Part 61

These horses were largely bred in Lincolnshire: they were, indeed, so closely identified with the county that they were locally known as “Black Lincolnshires.” In the fens they grew to their greatest size; few of them at two and a half, says Youatt, were under seventeen hands. Neither the soil nor the pasture of these districts is better calculated to meet the horse-breeder’s needs than the soil and pasture of other regions of England; but the situation, climate, and conditions of life were in some way peculiarly favourable to the growth of horses, and the Blacks grew bigger there than they did anywhere else. Marshall refers to them disparagingly as the “elephants of Lincolnshire.” All the brood mares seen by Arthur Young on his tour in this county (“General View of the Agriculture of Lincolnshire, 1799”) were Blacks. They were regularly worked in the farm teams by the “arable yeoman,” who kept them for stud purposes.

It was popularly believed in the Midlands that the Black horse originated from half a dozen Zealand mares, which Lord Chesterfield, when ambassador at the Hague, sent over to England. These mares were stabled at Bretby, in Derbyshire, about 1755 or 1760, and no doubt were instrumental in improving the breed. It is stated that for some time after Lord Chesterfield imported these mares Derbyshire “took the lead” among the counties in which Blacks were bred. But while we need not doubt that these mares were the best of their kind, and as such did much in the way of improvement, it is impossible, by the light of the historical evidence, to which reference has been made, to regard them as the foundation stock.

Whatever Marshall’s opinion of the Black, it certainly found great favour all over England, even in Norfolk, a county famous for the small, active carthorses, with which the farmers, as the author points out in “The Harness Horse,” used to run their curious “team races.” The greater popularity which the Black enjoyed a century ago seems to have contributed to the disappearance of the brown-muzzled Norfolk horses. Farmers in those days were not more governed by sentiment in the management of their business than they are now, and we may rest assured that if they turned their attention to the breeding of Blacks, it was because they proved the more profitable stock. Their great weight would suffice to recommend them for heavy draught work on the deep and miry country roads of a past generation. A writer in the _Sporting Magazine_ of 1796, says that “there are instances of single horses that are able to draw a weight of three tons.”

Not the least interesting fact concerning the picture which furnishes occasion for these remarks is the fact that the painter of a scene so typically English in subject, so purely English in spirit and in mode of treatment, should have been a foreigner. Jacques Laurent Agasse was a Swiss by birth; he came to this country when about twenty years of age, and his works show how completely he became imbued with a love of the land of his adoption.

The Judging of Polo Ponies.

BY WALTER BUCKMASTER.

The above subject, in my opinion, is a very difficult one to write on, for the simple reason that there are so few men who are capable of occupying the position of a judge of polo ponies. A man must be blessed with a large number of capabilities to act in this position. He must be, firstly, a judge of the horse in the abstract, of its formation, building, &c., he must be a hunting man and a judge of hunters; he must be, in a minor degree, a judge of a racehorse; he must be a fine horseman in himself, and he must be a polo player, and an active one, at the time he is occupying the position of judge.

In these days when the game of polo is taking such a strong hold of the world at large, when county shows all over England and elsewhere reserve classes for polo ponies, polo pony mares, polo pony stallions, young stock, or ponies likely to make polo ponies, the office of judge of these classes is a very important one.

Often one sees that a judge who is officiating in that position in the hunter classes is deputed to judge polo ponies also, and I have even known the hackney or carthorse judge put into this position. Probably the official in question is a fine judge of a hunter and of a horse in all respects, and yet he may be quite the worst judge one can have of made polo ponies. He does not know what is expected of them, how he is to test them, or what they are expected to do. Of their make and shape he is probably quite capable of judging the class; he will know a good-shaped pony from a bad one. Naturally, as a judge of a horse, he will know a good “ride” from a bad one; he will know true action from cramped action, but I very much doubt whether he knows a good polo pony from a bad one. There may be a large number of ponies in the class, he will only be able to spare a minute or so to sit on each pony. During the short space of time he has to make up his mind very quickly as to whether the pony is a good ride to start with; whether it has a good and natural mouth; whether it is tractable or otherwise; whether it turns easily or otherwise; whether when turning it does so on its hind quarters or its forehand, and whether when turning it does so on the proper leg both behind and in front. The majority of ponies, however partially they may be schooled, usually change their legs in front, viz., when turning to the right have their right leg in front, and _vice versâ_, but how many men can tell in a second when the pony has changed its leg in front, whether it has, at the same time, changed its hind legs similarly? To do this a judge must have great and constant experience.

When writing on this all-important subject I propose stating my opinion and ideas on the made polo pony, or pony likely to make a polo pony, as the judging of young stock, mares likely to breed polo ponies, stallions, &c., comes rather under a different category than the actual judging of the article that is to be ridden and so judged by the official.

Allow me to give a few hints to judges who are setting out for the first few times in this important position. They must remember that the time for them to make up their minds is limited, therefore they must come to their decision quickly, and having made it must abide by it. They will probably have to judge two riding classes: (1) polo ponies; and (2) ponies likely to make polo ponies. Let us consider these two classes separately. When made polo ponies come into the ring let the judge carefully watch them walking round; he must then make up his mind as to what is a good made pony, a pony, pure and simple, and what is not; he will see how they walk and how they carry themselves, and here he will make his first impressions, and these first impressions are, in my opinion, the best. Then they will trot round the ring. This will show him little except that, as a rule, a good walker is usually a good trotter; however, many of the best polo ponies are poor trotters, and often will not trot at all. In my opinion, little is learnt from a polo pony trotting except the fact as to whether it is sound or not. Next the ponies will canter round. Then the judge will see a free goer from a short, stilty-actioned one. He should then proceed to draw the ponies into the centre of the ring, placing the good ones, or what he imagines are the good ones, on the one side and the rubbish on the other. He should then proceed to look the animals over quickly when standing still; whether they stand straight on their legs, whether their joints are true, and so forth.

He should then ride each pony himself, bending and twisting them himself as much as the show-ring will allow him, letting them go top pace as far as is possible. As soon as the judge is on the ponies’ backs he will quickly alter his ideas formed when watching the ponies on foot. He will find that what he fancied as being a good-looking pony rides all wrong when he is on its back; probably bad mouths, or badly trained, change their legs in front but not behind, a most common fault in polo ponies, and a very bad one, as no pony can turn with the safety and speed that he should do unless he changes his legs behind as quickly as in front. Again, as soon as a judge gets on a pony, I advise him to back the pony, just for three or four yards, quickly; all good polo ponies rein back almost as quickly as walking forwards, and if they do not do so they are not high-class polo ponies.

I also advise a judge to ride every pony in the class, whether his first impression of it be good or otherwise; many a pony is missed over that may not favourably impress the judge at first sight, but be a remarkably fine ride.

By this time the judge must have made up his mind; he may have to forgive a fault here and one there, in order to arrive at a proper order of placing the ponies in their class, as no pony is perfect in every respect.

When judging “ponies likely to make polo ponies,” the judge must not be quite so exacting. He must lay greater stress on the good made pony when standing still and the true-actioned and balanced one. He will probably have to judge ponies at very different states of their education, and will find it hard to bring a good young green pony with very little education into competition with a pony that has been well and carefully trained. In this class he must carry in his mind which pony is going to be the most valuable in a year’s time.

There are certain faculties a pony must have, whether he be a made polo pony or a young green pony; he must be built on true hunter lines, short legs, short back, compact, good sloping shoulders and a well set on neck (a pony with a bad neck seldom has a good mouth), his hind-legs and hocks must be well underneath him, and straight. Hind-legs standing away from a pony are a great fault, and generally denote a pony slow at jumping off the mark. He must have essentially a perfect temper, and also a good mouth by nature; this latter is to a large extent a matter of breaking, and a pony badly broken, in my opinion, never gets over it.

Above all, let a judge go for quality; a square underbred pony well trained may ride really well in a show-ring, but how will he manœuvre and ride after playing ten minutes in a fast game of polo; he becomes tired and beat; then his action, mouth, and training all go to the wall, and he is as a sailing ship amongst torpedo boats.

Sport and Animal Life at the Royal Academy.

Works of the character that appeal more directly to us are more remarkable for quality than for number this year; if shooting, yachting and angling pictures are conspicuous by their absence, hunting and hound works are, by comparison with previous exhibitions, numerous and generally excellent. As regards angling, Mr. Frederick Yates’ picture, “A Bite” (32), a boy stretched on the bank of a woodland beck, fishing with a wand cut from the hedge, can hardly be regarded as an angling work, though admirable in composition and drawing; the fox terrier who sits by his master is taking quite a human interest in the proceedings. In the same room hangs Mr. Peter Graham’s “Morning” (40), one of this Academician’s familiar studies of sea-girt rocks with gulls; the sky on the horizon is dark and forbidding, suggestive of a stormy night passed. Mr. C. E. Swan’s “The Day of Reckoning” (59) gives us pause. His tiger drinking in the foreground is excellently well drawn; but would a tiger stop to drink when the elephant in the background is so near at hand? And what are the two gesticulating coolies doing well in advance of the sportsman’s elephant, among the tall grass? They are, moreover almost in the line of fire from the howdah; we doubt much if the “day of reckoning” has come! “Elizabeth at Wemmergill” (78), by Miss Annie L. Swynnerton is a charming picture of a little girl in blue, astride a rough pony, both well painted. In this room we find Mr. John M. Swan’s diploma work (129) “Tigers Drinking,” boldly painted, with less finish than usual; we like it much.

The place of honour in the Academy is occupied by Mr. Abbey’s remarkable work, “Columbus in the New World” (143). Columbus, in armour, kneels on the seashore, priests in their robes kneeling a few paces in rear. The air is thick with scarlet flamingoes—the brilliant Florida species—in flight. The blaze of vermilion dazzles and bewilders the eye, and the indifference of the Discoverer, and his followers to the marvel of bird-life strikes one as unnatural. A very fine piece of work is Mr. James Beadle’s “Les Braves Gens” (150), a scene of the Franco-Prussian War; the horses of the cavalry are cleverly modelled, and the grouping, bound by military conditions, is very artistic. Mr. S. J. Solomon (R.A.-elect) has a pleasing picture (151) of a little girl in pink with a horn, astride a pony, with a couple of frisking terriers, which he entitles “The Field.” Mr. Arthur Wardle takes us to different scenes in “A Sylvan God” (157); the lithe suppleness of the leopard in the foreground is beautifully rendered. Mr. Briton Riviere’s portrait of Professor Frank Clowes (161) comes within our purview, inasmuch as the artist has represented the Professor with his golf clubs. “Winter’s Victim” (189) is the title of Mr. Edwin Alexander’s picture of a dead stag stretched on the snow, with a carrion crow about to begin its meal. The stag is in rather better condition than might be expected of one that has been starved to death, but this, perhaps, is a concession to artistic requirements. Mr. Max Bohm’s “Nearing the Bar” (226) is skied, but its merits are too striking to be overlooked; in the stern of a fishing boat rushing before the wind an old man sits, tiller in hand, his gaze fixed on the unseen “bar.” The intentness of the man’s visage compels admiration, and not less the mingling of excitement and apprehension on that of the boy by his side; a very clever picture. Mr. Edmund Brock in “The Spring-time of Life” (245) has a portrait group, a young man pulling two girls in a skiff, restful and pleasing. In the same room Mr. H. W. B. Davis, R.A., has one of his pictures of Highland Cattle in “Ben Eay, Ross-shire” (279). Mr. Charles E. Stewart’s “Fire!” (285) is a powerful piece of horse painting; the pair of greys harnessed to the engine, approaching the foreground at the gallop, are beautifully modelled; the action is at once vigorous and correct. Good, too, are the horses in Mr. W. B. Wollen’s “The Sun of Austerlitz” (321). Mr. Edgar Fischer has two tigers in “Dawn” (331), one drinking (why is the tiger drinking so popular with the brethren of the brush?), the other growling at some invisible foe across the pool. We might find some minor defects in the equine anatomy in Miss Eleanor Wigram’s “Water Jump at Sandown” (349), but regarded as a whole it is a very successful attempt to represent horses in attitudes difficult to catch, save by instantaneous photography; one horse has landed over the water, the rest are in air or rising to the fence. There is a freedom of handling in the composition which entirely satisfies.

In this gallery we find the most striking and successful horse picture of the year in Miss Lucy Kemp-Welch’s great canvas, “The Joy of Life” (356), a small mob of horses careering about the open fields in the utter abandonment of vitality. They are splendidly modelled, and the work is instinct with vigorous movement. Mr. Simon Vedder’s “King of the Desert” (369) is not very easy to see, being skied. The lion is roaring, with his head up, and the crouching lioness has apparently paused in drinking to cast an enquiring look at him from her baleful green eyes. Mr. Ernest Spence has a good portrait of “Sir John Wallington, K.C.B.” (385), in the uniform of the Badminton Hunt, and hard by is Mr. Alfred Munning’s “Ponies at a Horse Fair” (416), half a dozen cheap animals tied to a low hedge; the blemished piebald on the right is not the class of nag that satisfies the artistic eye, and the painter deserves much credit for the unflinching accuracy with which he has treated a rather sordid equine subject. “Newcastle Fair” (410), by Mr. John Atkinson, a group of gipsy vans with their worn-out horses, is treated in much the same spirit. Miss Mabel Hollams has chosen a rather depressing subject in “His Last Fence” (468); the horse has evidently broken his back over the rather insignificant hedge and lies prone, with his owner kneeling at his head. The coats of the hunting men are rather too bright, but otherwise the picture is a good one. Miss Maud Earl’s “End of the Trail” (477) is a study of wolf-like sledge dogs on a desert of snow; the texture of the coat of the principal figure is equal to anything Miss Earl has ever given us. Mr. William Wall’s “Death of the Roebuck” (504) satisfies as far as the greyhound is concerned; the dog, panting from his exertions, has evidently pulled down the roe single-handed; it is, perhaps, an open question whether a greyhound could do this in the woodlands affected by these deer. Mr. John Charlton has a large and admirably composed picture in (520) “Gone to Ground”; the earth is under a sandy bank among tree roots, and the hounds are grouped round it, their interest in the fox having, it would seem, evaporated. The grouping of the hounds is excellent and the whole work satisfies the eye. “Recuperation” (531) is a clever study of hounds in kennel by Mr. J. Walter Hadland; the grouping here is also good and the artist has been particularly successful with the heads of his hounds. Mr. Munning’s “Meet at the Bell” (540) has merit, but is too crowded; or perhaps it were more accurate to say the figures are too large for the canvas; a pity, as the horse ridden by the master is the true hunter stamp and is admirably painted, while the artist knows how to put a man in the saddle. Mr. Charlton’s other work in the same room, a lady reining in a good-looking chestnut in a woodland glade, “Hark! Back!” (557) shows the artist at his best as a painter of horse-flesh. Miss Margaret Collyer calls her clever and vigorous little picture (594) of two Irish terriers fighting, “Home Rule”; the prophecy political may be overlooked in appreciation of the merit of the drawing. Miss Florence Jay’s “Run to Earth” (637) shows once again that she has studied foxhounds closely and can paint them with fidelity. Mr. Harold Pearson, M.P., was formerly Master of the Oxford Drag, and it is hunting dress that Mr. Glazebrook has elected to portray him in No. 695. Mr. Sanderson Wells’ coaching picture “Rushing the Hill, Derby Day” (714), is a strong and vigorous piece of work; the whip is springing his cattle up the slope almost directly at the spectator; it was no means an easy point of view from which to paint a team, but the action of Mr. Sanderson Wells’ browns is most lifelike. Mr. Charles Ward’s “A Coombe in the Quantocks” (821) will appeal to followers of the staghounds on Exmoor.

There are in the Water-colour Room some pictures which should not be missed; notably Miss Lucy Kemp Welch’s “Horse Drovers” (925); the scene a country lane, with half a dozen carthorses in varying attitudes. The horses in Mr. Sheldon Williams’ “Labourers” (951) are well done. In the Black and White room we find Mr. John Emm’s clever hound study, “The Pride of Belvoir” (1284), and Mr. Victor Focillon’s very successful engraving of Mr. Napier Henry’s yachting picture of a year or two ago, “Youth.” Mr. A. D. Greenhill Gardyne’s “Captain S. C. Crawfurd and a Giraffe” (1356) shows the sportsman resting against the body of the great beast which has fallen to his rifle. “Coaches at Ascot leaving the Course,” by Mr. Arthur J. Gough, also deserves praiseworthy mention. There is little in the sculpture room that calls for notice from us. Miss Geraldine Blake’s statuette “The Stock Rider” (1706) is a good piece of modelling, and Miss Katherine Wallis has been successful with her bronze statuette of a dachshund (1753). So animated and clever is the figure of a little girl delightedly but fearfully holding out a frog by the hind-leg (La petite grenouillière), we cannot forbear to draw attention to it. Herr Paul Hüsgen must be congratulated on the success with which he has caught the likeness in his bronze medallion of Sir Walter Gilbey.

Notes and Sport of a Dry-fly Purist.

THE GRAYLING SEASON, 1905.

During the past season I enjoyed the privilege of fishing for grayling in the very best stocked portions of the Itchen at Twyford and Shawford.

On August 11th, 5 brace were killed; on the 12th, 3½ brace; on the 19th, 4 brace; on the 23rd, 4 brace; on the 26th, 1 brace—their weights varying from 14 oz. to 1¼ lb. On August 28th the evening was stormy, and until seven o’clock no signs of flies or of fish breaking the surface of the swollen, breeze-rippled, and strongly running stream could be noticed. I was standing near the swampy margin of the west bank above Shawford Bridge, and with little hope of the prospect for sport improving, when a single dark olive dun floated down, and just as its struggles to dry its wings seemed effectual it rose, but fell on the water again, and instantly a grayling flashed up and took it. Well hooked and played from the bended rod, it was felt to be a heavy one; nor could it be much restrained without risk until it had drifted to the ford, where I was in the act of trying to draw it over the shallow side to dry land, not intending to use the net, when a man watching from the bridge, a black retriever at his side, called out, “Shall I come and land him for you, sir?” At that instant his dog rushed round to the shallows, and wildly jumping about, repeatedly tried to seize the fish—in fact, to retrieve it as he would a moorhen. The chance of hooking the dog was so likely, and the consequent breakage of my tackle, perhaps losing the fish also, that I promptly used the net handle to beat him off, and as I landed and unhooked the grayling (afterwards found to weigh 1 lb. 7 oz.), the dog looked on, wagging his tail and barking excitedly—possibly he expected praise rather than a beating.

For the next half hour, at intervals, a few dark-winged _Ephemeræ_ were seen to emerge on the surface. I knotted on to the fine-drawn gut point of my cast a red quill dressed on a cipher hook, and after many attempts, baffled by the wind, to present it just right, a grayling that could plainly be seen in a clear run close under my bank rose to it and was hooked and brought to net, weighing 15 oz. Another an ounce heavier soon followed. Afterwards, about 8 p.m., when the wind had lulled, some sedgeflies hovered over the surface in mid-channel, occasionally dipping on to it as they dropped their eggs. A larger red quill on a No. 2 hook was therefore tried, as it was similar in size to the natural sedges, and, presented by the horizontal back-handed casting method, it sailed lightly down over the ring of a feeding fish, and when he rose again and snatched at it he hooked himself, giving three minutes of exciting sport ere the landing-net secured him, a grayling of 14 oz., making up two brace weighing 4½lb.