The final round of the amateur tennis championship was played between Mr. E. H. Miles, the holder, and Mr. Jay Gould, amateur champion of America, on May 7th, at Queen’s Club. The holder retained the championship, defeating Mr. Gould by 6 games to 3, 36 strokes to 33.
We regret to record the sad end of George Jones, huntsman of the Whaddon Chase Foxhounds, who was found dead in a barn at the kennels. It appears that owing to a change in the mastership Jones was leaving, and this so preyed on his mind that he took poison, which caused his death.
Gamekeepers have sustained a very real loss by the death of the Earl of Mansfield, who was one of the most active supporters of the Gamekeepers’ Benefit Society, and who took a great interest in all questions relating to the gamekeeper’s profession. Lord Mansfield was the owner of some forty-six thousand acres in Dumfriesshire, Perthshire, and Clackmannan, in addition to Ken Wood, near Hampstead. The late peer was succeeded by his brother, the Hon. Alan David Murray.
A remarkable sale of shorthorn cattle was witnessed last month, when Messrs. John Thornton and Co. dispersed the well-known herd that had belonged to the late Mr. Philo L. Mills, Ruddington Hall, Nottingham. The sale of 115 head reached the great total of £17,930, an average of nearly £157 each. The highest price was 1,100 gs., paid by Mr. F. Miller for the two-year-old bull Ruddington Prince Christian; his half-brother, the famous King Christian of Denmark, being bought by Mr. A. W. Hickling at 900 gs. The dam of these two bulls, Countess Farewell 5th, realised 600 gs., and her six-weeks-old heifer calf 400 gs., both going to Mr. E. N. Casares, a noted Argentine buyer; whilst yet another of her sons, a yearling, realised 200 gs., the total for the five being 3,200 gs., an average of 640 gs. each. Three representatives of the Dainty tribe sold at 500 gs., 420 gs., and 130 gs., respectively, and nine descendants of the Duchess tribe made an average of £250. Five calves, averaging eight and a half weeks old, and all of them by the 900 guineas bull, averaged £230 a piece. The herd was widely distributed, thirty-four head going to South America, sixteen to Scotland, two to Ireland, the remainder finding new homes in twenty-three English counties.
Mr. S. Laing Moffat, the Secretary of the Hunt Servants’ Benefit Society, states that the following amounts have been received as the result of caps: The Croome, £36 1s. 9d.; Eridge, £35; Badminton, £30; Surrey Staghounds, £26; Burton, £20 15s.; South Staffordshire, £19 14s. 7d.; Cotswold, £18 4s.; Fife, £17 17s. 6d.; and the Warnham Staghounds, £17 15s.; while a collection made at the South Hereford Foxhounds and Ross Harriers’ Point-to-Point Races realised £10 16s., the total amount equalling £232 3s. 10d.