CHAPTER XX. 



STEEPLECHASING. 



" Then crash'd a low binder, and then close behind her 



The sward to the strokes of the favourite shook ; 

 His rush roused her mettle, yet ever so little 



She shortened her stride as she raced at the brook. ' 



I "HE date at which men first began to jump fences on horseback cannot even be 

 surmised. I find in no book or record whatever any expression of surprise 

 that any horseman of old time had jumped a hedge, a brook, a stile, or anything 

 else. Jumping, like other things, must have been a matter of gradual advance. 

 The earliest war-horses may have been called upon to "negotiate" some ditch or 

 gully ; they may have cleared the body of some fallen steed or a portion of 

 a broken chariot ; and this may have been the first step towards high and broad 

 leaping. 



Prior to the accession of William III., however, the Charlton Hunt at Goodwood 

 was a flourishing concern, and we hear of gates being jumped then. Erom time 

 immemorial horses have been matched for speed on the flat, and it is only in the 

 natural course of events that matches over obstacles should also take place, and 

 no doubt a certain number were decided ; but the first we hear of was brought 

 off, appropriately enough, in Ireland in 1/52. This was a match between Mr. 

 O'Callaghan and Mr. Edward Blake. The distance was four miles from Buttivant 

 Church to St. Leger Church ; and that is all we know about it, for the name of 

 the winner is not on record. Readers of my first volume may remember that 

 on pp. 38 and 48 it is recorded that in 1607 Lord Haddington went to Huntingdon 

 "to a match of hunting that he hath there against my Lord of Sheffield's horse." 

 In the same place I quoted Gervase Markham's sentence about the " infinite 

 VOL. in. s 



