150 A Sportsman at Large 



During two seasons I had the honour to represent The 

 British Empire on " The International Committee," my col- 

 league on the first occasion being the Earl of Carnarvon. 

 As far as I can remember, our duties were not particularly 

 onerous, though the said committee met once a week and 

 indulged in a babel of polyglot tongues ; but there was a 

 roster from which the umpires were drawn in rotation. It 

 happened that my turn came during the competition for 

 Le Grand Prix. At that time there was a novice competing 

 whose form was consistent, if not brilliant. He had been 

 very lightly handicapped in preceding events and had shown 

 a very steady average. For some reason or other, I had a 

 strong idea that he would have something to do with the 

 finish of the great event and so it turned out. Luckily for 

 him, he never had a really top-notch bird to try him out, 

 but he " downed " his quota in masterly style cleanly and 

 accurately. 



This was Jesse Curling, a cheery and modest sportsman, 

 with whom I struck up a close friendship which has survived 

 the passage of many years, though nowadays it is only occa- 

 sionally that I run across him and his charming wife. At 

 the time, his victory in Le Grand Prix was looked upon as 

 something of a fluke ; but subsequently, at various English 

 and Continental gatherings, Jesse proved that such was by 

 no manner of means the case, for he carried off some of the 

 choicest plums of the pigeon-shooting world. 



My attendance at the Gun Club then located near Worm- 

 wood Scrubs (" You ought to have been in another establish- 

 ment close by," I can hear the self-styled humanitarians ex- 

 claim) was pretty regular during summer time (in the autumn 

 and winter months I was, during those years, too busy with 

 my hounds and my racehorses to find time for pigeons and 

 prizes). I had been elected to the club, and also to Hurlingham, 

 on returning from my second visit to the Riviera. At the 

 former resort I was placed on the twenty-seven yards mark ; 

 this being a distance that suited me to a nicety, I scooped 

 in one or two desirable " cup events " and had a fair share 

 of pool divisions. 



At Hurlingham, I began at twenty-five yards, and although 



