VARIOUS RACES 279 



the Coldstream Guards, apparently forgetting what day 

 it was, met at the appointed time, and after waiting in 

 vain for a long time without seeing a sign of hounds, it 

 occurred to the assembled party that they had been 

 hoaxed. Some one, however, suggested that after the 

 trouble of turning out so early it would be a pity to 

 separate without enjoying some kind of sport, so ten of 

 those present entered into a sweepstake of 5 guineas each 

 for a steeplechase to Chalk, a distance of six miles, the 

 winner being Mr. Harvey's Ranter, for which he refused 

 300 guineas offered him on the field. 



These point-to-point races must have been very 

 exciting affairs when, as occasionally happened, the com- 

 petitors lost sight of each other for a time, as did Mr. 

 Coxhead, Captain N. Peters, and Mr. Rowbottom, who 

 rode across country for a stake of 20 guineas each from 

 Frimley Furzes, near Blackwater, to Arbor field, said to 

 be eighteen miles in a straight line. The first five miles 

 lay over heath land, but on reaching Topham covert the 

 three riders separated, each taking his own line through 

 a woody country, and only viewing one another again at 

 Shenfield Common, where Mr. Coxhead pushed along, 

 reaching Arborfield churchyard in an hour and three 

 minutes from the time of starting, an impossible per- 

 formance. Captain Peters came in six minutes later, 

 while Mr. Rowbottom's horse came down heavily, and 

 was unable to do any more galloping and jumping. 



Just about the time when the hoax was played on 

 Mr. Comfort's followers near Rochester, the dwellers 

 round about Haverfordwest saw the first steeplechase 

 that took place in that part of Great Britain. This took 

 the form of a match for 100 guineas over an eight-mile 

 course, the competitors being Mr. Morgan James on his 

 famous horse Sir Peter, and Mr. B. Williams on his 

 scarcely less renowned hunter Bergami. Sir Peter led 

 for five miles, when he became planted in a field near a 



