Gentlemen Riders 



MAJOR CANDY 



Many years ago a facetious contributor to " Our Van " in 

 Bailys Magazine, writing generally about the past month's 

 sport with the Duke of Beaufort's hounds, remarked — 



"One called Candy of the 9th Lancers is staying at 

 Badminton ; but 'pounded' sugar is a sweetmeat unknown." 



A better description of the popular sportsman, familiarly 

 known as "Sugar Candy," who forms the subject of this 

 chapter, could not well be than that conveyed in the few 

 words quoted above, for with a lively remembrance of his 

 performances, both in the hunting-field and between the flags, 

 in former days, we should be sorry to hazard an opinion as 

 to which was the hardest, himself or the old-fashioned sweet- 

 meat from which he derives his nickname. 



Educated at Rugby, where he was a contemporary of 

 Captain "Doggie" Smith, who derived his nickname from the 

 fact that he always had a good dog about him in his schoolboy 

 days, Mr. Candy subsequently joined the 9th Lancers, whose 

 reputation as a sporting regiment certainly did not deteriorate 

 in consequence, for he had not been long with them before 

 we find him hunting the regimental hounds at Cahir ; and 

 later, when quartered at Cork, keeping a pack of staghounds 

 at his own expense. Messrs. "Tip" Herbert and Wheeler, 

 turned out, like the Duke of Beaufort's men, in green plush, 

 whipping in to him. 



It was whilst quartered in Ireland that Major Candy rode 

 many of his best races, Punchestown and Baldoyle being his 

 luckiest meetings. At one particular fence at Navan no fewer 

 than four horses were killed during the meeting, Olympia, the 



.-.86 



