Captain Middleton 



Grand National, the knowledge that his greeting was as 

 ungrudgingly given as it was sincere, afforded me double 

 pleasure. But there ! how could it have been otherwise from 

 my dear old friend * Bay ' ? " 



After his tragic death, a story got about that the Empress 

 of Austria had given Captain Middleton a talisman in the 

 shape of a ring, warning him at the same time that, should 

 it ever go out of his possession, some fatality would certainly 

 be the result. Unfortunately for the credulous this turned 

 out to be only partially correct. That the Empress did present 

 him with a ring was quite true, and there the romance ended, for 

 it was in reality only an ordinary one, of little value to any 

 one but its owner, who, though prizing it for its donor's sake 

 and naturally annoyed when it was stolen from him at Dublin, 

 never regarded it in any way as a talisman. 



Soon after the sad fatality which deprived the hunting-field 

 of one of its greatest ornaments, the following lines, bearing 

 the signature of John Trew Hay, made their appearance in 

 a well-known sporting paper. 



IN iMEMORIAM. 



Gone ! Yes, in a moment swept away from the scene he loved so well, 



In all the pride of his health and strength. Oh woeful tale to tell ! 



A stumbling and a rider down, a crowd and the whispered dread 



Of friends around that the well-known form which lies so still is dead. 



Bold and fearless, first in the chase, with ever a soldier's dash. 



Keen to ride for the foremost place where silk and satins flash, 



Carry him tenderly off the field and close his glazing eye, 



Perchance he has died the death of deaths that he would have wished to die. 



Ah, many a man to-day, I ween, of the Anglo-Saxon race 



Who never felt the grip of his hand, who never saw his face. 



Ay, many a score of such, I trow, wherever they chance to be 



At, or in some distant part of Britain over the sea, 



On India's plain, Canadian shore, or under the Southern Cross, 



Who love all good old English sport, will surely mourn his loss, 



Will sadly learn that his race was run, that the spirit has gone to rest, 



And heave a heartfelt sigh for Bay — a sportsman — one of the best. 



3S5 2 C 



