361 



the weather and the cut-up state the ground was necessarily in, the 

 time even for a short distance must be considered good ; but when it is 

 recorded that many of the horses when brought out were lame and 

 that Guilford was badly string-halted on both hind legs, the feat, on 

 the whole, was the greatest of its sort that ever was, or perhaps ever 

 will be, performed. 



In summing up its article on the match, in its issue of Novem- 

 ber 13, 1831, BelVs Life says:— '* Mr. Oabaldeston, by this matchless 

 feat, proved himself a member one at almost every manly exercise save 

 boxing.* He has carried off the palm at hard riding, steeplechases, 

 aquatic feats, shooting, and pedestrianism. In fact, he is in his way a 

 perfect nonpareil^ and outstrips all competitors." 



Owing to objectionable criticisms appearing in the press and else- 

 where on his "200 miles in 10 hours" match, he soon after publicly 

 challenged any man in the world of his age and weight (or carrying it) 

 to ride any distance from 200 to 500 miles for £20,000 ; or that he 

 would take £10,000 to £3,000, or £20,000 to £6,000 that he would ride 

 200 miles in eight hours. No one took him up I 



Mr. Osbaldeston's age at the time of the match just described has 

 been put down at forty-six and forty-seven years, but inasmuch as he 

 was born the day after Christmas, 1787, and the match took place on 

 Saturday, November 5, 1831, it is pretty plain that he was just within 

 5even weeks of being forty-four years old when he accomplished 

 the feat. 



This wonderful man shot in the presence of the then Sir Richard 

 -Sutton ninety- eight pheasants out of one hundred shots. And as the 

 annals of the old Red House at Battersea record, no man of his day was 

 a much better shot at pigeons. 



Mr. Edward Budd, who was an intimate friend of Mr. Osbaldeston, 

 once backed him with Mr. Thellusson to shoot eighty braca of partridge 

 in one day. The match came off over The Squire's property at 

 Ebberson in Yorkshire, when he bagged ninety-seven brace and a half 

 of partridge, nine hares, and a rabbit, but as there were five brace and 

 a half picked up next day he in reality shot 103 brace of partridge 

 besides the hares and rabbit— a feat at that time unequalled in the 

 annals of shooting. This was, of course, with the old flint muzzle- 

 loaders. The date is not given, but it was before his fall, about 1825. 



He had a wonderful breed of pointers. For a brother and sister, 

 Mark and Flirt, he refused sixty guineas, equivalent to a hundred and 

 sixty nowadays. With this brace he offered to back himself for 

 £10,000 against any man and brace of dogs in the kingdom, but no 

 one dared to take him up. 



Mr. Wheeler devotes many pages to Mr. Osbaldeston's prowess as a 

 cricketer but I have space only to say that, except Mr. E. W. Budd, 



* I don't know why boxing should be excepted, for The Squire 

 -capital nian with his tists.— The Author. 



