Lord William Beresford, V.C., Some Memories of a Famous Sportsman, Soldier and WitMenzies, Stuart, Mrs.
History
Lord William Beresford, V.C., Some Memories of a Famous Sportsman, Soldier and Wit
Menzies, Stuart, Mrs.
Beresford, William Leslie de la Poer, Lord, 1847-1900
“‘B’ stands for Bill,
Many cur dogs are his,
Good-tempered but hasty,
And easily ris’”;
which, must be admitted, is a magnificent effort, even if it does not
scan very well.
Witnesses of the fun in those days say they can never forget the
delightful time when all the brothers were at home together. Each
a sportsman, each a wit, full of merriment and pranks, and all
especially delighted when Lord Charles danced a hornpipe for their
amusement. How Curraghmore must have ached for their voices when they
had, as the old song says, “all dispersed and wandered far away.”
It was when stationed at Cahir that Lord William began crumpling up
his bones owing to various tosses of sorts. At this time he owned
a very fast trotter, which could do sixteen miles an hour when
requested. He started one night with this fast trotter in a dogcart
to cover the three miles from the barracks to the station, taking an
English guest with him to catch the 10.30 train for Dublin. The road
was very dark and overshadowed by the trees of Cahir Abbey Park. Sir
Hugh McCalmont (then Captain McCalmont), a brother officer already
mentioned, was likewise performing the same journey bound for Dublin;
both started at the same time. Lord William set the pace, and was
soon out of sight and hearing. Added to the darkness, it was pouring
with rain. After journeying some little way Captain McCalmont was
held up by cries issuing from the gloom. Someone was shouting. He
pulled up in time to find his friend with his guest, his fast trotter
and some dogcart about the road. Lord William in his haste, combined
with the darkness, had driven at top speed into a cart, somewhat
to the surprise of the driver. The cart also looked as if taken by
surprise, in places. Having satisfied himself that no one was killed,
though all were more or less damaged, Captain McCalmont continued
with his “crawler,” as he called it, to the station and caught his
train, which is more than the fast trotting party did.
Trifles of this kind, however, never worried Lord William, for his
spirits were unquenchable.
One of the fastest runs with hounds he could remember, in those days
of scanty judgment, was when out with the Curraghmore hounds in the
northern part of the country. The fences were not very big, but the
pace was great. Lord William and Captain McCalmont were riding a
bit jealous, I think; after racing for about twenty minutes, they
both tried to fly a bank, with the natural result when jumping blown
horses. Captain McCalmont’s gallant little mare did not get up for
some time; she wisely lay still to recover her wind, but Lord William
had been so struck by her performance that he shouted, “I will buy
her”--and he did. But horses when asked to do too much, sometimes
break their hearts, and the mare was never quite the same again.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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