Fox-hound, forest, and prairie

Front matter

Cu 'terinary Medicine at

Tui i ersity

THE COUNTRY LIBRARY.

Introduction

To those who, like myself, look to active, outdoor sport as the chief means of lightening and brightening life — or even as constituting its best enjoyment — I offer these reminiscences. They will serve their purpose if, with the aid of the spirited sketches that give point to man}' of the scenes, they enable some few men and womeii of like vein of thought to find an occasional half-hour's amusement.

To my old and kindly friends of the " Field," and to the Editors of the several other papers from which these jottings are culled, I tender my best thanks.

E. PENNELL ELMHIRST.

Contents

PAGE

MY EARLIEST SHIKAR.

A LEICESTERSHIRE SEASON, 1882-83 37

I

Each item of his Royal Highness's progress and doings was no doubt, before the public, as the next morning they skimmed the telegrams over their breakfast. Later on they would read more fully from the letters of the " specials " how the Prince shot antelope, rode to pig, and witnessed the black buck run down by cheetahs at Baroda; and how, under an equatorial sun, he stood up to elephant in the jungle, and walked snipe in the paddy fields of Ceylon. I will speak only of what his Royal Highness saw and did of sport in Madras.

Nor must readers expect the orthodox Indian type, either of fact or narrative, in what I have to tell ; for, as far as scene and circumstances would allow and British sympathies could contrive, the facts bore a marked English outline, while I promise the story shall be as free from embellishment as if it came not from the gorgeous East.

The long-and-much-desired trip to the Annamully Hills had to be abandoned, as the whole country from Mysore southwards across the Neilgherries to this fine hunting ground was marked and reported as cholera-stricken. So it was, to the same extent that any and every village and portion of India where natives do congregate in their crowd and filth irredeemable has its cholera cases at one time or another of the year. However, let this be as it may, his Royal Highness was obliged to give up his promised excursion against ibex, bison, and sambur, and to take his amusement in what the city of Madras could offer him, embodied in the shape of racing, steeplechasing, and jackal hunting.

The first two, you may say, he might see much better at home. Granted, so he might ; but that he saw much that was novel and much that was interesting in them here I will endeavour to show, and that he extracted much amusement out of all three I am prepared to assert. Take my assertion for what it is worth, but grant me a fair hearing.

One of the Prince's most conscientiously kept maxims would appear to be to " do at Rome as the Romans do," if we may judge in any way by the facility with which he at once assimilated himself to the ideas and customs of the good people of Madras. Without shirking one jot or tittle of the ceremonial connected with his visit, nor even after a day's toil allowing himself the luxury of a single yawn during the delivery of the dullest of addresses, he entered with hearty and most unmistakable enjoyment into all that was provided for him (whatever shape it took) ; stayed up with the latest, rose with the earliest, and ever appeared the freshest and halest of all.

So, on the second or third day of his arrival, 6.15 A.M. saw him at the racecourse, where, for some time previous to each meeting the whole sporting population of Madras daily adjourn at early dawn.

And now there was indeed to be a meeting, for was it not yclept " the Prince of Wales'," and was it not to eclipse every previous effort of its kind ? A morning's racing was to be provided, wherein should be put before him the game gallantry of the Arab, the slashing stride of the ungainly Waler, and, still more remarkable, the power of these latter to race over four feet walls, in spite of shoulders that would make Mr. Thomas shudder, and heads that would convulse a Croydon crowd.

The Madras racecourse is situated some five miles out of the said city — though why it was ever allowed to place itself there, I have yet come across no white man of sufficient information

c 2 or imagination to explain to me. Each house in Madras is built in a compound of sufficient size to give it half a claim to the title of park, and all the racecourses in India might find intra-mural accommodation here without removing a brick, or interfering with any part of the road labyrinth of the municipal council. As the case stands, however, the racecourse, training ground, and centre-of-gossip remain a couple of leagues away ; and to be present at the morning meeting, men — aye, and fair women too — are content to rise at 4.30, and drive out in the black night, wearied, apparently unwashed, and obviously unadorned. There is a refreshing balm, though, in the grey dawn, a reviving sweetness in the vista of foliage that daylight opens out ; and when the bright verdant plain, backed by the green mount of St. Thomas, and by countless clusters of palms and banyan trees, gradually stands forth out of the darkness, you almost forget the self-hatred that animated you as you shuffled limp and half unconscious, into your clothes, nor waste a thought on the weary weight that the coming day will too surely cast upon your illused eyelids. Grouped on the stand or in the inclosure, knots of men are anxiously watching the gallops, as horse after horse is brought from the bamboo-built stables within the circle of the course, and goes by at his allotted speed. Many of these keen observers hold stop-watches in their hands, for Anglo-Indians believe strongly in the time test. Whether they are justified in their fixed belief is a matter of argument often revived ; but surely if a horse can be made to exert himself with the regular exactitude of a machine, mark that fiery little bay Arab, Chieftain, now tearing along over the sand track as if he revelled in showing his muscle to the Prince. And here I may remark that he does make such an impression on his Royal Highness that eventually Chieftain took passage in the Serapis. The little horse deserves a word of description. He is barely fourteen hands, but compact and muscular as a hunter, with legs that are hard and smooth as steel, though he has run over thirty races and won more than twenty, and with a head and Deck as clean shaped as a duchess's. As a specimen of the blood from which our own grand racehorses have sprung and as a miniature model of what they should be even now, Chieftain is well worth the thousand pounds that has started him on his way to England.

Next look at those two most unmistakable Australian specimens just finishing their two miles through the deep sand (for the grass track is always reserved solely for the races), their two great ugly heads bobbing up and down together, and their ragged tails switching simultaneously. These are Artaxerxes and Red Deer respectively, and they will finish nearly together when the Sandringham Steeplechase is run. The gallant owner of the former has been fortunate in his nomenclature, but it is allowable to suppose that the proprietor of the latter must, in his fondness, have intended a compliment to his steed rather than to the beauteous denizen of the forest, for assuredly no red deer would ever face his shadow in a crystal pool with such a figure-head. But when Capt. Bullen is asked to oblige the Prince by taking the horse over a few items of the steeplechase course (which forms an inner circle to the racecourse) it is easy to see from the performance that Red Deer has a better title to his name from his capabilities than from his appearance.

Nor is the course itself much more akin to that of Rugby, still less of Liverpool, than is the Indian chaser to his English confrere. A solid mud wall, or rather bank, over four feet high, is nothing much for a hunter to jump, but it is scarcely, one would suppose, adapted for a cluster of ten horses to race over almost at the start. The next jump, however, is pleasanter at a racing pace than at cooler speed, being a bank of the same height, but five feet broad on the top, and with a ditch on either side. Sixteen feet of clear water forms the next obstacle, and it may be given as no small proof of the jumping powers of the Australian that in the steeplechase in question not a horse fell or refused at any one of these three. Still, I would urge, courses of this description are in themselves sufficient to account for the comparative ill-success of steeple-chasing in India. You never ride over such country under other conditions ; consequently but few horses are really taught to jump. Owners are afraid to risk valuable horses when a jostle may entail a broken back ; and small fields and a lamentable scarcity of cross-country jockeys (for you can't afford to fall in India as frequently as on the soft turf at home) are the almost invariable result.

But it is now past seven o'clock ; the sun is hinting none too delicately that we are in the tropics and not at Newmarket ; the Prince visits some of the leading favourites in their stables, chats for a time under the shelter of the stand, where Madras turfites are now indulging in coffee ; and when he moves off the assemblage breaks up.

I may pass on to another and equally congenial task, and tell how the Prince and his staff went hunting the jackal. But prithee, gentle reader, let me first turn aside but a brief space to touch upon one or two other incidents of this week of tumultuous festivity.

Of all the grand doings that convulsed and fluttered Madras, was not the Club Ball the greatest, the most fondly anticipated of them all ? Had not the P. and 0. steamers arrived week after week laden with little else than ball dresses ? Had not the club loungers been ousted from their most comfortable corners — nav, almost condemned to starvation for months beforehand ? Had not a solid masonry staircase of fabulous breadth and terrific cost been erected, to be trodden only by the patent Wellington of royalty, then to be pulled down rather than be degraded by any less worthy footfall ? Had not tall palm trees been brought in alive and whole to throw their sheltering branches over couples dancing and sitting ? Had not a special room for H.E.H. been furnished in a style that put every palace of the Arabian Nights into the shade ? And to preside over the refreshment department of this had not the managers advertised for weeks past in the Madras papers for a " respectable young woman " — and alas, alas ! none was forthcoming ! Had not an enormous canvas banqueting-hall been erected, and a supper spread whereat a hermit must have feasted, or even the men of Madras found that they were thirsty ? And had not every flat roof of the building been turned for the nonce into happy loitering grounds, mid flowers and shrubs, and Chinese lanterns thick as the sand on the seashore, to shed light and propriety on every nook and sofa? And was not the ball-room itself a scene " to be imagined " (a phrase we scribblers by literary license adopt when description fails us) ? Thousands of crystal lights, hundreds of bright eyes, half that number of brilliant dresses, jewels, uniforms, glances, and smiles, the whole one blaze of light and glittering mirth.

The Prince arrived to find all in readiness to welcome him ; and after he had run the gauntlet of a double row of beauty — close-packed so as to leave the narrowest of alleys for his passage — he led Mrs. Shaw Stewart, the wife of the president of the club, to a quadrille, and the ball began in earnest. Oh that his Royal Highness could have cut his dances into tiny slices, and distributed to each fair hungerer her little portion ! Would not much heart-burning have been saved ? Would not that sharp weapon with which all the sex are gifted, have been wielded with less bitter force then and until now ? Think you, would the dresses of one or two fair sisters have been pronounced so positively unbecoming? "Would it have been so difficult a task to " imagine what anyone could possibly see in them ? " Would their present and previous lives have been thought worthy of so much amiable criticism had not the royal command fallen upon them that they were to dance with their future King ?

But every woman in the moment of triumph is a queen. She loses at once all sense of fear, all self-consciousness, all that mistrust of her own powers that the rougher sex are seldom able entirely to overcome on finding themselves suddenly in the presence of superiors. The sense of successful rivalry is alone enough to nerve her. She asks for no sympathy ; she cares for no congratulation ; it is enough for her that victory is hers. She will hold her head erect, appear as unembarrassed and engaging as in everyday intimacy — to all appearance unconscious of the buzz of personalities of which she is the object ; or she may glance once proudly round with a look that says as plain as words, " Have I not conquered, oh my rivals ? " However, as minnows may disport themselves in a salmon pool, the smaller fry made the most of their opportunity, and his Royal Highness was not the only one who enjoyed himself that night. Ladies in foreign Britain, it has been often remarked, ever dance with greater zest than even in merrie England. In their maiden beauty they find themselves more sought after ; in matronhood they are not bound, Andromeda-like, by the chain of matrimony to the ball-room wall ; while even in the sere and yellow leaf they may gambol sportively in the land of curry and rice.

So the Madras Club Ball went off happily that Thursday night.

On Friday the programme arranged for his Royal Highness comprised as much as would suffice at any ordinary time and Avith any ordinary mortal for a whole week's work. After driving at three o'clock (and verily Madras is hot at three o'clock, even in December) to see some thousands of school children stuffed to repletion in his honour, and to have his ears tortured by the musical blessing they had prepared for his welcome, he reviewed the troops in garrison (a ceremony that admits of little variation except in degree of excellence, and this, I am told, was very excellent). He then met all the soldier-chieftains at dinner at the Commander-in-Chief's, and, with the banquet scarcely ended, was whisked off once more to witness the illumination of the surf, and afterwards the Pandal or native entertainment. The former was, in its way, quite the most striking and successful feature of the whole week's festival, and my humble pen must do its little all to convey anything like a fair idea of it to your readers.

The whole route along which the Prince proceeded on his after-dinner drive was illuminated to the best of Madras. The chief buildings all stood out in a blaze of light, every house and office had made its effort for the occasion, while Fort St. George was outlined on a scale that must have cost Thomas Atkins and his captain many a day's pay to effect. A rocket proclaimed the coming of the royal carriage, and immediately there blazed up from the ships at anchor a quick succession of gorgeous fireworks. The entrance to the pier was lit up with red and blue lights, while its whole length was gay with coloured lanterns and bright decorations. A car, somewhat similar in shape and ornamentation to those of a merry-go-round at a fair, was in waiting on the tramway, and forthwith the Prince and party were wheeled down the pier to the point where the surf broke exactly beneath them. There is always more or less sea rolling in from the open roadstead here, for, marvellous as it may seem, Madras has gone on flourishing for generation after generation without a harbour or breakwater of any description. To-night there was a glorious sea, and the surf burst in grandly and noisily, roller after roller, though the heavens were clear as glass. Boats had been moored just beyond the breakers, and their line of flaming torches cast a weird brilliancy on the foaming waters. The beach, too, was light as day, and for a mile was crowded as even Epsom was never crowded. Thousands upon thousands of upturned dusky faces absolutely shone out in the glare, contrasting so vividly with the mass of white drapery that not even the cloud of many-coloured turbans served to suppress them.

Soon the order was given for the catamaran races to begin ; and two by two they dashed past through the surf from the shore to the line of boats and back again to the beach. At the same time balls of Greek fire were launched on to the open space which constituted the arena, and gave a wild, unearthly appearance to the canoes and their extraordinary occupants. The Madras catamaran boasts not of the outrigger balance-pole that floats alongside that of Ceylon and prevents it upsetting. Here it is apparently but a hollowed log of wood, manned (if the term may be applied to such uncanny amphibious bipeds) by naked kneeling savages, who are satisfied if but a part of their journey is performed in their frail craft. Yelling, screaming, and struggling, they strove, pair against pair, amid the roar of the breakers and the sulphurous foaming of the surf, and dashed straight at the huge boiling waves ; now overwhelmed, but emerging, still seated on their rickety craft ; now knocked over and separated, one or both, from their boat ; now scattered far on either side, and content to make their way on shore, there to await the drifting up of their property. Sometimes a more than usually cunning or plucky couple would meet an insurmountable breaker by racing at it with all their might ; then, just as it towered over their heads, and they seemed on the point of being demolished, plunge out of their places and dive, canoe in hand, through the heart of the resistless monster — rising again amid the Greek fire, and discernible only by the shower of green flame they appeared to shake from their heads, and resuming their wild career towards the goal and the victor's rupee. Often there would be two or three catamarans overturned almost together, and as many couple of occupants at one time struggling in the waves ; but they were struggling only to regain their chance of the prizes, though to lookers-on they mi^ht have been battling for their lives. As well try to drown a walrus as a Madras boatman.

If I am right in saying the illumination of the surf was one of the most interesting sights of the week, I may venture the opinion that the entertainment at the Pandal (or Paundal) was one of the dullest. Curious it was certainly, especially for one new to the country ; but it was neither exciting in itself nor calculated to give one an elevated idea of the manner in which the natives take their pleasure. Possibly, though, their impressions might be somewhat similar with regard to us were they taken to see one of our favourite burlesques ; so perhaps the less we say on this head the better. They did their best, and they showed their loyalty bravely.

But when the Prince had taken his seat on the raised platform prepared for him (the golden fans set waving over his head), and the nautch at last began, it was certainly more calculated to soothe the weary spectators off into peaceful slumbers than to rouse them from the state of lethargy already produced by the heat and crowded room. Nothing could be more monotonous than the slow dancing of the nautch girls, as, holding in their hands coloured ropes suspended from the ceiling, they revolved round and round, and in and out, plaiting the ropes into a pattern in the course of their evolutions. The music which accompanied this performance reminded one forcibly of a fair at home : a feeble violin and one or two penny trumpets squeaked through a seemingly endless repetition of "Bonnie Dundee" till the dance was concluded. Then came forward a premiere danseuse in gorgeous garments and much-bejewelled nose and ears, to execute a pas seul. To the uninitiated she appeared to be suffering from a succession of fits, throwing herself down first on one side, then on the other, and indulging in a series of jerks and shivers that were anything but graceful to witness. However, so pleased was she with her own performance that it was somewhat difficult to induce her to stop, and the Prince was obliged to take refuge in the supper room for a short interval of respite from the dancing. There was some singing (?) and more dancing on his return to the scene of action ; and, after his departure from the Pandal, I believe the entertainment went on far into the small hours, as natives are never tired of enjoying this their favourite recreation. The Pandal — which in this instance consisted of part of the Royapoorum Railway station, fitted up especially for the occasion — was decorated with gold and coloured cloth, arranged in intricate patterns on the walls and ceiling. Garlands of yellow and white flowers — never absent from native entertainments — also adorned the great building.