from a totally new quarter. Suppose
these gentry, having carefully railed
their '' certainty " down to the station
nearest the scene of action, found them-
selves confronted, not by the monotony of
*' galloping " fences, with the two regulation
open ditches, but by a course comprising a
bank with ditch on each side, a post and
rails of uncompromising strength, and a

198 CROSS COUNTRY REMINISCENCES.

'' double," which would be certainly calcu-
lated to perplex the ordinary racecourse
chaser. If to this could be conveniently
added four or five stiff, natural thorn fences
and some open running water, unguarded
in any way, it is not improbable that the
'^ certainty " would return to the railway
station without having been stripped !

In some local steeplechases the con-
ditions are that the competitors shall be
half-bred horses, but considering that The
Colonel, twice a winner of the Grand
National, and Pathfinder, who also won,
had *' h. b. " put after their names, it will
be seen that the remedy lies not here.

There is another evil in the present state
of the law regarding the qualification of
riders. Several men who have had '^ Mr. "
prefixed to their name, and ride as gentle-
men, are notoriously paid for their services.
Others are either trainers or grooms, and

STEEPLECHASE COURSES, ETC. 199

in one case a grocer's assistant was actually
qualified ! At one meeting, I myself saw
a groom ride, whilst a friend of mine, a
member of the English Bar, had to stand
down because he was not qualified ! Such
ridiculous nonsense can but do harm to the
sport, and the restriction of " farmers or
their sons to ride " is still more tiresome,
as many '' farmers or their sons " — if they
happen to have any — don't feel disposed to
risk their necks, or, more often still, have no
knowledge of how to ride in a steeplechase
— a very different thing to going with
hounds — and, if this is the case, they must
not put up anyone else, so their horse does
not run. A very useful alteration in the
law would be to admit, without further
qualification, all members of the leading
professions, as is done in the case of the
Army now, such as Barristers, Doctors —
very useful men to have about a steeple-

200 CI^OSS COUNTRY REMINISCENCES.

chase course, by the way — and Clerg — !
(I nearly said it !) I know two or three
men myself who dare not qualify, for fear of
damaging their professional prospects, and
yet who would be a valuable acquisition to
the best interests of the sport.

Of late years there has been a partial
revival of the good old-fashioned " point-
to-point " steeplechases. The great —
almost the only — objection to them, is that
very little can be seen of the contest
unless you ride with them. The conditions
appended, which are those commonly used,
will best show the nature of these chases : —

POINT-TO-POINT STEEPLECHASE.

Private Sweepstake of sovs, P.P. for horses that have

been regularly hunted with the Hounds. Owners up.

Catch weights [or to carry stone.] Over about miles of
fair hunting country, from point to point, to be named by Messrs.
. Riders must not ride for more than loo yards at one
time on a road or lane, nor open a gate. Entries to be sent to the
Hun. Sec. on or before the day of

Sometimes it is advantageous to omit
the words '' owners up."

STEEPLECHASE COURSES, ETC. 201

There are frequently two prizes, one for
horses carrying over 13 stone, and the
other for those carrying anything less.
Sometimes both classes are started to-
gether ; sometimes separate events are
made of the contests. In any case, it
is real good sport, and a very genuine
test of a hunter's capacity. A useful con-
dition in these races is that none of the
competitors shall have ever been in a train-
ing stable. This sometimes works rather
a hardship upon the man who has been
regularly riding an old chaser, and perhaps
it w^ould be better to make it a little nar-
rower— say, that no horse should be allowed
to compete that has been in a training
stable within the twelve months immediately
preceding the start.

The movable feast of the Grand
National Hunt Meeting— for the G.N.H.
Steeplechase is run on a different course

202 CROSS COUNTRY REMINISCENCES.

each year — generally brings out some
promising performers. The race is for ho7id-
fide hunters that have never won, either on
the f^at or across country, a race value 20
sovs., and that have never started for a
handicap, steeplechase, or hurdle race :
weight for age. The value of the event is
about 300 sovs., and the entrance is only
3 sovs., the sole liability for non-starters.
Amongst the winners in past years are :
Schiedam — probably the best horse that
ever started for the race — piloted most
ably by Mr. J. M. Richardson ; The Duke
of Hamilton's Bear, who never did much
afterwards, on account of a '' pain in his
temper; " and Mr. Vyner's Bellringer, who,
at his best, was a good horse ; as was also
Lucellum, another winner of this prize.

Not content with giving the unprece-
dented sum of ;^ 10,000 to the Eclipse
Stakes, a mile and a quarter race, the
Sandown executive, ever marching with —

STEEPLECHASE COURSES, ETC 203

perhaps even a little in advance of — the
times, has offered a princely sum for a
mammoth Hunters' Steeplechase, to be
run in 1888. This should, and probably
will, attract such a field to the post as
has rarely, if ever, been seen before.
The experiment of giving large sums to
hurdle races has been a great success,
so far as attracting large fields is con-
cerned— and to Croydon belongs the honour
of leading the van — no less a sum than
;^i,20o being added for one of these
events, as far back as 1875, when I saw
little Industrious, a son of Blair Athol,
romp in, through a sea of mud, with W.
Daniels on his back. The winner started
at an outside price, and the colours of all
the jockeys were so plastered with mud
that he was not recognized at first, and
many thought it was his stable companion,
a hot favourite, who had won.

Red-coat steeplechases are pretty often

204 CROSS COUNTRY REMINISCENCES.

introduced into the programme of hunt
meetings, and, in my humble estimation,
might with advantage be ehminated, as it
is perfectly impossible, in running, to dis-
tinguish the competitors, and a description
of such races must needs be of the vaguest
kind. As sensible would it be to start a
field for an ordinary iiat race, with all the
jockeys attired in '' the Grafton scarlet ! "
I think, myself, that it would be an un-
questionable advantage for the riders to
sport ordinary colours, even in Point-to-
Point races.

In concluding these brief remarks, it
might be respectfully sugested to the
G.N.H. Committee that the open ditches
should not be made compulsory on natural
courses ; in such places they are nothing
more or less than an unnecessary nuisance.

CHAPTER XII.

THE MUDBURY HUNT DINNER.

At the conclusion of last season, it was
determined that the members of this dis-
tinguished Hunt should give a dinner to
the farmers of the surrounding neighbour-
hood, and accordingly, on the appointed
evening — the invitations having all been
accepted to a man ! — the little Inn yard at
Mudbury was the scene of great commotion,
caused by the continuous arrival of all sorts
of odd vehicles conveying the guests to the
scene of action. There was a strong dash
of the market-gardening element, by the

206 CJ^OSS COUNTRY REMINISCENCES,

way, amongst our farmers, and most of
them were '' little men " as to their hold-
ings, having probably started as labourers
on allotments ; consequently there was no
foolish over-refinement about these sturdy
sons of toil, and a large proportion turned
up in corduroys. The guests were re-
ceived by our Master, Lord Swellboro',
whose sole drawback is that he has only
two ideas in his head — hunting and racing.
He knows nothing else — seeks to know
nothing else ; the rest of his life is, meta-
phorically speaking, coma.

Slight deafness, and an almost irresis-
tible impulse to use bad language on all
occasions, complete his more notable cha-
racteristics. In this last little weakness,
however, he does restrain himself, this even-
ing. Punctually to the moment, amid a
great slamming of doors and scuttling of
feet outside, something in waiter's attire (I

THE MUDB UR V HUNT DINNER, 207

afterwards found out it was the helper in
the stables) announced that '' dinner was
served." A regular scramble for places
then ensued, interspersed with, '' Will you
sit here, Mr. Phatted ? " ''This is my
place, I tell 'e," " I don't know who you
are, sir, but — " "Waiter! how can I sit
on a chair without a back to it ? " " That's
my bread, sir," &c., &c., but at length
people all shook down into their places,
somehow or other, and the feeding duly
proceeded. There was a little dissatisfac-
tion felt when, upon a dish of sweetbreads
being offered to him, Mr. Jorker took it out
of the servant's hand and emptied the
whole lot on his own plate, nor did Mr.
Muttonface increase his popularity by help-
ing himself to a whole pheasant, one of the
brace on the dish before him, and declining
to carve the other " not to please no one ;
he come there ter eat, not ter carve." How-

208 CJ^OSS COUNTRY REMINISCENCES.

ever, these little matters being adjusted,
and Mr. Jorker having topped up with a
Httle cold game pie, after he had finished
all the sweets he could lay his hands on,
Lord Swellboro' rose, and as soon as the
clatter of knife-handles on the table had
partially subsided, he began, " Gentlemen,
amongst the manifold duties of an M.F.H.,
there Is, perhaps, none more pleasant,
none of a more distinctly gratifying cha-
racter, than that of bidding a hearty wel-
come to this board, to the farmers and land-
owners of the surrounding district " (ap-
plause). *' To the young farmers of this
neighbourhood who come out with us, I
say ' Continue long to let us see your ug —
well-known faces at Covert Side.' To the
old foo — farmers, who do not don a racing
jacket — I mean a hunting coat, I say, ' You
are always a familiar sight ' " — (here My
Lord got rather mixed in his mind), '' ' and

THE MUDB UR V HUNT DINNER. 209

a pleasant one'" — (hear, hear) — '''on
our land.' " (No one \\\ the room under-
standing what he meant, the speaker himself
least of all, this last remark was received
in a mystified silence.) " I venture to say
that a pack of foxhounds benefits the farmer
as much as it gives pleasure to the follower
of the chase." (" Yah !" ejaculated Mr.
Pigbody, disgustedly. " Sh — sh," said
the members of the Hunt, frowning at him.)
"Just as the owner of racehorses benefits
the trainer, so do we benefit you farmers.
We say, ' Grow your corn' " (" For yew to
come gallopin' over it, I s'pose," sotto voce
from Jorker), " ' and breed your horses, and
we will buy them of you.' " (" At a price,"
audibly remarks a man who has tried the
experiment, and found it " wanting.") " Our
national sports should always be encou-
raged, and to you, the farmers of England,
we look for that encouragement " (hear,

P

210 CROSS COUNTRY REMINISCENCES.

hear). '' Racing " ('' For rogues," growls
one), '' steeplechasing " (*' For maniacs,"
grunts another), ''and foxhunting," are
things which — er — are ever calculated to
' cheer but not inebriate,' as the im-
mortal Nelson observed at the Battle of
Waterloo," concluded our Master, with
a rhetorical flourish, in which facts were
not '' in it " with a very misty im-
agination ! Everybody applauded at the
finish of the speech — probably because
it -was the finish — and the noble lord
resumed his seat and his cigar, only to rise
again, momentarily, to propose the health
of the farmers, which he had entirely for-
gotten in the course of his speech, although
it was for that express purpose that it was
delivered. He coupled the toast with the
name of Mr. Pigbody, who, having filled
himself a tumbler of green chartreuse, and
taken a good pull at it first, was regularly

THE MUDB UR V HUNT DINNER. 211

rIb-roasted on to his hind legs by his next-
door neighbour. '' My lordship and gentle-
men all/' he began, ('' hie ! ") '' wen my old
ooman see your kind inwitation, she says,
' Tummas,' she says, ' if you 'as a chance
o' speakin' at the dinner, don't forgit to
remark that if you was them you should
think it was more perliter to arst the
missuses as well ; ' so I says I would, and
now I've a-done it before I forgot all about
it, so you'll please excuse me for a-men-
tionin' it, praps a little premmyture, as the
French says. Gentlemen, the hobserwa-
tions as 'as fell from my lord is puffeckly
true, and it does us all proud when the
'ounds come gallopin' all over the land, a-
cuttin' up the wheat and playin' old — "
Here the speaker was nudged violently by
his next-door neighbour, and pulled himself
up with a jerk. Resuming, after a further
application of chartreuse, he said — ''My

212 CJ^OSS CO UNTR V REMINISCENCES.

lord says, 'Grow 'orses and breed corn/
Well, 'ed better try it hisself, and then tell
us 'ow 'e likes to sell 'em for 35s. a quar-
ter. Thirty-five shilhns a quarter (hie !) is
seveny shilhns a 'alf, and two arves make
'ole. I means two seveny shillins makes
(hie !) makes — " (aside to his neigh-
bour, '' Wha'stwiceseveny ? Eh, wha-
yousay? ^ unnerdanforry? ') '^unnerdanforry
shillins for a 'orse, seven pund for a 'orse.
Whasagoodathat ? Think man breedorses -
forseven ( hie !) puns ? Iss p'rfeckliridick-
lus." And so saying, Mr. Pigbody stuck
the lighted end of his cigar in his mouth, and
glowered savagely upon everybody. Some-
one having surreptitiously removed his
chair, his attempt at resuming his seat was
hardly a success, and, as he explained next
morning, the hearthrug, taking advantage
of his back being turned to it, seemed to
suddenly rise up and hit him. He dis-

THE MUDB UR V HUNT DINNER. 2 1 3

appeared from view, and no more was seen
of him for the rest of the evening. During
Mr. Pigbody's speech, Mr. Jorker had been
pretty busily occupied filling one pocket
with figs, seeing which, young Chaffaway
quietly contrived to load up the other with
olives, liquid preserved ginger, and two
pairs of nutcrackers ; he also emptied the
contents of the salt-cellar in, whilst the
worthy farmer was looking the other way.
Having completed these arrangements
entirely to his own satisfaction, Mr. Chaffa-
way managed to induce the Hon. and
Rev. Adolphus Whey — Lord Buttermilk's
son — to change places with him, and so
be in the pleasant position of receiv-
ing the full broadside of the irate victim's
wrath, when the time of discovery should
come. The health of the Master was
then proposed by Mr. Whey, who, mildest
of curates, had had an important episode

214 CJ^OSS CO UNTR V REMINISCENCES.

in his life. He had been out with the
hounds on one solitary occasion, whilst
an undergrad. at Oxford. True, he didn't
go far ; for at the first obstacle, a hedge
nearly two feet high, he fell off, and at
once walked back home. Nevertheless, it
was a thing to be fondly looked back to,
fondly (and with a certain amount of pro-
lixity) dwelt upon, and on the strength
of the performance, Mr. Whey rather
wished it to be understood, that, if not a
hunting man exactly, it was entirely be-
cause he did not feel it consonant with his
calling so to be, and not from any matter
of choice. He began — *' In rising to under-
take so formidable and yet so pleasing a
task as this, I feel that a more unworthy
person might have been chosen — I mean
that I am a more unworthy person than has
been chosen — no, I mean — " ('' Get away
forrard ! get on to him ! get on to him ! ") —

THE MUDB URY H UNT DINNER. 2 1 5

" that is — " (here Mr. Whey gets hope-
lessly confused, and alternately smiles
and blushes) — '' when I rise to propose
this toast, I feel that — er — in so rising
to propose this toast, I am proposing a
toast that you will all drink and see
drunk with acclamation." ('' Drunk with
what?" inquires our slightly deaf Master.)
" This toast is a toast which, above
all toasts, should be the toast of the
evening." (EI ere the constant reiteration
of the word '' toast " fairly put his audi-
ence on the rack — a veritable toast-rack.)
*^ It is — our noble Master" (tremendous
applause and jingling of glasses, lasting
several minutes). *' A master of hounds
has no sinecure. What with his duties in
the field — whipping-in and hunting the
hounds, blowing the trumpet he carries
at his saddle-bow, answering all inquiries
made, and cutting off the brush when

216 CROSS COUNTR Y REMINISCENCES.

the fox Is found, all his time Is fully
engaged ; whilst, In the kennels, feeding
such a number of dogs — for consider,
gentlemen, the quantity of bones and cats'
meat they must want — Is Indeed an oner-
ous and responsible task. My own ex-
perience of the pleasures of the chase Is, I
regret to say, limited, though I must con-
fess to a pang of envy when the spangled,
— spotted beauties trot gaily through the
streets of our borough. No words that I
can use would suffice to describe the ex-
cellent qualities of your Master, and there-
fore I will say no more " (hear, hear),
'' but simply leave the toast In your hands."
The whole company then rose, and shout-
ing, " The Master ! " drank to him, stand-
ing. In the enthusiasm of the moment
Mr. Whey seized upon his neighbour's
glass, and, with an airy bow to Lord Swell-
boro', was conveying It to his lips, when it

THE MUDB UR Y HUNT DINNER. 217

was firmly caught, and wrested from him
by the indignant rightful owner. Very
much abashed, the unhappy gentleman, in
great perturbation, hastily took up his finger-
glass and drained it to the dregs, without
discovering his mistake. They all then
sang, " For he's a jolly good fellow ! " rather
a superfluous number of times, and re-
sumed their seats, as the Master vacated
his. Having, at an earlier stage of the
evening, exhausted his limited flow of ora-
tory, he was rather understood than actually
heard to say something about *' Great
kindness always received " — " quite un-
worthy " — '' flattering terms " — '' generous
support " — " doing one's best " — " wild
country " — " show sport " — " ably as-
sisted " — " alwavs continue " — '' service of
all " — ^' fox-hunting flourish " — " many
thanks" — " kind way received toast," &c.,
&c. This over, Mr. Barney, the local

218 CR OSS CO UNTR Y REMINISCENCES.

doctor, a very ruddy-complexloned and
obese young man, was called upon for a
song. It was one of Mr. Barney's playful
peculiarities that he must sing sentimental
ditties of the tea-leaf and rose-water order,
which he always spoke of as ^' little things."
On this occasion he said he should be very
happy to sing them a ''little thing " called
" Only a tiny wormlet." It was a very
charming little ballad, with a plaintive
high note at the end of each of the eight
verses, but when he lyrically asked them to
" lay him to rest on the lilies and dew-
drops " one could not help the reflection as
to what the lilies and dewdrops would look
like after Mr. Barney's anything but
ethereal fifteen stone had been put on
top of them. A slightly hysterical recita-
tion by an amiable elderly gentleman, with
weak eyes and gold-rimmed spectacles,
followed, and then an imitation of popular

THE MUDB UR V HUNT DINNER. 2 1 9

actors was given by the same individual.
One felt thankful that he should have told us
whom he was imitating, at the beginning of
each sketch — it saves any misapprehension,
as it were. X'lwas a little awkward once, how-
ever, when on account of Lord Swellboro's
deafness he did not catch the name given
out, that of Mr. Henry Irving, and ap-
plauding loudly at the conclusion of the
" imitation," said, '' Capital, capital ! Just
like old Buckstone, isn't it?" This in-
cident rather damped the performer's
ardour, and, mercifully for us, shortened
the series. When the time arrived for
replying to the toast of '' The Ladies," Mr.
(he called himself Captain) Winker, of the
3rd Royal Blood and Carnage Volunteers,
bounded to his feet in order to reply.
Captain Winker's one o'ermastering desire
in life was to be considered a '^ b3ld, bad
man ; " and if ever, my reader, you meet

220 CJ^OSS COUNTRY REMINISCENCES.

him and want to borrow a fiver, you have
only to look knowingly at him, poke him in
the ribs, and say that you know he is "the
devil and all with the women," and suc-
cess is yours. As a matter of fact, he is a
most reputable member of society, and only
" a sad dog" in the eyes of his maiden
aunts. In appearance, he is short, round,
and cultivates a small, ginger moustache,
waxed at the ends, with an imperial, to
give a martial effect to the tout ensemble.
He is always intensely warlike, and, in
keeping with this peculiarity, he has
that of firing his sentences off at you, in
a manner suggestive of small arms explod-
ing. '' When I found myself called upon"
("Nobody called upon him — he thrust him-
self forward," indignant aside from young
Mr. Miggs, who wanted to respond himself)
'' to answer for the ladies — perhaps my
enemies might say I had much to answer

THE MUDB UR V HUNT DINNER. 22 1

for in this way — " twirling up the right
hand corner of his moustache, and waiting
for somebody to laugh — nobody did, so he
resumed — " I felt what a heavy responsibi-
lity was thrust upon me " ('' Ass," wrath-
fully mutters Miggs). "We soldiers"
(audible guffaw from Miggs), "we
soldiers" he repeats, glaring, with glassy
eye, at the offender, and speaking in
louder, not to say aggressive, tones —
" devils, perhaps, to our enemies, have
still, somewhere beneath a rugged exterior,
a spice of something gentler about us than
we are generally credited with. Something
soft" (" Like mashed turnips," interjects
his pitiless foe, thereby creating an un-
mistakable snigger in his immediate
neighbourhood) "there is beneath the
surface of every warrior" (" Brains, pro-
bably," from Miggs), " which tames the
fiercer portion of his nature, and conquers

222 CROSS CO UNTR Y REMINISCENCES.

the ever-lurking desire to revel in scenes
of carnage and bloodshed, and the desire
to stand upon the tented field" (''After
the fighting's over"). ''And to what are
we indebted for this influence ? " (" Funk,"
growls Miggs). " To woman, all-vanquish-
ing woman" (great applause). "What
says the poet :

' Oh woman, in our hours of ease,
Uncertain, coy, and —

(" Apt to sneeze," chimes in his tormentor)

* — hard to please.
When pain and anguish wring the brow,

(" They always make the greatest row ! ")

' A ministering angel, thou I ' "

(deafening applause, especially from those
of the guests who didn't in the least under-
stand what he had been talking about).
Very much gratified the little man went on :
" Gentlemen, I will ask you to pardon me
for invoking the Muse's aid once more in
this most, to me, entrancing of all subjects.

THE MUD BUR V HUNT DINNER. 223

The lines I allude to run something like
this : —

* Oh woman ! watch the dying day,
When night comes from the glen,
And slumb'ring echoes seem to say — ' "

C The old man's drunk again," roars the
now infuriated Miggs, heedless of con-
sequences). Oh what a scene there was !
it really looked at one time as though
the crockery would fly. "Cad!" — "low
rufhan ! " — " my card, sir" — "ought to be
shut up if you can't behave yourself" —
'' satisfaction " — " oflBcers don't fight with
blackguards, sir!" — "ginger-haired whip-
persnapper," &c., &c., until my Lord
Swellboro' forcibly interfered, and suc-
ceeded, after a time, in pacifying the
wouldn't-be combatants. Truth to tell,
there was a great deal of froth about the
affair, but very little, if any, desire for
blood, on either side, and as Lord Swell-
boro's one fixed idea of reconciliations was

224 CJ^OSS COUNTRY REMINISCENCES.

to make both parties as drunk as they
could conveniently get, he had them placed
right and left of him at the head of the
table, and having Insisted upon their shak-
ing hands, proceeded to fill both of them
up, with all despatch, and finally had the
satisfaction of seeing the pair of them into
the same cab, a process replete with
difficulty, as they each insisted on the
other entering first, and finally, after wast-
ing a quarter of an hour, decided to get in,
at one and the same moment, arm-in-arm.

The rest of the company, having duti-
fully sung ''God Save the Queen" in
various keys — it was a sort of '' go-as-you-
please " contest, each performer making
up his part as he went on — fell down the
stairs and got home — at least those that
were lucky did !

THE END.

IV^