Hunting ReminiscencesPease, Alfred E. (Alfred Edward), Sir
General
Hunting Reminiscences
Pease, Alfred E. (Alfred Edward), Sir
Hunting
The first time I got through this Drag it was won by Lord Binning. It
was a ludicrous finish. Lawley broke his girth over a stile into the
last field but one; the next fence was a bullfinch with a great black
fen ditch beyond, a regular death-trap. Lawley and Binning were neck
and neck across the field, and I was just behind. Girths or no girths,
Gingertail had to do it, but the peck on landing left him a clean back.
Binning’s horse fell on landing, and the two raced in on foot; my horse
fell, and I only made a moderate third behind the men on foot. Binning
had a thorn in his eye, and had to get off to Cambridge, and then
to London, to get it cut out. We all expected to see him back minus
the eye, but it was sound again within a week or two. In this Drag,
Mosquito jumped the biggest place I have ever seen leaped. I often wish
I had gone to measure it, and I fear to state my impressions of what
its dimensions are. It consisted of a high four-rail timber fence on
the top of a high bank, with about twelve or fourteen feet of water
on the takeoff side. As Binning was going to have it, I pulled back a
length, hoping he would bring the rail down when he fell, as fall he
must. To my astonishment, up flew Mosquito over the water; I saw for
a second the whole four feet of bank under the horse, and in another
moment he was over the rails, just carrying the top-rail away with his
hind-legs. I got over with a smash through the next rail. It is my
honest opinion that Mosquito jumped seven feet in the air and covered
some twenty-five feet in this marvellous jump.
Once during my Mastership I organised a Drag that was to be on the
pattern of a long hunting-run, by making the course some fourteen
miles, instead of the usual five or six. I arranged with old Leete that
we could run two Drags into one, leaving half a mile twice without
scent being laid, to give us “checks” and time to breathe our horses
and get hounds together. But the hounds were too cunning. They carried
such a head that when we reached the first check at the end of the Two
Pot House Drag, they flashed straight on up wind and made for the place
where they were usually started for the other drag. It was too severe
for the numerous field, and I never tried it again. There were some
nine that finished, and it was won by Mr. F. R. Meuricoffre, of Naples,
who has since proved himself a good rider over many a steeplechase
course in his native Italy. Here are the last entries I made, at the
close of my undergraduate career, in 1879.
Nov. 22. Fulbourn Drag--Queen Mab went beautifully.
" 25. Barton White Horses. 23 started. 9 at finish. 18 falls.
" 28. Five Bells, Oakington. 23 at the meet. 3 in with hounds.
" 30. Moyes Farm. Capital day. 27 out. 4 finished.
[Illustration: HOUSE OF COMMONS POINT-TO-POINT RACE. From a drawing by
Cuthbert Bradley]
Dec. 1. Fox’s Bridge. 6½ miles. 23 minutes.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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