A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



Columbine. This was a two-mile race, all 

 the others being about three miles. 



The Hopping Hill Steeplechases were suc- 

 cessfully revived on 1 6 March, 1905, when 

 six races were run over the old course. 



Since the establishment in 1866 of the 

 National Hunt Committee some races under 

 their rules have been held at Kettering in 1877, 

 1878, 1879, 1880, i88i,and 1882. The 

 sport here was confined to hurdle racing and 

 hunters' races on the flat. This remark does 

 not apply to Daventry, where for twelve years, 

 from 1869 to 1 88 1 inclusive, steeplechases 

 were held annually over a beautiful hunting 

 country. It was a natural course, with no 

 artificial fences, at the foot of Borough Hill, 

 on the slopes of which the stands were erected. 

 The gathering was universally popular, often 

 bringing Warwickshire sportsmen as opponents 

 to the cross-country horsemen of Northampton- 

 shire. The meeting was abandoned in 1882, 

 in consequence of the making of the railway 

 from Weedon to Daventry, which runs right 

 through the centre of the two-mile course. 

 It may be added that the line from Northamp- 

 ton to Market Harborough cut through the 

 steeplechase course in the Brixworth Vale. 



The Grafton Hunt or Towcester Steeple- 

 chase Meeting was first held in 1877 ; it was 

 then discontinued until 1881, and for twenty 

 years up to the present time the races have 

 been run in Easton Neston Park, formerly the 



property of the earls of Pomfret, and now of 

 Sir Thomas Hesketh, bart. This is the only 

 meeting now regularly held in Northampton- 

 shire, and, in its characteristics, ill accords with 

 the meetings of the past. 



Not a feature of Northamptonshire fences 

 remains on the Towcester course. With the 

 single exception of a small brook or tributary 

 of the Tove the jumps are all artificial. More- 

 over the course runs three-quarters of a mile 

 down hill, and three-quarters of a mile up 

 hill ; and the horses finishing up the incline 

 get home quite pumped out and ' as slow as 

 men.' Nevertheless, with all these drawbacks, 

 the Towcester races, which are always held on 

 Easter Monday, bring together a huge assembly 

 of holiday folk from Northampton and the 

 surrounding villages, and it would be a matter 

 of great regret if this meeting should be aban- 

 doned. As no less than seventeen other steeple- 

 chase meetings are held on Easter Monday, it 

 is rare that a good horse comes to Towcester. 



The House of Commons Point to Point 

 Race has been several times held in this 

 county. In 1889 the race was from near 

 Weedon Barracks to Studborough Clump, at 

 Catesby, and was won by the late Captain 

 Middleton. In 1890 the race which started 

 near Willoughby in Warwickshire, and finished 

 at Staverton Wood, was won by Mr. Haig. 

 On 21 March, 1891, the members of 

 Parliament ran again near Staverton. 



GOLF 



The game of golf receives as much and as 

 steady support in Northamptonshire as can be 

 expected in an inland county ; for it is only 

 on the sea-shore that those natural conditions 

 are found which create a first-class course. 



Certain local- disadvantages, too, suggest 

 themselves, of which the prevalence of clay is 

 perhaps the chief, for clay is in all seasons the 

 worst foundation for a golf course, and in 

 winter and prolonged wet weather in many 

 cases virtually precludes all play. 



Northamptonshire, too, is peculiarly lacking 

 in those stretches of waste land or common, 

 light of soil and sprinkled with gorse, that offer 

 facilities for golf second only to those of the 

 low-lying sea shore. 



Moreover it is only where those natural 

 facilities offer themselves that a fair course can 

 be laid out and kept up at comparatively small 

 cost and trouble. 



Golf of a serious kind, therefore, in North- 

 hamptonshire necessitates the formation of 



clubs sufficiently strong to ensure the expendi- 

 ture of a good deal of money in laying out 

 and maintaining a course. For these, as well 

 perhaps as some minor reasons, properly laid 

 out courses and golfing associations are not 

 numerous, being practically confined to the 

 principal towns, where the requisite combina- 

 tion of men and means is to be found. 



On the half-dozen established courses there 

 is not often much play except on the regular 

 holidays and half-holidays. Within these 

 limits, however, the game is in a flourishing 

 condition and is played with steady and un- 

 abating ardour. Nor is there any reason to 

 suppose that its popularity is likely to wane. 

 Northamptonshire golf is chiefly a winter game, 

 the season being between October and April 

 or May inclusive. This is partly due to the 

 fact that the grass on some courses grows 

 too vigorously for the restraining capacities 

 of clubs of moderate numbers and small 



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