250 THE COMPLETE HORSEMAN 



something very different from what was origin- 

 ally intended. It is indeed in many particulars 

 very like an informal Hunt Meeting. In its 

 early days the steeplechase of the early part of 

 the nineteenth century w^as held up to imitation. 

 The field were shown a landmark some four miles 

 off or less — generally less — and were told to 

 make the best of their way to it. Under those 

 circumstances knowledge of country from a 

 hunting-man's standpoint was an important 

 factor to success. By knowledge of country is 

 meant knowledge of how to cross the country, 

 how to choose the best going and select the like- 

 liest places at the fences, not, of course, the geo- 

 graphical knowledge of each field. When this 

 kind of point-to-point steeplechase prevailed it 

 was frequently the man and not the horse that 

 won, and I have in my mind now a race in 

 which the consummate horsemanship of the man 

 who rode the winner landed perhaps the slowest 

 horse of the lot first past the post. A rigid ad- 

 herence to the nearest way landed this gentle- 

 man with a good lead some two or three fields 

 from home. But one of the speedy ones was 

 catching him hand over hand when he saw that 

 by jumping some particularly forbidding rails in 

 a corner he would save about loo yards, so he 

 turned away, allowing his rival to stride along, 

 confident of winning, and jumping the rails just 

 managed to win by two or three lengths. The 

 horse he was riding was from a light cart mare ! 

 This very sporting kind of meeting soon had 



