Extract from a Letter from York, April 30th: “This day a long-depending match against time was decided between Mr. Harrison and Mr. Ray. Four hundred guineas to one hundred that Mr. H. did not drive one of his horses, with himself and another person, in a chase from London to York in forty-eight successive hours. This he performed with apparent ease in forty-six hours and fifty minutes, having started from London at six o’clock on Monday morning, and arrived at York ten minutes before five on Wednesday. He offered to take the same bet, to go from York to London in the same time, and start this day week, with the same horse.”
The Sportsman’s Library.
Sir Walter Gilbey has issued a new and revised edition of the suggestive pamphlet[[16]] which appeared soon after the close of the South African War, when the enormous losses sustained among the horses were still fresh in the mind of the country. The main objects of Sir Walter’s scheme are, to secure a sufficiency of the best of the three-year-old horses that come into the market each year for the Army, and house them in specially organised depôts, to be handled and trained until old enough to be issued as cavalry, artillery and transport remounts; and to create the nucleus of a staff of officers to whom the difficult and delicate task of buying horses may be entrusted in time of emergency. The scheme suggested appears to us eminently feasible, and also one that could be put to the test of practical experience at insignificant cost to the national exchequer. Sir Walter does not urge that his scheme in its entirety, involving the creation of ten depôts near various selected centres in the kingdom, should be adopted at once. He suggests that three or four of these depôts, each capable of receiving 400 horses, should be established and given a few years’ trial. This is sound business, and inasmuch as the capital cost of each depot is only £25,000, while the Army estimates each year, nowadays, fall little short of thirty millions of money, there is nothing in the scheme that need alarm the most economically minded war minister. As Sir Walter points out, recent years have seen a vast increase in mechanical traction, whereby great numbers of horses of a very useful class for military purposes have been done away with; the sources of supply formerly made accessible by the registration system have been thus much reduced; and the question of Army remounts, always a difficult one, is likely to become even more difficult in the future. We are quite of Sir Walter’s opinion that the step taken by the authorities in paying “market price” for horses means little more than a reduction in the standard of quality. Five-year-olds, fit to carry our cavalry and draw our guns, are not to be had for an average price of £43 16s. 8d. If our troops are to be properly mounted we must give them the best; and Sir Walter’s scheme, whereby young horses may be bought and kept at the public charge for a year or two, is, in our judgment, the best means of getting the best that could be devised.
Few men in England have wider experience of hounds and hunting than Mr. Richardson; he mentions, incidentally, in his brief preface, that he has learned what he knows in “nearly half of the English hunting countries.” He has, therefore, strong claims to be heard when he puts pen to paper. His book[[17]] is a small and unassuming production, but it contains a vast amount of sound advice, delivered in a straightforward, sportsmanlike fashion that lends it weight. The tone of the whole book appeals to us; the author has the gift of writing in a direct and intimate strain which conveys to the mind of the reader that he personally, and he only, is being addressed. And inasmuch as the book was penned for the guidance of boys, girls, and hunting novices of larger growth, this method is peculiarly appropriate. Mr. Richardson seems to have kept an eye on the rising generation as it appears at the covert-side and in the wake of hounds, and his observations on conduct and deportment are very much to the point. The chapters headed “Threefold Duties” and “Duties to the Field” might fitly form a sort of Saturday Catechism in which indulgent parents should require their offspring to be letter perfect before they are allowed to go out with hounds. Admirably practical, too, are the observations on “Costume and Equipment.” Mr. Richardson is a martinet in the matter of hunting dress, and requires that “every boy and girl and every man and woman who hunts should be as neat as a pin all over.”
We also find ourselves very much in accord with him concerning the observance of hunting etiquette in the so-called “provinces” by comparison with the more fashionable shires. In the latter we have more than once seen the man who, for the public weal, dismounted to open a gate, left behind, if not nearly carried away by the crowd while endeavouring to regain his saddle, and we have never seen a similar proceeding in a “provincial” country. Again, we are in accord with him when he affirms that “four-fifths of the hunters in the kingdom are, when in really good condition, quite fit enough to hunt twice a week.” Of course, as the incipient solicitor said, “It all depends,” but we are of Mr. Richardson’s opinion that the large majority of hunters could not only do more than they are usually asked to do, but would be much better off with more work than they get in the orthodox three days a fortnight—always provided they are fit.
COCKER SPANIELS.
By permission of the publishers of “The Sporting Spaniel.”
The whole book is that of a wise and thoughtful hunting man, who not only knows his subject from the very bottom, but can use his knowledge for the benefit of others in direct and convincing language. Masters of Hounds who suffer from the perennial Christmas school-boy and the cocksure hunting novice should rise up as one man and bless Mr. Richardson for that he has in a small half-crown book put forward lucidly the whole duty of the hunting man towards himself, his neighbour, and the hounds. We most cordially recommend it to the notice of the parent, guardian, and to the family coachman who may be entrusted with the duty of escorting the young master or mistress out hunting.