LOED POULETT. 



"WHEX steeplechasing first became one of the reco,gnised sports of England under 

 its present form, some forty years ago, no amusement had more aristocratic patrons 

 and supporters. At least half the names of those who took silk on any great occasion 

 could bo foimd in Debrett or liurke, and though not many, perhaps, stuck to it with the 

 pertinacity of Osbaldiston and Captain Beecher, there were few young men of rank, 

 with any pretensions to horsemansliip, who did not at one time or another take a turn 

 across counti-y. Thus we see Lord Waterford, on The Sea and Cock Eobin, was succeeded 

 by Lord Strathmore on St. Leger and The Switcher. And ere the era of the buff and 

 blue had set in. The Xun bore the colours of Lord Macdonald to victory, with Jerry 

 and Warwick behind her in those of Lord Suffield and Sir E. Mostyn. Then Capts. 

 Peel and Little on Chandler and Proceed respectively, with Powell on Saladin, kept up the 

 prestige of the sport imtil the many questionable practices it gave rise to induced 

 men of honour to withcU-aw themselves from it, and steeplechasing for public stakes 

 fell in a great measiu'c into the hands of horse-dealers, trainers, and others, whose 

 only object was " to get money, honestly if you can, but anyhow to get money ;'' and 

 the sport came to be looked upon, in common with the ring and others whose day was 

 fast waning, as one that must die out by the malpractices of its supporters. True, there 

 was still the hunting and militarj^ element to fall back ujion, and each held meetings at 

 which gentlemen could ride and run horses, and did so ; and from this parent stem the 

 ■ flower of steeplechasing may again be said to have flom-ished. Then came the for- 

 mation of the National Hunt Committee, the raising of the weights in handicaps, and 

 the era of the cast-off flat-racer was wonderfuUj' curtailed. Cxentlemen again feared 

 not to see then- eolom-s on a cross-country flj'er, and when Game Chicken ran second 

 to Cooksboro, and eventually got the stakes, in the shires the line was as big and the 

 fences as strong as the greatest glutton could desire. And such a field faced the starter 

 as recalled the St. Albans days of old. The year before that Lord Coventry had stood 

 in the breach with the wonderful weed Emblem at Aintree, and the next vear we 

 find no want of the aristocratic element, as Mr. Chaplin sent forth the all-rose 

 flag successfully on Emperor the Second, for the National Hunt, and Emblematic 

 rivalled her sister's performance at Liverpool ; so with the decline of the light-weight 

 era we may be said to have got both better men and better horses into the sport, and 

 since that time it has lacked not supporters of the right stamp. Under these cii'cum- 

 stances it has been a matter of no small difficulty to determine with what patron of the 

 sport we should head our steeplechase sketches, and we can but admit that there are 

 several equally deserA'ing the post of honom-, but we are induced to select Lord Poiilett 

 as the latest aristocratic recipient of the Grand National honours. When his lordship 

 came into the title in 1864, he lost little time in getting together some racers and 

 steeplechasers, though all along his heart has, we fancy, inclined more to cross-coimtry 

 events than the Rowley Mile or T.Y.C., and Chris. Green at Newmarket soon had 

 some promising pupils in hand. It was, however, after the Waterloo era had com- 

 menced that we find his lordship really going to the front in steeplechase matters, and 

 with the advent of the veteran Ben Land (who, by the way, rode and won the first 

 hurdle race we ever saw, on his own horse, Frank — late Eailroad — at the now defunct 



