588 



A HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH TURF. 



a Master of Hounds Steeplechase, won by Mr. F. Bennett's Miss Hnngerford, the 

 late Lord Willoughby de Broke running second with his mare Abbess. 



Nearly all steeplechase meetings have had their ups and downs ; but for some 

 years two places may be said to have stood out rather prominently Cheltenham 

 and Leamington. Both enjoyed influential patronage ; both were well attended 

 while their grand carnivals were regarded as among the more important events 

 of the season. The first of the Cheltenham series took place about 1833, but 

 by 1835 the meeting was quite a going concern ; it took place on the ist of April. 

 The chief event was the "Grand Steeplechase," as it was called on the card; 

 and the course was certainly big enough. The first jump was a newly erected 



wall five feet high ; a 

 couple of brooks came 

 in the way, the last 

 obstacle being another 

 wall five feet four 

 inches in height. There 

 were eleven starters, 

 and what betting there 

 was favoured Fugle- 

 man, ridden by Mr. 

 Doyle, who had won 

 in the previous year ; 

 but the rider, mistaking 

 the flags, went out of 

 his course, so that Mr. 

 Pitt's Bobadil, ridden by Mr. Patrick, beat Mr. Baring's Caliph, with Captain 

 Becher in the saddle. Another well-known rider in the race was Dick Christian, 

 who came in fourth on a horse called Shade. The last horse in had to pay the 

 stake of the second horse, one of the not uncommon though queer conditions of 

 those days. 



The Captain Becher above mentioned was perhaps as closely identified with 

 Vivian as with any other horse he was in the habit of riding, and on him he won 

 at Aylesbury, when Lord Waterford and Elmore regarded the race as a certainty 

 for either Lancet or Grimaldi. In 1835 a print representing Captain Becher 

 on Vivian was published, and met with a ready sale. Lancet's defeat in the 



In Sussex. 

 Teaching a young one. 



