REMINISCENCES OF THE OLD TENT CLUB. 45 



line of elephants made a goodly show. Very rarely did the 

 entire Club turn out, but as guests were permitted to be in- 

 vited in moderate numbers, the field was almost always 

 numerous, and the prevailing good fellowship simply 

 charming. 



It was the custom of the Club for the President, when the 

 cloth was drawn in the old fashion, to record the sport of the 

 day, taking count of the first spears from the members and 

 their friends from left to right, while cheroots and hookahs 

 were lighted. This practice gave the first spear a prominence 

 and honour in the Club, hardly conceded to it in the Mofussil j 

 and as a natural consequence it was jealously contested and 

 caused more accidents than was usual elsewhere in those times. 

 I have known as many as ten or a dozen valuable horses 

 permanently or temporarily disabled during a meet lasting 

 three days, when for as many boars accounted for at a 

 Mofussil meet, perhaps three or four only might be more or 

 less injured. To take a forward place therefore in the Tent 

 Club, it was essential that a man should be a good and bold 

 rider, a knowing hand, and well mounted. 



As a rule, first spears fell either to light weights, who rode 

 well and with judgment, or to heavier weights on first-class 

 horses piloted with knowledge and experience. At a great 

 and most successful meet, when forty-four stout old boars 

 were speared in three days, the highest record of first spears 

 fell to one who was but an indifferent horseman, that is, he 

 was a loose and an ungainly one, but he was mounted on 

 fairly good and thoroughly staunch horses, guided with great 

 experience of the sport. A light weight, mounted on a 

 staunch and active horse under fifteen hands, will, I think, 

 take more first spears than a heavy weight on larger and 

 more expensive horses, other conditions being equal. 



The ordinary practice of the Club was to mount after 

 breakfast, about ten o'clock, and to lunch about two by the 

 covert side, and after an hour's rest and refreshment to re- 

 sume sport till sunset. These tiffins al fresco were spread 

 in good style with every delicacy in the way of food and 



