September 12, 19 14 
LAND AND WATER 
SOCIAL AND SPORTING NOTES 
f 
IJUNTING is not to be entirely in abeyance this coming 
^ -*■ winter, but what there is of it will be purely expedient ; 
there will be ro more of it than is necessary in order to keep 
the number of foxes within due limits, to keep hounds in 
work, to afford employment for huntsmen and whippers-in 
who are not eligible for service in the Army. Doubtless a 
few clderl}- farmers may be found in the field if all their cobs 
have not be^n commandeered, and there is no reason why 
ladies who have mai'nts for tV" purpose should not ride to 
hounds as usual. But coun '.!:':_ figures which have been so 
familiar and so welcome at the r>ivertside will be missing ; 
quite a number of Masters of Hou.: '- themselves are at the 
front ; and the " Image of War," as Jcrrocks called hunting, 
wiU be but a very faint image of itself thi« season. There 
can be no heart in it. Even as it is an ex-Ma:?ter of an East 
Anglian pack has severed his connection with his hunt in 
order to mark his disapproval of the continuance of the sport 
in any shape or form, which, to our way of thinking, is quite 
illogical, though his patriotic fervour is commendable enough. 
"VIT^HILE hunting has been proving its worth to the nation 
' ' at such an hour of need in providing for the Army so 
many gallant horsemen — the best horsemen over a country 
in the world — and so many thousands of light horses — again 
the very best Army remounts to be found in the world — is 
it not despicable on the part of some people to try to stir up 
strife among poultry-keepers and clamour for a wholesale 
destruction of foxes by poison and gun ? " Hunting men are 
at the front fighting for us," is really the gist of their argu- 
ment ; " now is our chance, destroy aU the foxes, so that 
when they come back there can be no such thing as hunting 
for them, which is only the selfish sport of the rich." That 
is the attitude which is being adopted in some quarters. 
This agitation against hunting at such a time is surely the 
meanest and most contemptible action ever perpetrated by 
so-called well-wishers of the poultry-farming industry. No, 
let foxes be thinned out by the ordinary and legitimate 
means, even if it be only in the nature of cubhunting 
throughout the winter. Let there be no sly attack upon the 
future interests of a sport which has done so much for 
England and the British Army, and whose votaries are now 
serving their country in probably greater proportion than 
the votaries of any other sport, pastime, or pursuit in the 
kingdom. 
TVyCANY hunts, whose Masters have undertaken active 
■'■'-'■ service during the war, are in the management of 
committees pro tern, and everywhere strict economy, of 
course, will have to be practised. Some private packs have 
been given up — notably that of Mr. T. Bouch, Joint Master 
of the Belvoir, who has rejoined his old regiment, the loth 
Hussars ; Lord Robert Manners, the other Joint Master of this 
famous pack, has joined the Rifle Brigade, and accordingly 
Mr. Cyril Greenall has been asked to act as Deputy Master 
during the season 1914-15. Everywhere the lack of horses 
will be a handicap to those whose duty it is to carry on 
hunting in order to keep the thing going, and this will be felt 
not only this season but perhaps for several seasons yet to 
come. On the day that the Southdown began cubhunting 
recently, the hunt servants rode from kennel to covertside 
on bicycles, and then hunted hounds on foot. This practice 
has been followed in several other countries, where practically 
a clean sweep was made of the hunt horses for national 
purposes, and it has answered tolerably well, a very fair 
number of cubs being brought to hand. Lord Harrington, 
M.F.H., has been more fortunate than some, for he has been 
able to mount his staff on polo ponies. Hunting may still 
serve a highly useful and important service, if those who 
are able to go out with hounds in the ensuing months will 
carefully break in young horses and get others fit and in hard 
condition for the front when wanted by the authorities. 
I IKE hunting men, followers of other sports and pastimes 
■'-' have not failed the country in time of need, and it was 
encouraging to find how spontaneously and readily Rugby 
football players abandoned their season's fixtures when the 
call to arms came. It was a timely lead to those who play 
under the Association code, to athletes of every class, and 
particularly, perhaps, to county cricketers, whose matches 
dragged on drearily during the very period when anxiety 
as to the results of Lord Kitchener's appeal for men was 
rather acute. There will be no representative Oxford 
University Rugby team this term, Cambridge University 
will follow suit, and all the crack clubs with one accord have 
struck out their season's list of engagements, their players 
having leapt to the call of duty with the fire and enthusiasm 
we are accustomed to see at Twickenham, Richmond, the 
Rectory Field— wherever the game of games is played. And 
what grander material could our Army wish to recruit from than 
that of British Rugby Union football, with its splendid spirit 
and unexampled hardihood ? There is no game in the world 
— unless it is polo — which fosters so surely those high qualities 
of courage, endurance, judgment swift and sound, and pure 
unselfishness, which fit a man to discharge the duties of a 
good soldier. Men long past the glorious Rugby age must 
have envied players of the present day their opportunity 
to " form down," when Edgar Mobbs, the old England 
" internationalist " and former captain of the Northampton 
Club, undertook, with the approval of the military authorities, 
to raise in seven days a corps of two hundred and fifty men 
on the guarantee that they should go in one division. 
Amateur Association footballers have also answered to the 
call, and we could have wished that League football had been 
cancelled this winter, so that the thousands of trained pro- 
fessionals, hard and fit, had been given the opportunity to 
enlist instead of exhibiting themselves to the sixpenny public 
as " muddied oafs at the goal." 
JUST now reference was made to polo. Alas! a number 
^ of brilliant horsemen who have distinguished themselves at 
Hurlingham, Ranelagh. and Roehampton in times of peace, 
will never again take part in the galloping game, which has 
long been recognised as an ideal training for the cavalry 
officer. In the very first official list of casualties to officers 
sent from the front appeared the names of well-known polo 
players among the killed and wounded. The former, we 
regret to say, included Mr. Harold Martin Soames, the 
youngest son of Mr. W. A. Soames, of Moor Park, Farnham, 
and a popular officer in the 20th Hussars, a noted polo 
regiment. He was rated in the handicap at seven points, 
and for his regiment he proved a sound and reliable back. 
Major F. Swetenham, of the 2nd Dragoons, was also a well- 
known polo player, though lower in the handicap,and every one 
will deplore the death in action of Major V. R. Brooke, of 
the 9th Lancers. This was not reported officially when the 
first list of casualties was made out, but from a private 
source. Major Brooke, though not in the 9th Lancers' first 
polo team, was a keen and enthusiastic player. 
. 'T^HAT 9th Lancers' sweep down on the concealed guns of 
the Germans in an encounter close to the Belgian frontier 
reads like a second edition of Balaclava. The regiment 
charged through " a hail of melinite or lyddite " (according 
to the Evening News), cut down aU the German gunners, and 
put the guns out of action. In spite of being hit in both 
legs and having two fingers shot off (according to the reports) 
another fine deed is recorded of Captain Francis Grenfell, of 
the same regiment, in recovering a couple of British guns, 
whose servers had been put out of action. Our readers do 
not require to be told that Captain Grenfell (like his twin 
brother, Mr. " Rivy " Grenfell) has been one of the best and 
most dashing polo players in London polo in recent seasons, 
though he has had more than his share of bad luck in the 
shape of accidents. There is no doubt that to the game in 
which he has played such a conspicuous part must be given 
some credit for having developed in him those soldierly 
qualities of dash and cool resource he has now displayed upon 
the battlefield. According to another account, when Captain 
Grenfell was wounded he was carried into safety under heavy 
fire and at great personal risk by the Duke of Westminster. It 
may seem a small matter at a time hke this, but it should be 
pointed out that the Duke of Westminster is another keen votary 
of that game which calls for so much reckless courage, such 
physical fitness, perfection of eye and wrist, and most finished 
horsemanship on the part of the rider. This war is going to 
prove to us once more that the Britisher's love of sport and 
games at their fit time and in their proper places is his 
salvation and not his undoing, as croakers and detractors 
are so fond of telling us. 
TN consequence of the war Surrey cancelled their last two 
■*■ matches, and the season's first class county cricket came 
to an end last week. But there was little interest in it. Who 
cared what county stood at the top of the table, or how So and 
So finished up in the averages. At this time of the year we 
are accustomed to a bewildering array of figures every morn- 
ing showing how the counties and their players have fared 
during the past four months. But even if they have appeared, 
no one has had the time or the inclination to study them. 
It is sufficient to summarise the thing into the statement 
that Surrey finishes at the head of the table, with Middlesex 
second, and Kent third, while those unfortunate West of 
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