FIRST AYLESBURY STEEPLE-CHASE 171 



highly successful contests a few sporting inhabitants 

 of the town and neighbourhood of Aylesbury formed 

 themselves into a committee to organise an annual 

 meetinof ; and as the district had then become well 

 known for its splendid lines of country, and as many 

 non-residents kept their horses for hunting at 

 Leighton Buzzard, Winslow, Tring, Bletchley, and 

 also in the old town of Aylesbury, a fund was raised 

 to pay expenses, and to compensate the farmers over 

 whose land the horses ran. Somehow or other it 

 leaked out that for two or three years the compensa- 

 tion money had not been paid, and that debts had 

 accrued for printing, with other expenses, and that no 

 audit had ever been made, nor had any accounts of 

 moneys subscribed been rendered. Thus the meet- 

 ing flagged, and the interest subsided, so that for a 

 period of two or three years no races took place. 

 When the racing here had absolutely died out, a 

 circumstance occurred further a-field that led in- 

 directly to its revival. There had been a dispute 

 over some races at Banbury, which were held by the 

 members of the colleges at Oxford, and consequently 

 the undergraduates decided never to go there again. 

 I was present during the discussion, and was asked 

 if I would undertake to find them a line over a fair 

 hunting country in the vale of Aylesbury. I promptly 

 agreed to comply with their request, and in the 

 following year, 1 846, arranged for a course over a 

 fine grass country close to the town, with a rattling 

 good jump of eighteen feet of naked water, which had 

 to be crossed twice. The line had one drawback, 



