322 SPORTING STORIES 



six on the one side, and six on the other, having in their 

 hands long rods of wood about the bigness of a man's 

 finger, and at one end of the rod a piece of wood nailed 

 on like a hammer. After they were divided, and turned 

 face to face there came one in the middle and threw a ball 

 between both the companies, and having goals made at 

 either end of the plain, they began their sport, striking the 

 ball with their rods from one to the other, in the fashion 

 of our football play here in England ; and ever when the 

 King had gotten the ball before him the drums and 

 trumpets would play one alarum, and many times the 

 King would come to Sir Anthony and ask him how he 

 did like the sport." 



Major-General Sherer is said to have been the Father of 

 European Polo in India, and his first introduction to the 

 game was in Assam, whilst he was stationed at Cachar. 

 Thence he brought it to India in 1854. But, though it was 

 played by British officers in the North-Western Provinces 

 under the auspices of General Sherer in the early fifties, it 

 does not appear to have been generally known in British 

 India till at least eight years later. And General Stewart, 

 C.B., brother of Colonel Robert Stewart, Superintendent 

 of Cachar, claims to have introduced it to his brother 

 officers in India, as I gather from the following account 

 given by himself: — 



"I visited my brother in September 1862 and saw the 

 game played at Cachar; and, returning with sticks and 

 balls in October to Barrackpore, I formed a club there, 

 where we practiced for some months, when the game was 

 taken up by some Calcutta men, who also got up a club. 

 The first match was played between Barrackpore and 

 Calcutta, on the Calcutta Maidan, early in 1863. The only 

 members of the Barrackpore Club whose names I remember 

 were, besides myself, Colonel Arthur Broome, Bengal 

 Cavalry ; the late Colonel J. Broome, Punjab Cavalry ; 

 the Hon. R. Napier (Lord Napier) ; Colonel Apperley, late 

 15th Bengal Cavalry; a veterinary surgeon of the name 

 of Farrell ; and a Captain King, since deceased. The 

 Calcutta players were chiefly merchants, one of whom 

 went by the name of 'Bobbie Hills' — a little fellow — I 



