SPORT ANCIENT AND MODERN 



former and reduced the width of the ditch ; and 

 having thus rendered the course acceptable, a 

 great race resulted. Sixteen horses started, and 

 the winner turned up in Mr, Chaplin's Em- 

 peror III, ridden by Mr. H. Coventry. The 

 other races at the meeting, with the exception 

 of the Selling Steeplechase on the first day, and 

 the Farmers' 'Chase on the second, brought out 

 good fields. In 1868 the National Hunt Com- 

 mittee, ignoring one of the fundamental rules of 

 the race, selected Clapham Park again as the 

 scene of the Grand National Hunt Steeplechase, 

 a choice which gave rise to much hostile criti- 

 cism, though the course, save from the spectators' 

 point of view, was everything that could be de- 

 sired. The first day's racing was poor ; the 

 great event produced a field of only seven horses, 

 and was won by Mr. S. J. Welfitt's Tathwell, 

 ridden by Mr. Brockton. It was thought that 

 the action of the National Hunt Committee in 

 departing from the rule which prescribed a dif- 

 ferent place for the race each year, and the im- 

 pression that the course was unduly severe, 

 combined to keep down the field. The other 

 races on the first day were not well filled, but 

 the second day's sport showed some improve- 

 ment. 



There was no meeting at Bedford after this 

 until that of Harston Club in 1872, mentioned 

 in a previous page, when three of the races were 

 held under National Hunt Rules ; nor was 

 steeplechasing revived in the county until 1887, 

 by which time hunt races had gained great 

 popularity all over the country. On 11 April 

 of that year the Oakley Hunt held a meeting 

 over the ' Hoo ' at Kimbolton ; it was a modest 

 affair, appealing to owners of bona fide hunters 

 for the most part, and was fairly well supported. 

 This meeting was held intermittently for some 



years, finding a powerful rival in the Bedford- 

 shire Hunt gathering held at Clapham Park, to 

 which reference will be made. On Easter 

 Monday, 1889, the Kimbolton, or Oakley 

 Hunt, Steeplechases were held after a year's 

 lapse. The fields were small, and the only 

 notable incident was the fact that the Prince of 

 Wales ran a horse. Ascetic, which won the Open 

 Hunters' Plate in the hands of Mr. Ripley. 

 There was no meeting in 1890, and that of 

 1891 was not very successful, there being two 

 walks-over in six races. The next year's 

 gathering was a better one, but the fields were 

 small, and the same may be said of the 1893 

 meeting. None was held in 1894, but in 1895 

 the Oakley Hunt Steeplechases were revived, 

 and have been held annually thenceforward, save 

 in 1 900, when the state of affairs in South Africa 

 forbade the holding of this, as it did that of many 

 another hunt meeting. The 'chases of 1902 

 were particularly successful, more especially the 

 Open Selling Steeplechase, for which eleven 

 horses started. 



The Bedfordshire Hunt meeting at Clapham 

 Park was established in 1888 on lines not dis- 

 similar from those of the Kimbolton meeting, 

 the principal events being the Town Plate of 

 £$0, the Open Hunters' 'Chase of 3 sovs. with 

 j^50 added, and a race open to members and 

 farmers of the Oakley Hunt. It flourished for 

 a number of years without intermission, attract- 

 ing more patronage than the Kimbolton fixture, 

 and always providing a day's fair sport for local 

 horses. Mr. W. Whitehead's name was con- 

 spicuous among the winners of races in the 

 'eighties both at Clapham Park and Kimbolton, 

 and in the 'nineties at the latter meeting. In 

 1900 the Bedfordshire Hunt Steeplechases were 

 not held, nor have they since been revived. 



POLO 



The county club was founded in the year 1 900 

 at the suggestion of Mr. W. H. Boileau, who re- 

 ceived much assistance from Colonel Ridgeway, 

 V.C, Mr. J. H. Barnard, the captain, and Mr. 

 J. G. Verey, the present hon. secretary, and other 

 gentlemen in the task of establishing it. The 

 club possesses a full-sized boarded match ground 



and a practice ground on part of the old race- 

 course on the Ampthill road, about a mile from 

 the county town ; there is a good pavilion and 

 stabling for forty ponies. A tournament is held 

 annually in July, the club being affiliated to the 

 County Polo Association. There are about 

 twenty playing and sixty non-playing members. 



SHOOTING 



Bedfordshire does not rank in the first class as 

 a shooting county, but it has improved consider- 

 ably during the past twenty or thirty years. This 

 is probably due more to better preservation than 

 to natural causes. 



Hand-reared pheasants form such a large per- 

 centage of the total head of game killed within 



the boundary of a county that they must be left 

 more or less out of our calculations when trying 

 to gauge its game-producing capabilities. Roughly 

 speaking, from three-quarters to nine-tenths of 

 the pheasants annually killed in England on any 

 given area are artificially reared, and it is cer- 

 tainly very doubtful whether one-fifth of the 



195 



