1892] CAPTAIN MIDDLETON. 233 



swerved at a gate, and, jiiiupiug the fence sideways, rolled over, but Mr. 

 Cassel escaped without injury. Jack and Paul Jones kept in front through- 

 out the second half of the distance, and the former won by two lengths. 

 About fifteen lengths liehind Paul Jones came Mallard and Sunlight, and they 

 were respectively placed first and second in the heavy division. Sunlight 

 broke its breastplate, which, dangling between its legs, considerably hampered 

 its movements. 



Captain Middleton was forty-six years of age, and 

 resided at Hazelbeach, Northamptonshire. Ten years ago 

 he was married at St. George's, Hanover-square, to Miss 

 Baird, of Eosemoimt. Telegrams were despatched to 

 Mrs. Middleton, apprising her of the accident, and much 

 sympathy will be felt for her and her daughter in their 

 sudden bereavement. Few amateur horsemen were better 

 known or more deservedly popular than poor " Bay " 

 Middleton. Born in 1S4G, he developed a love for horses 

 and the chase from boyhood. Adopting the army as a 

 profession, he was gazetted to the 12th Lancers in 1865. 

 Wlien with his regiment in Ireland, he acted as first whip 

 to the Regimental Harriers at Cahir, county Tipperary, in 

 1805-66. He then hunted the draghounds for three 

 seasons at Ballincolley, county Cork, and he won his first 

 steeplechase at Cork Park in 1867. In 1870, Captain 

 Middleton went on Lord Spencer's staff, where he con- 

 tinued for four years, and, whilst acting there, rode in and 

 won the Irish Grand Military at Punchestown, in 1873 

 and 1874, on Waterford. In the following year he left 

 the army, and when the Empress of Austria took up her 

 quarters in England for the hunting season of 1876, 

 Captain Middleton had the honour of piloting her Imperial 



wliicli was ridden in a martingale, to overtake them, but the actual fence where the 

 accident occurred is a very trivial one, a low rail in a fence close by the gate at the side 

 of the holt, with a little drop. The ridge and furrow, however, runs at right angles to 

 the leap, and is very high and deep. Whether the horse stumbled on landing and 

 unseated our friend, who fell forward against the second ridge, or whether he threw up 

 his head and stunned him, will never be known for a certainty. I galloped down from 

 the winning post when Major Little called out that someone should go at once, and was 

 the first to find him. The cowardly rustics had never touched him. I saw at once that 

 he was dead, but had him raised up, his collar loosened, and I sent for water to the 

 farm, and then rode away for the doctor as hard as I could. Wlien I returned Lord 

 Willoughhy was there with Dr. Penton, whose verdict from the first was quite hopeless. 

 Mr. Smith Barry on riding down to the sad scene of the accident had a bad fall, as his 

 pony put his foot in a grip, and he received a slight concussion. — W. R. V. 



