SPORT ANCIENT AND MODERN 



had held his own in the thirties, described as the 

 golden age of the sport, and many people being 

 anxious to shut out the 'chaser in favour of the 

 genuine hunter, Mr. Rowlands proposed a race 

 in which bona-fide hunters alone should com- 

 pete. He suggested that the various hunts 

 should subscribe a liberal stake, as an inducement 

 to farmers to breed high-class hunters. His 

 proposal met with scant response, Mr. Rowlands 

 declaring that not a single hunt, with the ex- 

 ception of the V.W.H., made any contribution. 

 However, he and his friends themselves found 

 the money, and a race took place as an experi- 

 ment in 1859 at Market Harborough. The 

 following year several hunts came to his help, 

 and a very successful race was the result. 



In 1861 the Grand National Hunt Steeple- 

 chase, through the kindness of a most popular 

 nobleman residing in the neighbourhood, and 

 also a contribution of 50 subscribed by the 

 Cotteswold Hunt, was held at Cheltenham on a 

 course at Southam under Cleeve Hill. It was 

 not held in the county again until the present 

 century, when it took place at Cheltenham two 

 years running, in 1904 and 1905. 



Cheltenham has for many years been a well- 

 known training centre, and such famous men 

 as William Holman, George Stevens, Tom 

 Olliver and William Archer have been con- 

 nected with the town as trainers or jockeys. 



William Holman was settled in Cheltenham 

 and was training and riding many winners about 

 1839. In 1841 he won two steeplechases at 

 Andoversford, and on Xeno rode a dead-heat 

 with Tom Olliver on Greyling at Cheltenham. 

 In 1842, on Dragsman, he won the big race at 

 Andoversford run over walls ; and in 1 843 the 

 same race over a 6-mile course, on The Page, 

 both his own horses. In the same year he rode 

 in his first Grand National ; he never succeeded 

 in riding the winner, though in 1852 he was 

 third, and in 1853 fourth on Sir Peter Laurie. 

 He trained Freetrader, the winner of 1856, in 

 which year he also had engaged Sir Peter Laurie, 

 whose chance he fancied the better of the two. 

 He asked William Archer to ride Freetrader, but 

 the latter refused to waste to ride a ' second 

 string,' and George Stevens had the mount and 

 his first winning ride. Sir Peter Laurie spoiled 

 whatever chance he might have had by refusing 

 at ' Proceed's Lane,' in those days an in-and-out. 

 In 1870 he trained The Doctor, when, with his 

 second son George in the saddle, that horse was 

 beaten a head by The Colonel. He also trained 

 Globule, a little 15-hand horse who won the 

 first big steeplechase at Croydon, when the 

 course was so big as to be described as ' sensa- 

 tional ' ; Stanmore and Daddy Longlegs, winners 

 of the Cheltenham and Leamington Grand 

 Annuals of 1847 ; Penarth, on which George 

 Holman won the Birmingham and Cheltenham 

 Grand Annuals of 1862 ; Brick, who won the 

 Prince of Wales' Steeplechase the first day and 



Grand Annual the second in 1869; Master 

 Mowbray, three times winner of this race, in 

 1874, 1875, and 1876 ; Chamade, Bantam, 

 and Not Out, the last of which was just beaten 

 for the Cesarewitch of Cardinal York's year 

 (1870), and in 1871 won the Ebor Handicap. 

 John, William Holman "s third son, was also riding 

 with great success on the flat and over a country 

 at this time. 



George Stevens was born in Cheltenham in 

 1833. His riding career extended from 1856 

 to 1870, during which he rode five Grand Na- 

 tional winners : Freetrader in 1856, Emblem in 

 1863, Emblematic in 1864 and The Colonel 

 in 1869 and 1870. In 1871 while riding home 

 from Cheltenham to Emblem Cottage, a house 

 he had built for himself on Cleeve Hill, he was 

 thrown and killed. A stone inscribed 'G. S., 

 1871 ' now marks the spot at the foot of the 

 hill. 



William Archer was born at Cheltenham in 

 1826, and had his first mount when he was nine 

 years old, riding a pony in a hurdle race at 

 Elmstone Hardwick. He rode on the flat in 

 his young days and for two years rode in Russia 

 for the Czar. About 1844 he began riding 

 between the flags and settled in Cheltenham, 

 where he rode a great deal for William Holman. 

 Of his two sons, William and Fred, the elder 

 was killed while riding at Cheltenham in 1878. 

 When Fred Archer was at the height of his 

 fame he used to stay with his father, who then 

 had the hotel at Andoversford, and hunt with 

 the Cotteswold hounds. 



Steeplechasing was first started in Chelten- 

 ham in the thirties. In 1834 Mr. William 

 Vevers won the Rose Steeplechase on his horse 

 Sailor Boy. In the same year a match of 200 

 a side was run between Mr. Lucas's Harlequin 

 and Mr. Thompson's Primrose. In April of 

 that year, and for several succeeding, a sweep- 

 stakes of 10 over a 4-mile course was run for. 

 This was won in 1837 by Captain Becher on 

 Vivian from thirteen opponents ; the value of 

 the race had by then increased to a sweep of 

 20 with 50 added, half by Lord Segrave and 

 half by the town. Another race the same day 

 was won by Tom Olliver on Railroad ; in 1839 

 it was won by that great 'chaser Lottery. In 

 the fifties a two-days' steeplechase meeting was 

 held in the spring, and a flat-race meeting in 

 the autumn. At the spring meeting was held 

 the Cheltenham Grand Annual, which ranked 

 with the other grand annuals of Aylesbury, 

 Leamington, &c. In 1854 on the first day the 

 Grand Annual, and on the second a Grand 

 Military Steeplechase, were run under the fol- 

 lowing conditions : a sweepstake of 10 each 

 with ;iOO added, the winner to give 20 to- 

 wards expenses and six dozen of champagne. 

 The meeting was held on various different 

 courses round Cheltenham, but generally in 

 Prestbury Park until about 1 864, when it was 



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