ANECDOTES OF SPORT AND SPORTSMEN.

Otago Witness, Issue 1891, 17 February 1888, Page 24

ANECDOTES OF SPORT AND SPORTSMEN.

(Licensed Victuallers' Gazette.") Something Lllte Sportsmen. Fifty years ago to cur fathers and grandfathers sport seemed to be nob a mere recreation, but the business of life. In the card room, at the dinner table, they worked indefatigably for the almshouse and the gout ; they were, at least, as manly in their out-of-door habits as their sons, and more catholic in their devotion to sports of all kinds. They kept their studs, nearly" thoroughbred, stalled in the shires, though they might have to post down to a meeting of the Pytchley or the Quorn. After a night of rioul-harrowing sensation* over the dice f.rid the pasteboard, and the formality of a flying vihit to the sheets, they would be dp again before the London sparrows. Tumbling into the old yellow that had pulled up before ; »he dco*\ KgWiPK &* cigars thpt hod.

barely been extinguished, they were jolting at a hand-gallop into Berks or Bucks for a meet of his Jdajesty's staghounds. v Next to gambling, which came in every day routine, racing was the grand object of interest. If a man could not afford to keep a stable himself, he went into joint stock partnership in particular animals. The most elegant voluptuary would be found out on the moors in the foggy daybreak of a Novem. ber morning, watching gallops when even the weather-hardened tout was blue with cold*. This over, he drove back to town to shoot pigeons at the Red House in the afternoon, or at some favourite sporting crib put on the gloves with some hero of the P.R. to keep his muscles in training. After dinner, during which .he would put at least a couple of bottles under his belt, he was back to the pasteboard and ivory. What constitutions they must have had to stand such a life ! Surprising! Verily the devices to which men resort at times to render themselves conspicuous, are astounding as they are ingenious; in this category must be placed the performance of a gentleman named Thomas, who advertised himself as " the Salopian pedestrian," who, at | Ormskirk, in the year 1855, accomplished within one hour the following feats :— He walked a mile, ran a coach wheel a mile, walked backwards a mile, picked up 40 stones placed one yard apart in a straight line, and fetched each one singly to a basket; hopped 100 yards, leaped over 20 steeplechase hurdles 10 yards apart; picked up 30 eggs with his mouth placed one yard apart in a straight line, conveying each one without breaking it or using his hands to the basket, and concluded the exhibition by throwing a 651b weight over his head. One of the Olden Time. Among the many types of old English character that have been buried beneath the Juggernaut car of Progress, few are more regrettable than "the old Squire." There was hardly a bucolic community throughout the land that had not among them a representative of this class ; sometimes he was the reverse of a blessing, but as a rule he had rough and ready, and, above all, sportsmanlike qualities that appealed strongly to rustic ideas. Famous among this class was Squire Waterton, who,' some half century ago, was a notable personage in the north riding of Yorkshire. In his youth he had been a wanderer in foreign lands, whither he had been led by bis ardour for sport and natural history. In South America he had ridden close to the water's edge on the back of a crocodile ; he had killed a python and and gripped rattlesnakes with his naked hand ; he had twice climbed to the top of St. Peter's, Rome, once to set his glove on the top of the lightning conductor, and tho second time at the Pope's request to take it off again, as no workman could be found bold enough to attempt the task. When he settled down at his old ball, in middle life, he slept at the top of the house in a room without bed or carpet, lying upon the floor wrapped in a blanket, with an oak log for his pillow. He rose at 3, read and looked to his accounts till breakfast time, 8 o'clock, and from that hour till dinner was in the woods ; at 8 o'clock precisely he retired to bis hard couch. Even after he was 80 his favourite amusement was to climb the topmost branches of the tallest tree and read there for hours together, frequently astonishing visitors by asking them to keep him company in these leafy heights. During his latter years, having stocked his preserves with a great number of larc birds, which he had collected in his travels, he ' built a wall from Bft to 16ft in height round his park (which covered 250 acres), and waged an eternal war against poachers, but not without an element of humour, as nothing delighted him more than to stick wooden birds' well-decked with plumage about the grounds for the fellows to shoot at. Bamins a Butcher. His great trouble was a bridle-path, which had always been a right of-wa.y through the park. Being very popular he had gradually induced all tho neighbourhood to waive this right, except a certain strudy butcher of the adjoining town, who said he bad always driven along that path when going home, and he always would, in spite of the squire— who, being a Catholic and he a very stannch Protestant, he took great pleasure in defying—the Pope or the devil. One gloomy autumn fevening he was jogging along the old road as usual, on his cob, when an unearthly screecli sounded in his ears, and all of an instant out of the dusk an awfullooking creature, covered with shaggy hair, dropped out of a tree and sprang on the horse behind him, pinioning his arms in such a manner as to render him helpless. The frightened animal broke into a wild gallop that very soon brought him to the park gates; as he passed through he felt his arms released, and his captor, with another bloodcurdling yell, disappeared, while the Protestant butcher, "distilled almost to jelly by the act of fear," dashed homewards as fast as his steed could carry him. From that hour the bridle path saw him no more, and to his dying day he always declared that it was some Papist devil that the Squire had conjured up against him. Ifc was really Walton himself, who, at the age of 70 years, bad masqueraded in this wise to frighten away the last of the intruders upon his preserves. He might have completed his century had he not, in his eighty-third year, caught his foot in a bramble and fallen heavily upon his side against the stump of a tree, receiving such injuries that he died next day. They Might Have Been Roarers. Middle Park Stud-farm is now ancient turf history; yet the remembrance of such a splendid career as that of Mr Blenkiron should not be allowed to fade from the racing annals of this country. It was he really who made stud history, as no breeder of thoroughbreds had ever made it before him, and yet he began in a very small way indeed . Glance, by Venison out of Eyebrow, by Whisker, one o£ Lord George Bentincks rearing, wus the first brood mare Mr Blenkiron owned. He bought her. with two defeats on her head from Mr Sait, the steeplecVase rider, and sent her to Mr John Osbornc's to be trained, at. a time when thoiv were scarcely half a dozen horses in the Ash^te stables and Johnny— how a veteran— was jnst beginning to ride. She ran three swpns Wit*. on*' e^c-r'oncc r.corinq a win. and f.tter

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fche sixth time of asking, she was retired from the turf a maiden. That was in 1849, when Mr Blenkiron lived at Dalston ; but instead of considering his four-year-old explater a bad bargain, he, on the contrary, was delighted with her, and having determined to breed from her, sent the filly at once to Beverlac. As the time of foaling drew nigh a man was hired to sit up with her, and when a youthful courier arrived one Sunday afternoon with the news that she had foaled, Mr Blenkiron, who was entertaining some friends, deserted his wine and walnuts, and ran the quarter of a mile to the shed at a wonderful pace, finishing a dozen yards in front of his party, who arrived in straggling order quite blown, and it was jocularly said by their host " it would be quite a miracle if they did not all become roarers." When their leader reached the shed he found the foal on his legs, sucking his dam ; and when, in course of time, the little brown colt was •weaned, ho was brought to the five-acre field at the bottom of his owner's garden and made quite a pet of. What the Colt Did. The Stebbingses and B. Green had an audience of foal and dam that summer ; in fact, there never was such a foal, and Mr Charles Liley's offer of two hundred wasn't entertained for an instant — two thousand would not have bought it. When quite a baby colt, Mr Blenkiron would lead it about for hours in the paddock, and if city business pressed, he did not care how early he rose to fulfil that cherished task. Of course the yearling was matched, and, with Mr Alfred Day up, was only beaten a head by Mr Clark's Mr Sykes, for £200, h. ft., at the Newmarket July meeting. The Prince of Wales' Stakes at York was his next engagement, being trained by old John Gill, of Richmond, who tried him with G-uieowar ; but all John would say about the colt was, 41 Ye can tell for yersel' when ye see Guicowar run, they're yan and seame." Guicowar ran badly and old John thought the colt would never be started ; but it although the stable-lad told Mr Blenkiron, "Hecannarin, sir, for I've baith feed and watered him mysel'." Yet run it did, and came in second, and next day saved the stakes by coming in third for tbe Gimcrack event. This all helped to make the owner very sweet upon the colt; so much so that when John Gill was asked his price the reply was, " Noa, I'se sure a' Lunnon wadn't buy him." Next spring however, he got loose to a mare, and in a race would not pass one afterwards, so lie was swapped away for three mares to Jemmy Messer, of No Man's Land— a spot, by the way, where many a prize-fight came off in the palmy days of the P.R.