The Cleveland had a capital run on Monday, January 8th, when they met at Marske Station. They had a long draw, all the low coverts being blank, but they found a good fox on the historic Briar Flat in Wilton Wood, and ran him at a great pace by Dunsdale and Court Green to Guisbrough Park. Thence they ran along the brow of the hill to Osborne Rush, and skirting Jackson’s Plantation, passed Upsall, and ran by Hamilton Hills and Marton Gill, where they bore slightly to the left and hunted with a much worse scent by Grey Towers and Sunny Cross to Seamer Whin, where the fox beat them after a good run of an hour and twenty-five minutes. It was a seven-mile point, and hounds crossed a lot of country of varied kind.
Lord Galway’s had a capital day’s sport from Gringley-on-the-Hill on Monday, January 8th. Finding in Gringley Gorse, they raced over the grass to Pear Tree Farm, where the fox was headed, and crossing the Beckingham Road, ran by Clayworth Wood and Beckingham Village, and over the Great Northern Railway to Morton Point, where they turned left-handed over the railway again and ran by Walkeringham on to Mr. Naylor’s farm, where they ran him to ground in view after forty minutes at top pace. Another fox that had evidently done some work was found in Gringley Gorse, and killed after a sharp short burst on Red Hills. They found again in a patch of gorse on the banks of the River Idle, and ran by Drakeholes, nearly to Everton, and then crossed the Chesterfield Canal, took a line by Prospect Hill to Winton New Covert. Then recrossing the canal they ran by Mr. Otter’s thorns, and marked their fox to ground between Hayton and Clayworth after a good fifty minutes.
This is the time of year when changes in hunting establishments begin to be talked about, and an important change will take place in Lord Galway’s country, for Sam Morgan, who has been at Serlby for twenty-nine years, has resigned his appointment. Morgan will have been forty-one seasons with hounds at the end of this season. His first place was as extra whipper-in under his father, Jack Morgan, when the latter was huntsman for the sixth Lord Galway. He held this place for a year, and then went to the late Lord Portsmouth, with whom he stopped nine years, two as second whipper-in and seven as first whipper-in. From there he went to the Percy, then under the mastership of Major Brown, as first whipper-in, and from Northumberland he went to Serlby again. Forty-one years as a hunt servant, and only in three places during that time, is indeed an honourable record, and all hunting men will be sorry to learn that Morgan is leaving the country with which his name and the name of his family is so closely associated. I also hear that Freeman is leaving the Bedale, and rumour has it that he is going to hunt one of the Midland packs.
AMERICAN v. ENGLISH FOXHOUND MATCH.
The “Van Driver” is indebted to an American correspondent for particulars of the work done by the competing packs in this unique “match,” which took place in the Piedmont Valley, Virginia, during the first fortnight of November last. The American pack consisted of 6½ couple belonging to the Middlesex Hunt and the English of 18 couple belonging to the Grafton Hunt. The stakes were $1,000 a side, and the test was to be the killing of the fox. The English hounds were hunted on five days by Robert Cotesworth, and the Americans worked on six days hunted by the Master, Mr. H. Smith. The only kill was scored by the English pack, and as their victim proved to be a tame fox, accidentally released when the hounds were near, this did not count, and the judges had to decide the question of merit on the work they witnessed. It does not appear to have been a very satisfactory method of determining relative merit, as when scent served well either pack ran clean away from the field, “held up” by wire or by the occurrence of land on which the farmers did not desire the presence of horsemen. The number of refuges open to a hunted fox explains the lack of blood obtained; stopping earths seems to have been neglected. The judges gave their award in favour of the American hounds as having “done the best work with the object of killing the fox in view,” but English sportsmen will learn with astonishment that on two occasions when the American pack were at fault a judge lifted them and got them again on the line! Unfortunately the account sent does not give any information concerning the breeding of either pack; beyond the fact that the English were imported hounds and the American bred in the States we are left in the dark. A picture from a photograph in the Rider and Driver, showing the American pack on the kennel bench, suggests that these are pure-bred foxhounds.
THE NEW ARMY POLO COMMITTEE.
It will be remembered that at a meeting of senior Army officers held last summer at Hurlingham, it was unanimously agreed to form a new polo committee, consisting of the Inspector of Calvary (President), cavalry brigadiers, officers commanding regiments, and representatives of corps, interested in polo, and the three members of the Inter-Regimental Tournament Committee (with the Secretary to act in a similar position to the new committee). The meeting agreed that the objects of the new committee should be: (1) To deal with questions affecting principle in the management of regimental polo, especially with a view to keeping down expenses, &c. (2) To act as a consultative and authoritative body on all questions affecting Army polo. (3) To receive from regiments any suggestions, &c., regarding principle or expenditure connected with polo, &c.; and (4) to strengthen the Executive Inter-Regimental Tournament Committee, but without interfering with its management of the details of the tournament. As a result the following Committee has been formed for 1906:—
Major-General R. S. S. Baden-Powell, C.B., Inspector of Cavalry, President; Major-General H. J. Scobell, C.B., 1st Cavalry Brigade; Brigadier-General Hon. J. Byng, M.V.O., 2nd Cavalry Brigade; Brigadier-General M. F. Rimington, C.B., 3rd Cavalry Brigade; Brigadier-General E. H. Allenby, C.B., 4th Cavalry Brigade; Major-General F. J. W. Eustace, C.B., and Colonel E. J. Phipps-Hornby, V.C., representing Royal Artillery; Colonel G. F. Gorringe, C.M.G., D.S.O., representing Royal Engineers; Major-General Sir W. G. Knox, K.C.B., Major-General A. H. Paget, C.V.O., C.B., Brigadier-General E. A. Alderson, C.B., A.D.C., and Colonel A. J. Godley, Irish Guards, representing Infantry; Colonel T. C. P. Calley, C.B., M.V.O., 1st Life Guards; Colonel C. F. Anstruther-Thomson, M.V.O., D.S.O., 2nd Life Guards; Colonel H. T. Fenwick, M.V.O., D.S.O., Royal Horse Guards; Colonel S. B. Bogle-Smith, C.B., 1st Dragoon Guards; Lieutenant-Colonel H. Mercer, 3rd Dragoon Guards; Lieutenant-Colonel C. W. Thompson, D.S.O., 7th Dragoon Guards; Lieutenant-Colonel C. Williams, Royal Scots Greys; Lieutenant-Colonel H. W. G. Graham, D.S.O., 5th Lancers; Lieutenant-Colonel E. A. Herbert, M.V.O., 6th Dragoons; Lieutenant-Colonel R. L. Walter, 7th Hussars; Lieutenant-Colonel H. N. M. Thoyts, 8th Hussars; Lieutenant-Colonel W. H. Rycroft, 11th Hussars; Colonel E. D. J. O’Brien, 14th Hussars; Colonel G. P. Wyndham, 16th Lancers; Colonel P. S. Marling, V.C., C.B., 18th Hussars; Lieutenant-Colonel H. G. de Pledge, 19th Hussars; Lieutenant-Colonel W. D. Whatman, 20th Hussars; and Colonel J. Fowle, 21st Lancers. Major Lord C. Bentinck, (9th Lancers), Major G. F. Milner, D.S.O. (1st Life Guards), Major G. K. Ansell (6th Dragoons), and Major S. L. Barry, D.S.O. (10th Hussars) (Hon. Sec.), Inter-Regimental Tournament Committee.
The Committee will assemble at Hurlingham the day of, and previous to, the final of the annual Inter-Regimental Tournament.