BIDING TO HOUNDS.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXII, Issue 52, 2 March 1901, Page 2 (Supplement)

BIDING TO HOUNDS.

SOME CURIOUS STOSIES OF THE DANGERS OF THE HUNTING FIELD.

By B. FLETCHER ROBINSON,

In the "Bally Express."

Humour is a funny thing. 1 aclmlt that to be a "bull," but, like others of that celebrated Irish herd, it expresses what I mean. Take the humours of the hunting field. Were ever tragedy and comedy more madly mixed? The recognised joke of the illustrated comic papers is an "Imperial Crowner," wherein horse and man are falling in a way like to end in the obliteration of the latter. Yet we laugh at it as we laugh at the drawing that shows a duffer peppering his friend with a shot-

gun, or a swaggering skater disappearing through the ice near the board marked

"Danger." Would other nations do the like? I doubt it. It is a rough humour that is as national as field sports, roast beef or brown October. "I do not hunt," said the historic Frenchman, "because it does not amuse me to break my neck."

Yet who is there of British race, with British pluck about his heart, who, on a winter morning, "soft-eyed," but with

just a crisp freshness in the air to make the blood tingle in his veins; with an old friend tried and true striding gallantly beneath him and taking the fences with the cocked ears and eager eyes that show his enjoyment in the game; with the pack racing along a field ahead, the mellow

notes pouring from their throats like a chime of stiver bells; with friends and foes of the hunting field beside and behind him but not In front; who is there, I say, who would not risk life and limb at such

a moment? Who is there who would not

remember that the "soort of kings" has

all the "pleasures of war," and conveniently forget that it also carries with it "five-and-twonty per cent, of the danger," as wise old Mr Jot-rocks added. It was in such a case that Jem Mason holloaed to Lord Strathmore, as a yawning ditch and impossible fence loomed in front of them, "Come on, my lord. Eternal misery on this side and certain death on the other!"

A SOMERSAULT IN THE AIR

One of the most extraordinary accidents of which I have had personal knowledge occurred about two years ago In the Midlands. A friend of mine, a well-known rider with one of the crack packs, had a mare with a most unusually sensitive skin. Whenever she was jumping a thorn hedge she "jumped big," lo use a sporting term, or, in other words, cleared it by several feet, to avoid the danger of a prickle. She was also a nervous mare, and liked to go at her fences at a great pace.

For several weeks after my friend bought her everything went well, but one day a. most extraordinary accident occurred. The third fence to which the field came after the run haa started was a. peculiarly formidable "bullfinch" of thorn. The mare went at it with a rush which could not be steadied, gave a tremendous bound into the air, and tucked up her hind legs so high In order to avoid the possible danger of touching the thorns that on descending on the other side she could not get her hind legs down again, and turned a complete somersault. Everyone thought my friend was dead, as he lay stunned and crushed under the mare; but In a year he was out again, and away with the Yeomanry to South Africa.

Men take their damages calmly enough —as we might expect. But surely nothing Will beat a certain officer of fiery temper who, when remonstrated with for pulling out tooth af,er tooth—they had been loosened in a bad fall—replied furiously: "What the deuce does it matter to you, sir? They are my teeth, and I can afford a new set!"

INSTINCT THAT SAVED A LIFE. Another friend of mine has told me how he was saved from certain death by the sagacity of his horse. He was riding a hunter which ho had had for several years and which he had never known to refuse a jump. He was going steadily across country, and came to a thickish hedge, at which he sent his horse. The horse swerved round, and, to my friend'?, great astonishment, would not take it. Again he sent his horse at the fence, and again It refused. Then he becafrTe aware that some people on the top of a neighbouring hill were shouting and waving warnings, and riding up to the fence he discovered what neither he nor the horse could possibly have seen—that a great chalk-pit, some 20ft deep, lay on the other side. It was instinct that saved the horse and thus the rider.

Perhaps one of the most humorous of the sporting pictures of "Punch" was that in which a rider was shown advancing to jump a brook at the identical spot from which the head of a less fortunate comrade was protruding. The only remark which the oncoming rider made to his Indignant, though waterlogged, friend was, "Duck, you fool!"

I must regard as mythical the story of the submerged sportsman who rose gasping- from the depths to be asked, "flow are you, old chap?" "All right, I think," came the answer, "but I believe I've swallowed a trout!" Nor can 1 bring evidence to autheticate the yarn of the man who emerged from a stream to discover something struggling in his tail-coat pocket, which on closer investigation turned out to be a pike!

UNEXPECTED DEATH. Only two years ago, as bold and dashing a huntsmaYi as ever crossed a horse lost his life in Devonshire by the worst of illluck. He was superintending the digging out of a fox on the side of a Dartmoor tor when a huge rock fell and crushed him to death. Poor Collins! After years of hard riding it was surely a scurvy trick Fate played you.

The kicking horse has been the cause of many a disaster. It is usual for the persons who ride such bad-tempered brutes to tie a bit of red ribbon to their tails as a danger signal.

Probably many of my readers will remember the story of the old gentleman, suffering from short sight, who rode up to, and, in fact, humped against, a kicking animal in an endeavour to see "what really was that strange thing that was fastened on its tail." The result will probably be better imagined" than described.

While on the subject of twice-told tales, I may as well recall that humorous story of the intensely selfish man who jumped a low hedge into a chalk pit without injury. Shortly afterwards another unlucky horseman joined him in his place of captivity. As soon as the latter recovered from the shock, he began to shout and halloa to warn the rest of the field who were pressing close behind him. "Shut up, you fool, said our selfish friend, "if you will only hold your noise we shall have them all in here presently!" One word for the fair sex. They ara usually as -cool and collected in the moment of danger as any of their brothers. Most sportsmen will have seen a lady take a fall or extricate herself from her horse as calmly as if she were pouring out tea. The new patent skirt that comes loose and prevents a lady being hung to the pommel has been a great boon to them, but sometimes when it is jerked away their appearance in what we may call riding bloomers is rather startling. "Why didn't you help that lady to catch her horse?" I once said to a friend. "What lady?" said he. "Do you mean that fellow scooting across the plough?"