CHAPTER III. 



The History and Records of the Calcutta 

 Paperchase Cup. 



Our third Chapter, and we hardly feel that '' Chapter " 

 is a correct way to describe so very large and important a 

 part of these records, is to be devoted to the history of an 

 event which is probably, in company with the Kadir Cup, 

 one of the most difficult to win and most prized of any in 

 India. It is the Amateur Cross Country Blue Riband, 

 and certainly one of the hardest, hottest and most trying- 

 rides that mortal man can take on. It takes far more 

 winning than any steeple-chase in India, by reason of the 

 thousand and one added possibilities, the bigger fences, 

 the hard ground, and last but certainly not least, the 

 distance. The course is always nearer five miles than four, 

 and there are, as a rule, anything from 20 to 25 fences, 

 most of them substantial "mud" walls, i.e.^ obstacles 

 built out of cut sods, and in height varying from 3 ft. 9 

 ins. to 4 ft. 2 ins. and some even higher, the big bank at 

 the end of the Bund Country havjng to the Editor's personal 

 knowledge measured a good 5 ft. on a Paperchase Cup 

 morning, when it happened, as it usually does, to be 

 included in the list of obstacles. 



Then, again, the Cup is run at a pace that is consider- 

 ably faster than they usually go with hounds, and as 

 most of the horses competing are thorough-breds and quite 

 capable of holding their own in a far more ambitious arena, 

 it can be well understood that they do not exactly crawl \ 



