CONTENTS.
| PAGE | ||
|---|---|---|
| Sporting Diary for the Month | [v.] | |
| Colonel W. A. Cardwell, M.F.H. | [91] | |
| Collection of Indian Weapons | [92] | |
| What Next? | [100] | |
| Foxhounds (Illustrated) | [103] | |
| Hunt “Runners”—III. (Illustrated) | [109] | |
| Oxford and Cheltenham Coach (Illustrated) | [113] | |
| The Broads as a Sporting Centre (Illustrated) | [115] | |
| Notes and Sport of a Dry-Fly Purist | [120] | |
| A Hundred Years Ago | [127] | |
| A Farewell to a Hunter (Verses) | [128] | |
| The New Year at the Theatres | [129] | |
| Racing at Gibraltar, in 1905 | [133] | |
| Half a Century’s Hunting Recollections—V. | [138] | |
| Rugby Football | [143] | |
| The Thoroughbred | [147] | |
| Mr. Vyell Edward Walker | [151] | |
| “Our Van”:— | ||
| Racing | [155] | |
| The late Mr. W. G. Craven | [158] | |
| Hunting | [159] | |
| Hunting in Yorkshire | [163] | |
| American v. English Foxhound Match | [166] | |
| The New Army Polo Committee | [166] | |
| The M.C.C. Cricket Team in South Africa | [167] | |
| Golf | [168] | |
| The Winter Exhibition at Burlington House | [168] | |
| Pelota at the Winter Club | [169] | |
| Fancy Dress Balls at Covent Garden | [169] | |
| “Cinderella” at the Empire | [170] | |
| Ballet at the Alhambra | [170] | |
| Sporting Intelligence | [171] | |
| With Engraved Portrait of Colonel W. A. Cardwell, M.F.H. | ||
Colonel W. A. Cardwell, M.F.H.
Born in the year 1847, William Alexander Cardwell was entered to foxhunting when nine years old, having been blooded with the Southdown in the fifties when Mr. Donovan held office. He made his mark in the cricket-field among his contemporaries, and when he went to Harrow in 1862, took with him a reputation which gained for him the distinction of being first choice for his House eleven. Unfortunately his health broke down while at school, and in 1864 he had to leave and go abroad under medical orders. After a year or two on the Continent he returned home to finish his education at Oxford, where he found time and opportunity to indulge his taste for sport and games. He was a member of the Bullingdon Club, and in 1869–70 was master of the ’Varsity draghounds. He also played in his College (St. John’s) cricket eleven, and coxed his college eight. Colonel Cardwell was a good lightweight in his young days; he rode in all the College “grinds,” and also in the inter-’Varsity steeplechases at Aylesbury, with a fair measure of success. He was the possessor of a mare named “The Kitten,” in those days, and he cherishes for her memory the affection which is the rightful due of an animal on which the owner won his first race, for “The Kitten” carried Colonel Cardwell successfully in a good many steeplechases. He hunted frequently with the Quorn and the Bicester in his younger days, and has also seen much sport with the Badminton and Vale of White Horse; but residing, as he does, on the south coast, he has of late years done most hunting with the Southdown and East Sussex, after, of course, his own pack, the Eastbourne, of which he has been master since 1895. In August and September he usually hunts with the Devon and Somerset and the Quantock staghounds from Minehead. Sport in Sussex is carried on under very happy conditions; the farmers are a thoroughly good lot of sportsmen who always have a welcome for the hounds, and do all they can to further the interests of the Hunt. Wire, that burning question in so many more conspicuous countries, is practically unknown in the territory of the Eastbourne Hunt. As there is a good deal of game preservation in the country, the Master has considerable difficulty early in the season in arranging meets to suit the convenience of covert owners, who are also shooting men, but his experience is that consideration on the one side is invariably responded to by consideration on the other. Foxes are fairly plentiful in the Eastbourne country; mange gave trouble at one time, but the Hunt is now nearly free from it.
Colonel Cardwell has maintained his interest in cricket since his college days, and for twenty years was captain of the Eastbourne club. He was also captain of the Eastbourne Polo Club. Love of polo seems to have been hereditary, for his son, Mr. H. B. Cardwell, was captain of the Oxford Polo Club, and played in the winning team of the Eden Park Club for the County Cup in the years 1901 and 1902.
Colonel Cardwell has always taken a great interest in Volunteer Artillery. He raised the 2nd Sussex R.G. Artillery Volunteers, and commanded it for twenty-seven years, having retired only in June, 1903; he has also taken great interest in horsing and training the sixteen-pounder batteries.
In 1872 he married a daughter of the late Sir B. C. Brodie, Bart., of Brockham Warren, Betchworth, by whom he has four daughters and two sons, all of whom inherit their father’s sporting proclivities, and ride very straight to hounds.