332 POLO 



CHAPTER VIII 



SOME FAMOUS PLAYERS AND PONIES 



WITH so many names to note names of men and animals who 

 have deservedly earned for themselves a niche in the temple of 

 polo fame I feel that I have a somewhat difficult task to per- 

 form. It is therefore hard, to a certain degree, to drop to the 

 bit, and settle down nicely into one's stride. Moreover, I labour 

 under the disadvantage of having been unacquainted with some of 

 the earlier paladins of polo, when the game was, so to speak, in 

 its infancy. Then again, information gained second-hand is 

 but a poor substitute for personal knowledge. I must there- 

 fore briefly condense my notice of the most noteworthy players 

 of the past, for the subject of Polo is a large one, and space is 

 limited. Let me begin with a few notes about the most pro- 

 minent players when the game was but young. I must not, 

 however, be supposed in either case to take the names in any 

 order of merit. Where all were and are so good, this would be 

 an impossible task ; my remarks, therefore, will be made not 

 in any order, but as names occur to me, conjured up from 

 hearsay, or as some brilliant bit of play, some dashing run, or 

 some good bit of generalship is remembered. 



When polo was first introduced into Ireland, no one took 

 to the sport more keenly than Mr. Horace Rochfort of Col- 

 grenane, county Carlow, one of the best sportsmen ever bred 

 on Irish soil, who, with his nephews, the brothers Hall of the 

 Carabineers, were amongst the earliest exponents of the game. 

 Truly, Mr. Rochfort deserves equally the title of Patriarch of 



