Part 45

A gloom was cast over Yorkshire hunting last month by the death of Captain J. R. Lane Fox, the much respected Master of the Bramham Moor. Captain Fox had been in failing health for some months, but no immediate danger was anticipated. On Sunday, February 25th, he had a seizure and he died the next morning, a couple of days before completing his sixty-fifth year.

It is just ten years since he succeeded his father as Master of the Bramham Moor Hounds, and it is unnecessary to say that during his tenure of office the old traditions of the Hunt were well maintained. Captain Lane Fox’s amiable temper and unfailing courtesy gained him a host of friends in all classes of society, and he will long be a missed man in the country with which the name of Lane Fox is so closely and honourably associated.

A biographical notice of the late Captain J. R. Lane Fox appears in another column.

The Bramham Moor had a nice hunt on Monday, February 12th, from Beckwithshaw Bar. After rather an unusually long draw for the country, they found in the Boar Holes and pointed for Swarcliffe, but a blinding storm came on, caused the fox to swing round at Penny Pot lane, and they hunted back slowly by Birk Crag and Ruddocks Wood, and finally marked the fox to ground in the quarry at Thirkell’s Whin. They found again in the Lake Plantation at Farnley, and at a good pace hounds rattled along over the Washburn, pointing for Leathley. Then they ran on by Riffa Wood, but bore left-handed for Stainburn Gile. Before reaching this stronghold the fox was headed, and, turning short back, hounds left Riffa Wood on the right and ran on by Bailey’s Whin and across the Stainburn road, where they got on good terms with their fox. He was viewed here and headed, and hounds checked and did no more good. Up to the check it was a sporting run over a sporting country.

The Holderness had a good gallop on Monday, February 19th, when they met at Brandesburton Moor. Nunkeeling Whin provided a stout fox, and hounds were scarcely in covert before they were away close at his brush. They streamed away to Billings Hill and thence by Dunnington to Dringhoe. Here they checked momentarily, but they righted themselves and ran on at a fine pace to Nunkeeling Whin, finishing the ring in a little under the hour. The fox was only just in front of them and had no time to dwell in covert, and they rattled along cheerily by Frodingham Grange, North Frodingham and Trickett’s Whin to Beeford Grange, where they rolled their fox over in the open.

The Sinnington commenced the month of March well. They met at Bowforth on the 1st, and, after a run from Muscoate’s Whin and round by Mr. Martin’s Farm, which ended in the fox giving them the slip, they went on to Jack Slater’s Plantation, where they found a straight-necked hill-fox, such as the Sinnington country is famous for. They ran first over a charming low country over the Ness road, and nearly to Nunnington, and then, twisting to the right, they ran on over the Riccal Beck and across the end of Riccal Dale. Then, at a famous pace, they ran by Con Howe, nearly to Carlton Village, where they swung to the left into Ashdale. They ran close past the main earths and over Birk Dale to the Griff Farm, where they checked at the road, but, recovering the line in an instant, they ran right up to the railings at Rievaulx Terrace. Here, unfortunately, the field halloaed them on to another fox, and the run came to an end, after a famous gallop of an hour and three minutes.

The York and Ainsty had quite an useful day’s sport on Tuesday, March 6th, when they met at Rufforth Village. According to arrangement, they went to draw the Bramham Moor Friday’s country, and found a brace of foxes in White Skye Whin. Unluckily, hounds divided, and seven couple went away with a fox in the direction of Bickerton Spring, and were soon stopped. The body of the pack ran on cheerily for a little short of a mile, pointing for Marston Station. Then the fox was headed, and they hunted him slowly back to White Skye Whin, where he beat them. They drew Wilstrop Wood blank, but found in the Rash hard by a brace of foxes, which they took across into Wilstrop Wood, and with one of which they went away slowly to Hutton Thorns, where scent failed. Then came rather a cheery run from the Crow Wood, by Rufforth Village into Rufforth Whin, whence they hunted back by the Crow Wood into Collier Stagg, and through it to Fairy Carrs, where they marked their fox to ground. They went to draw Collier Hagg, but, before hounds were in covert, a fox was halloaed away at the other side, and they ran at a good pace by Rufforth Village into Rufforth Whin. After a turn or two round the covert they went away again and hunted slowly back to Collier Hagg. Thence they took a line out on the Marston side, and, with a left-hand turn, pointed for Healaugh, and worked up to the fox and rolled him over on the Askham and Healaugh road, so making a satisfactory finish to a day in which there was a lot of hard work for hounds.

AMERICAN v. ENGLISH FOXHOUND MATCH.

It appears that some errors crept into the account of this event, published in BAILY’S for February, The Grafton Hunt has American-bred hounds and the Middlesex imported hounds. Each pack hunted on six days, and the strength of either was: American hounds, 6 couple; English, 18½ couple. Mr. Harry Smith, Master of the Grafton, has been kind enough to put us right on these points: he adds that the English hounds are drafts, principally from Mr. Fernie’s, and that the American pack, as the “Van Driver” conjectured, are pure-bred foxhounds, descended from imported English hounds. The American-bred hounds stand about twenty-two inches high, and are lighter in build than their imported relatives. Mr. Smith observes that “in America, where the scent is bad and the sun is hot, it is absolutely necessary to have a pack able to take up a cold trail from the night before, work it to the kennel and start the fox themselves. If they lose it on a dusty road or wall the same faculty for cold trailing is necessary.” The American method, in fact, is that in vogue on the fells, where hounds unkennel their fox in much the same way. Mr. Smith tells us that though his pack did not kill during the match, they killed three red and two grey foxes in the open during the two following weeks, hunting the same country.

BREEDING OF THOROUGHBREDS.

Captain W. Tower Townshend, Derry, Roscarberry, co. Cork, writes as follows: I have just read with much interest your article on “The Thoroughbred,” in BAILY’S for February, which any man who has endeavoured to breed a good all-round thoroughbred must agree with, save that your correspondent does not include change of soil and air—to my mind a powerful factor in improving the race of pure-bred horses. We see during the last racing year what Irish-bred horses have done on the English Turf, and I need not tell you we have not a tithe of the fashionable blood over here that you have in England. While the late Duke of Westminster’s celebrated Bend Or was alive, the “Special Commissioner” of the _Sportsman_ was constantly advocating that he should be sent to Ireland, when he predicted he would probably have sired another Ormond. I have no doubt, judging from my own experience, had the Duke done as the _Sportsman_ advised, he would have done so. Some years ago I imported Town Moor, by Doncaster—Euxine, who, you will remember, ran third in Iroquois’ Derby, and then stood in the Queen’s stud at Hampton Court, where he got every chance with the very best mares, but never got any horse of exceptional merit. But during his first season in this country, when an old horse of 18 years, with the slenderest of chances, he bred Gogo to Endocia,[12] a mare belonging to Lord Fermoy, that was generally acknowledged to be the best two-year-old in Ireland. Town Moor unfortunately died two years after reaching these shores, or no doubt after Gogo’s fame there would have been a great run on his services. I wish more of the big English breeders could be persuaded to send brood mares over here, and try the experiment of a complete change. I am convinced it would tell most advantageously on the vigour and stoutness of the coming young stock, as both the climate and soil of Ireland seem fitted by Nature for horse-breeding; the winters being so mild the mares can be left out all day and night till they foal, and the best of grass can be hired far cheaper than it can in England.

POLO IN THE UNITED STATES.

“Transatlantic” writes from New York as follows: Although there were not sufficient entries in 1905 to give a contest for the championship of polo, that game is advancing in the United States, not only in the number of players and of clubs, but in the excellence of methods. The repeal of the law against, and thus allowing of, crooking of mallets has proved popular. In this association there are now 542 players rated as active, and 54 players penalised as much as 4 goals, what might be the “Recent Form” list. Dr. Milburn, of Boston, has been advanced from 5 to 6 goals, and Dr. Chauncey, of New York, from 4 to 6 goals. The three highest handicaps at 9 goals are R. L. Agassiz, Foxhall Keene, and Larry Waterbury. In the class at 8 goals are only John Cowdin, Monty Waterbury, and Harry Whitney. The only one at 7 goals is Thos. Hitchcox. There are 35 clubs listed. Regular play has been going on during the winter at Burlinghame, California, and at Camden, South Carolina; and tournaments in the north will begin at the Lakewood New Jersey Club in March.

THE M.C.C. CRICKETERS IN SOUTH AFRICA.

Despatches from the front have not been very reassuring, and the second so-called Test Match was lost by Mr. Warner’s team by the large margin of nine wickets.

The Englishmen lost because they did not score a sufficient number of runs; and their chief trouble throughout this unfortunate tour appears to come from the fact that their batting is extremely unreliable, and they are without the help of steady batsmen of the stamp of Tom Hayward or Quaife, who would go in first and stay there. Certainly Mr. Warner can go in first, but in South Africa he cannot always stay there, and on more than one occasion his side has had two wickets down with but a small score on the board, and this is always a demoralising state of affairs for a moderate batting side.

We understand that in their minor matches at home against clubs and schools it has been the policy of the M.C.C. to send a team which shall, more or less, and often enough less, be of relative strength or weakness to the other side, in order that the game may not be too one-sided. So that an error of judgment in estimating the strength of the opponents may cost the match.

It appears to us that in organising this team for South Africa, the M.C.C. authorities greatly underrated the strength of their opponents, and so from the point of view of the South Africans the tour has rather failed, since they have proved themselves a better lot of cricketers than the visiting team.

On the other hand, an English team touring in Africa has, for mercenary considerations, to play several games against odds in up-country places where the standard of cricket is very low indeed, and where, probably, the first-class African cricketers would never be seen. And for these purposes the more powerful the visiting team the more futile becomes the burlesque of cricket.

As proof of this we need only refer to a week’s work of Mr. Warner’s by no means powerful team. They beat fifteen of King William’s Town by an innings and 296 runs, the Englishmen scoring 415 runs for eight wickets against 75 and 44 by the fifteen. In the next match eighteen of Queenstown were beaten by an innings and 176 runs; the scores being 400 for eight wickets, as against 111 and 113 by the eighteen. For such a performance as this it would obviously not be worth the while of a first-rate cricketer to travel from England to King William’s Town, and yet for the games against All South Africa it is equally not worth while for a moderate cricketer to travel from England to Johannesburg.

Until recently the same difficulty beset the path of English teams touring in Australia, that they were sent to play ridiculous matches against battalions of bad players, and probably the M.C.C. in organising this tour found it difficult to persuade the best amateurs to devote so much time to a campaign which, roughly speaking, includes so few first-class matches. And so Mr. Warner apparently finds himself in the uncomfortable position of taking round a team too good for the country players and not good enough for the town players.

In the second Test Match the scoring was singularly low for a good matting wicket at Johannesburg. The Africans won with scores of 277 and 34 for one wicket, as against 148 and 160 by the M.C.C. team; and in the M.C.C. second innings eight men made only 16 runs between them, which reads like disappointing batting. On the other hand, eight of the Africans scored double figures.

The third Test Match found Africa starting well enough with 385, every one scoring double figures except Mr. Hathorn, who made 102. Thanks to a fine innings by Mr. F. L. Fane, who made 143, the Englishmen got to within 90 runs of their formidable opponents at the end of the second day’s play, but in this innings six men only scored 17 runs between them.

The third day of the third Test Match was good business for the Africans, who hit up 349 runs for the loss of only five wickets, and then dismissed Messrs. Warner and Hartley before the call of time, leaving the Englishmen 425 run to the bad with only eight wickets in hand. The English bowling was clearly to the liking of their opponents, for again, with the exception of the not-out men, all scored double figures. White 147, Tancred 73, Nourse 55, and Sinclair 48, doing most of the damage. Mr. Crawford could not get a wicket, and Hayes was not put on to bowl in the whole course of the match, and Lees with nine out of the fifteen wickets that fell was the most successful of our bowlers.

The last day’s play brought the match to its logical conclusion, and the M.C.C. team were easily beaten by 243 runs. Denton 61 and Crawford 34 being the only two men to score more than 20 runs.

An odd feature of the game was the success of the cricketers whose names begin with S. It is needless to say there were none on the English side, but the five who played for South Africa got all the wickets between them, and caught all the catches, bar two; for Shalders, Sinclair, Schwartz, Snooke, and Sherwell are the only African names which appear in the score of M.C.C. except Vogler and White, who made three catches between them. Snooke took twelve wickets in the match, and Sherwell caught five men at the wicket.

So the first three of the so-called Test Matches were all lost, each one by a bigger margin than its predecessors.

There can be but little interest left now in the tour of this M.C.C. team, which went to Africa practically asking for defeat, and has certainly suffered it. Probably the next time the South Africans desire to entertain a good cricket team they will invite an Australian team to come over and give them a good game, for the Australians can be trusted to bring their best men upon such an occasion, and that is the way to set about International cricket.

The recent headings in the newspapers, “England _v._ South Africa. Crushing Defeat of England,” are not very pleasant reading, and are not calculated to advance the prestige of English cricket, and it is our sincere hope that in future, should the Marylebone Club be ever again invited to organise a team to visit our cricket-playing Colonies, those who are entrusted with the selection of the players will send either the best or none at all.

It is unfair to the men themselves and to their Colonial hosts, and especially to English cricket, that a team such as the one at present touring in Africa should by any misnomer be regarded as representative of England.

DEATH OF RICHARD HUMPHREY.

It was a melancholy end which closed the career of Richard Humphrey, the famous Surrey batsman of the seventies. He was found drowned in the River Thames near Waterloo Bridge on February 24th, having been missing from his home for nearly a month.

“Dick” Humphrey was in his fifty-seventh year, and from the time that he first gained a place in the Surrey eleven he was always closely associated with cricket, at first as a very good batsman and afterwards as a coach and umpire. Tom Humphrey, the elder brother, made the family name famous in the cricket world, and the many long partnerships for the first wicket between Tom Humphrey and Harry Jupp made the fame of “the two Surrey boys.”

Unlike many of the mainstays of Surrey cricket, Dick Humphrey was a _bona fide_ product of the county, and learned his cricket in common with many another great player at Mitcham. In 1870 he gained his first trial for Surrey, but, with the exception of a score of 82 against Cambridge University, his performances scarcely justified his promise. Next year he was much more successful, as his scores of 70 against Gloucestershire, 80 against Yorkshire, and 116 not out against Kent, bear ample evidence.

The year 1872 found Dick Humphrey at the top of his game, and in the very front rank of professional batsmen. He did well both at Lord’s and the Oval for the Players against the Gentlemen, and at the Oval, going in first, he was ninth man out for a score of 96. Towards the end of that season he scored 70 in each innings against the formidable bowling of Yorkshire when Tom Emmett and Allen Hill were at their best. Considering the difficulty of making runs in those days as compared to present day first-class cricket, we may well regard these two seventies as a much bigger performance than some of the double centuries which have been not infrequent in recent years. Unless we are mistaken, he scored over 1,000 runs in that season, with an average of something like 24 runs for forty-five innings.

Richard Humphrey never gained such a high measure of success again, although he continued to be a useful member of the Surrey team, for whom he played his last match in 1881.

He also visited Australia with the team taken out by Mr. W. G. Grace. He was a batsman of the academic and steady school, and, like most of that school, paid chief attention to careful defence, combined with some strokes on the off side. After his retirement from the active pursuit of the game he did a good deal of coaching, and amongst others some generations of boys passed under his notice at Clifton College. He also umpired very regularly, and for years was in the list of umpires for the county championship, and, but for his untimely death, he was to have acted as umpire in the second-class counties’ competition for next season.

Dick Humphrey was an amiable and pleasant companion, and his melancholy death comes as a shock to his many old friends.

DEATH OF MR. E. H. BUCKLAND.

On February 10th last Mr. Edward Hastings Buckland died at his residence, Southgate House, Winchester, after a long and most trying illness, which he had faced throughout with the most cheerful and patient courage.

He was born on June 20th, 1864, the youngest son of the Rev. Matthew Buckland, of Laleham; one of his brothers being Mr. F. M. Buckland, who scored a century for Oxford against Cambridge in the late seventies.

“Teddy” Buckland, as he was known to a wide circle of friends, was educated at Marlborough and New College, Oxford. His all-round cricket was of great service to his school, and in 1883 for Marlborough against Cheltenham he discarded his usual style of slow round-arm bowling for fast under-hand deliveries, by which he wrought great havoc and won the match.

His first year at Oxford found him a member of the very strong team, which, under Mr. M. C. Kemp, beat both the Australians and Cambridge. For four years Mr. Buckland did good work both with bat and ball for his University, his best seasons being 1886–87.

The ’Varsity match of 1886 is memorable for the large score made by Messrs. Key and Rashleigh for the first wicket in Oxford’s second innings, the former scoring 143 and the latter 107. The rest of the Oxford eleven were advised to get out as soon as possible, and so the score-sheet does not record any double-figure score in that innings, the third highest score being 9.

Cambridge, with 340 to make, were sent in for a quarter of an hour on the second evening, and played out that time for the loss of no wicket, and the gain of no run except an extra.

On the last day of the match the Light Blues offered a dogged defence, and late in the afternoon of the third day it looked as if Cambridge would save the game, as they had 196 on the board for the loss of but four wickets.

Then it was that Mr. Buckland carried all before him, for, going on with the score at 170 and a drawn game imminent, he took the last five wickets for only 14 runs, and Cambridge were out for 206 or so. This must rank as one of the most useful bowling performances ever done at Lord’s.

In 1887 Mr. Buckland had a great match for Oxford at the Oval, when he scored 148 and took seven wickets against Surrey at their best; and as a fitting crown to his good ’Varsity career he was selected to represent the Gentlemen against the Players at Lord’s.

It is sad to think that of the Oxford eleven of 1887, Mr. E. A. Nepean predeceased his colleague by only a few weeks.

Mr. Buckland played some matches for Middlesex after coming to London, where for a time he followed up his degree in the honour school of jurisprudence by the study of law. But fortunately for Winchester College and Wykehamists it was not long before he found himself appointed assistant master at that ancient foundation, with charge of the school cricket, and in this sphere his genius for the game and his irrepressible enthusiasm soon had a marked effect upon the fortunes of Winchester cricket. All his spare time was spent upon the cricket ground, and when he was not bowling at the nets he would be umpiring or taking part in a game, and the boys knew that his critical but encouraging eye was always upon them.

In the early nineties the fruit of his teaching was seen in some very fine teams that represented Winchester, and such distinguished cricketers as J. R. Mason, H. D. G. Leveson-Gower, Vernon Hill, the Cases, C. Wigram, and H. C. McDonell are only examples of the players he turned out.

Mr. Buckland was also a very good racquet player, one of the best public school players of his day, and at racquets he was able to assist considerably the Wykehamists.

He was one of the first young cricketers to turn his attention to the royal and ancient game of golf, and at this he speedily attained great proficiency, being quite in the front rank of cricket-golfers, with a low handicap at the best meetings.

THE OXFORD AND CAMBRIDGE BOAT RACE.