THE SPORTSWOMAN.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume XII, Issue 716, 26 November 1903, Page 15

THE SPORTSWOMAN.

By

"DIANA."]

The Yorkshire Championship Meeting was chiefly remarkable for- the fine play shown by Miss Steel, holder of the Yorkshire Union .Ladies’ Championship, who practically carried all before her at In the first round for the County Club’s Challenge trophy, Miss Bertha Thompson! defeated the holder, Miss K. G. Moeller, by 3 and 1, but, in her turn, she was defeated, 3 and 1, by Miss E. Steel. In the final contest Miss E. Steel won the challenge bowl and memento medal, defeating Miss G. Storey, of Harrogate L.G.C., by 6 and 4. The runner-up won the pearl necklace given by the Leeds Club. Miss E. Steel won the silver box given by Mr J. Bowling for the best grass scores 1 , and also secured the Ladies' Golf Union medal. In the bogey competition, Miss Bertha Thompson was first, and Miss E. Steel second. In the foursome competition against bogey, Miss Barren and Miss N. F. Firth were the first pair, Miss K. G. Moeller and Miss Firth fecund. Throughout the meeting Miss E. Steel played an extremely strong and steady game. In Ireland, the County Down meertig proved very interesting and enjoy .hie, though the . absence of Miss Rhona A.d«ir was much regretted. Miss Magill won the challenge cup presented by Lady de Ris, over the long course, with 99 scratch. Miss Tyrell’s prize for the handicap competition (9 holes), was won fy Miss Taylor. ‘The mixed foursome competition was extremely interesting, and included such fine pla-ers as Miss May Heylet, Miss M. C. Stuart, Mr H-uoid Reade, and many others. Miss M. E. Stuart and Mr C. E. Stuart beat Miss Tyrell and Mr La Touche in the finals by the narrow margin of the hole, if ter a good match. In the finals of the Iris*. Ladies’ Golfing Union, Miss May Ilezlec conceding nine strokes, was beaten f y Miss F. Hezlet by 2 up.

Miss 1 ’ Rhona Adair will stay .with Mrs Girscoin <-in Philadelphia,- while in America. Wss Girscoin, who been playing on the East Lothian :Links lately, won the. golf championship of America in 1900, the.; same year as Miss Rhona Adair won the championship in Engl tub. This lady . was also the Irish champion three’years. There will doubtless be very interesting play between Miss Adair and Miss Girscoin in the States. * * * . * The weather has been too wet all the week for Mrs Edward Russell and Miss G. .Gorrie to play oft the tie for Miss Lewis - prize. The tramway paddocks are in good order again, the cattle having made the grass nice and short. When the new holes are open for play, the ground should be in excellent condition. * * * * The Misses Cape, members of the Bondi Golf Club, Sydney, passed through Auckland last week on their way South. WOMEN GAMBLERS. If it be urged against certain sets- in the fashionable society of the day that their feminine contingent spends a scandalous amount of time —and money—at bridge whist, it may be pleaded in their defence that they are doing precisely what women high in’social rank have done in almost any historical period, writes Mabel Warren Sanford, in “ Munsey’s Magazine.” The modem craze for bridge is but the latest expression of that itch for play which seems to have attacked the women of every royal court, and of all fashionable societv.

In England women have again and again proved themselves notorious gamblers. Read any history of social gush toms in England, particularly during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. With the restoration of Charles 11,, and

77 K...KK KKK the overthrow of Puritanism, “ of “pleasurable- folly ’ arid -excess’ -knowir~tu - civilisation, returned to Whitehall. Chief among them, so we learn from Pepys and Evelyn, those garrulous gentlemen of . diaries, were the Basset-tableland ombre. I The .... latter, Min. hll., brcfbAbility, ’ <wias Ab rough! irito England* pf Portugal, the Queen of Charles- 11. For it is not until after her arrival in London that we find any mention of ombre, a game to which all the great lords and ladies of-i-thb days Soon became deeply devoted. Catherine, ritoreover, who introdu&g&f English Court the practise cards'on~ Sunday,^'' - It was -&o't only at .Whitehall■, however, that the basset-table' flourished, and that large stakes were lost and won. Many great ladies ■■of, the day, among .them the' beautiful Duchess of Mazarine, -gathered companies <sf ■‘noble gamesters at’ their own homes. , Nell Gwyn, too, that vivacious and generous-hearted favourite of Charles IL, and the London stage, had a oassettable in her house at Windsor. Thither came numbers of those who wished to stand well at court, for ‘‘pretty, witty Nell ” had unbounded influence with the King. Lucky—after a fashion —in V ov she was almost always unlucky at cards,? and upon one occasion is’ said to ,have J lost to the Duchess of Mazarine, in "her own house, as much as five thousand pounds. But the rage for gambling probably reached its highest point, in England, during the eighteenth century. The literature of the period is full of it. In 1713, for instance. Steele speaks of those whom he calls “ female gamesters ” in this fashion :—•

“ Hollow eyes, haggard ’ooks, and pale complexions are the natural indications of the female gamester. In short, I never knew' a thorough-paced female gamester hold her beauty two winters together.” It was about the middle of the eighteenth century —about 1745, to be exact — that English peeresses of the " realm first applied for “privileges” to keep gaminghouses, under the same laws, as- similar institutions run by men. Lady Mary Mordington and Lady Casselis were first among the ladies of the ■ nobility to secure such rights, and they were followed by other impoverished or greedy ~ gentlewomen, all of whom endeavoured to gather the wit, beauty, and fashion of the hour under their roof. At that time, Bath was the Monte Carlo of English society. From thence came the sad story of Frances Braddock, a young beauty, a brilliant wit, and the

Q'i • daughter of Major-General Braddoak. She —had twelve--ffieusaiid • pounds^-enlarge fortune for a young woman in those days—left her from her father’s estate. During a visit to Bath, where she was the toast of the hour, she gambled away everything she possessed. Crazed by her losses, says Ashton, sljg robed herself in virgin white, tied a gold' and silver girdle about, her, and hanged herself in her room. She was but 23 years old, . t

X In the latter part of the eighteenth century, Lady Archer and Lady Buckinghamshire were the most notorious of those titled and fashionable women, whom Horace Walpole styled the “ faro dames.” Others were Lady Mount Edgecombe, .-E&dy Elizabeth Luttrell,-iMrs Copcannon and Mrs 'Sturt. ‘ ■ ■ It was said of Lady Buckinghamshire that she slept with a brace of pistols by her side, to save her faro bank in (case of danger. Young girls were as expert at ombre and casino as at dancing. : One of the witticisms of the day related to s young gallant at Bath, who asked a chnTuning maiden if he might not have two dances.- “ Certainly,” she replied, with unex-good-nature, “ if you will give me 1 two rubbers later at casino.” During the famous election for Westminster, which resulted in the return of Fox to Parliament, Mrs Crewe canvassed personally for him. Georgina, Duchess of Devonshire, whom Wharton names the “ lady paramount ” of the aristocratic Whig circle of the times, was her companion. The Duchess, too, was a victim of the ruling passion, though not to such an extent as her husband, the Duke of Devonshire, who could hardly be roused from his habitual state of moral lethargy except by a game of whist or faro. The duchess has gone down to history as the lady who won a vote for Fox by bestowing a kiss upon a butcher. When Queen Victoria came to the throne, and healthier standards of social morality were established in England, gambling among- fashionable women, at least in public, went out of vogue. Human. nature, of course, still remained human nature, and card games, with high stakes, were not wholly banished as an amusement for country house parties, as was proved some twelve years ago by the Tranby Croft incident. The unpleasant results of that affair —in wnich charges of cheating were brought against a titled meriiber of a baccarat party that also included the present King—brought that particular game into discredit, but bridge whist has since more than replaced it.