284 POLO 



going is heavy, by about October little fault can be found with 

 them. Watering has been tried, and has in some cases proved 

 efficacious, but as a rule rolling is all the attention they require. 



Thus since its initiatory start in 1854 polo has gone on 

 steadily increasing in popularity, and nowadays there is hardly a 

 station in all our vast Indian empire that does not possess its 

 polo ground and club, most regiments, both of infantry and 

 cavalry, native and European, having their teams. The game 

 has improved vastly, discipline and strategy having taken the 

 place of mere skill in the use of the stick and brute force, till 

 now it may fairly be classed as the best and most popular 

 pastime in the land. 



There is nothing new under the sun certainly, and soon, 

 since ladies have taken to cricket, we shall probably hear of a 

 ladies' polo team entering the lists at Hurlingham ! In a 

 preceding chapter allusion has been made to some Eastern 

 damsels participating in the game, and this example has of late 

 been emulated in India, for Captain G. F. Younghusband, in 

 his capital little book ' Polo in India,' gives the following 

 amusing account of a ladies' polo match, which is so good that 

 I must apologise to the gallant author for quoting it in extenso. 1 



He says : 



The match was between four married ladies and four single 

 ones, each side being allowed one of the opposite and more brutal 

 sex to act as a support and backbone to the team ; but it was 

 specially ordained that neither of them was to go up into the game 

 and hit the ball about too much, or hustle in an unladylike 

 manner. 



The game was a very fast and good one for about a minute, 

 and then one of the unmarried ladies called a halt, on the ground 

 that her veil was dreadfully in the way, and she must really take it 

 off which she accordingly did, whilst every one waited and the 

 male member of the team was called up and ordered to put it in 

 his pocket ; an unreasonable and even tyrannical request when 

 made to a man with next to no clothing on, and certainly no 

 pockets in it. 



1 A ladies' polo match was played in Ireland in 1890. 



