It was history repeating itself to see a son of the famous Mr. Tom Drake picking out the gems of the Southwold, a rare pack, to get good hounds from; it looks as if judgment in the kennel is hereditary, as did he not get one good enough to make a pack when he secured a lot that included the little bitch Guilty, by the Brocklesby Wrangler? The present Squire of Shardloes, Mr. W. Tyrwhitt-Drake, who is an old hand in all that pertains to foxhounds, will have another great pack to hunt the Old Berks country with, if he will only stay long enough. Another buyer of the Southwold was Mr. Isaac Bell, of the Galway Blazers, and he will have nothing to regret in the six couples he secured; and with Mr. Nigel Baring, of the Duhallows, snapping up the Brocklesby stallion hound, Sandow, for 45 gs., it may have been called almost an Irish day. Some English packs, though, will be the gainers, as it will be astonishing if Captain Kinglake, of the Taunton Vale, does not do some good with two couples he got from Sir James Miller’s pack; most certainly Dashwood, Catcher, Trampler and Wayward are grand workmanlike-looking foxhounds, and almost ridiculously cheap at 58 gs. The sale of the Dowager Lady Craven’s pack a fortnight later, for nearly 1,100 gs., has been a feature in the disposal of hound property, but I expect they were very cheap, as they were bred by Mr. C. B. Wright, who has no superior in Stud-book lore and as a judge of hounds.
Features of the hound sales throughout the spring have been the numerous purchases by Mr. Pollok and Mr. Isaac Bell for the Kildare and Galway Blazers, and, by the way these gentlemen bought, it is very evident that hound breeding in the Sister Isle will be very much improved. Besides his purchases on the first day’s sale, Mr. Pollok got a nice lot of entered bitches from the Atherstone that might breed anything, and two unentered lots from the Heythrop that might do a deal of good. Mr. Isaac Bell was buying several very racing-like bitches from the South Cheshire, including a couple one noticed by the Warwickshire Traveller, which give a denial to the idea that the beautiful son of Belvoir Handel and Tragedy was no use at the stud. Doubtless there are some more of his get at Kineton, or a couple of his unentered daughters would not have been missed. I shall be curious to know how these young Travellers, Credible and Captious, do in their new Galway home. Apart from the Irish efforts in the cause of improvement, it was seen that Lord Southampton was intent on keeping up the standard of the Grafton, as his lordship expended 210 gs. for five couples of choice bitches from Lady Craven’s pack, or 21 gs. a hound; no gs. going for the couple and a half, Fabulous, Grenadine and Roundelay. Lord Leconfield also gave 110 gs. for one lot as an addition to his Goodwood pack. At the third sale, on the 11th of the month, Lord Southampton was again buying some dog hounds from the Burton pack, but as they have been hunting in Suffolk, they may have become a little sticky for a country like the Grafton. For that reason, perhaps, they did not make much money. The Atherstone were voted the best of all at this final sale, and a great bargain was made by Mr. W. Drake, when he took Stormer for a fourth of 17 gs., and both Lord Huntingdon and the York and Ainsty are to be congratulated on the bargains they got amongst the young hounds, that made about twice as much as any unentered drafts have ever made before, and this says much for Atherstone breeding. In all, more than thirty countries will be benefited by the Messrs. Tattersall’s sales this season, besides help to the Dominion of Canada and far-off India, with a few examples also of what England can boast of to Russia. May the Rugby sales continue and prosper.
G. S. Lowe.
The Olympic Games.
International encounters, in sport as in most else, are rarely attended with perfect success, and the second great meeting of the revival of the classic games at Athens has furnished no exception to the rule, for such was the number of entries that competitors suffered considerable discomfort in the matter of hotel accommodation.
As to the sport itself, whilst the British team cannot be said to have acquitted themselves badly, one must candidly confess that more was expected from them.
That America should win the 100 and 400 metres was generally anticipated, as it sent out a peculiarly strong team which had the advantage of a manager, trainer and doctor, and had, possibly, the most complete organisation—excepting, perhaps, that of the Swedes—of any team which has ever left a country to defend that country’s honour and pride.
The 100 metres race they did win in the good time of 11⅕ sec. by Hahn (America), with Moulton (America) second, and Barker (Australia) third. But that, even with Lightbody, America’s present one and half-mile champion, magnificent runner as he is, they should win the 800 and 1,500 metres, was open to the greatest doubt. Even in the regrettable absence of Hawtrey, owing to a swollen ankle, the result of his great five mile race, it was thought that Crabbe and Halswell in the former, and Crabbe and MacGough in the latter, were capable enough of beating our oversea cousins, who at long distance events are proverbially weak. Yet none of these were sufficiently good to hold Lightbody and Pilgrim, the former of whom won the 1,500 metres in 4 min. 12 sec., whilst both of these men put up such a splendid race in the 800 metres that Pilgrim, who had previously beaten Halswell in the 400 metres in 53⅕ sec., only gained the verdict on the tape by a breast in 2 min. 1½ sec. Halswell, who does not seem so good at a half as a quarter, was third, and Crabbe fourth, whilst the latter in the mile could do no better than fifth, MacGough taking pride of place for Britain with second. This race was completely thrown away by MacGough not showing to the front and making the pace, for the four American representatives ran the race as they pleased, and Lightbody proved faster than MacGough in the straight. The five miles provided us with our only athletic victory, and in this Hawtrey showed what a strong runner he is, as, making the pace all the way, he finished little the worse for the journey in the good time of 26 min. 11⅘ sec. Perhaps one should chronicle as an English victory—certainly as a British one—the win of Sherring, of Canada, in the Marathon Road race. This, the great event of the meeting, was looked on by the Greeks as of the supremest importance, for ten years ago it was won for them by Louis, their kinsman, and they felt quietly confident of repeating that success. However, Sherring, who had been training on the road for seven weeks, ran superbly, and after twelve miles out had no one near to cause him a moment’s doubt, and in consequence he almost walked the last five miles. His time showed what a great performance it was, being returned as 2 hrs. 51 min. 23⅗ sec., beating Louis’ time of ten years ago by over 3½ min. Being of athletic build he is an ideal man for the journey, weighing but 9 st. 4 lbs., and he finished remarkably strongly, whereas a heavy man like Daly was in a woe-begone condition, footsore, weary, and in a complete state of collapse, eight miles from home, where he retired, being taken with several others to the hospital there, which was soon in a crowded condition, as very few of the competitors got beyond this point. The performance of Svanberg, a Swede, who ran second to Hawtrey in the five-mile race, was excellent, he being but 7 min. behind the winner, and Franc, the American—who would have stood a better chance but for forcing the pace at the commencement when it was made inexcusably hot—third, two minutes later. The three first places in the Marathon cycle race were gained by Frenchmen, whilst Britain won the Tandem by Matthews and Rushen; the 12½ miles through Pett; and secured second in the mile and lap against time by the aid of Crowther, and in the 1,000 metres with Bouffler. These last two men found their master in Verri, of Italy, a rider of immense pluck and resource. Leahy won the high jump with 5 ft. 11 in., and was second to O’Connor in the hop, skip and jump with 13 metres 98. The latter’s jump was 14 metres 7½, but he completely failed in the long jump, and had to be content with second place to Prinstein, of America. The walking race was rather a fiasco, owing to disqualifications—Wilkinson, our representative, was the first to go—and ended in a win for Bonhag, of America, whilst a beautiful walker in Linden, of Canada, was second. The 110 metre hurdle race fell to Leavitt, of America, in 16⅕ sec., with Healey second, though if the first race, which was unfortunately stopped by some official, had been permitted, Healey, whose damaged foot was paining him badly, could probably have won. In swimming, we won the mile through Taylor, with Jarvis second, and in fencing the Englishmen were exceedingly unfortunate and only robbed of a victory, after a draw, by the strange award of the jury. Max Decuglis, for France, won the tennis singles, and with his wife the mixed doubles; whilst Gouder also credited his country with first position for a capital pole jump of 11 ft. 4 in. The great success for the Greeks was the putting the stone, won by Georgantas. Sheridan (America) won the discus throwing (free style) with approximately 137 ft., beating his own record, and Jaervinem (Finland) the restricted style (35 metre 17).