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a magnificent snuff-box bearing this inscription, ' To the 

 best sportsman of any age or country.' 



It is, of course, mainly as a hunting man that I am 

 concerned with George Osbaldeston in these pages, but 

 any sketch of his career which did not give some idea of 

 the versatiHty of his sportmanship would be an injustice 

 to the memory of a man, whose claim to fame is not so 

 much that he excelled in one sport, as that he excelled in 

 many. 



As a steeplechase rider, for example, ' the Squire ' had 

 no superior and was never beaten. Among the most 

 celebrated of the matches which he rode was the one 

 between Clinker and Clasher for 1000 guineas, made 

 while he and Captain Horatio Ross (the owner of Clinker) 

 were shooting a match at pigeons at the Red House, 

 Battersea. Clinker had always a first-rate reputation as 

 a fencer, and ' the Squire ' was to have ridden Clasher 

 against him the previous year, if he had kept sound, but, 

 as the horse fell lame, the match was off, according to the 

 articles. The Captain happened to mention that Clinker 

 was going up to Tattersall's that afternoon, and this 

 brought up the subject of the match which had fallen 

 through, with the result that, after a good deal of chaffing, 

 the match was remade, one of the conditions being that 

 ' the Squire ' was to ride Clasher ; to this Osbaldeston at 

 first demurred, on the ground that it did not seem con- 

 sistent with his dignity as High Sheriff of Yorkshire, but 

 as the stipulation was a sine qua non, he consented. The 

 line chosen was from Dalby Windmill to Lipton, in 

 Leicestershire, and Dick Christian, then in his zenith, was 

 put up on Clinker. The attendance was commensurate 

 with the interest the event created, and thousands of 

 pounds depended on the result. With a view of frightening 



