CHAPTER XX 



'VARSITY STEEPLECHASE 



I REMEMBER very well the excitement among us sporting 

 undergraduates of Cambridge over the revival of steeple- 

 chasing at Cottenham, mainly due to the exertions of the 

 Hon. Henry Wentworth Fitzwilliam and his friend, Mr 

 Nathan de Rothschild, who presented the 'Varsity with a 

 handsome challenge cup, to be run for annually over three 

 miles of fair hunting country. I remember, too, the great 

 Inter-'Varsity Steeplechase at Aylesbury in 1863, when the 

 Light Blues scored a brilliant triumph, securing first, 

 second, and third places. J. M. Richardson of Magdalene, 

 who was also in the Eleven, Charley Wilder of Caius, 

 Homer Page of Trinity, and other good light-weights 

 whom I knew well, are all now, alas ! gone over to the 

 majority. 



Touching the old 'Varsity Steeplechases and their first 

 establishment, an amusing story is told of Professor Neate, 

 Professor of Political Economy at Oxford, and at one time 

 M.P. for that city. The Dons and heads of colleges were 

 determined to put down steeplechasing ; but old Neate 

 stood up for the undergraduates, and, to show his contempt 

 for their rulers, entered his own horse for one of the 

 principal races, and named him "Vice-Chancellor." The 

 day of the race came, and great doubts were raised as to 

 who would be the jockey to steer the noted quadruped, 

 when, to the astonishment of everybody, the Professor 

 himself appeared in a top-hat, and in his shirt-sleeves and 

 black trousers. Amidst shouts of laughter, he took several 

 fences well, till they came to the famous water-jump, 

 which his horse first refused, and then fell into the middle 

 of it with his rider. The Professor went no farther, but 



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