Sporting Society

Part 1

BOOKS FOR SPORTSMEN

PUBLISHED BY

BELLAIRS & CO.,

9 HART STREET, BLOOMSBURY.

IN SCARLET AND SILK. Recollections of Hunting and Steeplechase riding. By FOX RUSSELL. With two drawings in colour by FINCH MASON. 5s. net.

NEW SPORTING STORIES. By G. G. 3s. 6d. net.

The Times says:--"New Sporting Stories are written by a man who evidently knows what he is writing about.... The sketches are short, racy and to the point."

TRAVEL AND BIG GAME. By PERCY SELOUS and H. A. BRYDEN. With Illustrations by CHARLES WHYMPER. 10s. 6d. net.

THE CHASE: a Poem. By WILLIAM SOMERVILLE. Illustrated by HUGH THOMSON. 5s. net.

In this fine old poem now ably illustrated by Mr Hugh Thomson are the original lines, quoted by the immortal Jorrocks--

"My hoarse-sounding horn Invites thee to the chace, the sport of kings, Image of war, without its guilt."

GREAT SCOT THE CHASER, and other Sporting Stories. By G. G. With Portrait of the Author. 4s. 6d. net.

The Daily Telegraph says:--"G. G. is a benefactor to his species."

CURIOSITIES OF BIRD LIFE. By CHARLES DIXON, Author of "The Migration of Birds." [In the Press.

ANIMAL EPISODES AND STUDIES IN SENSATION. By GEORGE H. POWELL. 3s. 6d. net.

TALES OF THE CINDER PATH. By an Amateur Athlete [W. LINDSEY]. 2s. 6d. net.

REMINISCENCES OF A YORKSHIRE NATURALIST. By the late W. CRAWFORD WILLIAMSON, LL.D., F.R.S. Edited by his wife. 5s. net.

ENTERTAINING BOOKS

PUBLISHED BY

BELLAIRS & CO.,

9 HART STREET, BLOOMSBURY.

A MAN AND A WOMAN. Faithfully presented by STANLEY WATERLOO. 3s. 6d. net.

BEYOND ATONEMENT. A Story of London Life. By A. ST JOHN ADCOCK. 4s. 6d. net.

A HUSBAND'S ORDEAL; or, the Confessions of Gerald Brownson, late of Coora Coora, Queensland. By PERCY RUSSELL. 3s. 6d. net.

A BRIDE'S EXPERIMENT. A Story of Australian Bush Life. By CHARLES J. MANSFORD. 3s. 6d. net.

EIGHTY YEARS AGO; or, the Recollections of an Old Army Doctor, his adventures on the fields of Quatre Bras and Waterloo, and during the occupation of Paris, 1815. By the late Dr GIBNEY of Cheltenham. Edited by his son, MAJOR GIBNEY. 5s. net.

THE SOLDIER IN BATTLE; or, Life in the Ranks of the Army of the Potomac. By FRANK WILKESON, a Survivor of Grant's last campaign. 2s. 6d. net.

NEPHELÈ. The Story of a Sonata for violin and piano. By F. W. BOURDILLON. 2s. 6d. net.

Part 2

A DARN ON A BLUE STOCKING. A Story of To-day. By G. G. CHATTERTON. 2s. 6d. net.

THE MYSTERY OF THE CORDILLERA. A Tale of Adventure in the Andes. By A. MASON BOURNE. Illustrated. 3s. 6d. net.

THE LURE OF FAME. By CLIVE HOLLAND, Author of "My Japanese Wife." 3s. 6d. net.

THE OLD ECSTASIES. A Modern Romance. By GASPARD TOURNIER. 4s. 6d. net.

THE TANTALUS TOUR. A Theatrical Venture. By WALTER PARKE, joint-author of "Les Manteaux Noirs," and other comic operas. Illustrated. 2s. 6d. net.

SPORTING SOCIETY

SPORTING SOCIETY

SPORTING CHAT AND SPORTING MEMORIES

STORIES HUMOROUS AND CURIOUS; WRINKLES OF THE FIELD AND THE RACE-COURSE; ANECDOTES OF THE STABLE AND THE KENNEL; WITH NUMEROUS PRACTICAL NOTES ON SHOOTING AND FISHING

FROM THE PEN OF

VARIOUS SPORTING CELEBRITIES AND WELL-KNOWN WRITERS ON THE TURF AND THE CHASE

EDITED BY FOX RUSSELL

Illustrations by Randolph Caldecott.

IN TWO VOLUMES--VOL. II.

LONDON BELLAIRS & CO. 1897

CONTENTS

PAGE

SPORTING OF THE PAST AND THE PRESENT DAY 1 By "OLD CALABAR"

DOWN THE BECK 23 By G. CHRISTOPHER DAVIES

AN APOLOGY FOR FISHING 45

DOGS I HAVE KNOWN 58 By Captain R. BIRD THOMPSON

NOVEMBER SHOOTING 85 By "OLD CALABAR"

SPORTING ADVENTURES OF CHARLES CARRINGTON, ESQ. 94 By "OLD CALABAR"

MY FIRST DAY'S FOX-HUNTING 121 By the Owner of "Iron Duke"

MY FIRST AND LAST STEEPLE-CHASE 139 A Story of a "Dark" Horse

SALMON-SPEARING 165

CARPE DIEM 182 By the Author of "Mountain, Meadow and Mere"

NEWMARKET 192 By Captain R. BIRD THOMPSON

Part 3

KATE'S DAY WITH THE OLD HORSE 207 By CLIVE PHILLIPS WOLLEY

SOME CURIOUS HORSES 235 By Captain R. BIRD THOMPSON

SPORTING FOR MEN OF MODERATE MEANS 259 By "OLD CALABAR"

PARTRIDGE MANORS AND ROUGH SHOOTING 285 By "OLD CALABAR"

WHO IS TO RIDE HIM? 302 By "OLD CALABAR"

A CUB-HUNTING INVITATION 331 By the EDITOR

TOLD AFTER MESS 336 By the EDITOR

SPORTING OF THE PAST AND THE PRESENT DAY

"O tempora! O mores!" how our grandsires would stare if they could only see how differently sporting in all its branches is carried on now-a-days; it would make their pigtails stand on end, and the brass buttons fly off their blue coats in very fright.

There are few of the Squire Western school now left; but occasionally you may still come across some jovial old sportsman of eighty years or more, who, though his form is shrunken, and his snow-white head proclaims that many winters have passed over it, yet carries a pair of eyes as bright and keen as of yore, eyes that glisten again when he launches forth on his favourite hobby.

I know several gentlemen nearer eighty than seventy who still shoot, and keep a fine kennel of dogs. One of these gentlemen only last year took a moor in Scotland for five years. May he live to enjoy it and renew his lease.

I could name many close on, ay, over fourscore, who ride well yet to hounds; and though they may not be such bruisers as they once were across country, yet are difficult to choke off.

It is just forty-one years [this was written twenty years ago] since I had my first mount to hounds. There is no non mi ricordo with me. I can recollect the day as well as yesterday, the pinks, the beaver-hats of curious shape, the short-tailed horses, are too vividly impressed on my memory ever to be effaced. Men went out in those days for hunting, and not merely for a gallop. Time changes all things, and I suppose we must change with the times; but are these changes for the better? Well, I will not give an opinion, but leave others to decide.

The hounds of those days were not nearly so fast as those of the present; and I am inclined to think that our hounds are now bred too fine and speedy--for some countries they certainly are--and often flash over and lose a scent which ought not to be lost.

Hunting, in the days I speak of, could be enjoyed by men of very moderate means, for it was not necessary to have two or three horses out. In some countries, especially woodland ones, one horse may still do; but, as a rule, hounds are now so fast, and horses so lightly bred to what they were, that no hunter, however good he may be, can live with them from find to finish. If you wish to see a run out, you must have your first and second horsemen riding to points. These men must not only be light-weights, but steady, know the country, save their animals, and be there when wanted.

You seldom, at least where I hunted, saw men driving up to the meet in their well-appointed broughams, mail-phaetons, or what-not. A long distance was done, in my early days, on a cover hack; and one hunter did where three are now required.

In the present day you see men stepping from their close carriages with the morning papers in their hands, beautifully got up--a choice regalia between their lips, with holland overalls to keep their spotless buckskins from speck of dirt or cigar ashes. Very different from the hardy men you encountered years gone by, alas! never to return again--cantering along on a corky tit, with leather overalls. Now you have all sorts of devices--waterproof aprons before and behind--in my idea it only wants some enterprising man to bring out a hunting-crop with an umbrella, something similar to the ladies' driving-whips, whip and parasol in one, to complete the picture. Fancy men hunting with waterproof aprons--they should go out for nurses!

Perhaps, as years creep on, one is wont to look back on his youthful days and fondly imagine nothing is done so well now as then. Understand, I do not say hunting and shooting are not as good as they were. I do both still, and enjoy them as much as ever; but there is not so much sport in them, to my mind, as formerly--men are not the hardy, genuine sportsmen they were.

Horses are much dearer now than twenty, thirty, forty years back--provender also. Where £1 would go thirty years ago, you require now nearly £1, 10s.; this alone prevents many men from following their favourite pursuits.

The time is not far distant when hunting will be given up in England; railways, the price of land, and the high market prices which must necessarily come with an increase of population, are doing their work slowly but surely. The present generation are not likely to witness it: so much the better, for it would break the hearts of some to see the noble pastime of hunting on its "last legs." Waste land, too, is being rapidly enclosed, and what are now wilds, fifty or sixty years hence may be flourishing districts.

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