MR. C. HENRY RIDGWAY,
Master of the Pau Hunt.
Photo by F. P. Subercaze.]
The best of the Oxford freshmen appear to be Messrs. J. H. Gordon and A. C. L. Clarke (Winchester), Lord Somers and H. E. L. Porter (Charterhouse), H. K. Gould and V. Eberle (Clifton), C. Hurst (Uppingham), G. C. Barnardo (Repton), O. H. C. Dunell (Eton), R. O. Morris (Harrow), E. B. Carpenter (Winchester), and H. A. Gilbert (Charterhouse). One or two above-average bowlers are included. Of the Cambridge “freshers,” Messrs. J. N. Buchanan (Charterhouse), K. G. Macleod (Fettes), N. S. Cornelius (Malvern), H. Hosken (Leys), and J. Reunert (Harrow), boast splendid public school credentials. For the rest, about the best appear to be Messrs. J. H. Wakefield (Repton), E. Hoffmeister (Brighton), H. W. Priestley (Uppingham), and H. P. Webb (of the same school). The trial matches commence simultaneously with this month’s issue of Baily, and the outcome means a good deal to Oxford. On paper form at least the Light Blues have a decided pull this year. Capital fixture lists have been arranged both ways. Oxford play home matches against the Gentlemen of England, Lancashire, Yorkshire, the M.C.C., and the Free Foresters, and foreign matches against Sussex, the M.C.C., Worcestershire, and Surrey. The Cantab’s home fixtures are v. Yorkshire, Northamptonshire, Surrey, the Gentlemen of England, Middlesex, Gloucestershire, and their foreign fixtures v. the Gentlemen of England, Sussex, Surrey, the M.C.C., and Liverpool and District (after the Inter-’Varsity match). Another period of all-round, fast and furious, is thus assured at the Sister Universities. Later on I shall have something to say of the results.
W. C. P. F.
Foxhunting in France.
Mr. C. HENRY RIDGWAY, MASTER OF THE PAU HUNT.
One is apt to associate the noble science of foxhunting with the United Kingdom alone, and certainly to partake of this most fascinating sport in its perfection the United Kingdom must be visited. But foxhunting, good, bad, and indifferent, is to be found in many quarters of the wide world. A “Gib.” reynard is pursued amongst the rocks and cork trees; in Belgium there is more than one “equipage au reynard”; and in Virginia, Maryland, and other states of the Union foxhunting has flourished for centuries.
In France there are “equipages” innumerable, but the object of their pursuit is the stag, the roedeer, the wild boar, or the hare; and reynard is looked upon as vermin, except in the little far-off corner of the Republic which, till the days of Henri IV., although its sovereign bore the more ambitious (if empty) title of King of Navarre, composed the tiny kingdom of Bearn. Here, with its headquarters at the ancient capital, “La bonne ville de Pau,” foxhunting has flourished for over fifty years, and at the present time is pursued with the greatest vigour and success.
The earliest record of hunting around Pau dates from 1840, when Sir Henry Oxenden brought a pack of foxhounds, and a numerous stud, to the Chateau of Aureilham, near Tarbes, and found active employment in hunting the wild fox for four days a week. Three years after, on Sir Henry’s resignation, Messrs. Cornwall and Standish, then residents at Pau, established kennels at Bordes, not quite half way between Pau and Tarbes, and carried on the sport.