Vinton & Co., Ltd., 9, New Bridge St., London, May, 1906.
ELLIOT & FRY PHOTO. HOWARD & JONES COLL.
BAILY’S MAGAZINE
OF
SPORTS AND PASTIMES
No. 555. MAY, 1906. Vol. LXXXV.
CONTENTS.
| PAGE | ||
|---|---|---|
| Sporting Diary for the Month | [v.] | |
| Mr. Assheton Biddulph, M.F.H. | [343] | |
| Englishmen’s Sport in Future Years | [346] | |
| A Plea for the Hare | [350] | |
| Pelota | [353] | |
| Jack Shepherd (Illustrated) | [357] | |
| The Preparatory School | [358] | |
| The Late Mr. John R. Gubbins (Illustrated) | [362] | |
| Dressing Flies | [367] | |
| Navicular Disease (Illustrated) | [369] | |
| The Beech as a Commercial Tree (Illustrated) | [375] | |
| The Hermit Family | [377] | |
| Sport at the Universities | [381] | |
| Foxhunting in France (Illustrated) | [385] | |
| South African Policy of the Marylebone Cricket Ministry | [387] | |
| Some Fables on Horses | [391] | |
| The Advent of the Otter-hunting Season (Illustrated) | [397] | |
| A Hundred Years Ago | [398] | |
| The Sportsman’s Library (Illustrated) | [399] | |
| Polo in 1906 | [402] | |
| “Our Van”:— | ||
| Racing (Illustrated) | [405] | |
| French Racing | [410] | |
| Hunting | [412] | |
| Some Spring Productions at the Theatres | [415] | |
| Golf | [419] | |
| Sporting Intelligence | [420] | |
| With Engraved Portrait of Mr. Assheton Biddulph, M.F.H. | ||
Mr. Assheton Biddulph, M.F.H.
Mr. Assheton Biddulph, Master of the King’s County Hounds, whose portrait we give in this number, was born in the year 1850. He is the second surviving son of the late Francis M. W. Biddulph, of Rathrobin, in the King’s County, now the residence of the Master’s elder brother, Lieutenant-Colonel M. W. Biddulph, late 5th Fusiliers.
Mr. Francis Biddulph, from whom his son inherits his love of hunting, was a well-known sportsman in his day. The late Mr. O’Connor Morris, in his book “Memini,” remarks that he was “one who knew as much as most men about horses of all sorts, hounds, hunting, racing, &c.; in fact, he was an encyclopædia of sport, and could ride to perfection.”
There are not now living many who remember the sad period, sixty years ago, when Ireland was devastated by famine. Speaking of this time, an old hunting man, long since gone to his rest, said to the writer, “I never made such preparation for hunting as I did that year, but before a third of the season was over there was scarcely a pack of hounds in Ireland.” Hunting was only kept going in the King’s County by some energetic gentlemen, as the country began to recover, keeping small private packs and hunting in their own neighbourhood. Of these Mr. Biddulph was one. He was at the same time a staunch patron of the Turf, and owned many good racehorses. It was thus with his father’s pack the present Master was entered to hounds.
In 1869 Mr. Assheton Biddulph was gazetted to the 57th Regiment, the old “Diehards” (now 1st Battalion Middlesex), with which he was stationed for some time in Devonport, where, whenever free from duty, he devoted his spare time to the chase of fox, deer, and otter. Here, too, he made the acquaintance of Squire Trelawney and Mr. Jack Russell, the sporting parson. The regiment afterwards moved to Ireland, and thus gave him the opportunity of again hunting in his native country. In 1873, the battalion being about to proceed to Ceylon, and the outlook seeming to offer but little opportunity of active service, Mr. Biddulph sent in his papers, and began devoting his energies to his favourite sport. For two or three seasons he hunted principally in Galway as the guest of the famous Burton Persse, of whom he always speaks as his principal tutor in the art. At the same time he confesses to dipping stealthily into authorship; as “Vagrant” he used regularly to write hunting sketches in the Irish Sportsman for his old pedagogue, W. J. Dunbar.