THE KADIR CUP 197 



made the pace a cracker from the start. Horses 

 could not do it. Out of twenty-two starters ten 

 fell ; one man fractured his skull, and four were 

 carried in. While the doctors were busy with the 

 bad cases we looked after the others. One, who 

 had only shaken his head up a bit and seemed weak 

 but otherwise well, we dosed shrewdly with brandy. 

 His wife, who was at the meeting, was very peevish, 

 poor lady, when she found her husband not only 

 with a face like a pudding, but distinctly merry and 

 bright. 



The ordinary heats at the Cup are, as a rule, 

 extraordinarily free from grief. The ground is 

 honest, and people ride good horses. I remember 

 a run in 1899, when four started after a boar. Two 

 horses broke their necks in a nullah. The boar was 

 lost. The remaining two ran another boar next 

 day, when one of them ran into a tree in a field, 

 the only tree in the place, and was knocked sense- 

 less. The fourth man won. Such is luck. 



Only a few years ago John Vaughan's beautiful 

 horse Vedette, who had won the Cup before, and 

 Lambert's Battle were killed in a small patch of 

 jungle in quick succession. 



But events such as these are the exception. 



I give no account of the organization or running 

 of the meet. As the Cup is now run it is in prac- 

 tically every detail my own design. I cannot well 

 criticise. I was lucky in handing over to Mr. 

 Norton, R.H.A., a better man than myself. 



I was always scrupulous to carry on the vital 

 conditions of the Cup, and to resist any attempts 

 to bring in any innovations. I only regarded myself 

 as the trustee of a great hunt. The conditions that 

 Forbes made when he gave his original Kadir Cup 



