Part 14

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ DIARY FOR FEBRUARY, 1906. │ ├──────┬─────┬────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤ │Day of│ Day │ OCCURRENCES. │ │Month.│ of │ │ │ │Week.│ │ ├──────┼─────┼────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤ │ 1│ TH │Gatwick Park Races and Steeplechases. Partridge and │ │ │ │ Pheasant Shooting Ends. │ │ 2│ F │Kempton Park Races and Steeplechases. │ │ 3│ S │Kempton Park Races and Steeplechases. │ │ │ │ │ │ 4│ =S= │=Fifth Sunday after Epiphany.= │ │ 5│ M │Doncaster Hunt Meeting. │ │ 6│ TU │Doncaster Hunt Meeting. │ │ 7│ W │Leicester Races and Steeplechases. │ │ 8│ TH │Leicester Races and Steeplechases. │ │ 9│ F │Sundown Park Races and Steeplechases. │ │ 10│ S │Sandown Park Races and Steeplechases. │ │ │ │ │ │ 11│ =S= │=Septuagesima Sunday.= │ │ 12│ M │Manchester Races and Steeplechases. │ │ 13│ TU │Manchester Races and Steeplechases. │ │ 14│ W │Windsor Races and Steeplechases. │ │ 15│ TH │Windsor Races and Steeplechases. │ │ 16│ F │Hurst Park Races and Steeplechases. │ │ 17│ S │Hurst Park Races and Steeplechases. │ │ │ │ │ │ 18│ =S= │=Sexagesima Sunday.= │ │ 19│ M │Birmingham Races and Steeplechases. │ │ 20│ TU │Birmingham Races and Steeplechases. │ │ 21│ W │Warwick Races and Steeplechases. Waterloo Cup. │ │ 22│ TH │Warwick Races and Steeplechases. │ │ 23│ F │Lingfield Park and Haydock Park Races and Steeplechases.│ │ 24│ S │Lingfield Park and Haydock Park Races and Steeplechases.│ │ │ │ │ │ 25│ =S= │=Quinquagesima Sunday.= │ │ 26│ M │Southwell and Plumpton Races and Steeplechases. │ │ 27│ TU │Southwell and Ludlow Club Races and Steeplechases. Shire│ │ │ │ Horse Show at Royal Agricultural Hall (4 days). │ │ 28│ W │Ludlow Club Races and Steeplechases. │ └──────┴─────┴────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

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BAILY’S MAGAZINE OF SPORTS AND PASTIMES NO. 552. FEBRUARY, 1906. VOL. LXXXV.

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.

Collection of Indian Weapons.

The eyes of the world have been lately turned to the stately progress which has been made by the Prince and Princess of Wales through the length and breadth of our Indian Empire. In a sense they may have had wider and more instructive experiences than fell to the lot of our King when, thirty years ago, he undertook the same Royal duty, and for the first time made the peoples of our great dependency personally acquainted with a _Shahzada_. But in some respects they have probably found that, since that date, something of the old glamour has passed away from the East. It has more and more assimilated Western ideas, and the great princes and feudatories have all been anxious to show to their future Sovereign how nearly they, their subjects, their armies, and their various public institutions, have approached English models. Practical value has been everywhere in evidence as much as possible, and as the old native picturesqueness has been somewhat dimmed, the ancient characteristics of the land may have been less sharply accentuated. In nothing has this been more seen than in the warlike equipment of the armies of the semi-independent states. All of these, with a view to taking their share in the defence of the peninsula, according to the requirements of modern war, are now trained, equipped and armed like British Sepoys, and the quaint bravery of mediæval sword, spear, shield, and armour has very generally disappeared. It is worth while, therefore, to say something about these time-honoured arms before they have become altogether things of the past.

A quarter of a century ago it was possible to find in India many of the weapons with which the natives had been provided in the days before the Pax Britannica secured the personal security of every individual inhabitant from raid and outrage, before the disarming act had been put in force in all districts under British rule, and while the military forces of semi-independent states still preserved their Oriental character. Now, I am told that, though many weapons may be bought, their genuineness is in most cases more than doubtful. The stock of old weapons has been absorbed in various ways, and there is no longer any production of such things for practical use. The _tulwars_ and daggers which are sold to the globe trotters who, in their thousands, sweep over India during every cold season, are “bazaar made,” _i.e._, they are made by inferior workmen in the bazaar for sale and not for strife, and are very poor imitations of the real arms once worn by the old fighting men.

When I was serving in India, not long after the King’s visit, the country was still comparatively free from the tourist, and anybody who had a taste for Eastern art in any form was able, during his sporting excursions or in his other peregrinations, to meet men who still owned genuine old articles and were not indisposed to part with them, and made acquaintance with English officials and influential natives who were good-natured enough to assist him in his collections.

Many Europeans did not take advantage of their opportunities, but fortunately for myself I did not altogether neglect mine, and I now reap the reward by seeing, hanging in my modest hall, such a representative display of Indian weapons as it would be very difficult, if not almost impossible, to procure nowadays without the aid of great influence, much exertion, and a very considerable expenditure of money. Many of these weapons have been used by myself and friends in somewhat feeble attempts to emulate the feats performed with them by natives, and I have therefore a slight personal knowledge of their qualities and characteristics, and may at any rate claim that they have always been to me things of the greatest interest.

First let me notice the fact that it is not every Indian sword that can be handled and tested by a European. Our Aryan brethren have very small extremities, and the hilts of their swords do not, as a rule, give space for the more massive and heavily-jointed hand of an Englishman. It seems marvellous indeed how the sometimes ponderous weapons can have been easily wielded by the slight limbs for whose use they were made, but it must be supposed that well-trained wiry sinews may have as much executive power and endurance as bulging muscle, and that the proper method of using the individual weapon may have drawn more upon dexterity than upon the exertion of strength. And here it must be pointed out that, in all specially Oriental feats of arms, success is by no means to be attained by the exertion of great force. It rather depends upon accuracy of eye, perfect coolness of nerve, and deftness of hand. In the particular performance which English soldiers have most eagerly adopted from their Indian comrades and made their own, and has been found such an admirable exercise for promoting horsemanship and soldierly efficiency—tent-pegging—no great strength is required. And, in the same way, the class of swordsmanship for which Indian men-at-arms have been so remarkable is a matter of perfect mastery in handling a blade rather than of weightily applied blows. Probably no more graphic description of the difference which even to-day exists between Eastern and Western swordsmanship was ever written than in the story, in Sir Walter Scott’s “Talisman,” of Richard Cœur de Lion and Saladin giving each other proofs of the powers of their swords. I would fain quote the passage, but it would take up too much space, and I can only suggest that reference be made to it, and, if the whole romance has not before been studied, I congratulate the person who has so much available delight still untasted.

So many spectators have watched, in England, illustrations of tent-pegging at military tournaments and other gatherings that it is unnecessary to describe it, but it may fairly be said that the feat requires a higher form of skill and more consummate horsemanship than the old English exercises of a like nature, tilting at the ring or tilting at the quintain, neither of which appeals either to the performer or to the spectator as an example of very formidable fighting qualities.

The Oriental ideas about the use of the sword differ so completely from those of Western peoples that they may be briefly referred to. In Europe, the sword has generally been used for a trenchant cut, though the employment of the point has also been cultivated by some nations, especially among the higher ranks. About the only army in history that has used the point alone was that of Rome. The legionaries did little or no cutting, and this was the more remarkable because the Roman broadsword was a very short weapon, and all modern experience has seemed to point out that, if a sword is to be principally used for pointing, it must be of more than ordinary length. But, in the East, the trenchant cut, depending for its effect on the weight and power with which it is delivered, has never found favour, and the use of the point has equally been of very small consideration. The Oriental swordsman has always made use of what may be called a drawing cut, placing against the object that he wishes to sever the edge of his weapon, and either pulling it towards him or pushing it away from him, preferably the latter. The action is not, of course, in itself so instantaneous as that of the trenchant cut, but the whole time consumed by the swordsman is no longer in one case than the other, and may even possibly be shorter, for there is no preliminary swing of the arm and the drawing cut can be delivered without leaving a position of defence. The curved shape of most Oriental sword blades has been adopted for the purpose of giving the greatest effect to the drawing cut, as will be apparent to any one who considers the matter, for the curve naturally follows the action in the most complete manner, the keen edge being in contact with its object throughout the whole length of its blade. How deep an Oriental sword could bite in the hands of a skilful man, when used in the way that has been described, has been proved from time immemorial. On the battlefield it was no unfrequent circumstance to see heads and limbs cut clean off, and the wounds were generally of a terrible character. So well known was the deadly power of the Indian sword that, in our Eastern wars, precaution were often taken by our soldiers to protect with chains the shoulder and forearms (the places at which the enemy most often struck), and this modified form of armour may still be seen in the shoulder chains on one of the many patterns of service coat that have been issued to our cavalry in recent years.

Among the most popular feats of swordsmanship that are to be seen even to-day in the East are those that Saladin exhibited to Richard Cœur de Lion, cutting in two a down cushion or severing a floating veil—feats absolutely impossible of execution with a European sabre—and these are done, with many variations, not only dismounted but on horseback at full speed. Then there is the well-known performance of cutting a dead sheep in two. The sheep is hung by its hind-legs from the arm of a sort of gallows, and the swordsman, galloping past, delivers a back cut at it, aiming between the ribs and the haunch, and seldom failing to sever it. This feat, as it is now generally performed, is not so difficult as it may appear from description, for the carcase is skinned, and the backbone, with the slenderest portion of the body, offer really small resistance to a keen blade. But it is understood that, in olden days, it was not usual to skin the sheep, and the presence of skin and wool must then have made the swordsman’s task hard indeed. Many English officers have, with fair success, tried to cut a sheep in two, but, even though they used the curved Eastern sword, they always seemed to perform the feat by main force, and not by the proper use of the drawing cut, and I have in my possession a tulwar with a notch in the blade, showing where, in the hands of a very powerful man, it rent a sheep’s backbone. If a native had handled the weapon no such accident could have happened, for the drawing cut, depending only on the keen edge and the way in which it is applied, could not possibly have chipped the blade, no sudden shock being given by it to the highly-tempered steel. Lemoncutting, which is now often seen in England, was introduced from India, and here again neatness of performance is much more likely to be attained by the drawing cut than by the swashing blow employed by so many of our cavalrymen. True, the swords generally available for our competitions at home are hardly ever sharp enough to be used in the best way, and indeed the clumsy weapon now issued to English soldiers, with its absurd steel scabbard that quickly blunts a keen edge, is ill adapted for any practical purpose whatever.