STEEPLE-CHASING 



frequent then if we may base an opinion on this note in the 

 Sporting Magazine of January 1804 : — 



' Curious Horse Race. A wager betwixt Captains 

 Prescott and Tucker of the 5th Light Dragoons was deter- 

 mined on Friday, 20th inst., by a singular horse-race which we 

 learn is denominated steeple-hunting. The race was run from 

 Chapel Houses on the west turnpike, to the Cowgate, New- 

 castle, a distance of three miles in a direct line across the 

 country, which Captain T. gained by near a quarter of a mile. 

 The mode of running such races is not to deviate more than 

 fifteen yards from the direct line to the object in view notwith- 

 standing any impediments the rider may meet with, such as 

 hedges, ditches, etc : the leading horse has the choice of road 

 to the extent of the limits, and the other cannot go over the 

 same ground, but still preserving those limits must choose 

 another road for himself.' 



A genuine point to point race you will observe : Captains 

 Prescott and Tucker rode ' the direct line to the object in 

 view,' just as in modern point to point races during the later 

 'seventies and early 'eighties, the field were lined up and de- 

 spatched on their journey to some distant mark, church steeple 

 or the like. 



A famous race was that run on 30th March 1826 between 

 Captain Horatio Ross and Captain Douglas. ' Nimrod ' was 

 among those present and he wrote an account of it — the first 

 detailed description of a steeplechase extant : — 



' . . . The following was the origin of the match — As 

 Lord Kennedy, Captain Ross, and Mr. Cruickshank were on 

 their road to Epsom races, last spring, the merits of a Captain 

 Douglas (who hunts in Forfarshire) as a rider, became the 

 topic of conversation, and a comparison was hazarded between 

 him and some of the crack Melton men. Captain Ross ob- 

 served that a tip-top provincial rider will generally be found 

 in the crowd in a Leicestershire field — a truism which can 

 never be doubted. It was then hinted that Captain Ross, 

 with his stable of horses, ought to be always in the first flight 



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