6006 



Bavarian Sporting. 



between them, three or four however keeping well together in the 

 front, and the mas> following 150 yards in their rear ; but when they 

 came round the third and last time all showed unequivocal signs of 

 distress, and though the winner came in 100 yards ahead of the 

 second, and the greater part never attempted to come in at all, tliey 

 all (winner included) seemed ready to drop with fatigue, and their 

 panting sides and heaving flanks and drooping heads showed how se- 

 vere the struggle had been, and how little qualified they were — either 

 by shape, training or condition— to run a course of six miles at the 

 top of their speed. And now the accident-booths began to be 

 peopled : one poor man was knocked down by a bolting racer, and 

 had his leg broken thereby ; one jockey, whose horse fell with him at 

 the start, had his knee-pan smashed : these two I saw carried off, and 

 I heard that several other little trifles of the kind had occurred. On 

 the whole, never was there a more villainous or cruel race, though 

 the king seemed highly delighted with the sport (!) ; and I doubt to 

 which should be attributed the palm for barbarity, the horse-race at 

 Munich, or that at Rome, where the horses — without riders, but with 

 little spurs attached to their backs by springs, which goad them on 

 faster at every stride — are driven out from the barrier with a lash, and 

 dash down the thronged Corso, infuriated with the spur, maddened 

 with the shouts and terrified by the actions of the excited people. 



Now to say that the Bavarians are barbarous and cruel in their no- 

 tions would be to shoot wide of the mark, and not be the truth ; but 

 the fact is that they do not understand sport in the English accepta- 

 tion of the term : if they go out to search for game, they cannol com- 

 prehend why they should not shoot a partridge squatting on the 

 ground ; still more, why they should not fire into a whole covey of 

 them, and bag all they can : if they can find a hare in her form, of 

 course they will adopt that method which gives the best chance of 

 success, and shoot her as she sits. My notes on the hare, roe and 

 wild-boar hunting exemplify this innate ignorance of the principles of 

 sport in the German breast, and it is further proved by the details of 

 the horse-racing given above. But the Bavarian horse is not made 

 for racing, or for sport of any kind ; yet he is an active, strong, useful 

 little fellow, with a broad chest, a sturdy build and a high crest, and 

 he will trot along with a light waggon, or a hackney sledge, at a fa- 

 mous pace, and yet he finds no favour in the eyes of the nobles at 

 Munich and other German capitals ; there English horses are the rage, 

 and the very name of an English horse goes a long way in his favour. 

 The late king's brother (Duke Max) was notorious for his love of 



