The players who go to Muirfield in East Lothian to take part in the Open
Champion Meeting are to be provided with competitions in other parts of
Scotland. There is to be a tournament at Musselburgh, which used to be a
championship green before the Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers
changed its quarters to Muirfield. In addition, a professional
tournament is being arranged for the course on the Braid Hills,
Edinburgh.
The foursome tournament among London clubs obtained an entry of
thirty-two clubs, and is already in a forward state. Most of the clubs
play their professional, but several are content with two amateurs, and
it is quite on the cards that the tournament may be won by a club of the
latter class. Neutral greens are used until the final round, in which
the play must take place on the links of the Walton Heath Club.
In the preliminary matches the Oxford University team is giving a good
account of itself. At Oxford it beat by 26 to 17 holes a strong team got
together by Mr. W. M. Grundy, while it was successful also against a
combination of Huntercombe players, which included Mr. Cecil K.
Hutchison and Mr. R. E. Foster, the place of play being Huntercombe. The
Cambridge University team, which includes Mr. A. G. Barry, the amateur
champion, played a match over the Royal Worlington and Newmarket Club
course with the Oxford and Cambridge Golfing Society, and were defeated
in the singles by seven matches to three, and in the foursomes by three
matches to two.
The golfing season in the South of France attracted several of the best
players in this country. The annual match play tournament under handicap
at Pau was won by Mr. Charles Hutchings, of the Royal Liverpool Club,
who carried the heavy handicap of plus four strokes. At Cannes the
Gordon-Bennett Challenge Cup was won by Mr. A. J. Stanley, of the
Littlestone Club. The Biarritz Club has elected the Earl of Dudley
captain for the ensuing year.
“THE VOYSEY INHERITANCE” AT THE COURT THEATRE.
The Vedrenne-Barker management at the Court Theatre has become one of
the most interesting institutions in the dramatic world of London, and a
very interesting feature of their enterprise is the production of “The
Voysey Inheritance,” a play in five acts by Mr. Granville Barker.
Mr. Granville Barker has made a big reputation as an actor, and he seems
in a fair way to gaining, it may be, still greater honours as a writer
of plays. Certainly “The Voysey Inheritance” is full of merit and
promise of greatness for the author. The story deals with the affairs of
Mr. Voysey, a fraudulent solicitor, who has for years been living in
luxury upon the funds which his confiding clients have entrusted to his
hands for investment. His method is simple enough, and consists of
paying the annual interest out of the capital and financing himself with
the funds so long as they last. His son and partner, Edward Voysey,
discovers this, and, being a conscientious solicitor, remonstrates with
his father. The speculative and peculative parent, however, explains
that this is the traditional method of business in the office of Voysey
and Son, and is really the best in the interests of the clients, since
it is more comforting for them to draw their interest as regularly as
can be managed than to learn the sad news that their capital is gone.
In the second act we see the Voysey family _chez eux_ at Bramleyfield,
Chislehurst, ten of them altogether; and in their varied personalities
Mr. Barker has given us a remarkably clever study of the later Victorian
upper-middle class. The Voyseys may be distantly connected with the
Ridgeleys, whom Mr. Pinero has recently introduced to London; but we
think they are a very much more interesting family, for whereas one
Ridgeley is very like another, each member of the Voysey family is full
of individuality.
The third act shows the Voysey family in solemn conclave after the
funeral of their father, who has been sent to his last resting-place by
a sudden chill. Edward explains the unfortunate financial position of
the house of Voysey, and indeed he is in a position deserving of the
greatest sympathy as sole surviving partner _malgré lui_ in an
old-established and fraudulently flourishing solicitor’s office.
To please his people and to do the best he can for his clients, Edward
accepts the Voysey inheritance, and devotes his life to an attempt to
put things right.
This is difficult enough, and when some creditors become anxious and ask
for their capital to be paid off the Voysey business is in a worse way
than ever. However, the greatly harassed Edward is consoled by an avowal
of love from the young lady to whom for a long time he had been
accustomed to offer his hand without success, and the end of the play
leaves him engaged to be married, although still weighed down by the
inheritance. The play is like all productions under the Vedrenne-Barker
management, admirably acted throughout. Mr. Fred Kerr gives an excellent
study of Voysey _père_, so plausible in his defence of his grave
irregularities, and so benevolent when we see him in the bosom of his
family. Mr. Charles Fulton is at his best as Major Booth Voysey, a very
flamboyant and truculent warrior who commands attention whenever he
speaks. The author himself plays Edward Voysey, and his interpretation
of the part must be correct, although for ourselves we would have felt
more sympathy for a hero who seemed a little less like a model boy from
the Y.M.C.A. With all his nobility of nature we must not forget that
Edward Voysey is a solicitor of some years’ standing.
The ladies of the company are all admirable, and the performance of Miss
Florence Haydon, the dear deaf old mother of the Voyseys, is simply
charming. And a proof of the merit of “The Voysey Inheritance” is that
people generally seem to want to see it again.
Sporting Intelligence.
[During February-March, 1906.]
At a largely attended meeting held at the Royal Agricultural Hall on
February 13th, Mr. J. Sidney Turner, the Chairman of the Kennel Club,
presented Mr. E. W. Jaquet, who has been the Secretary since 1901, with
a cheque for 400 guineas, an address on vellum, and a silver tea and
coffee service, together with a tray, which had been subscribed for by
over 400 members of dog clubs and ladies and gentlemen who are
interested in the exhibition and the breeding of dogs.
* * * * *
According to the _Reading Mercury and Berks County Paper_, the South
Berks on February 15th had an exciting and unpleasant experience. Hounds
met at Woodley, and hunted a fox on to Bulmershe Lake, then covered with
ice of very unequal thickness. The fox apparently ran across in safety,
but two of the pursuing pack, going over thin ice, went through and were
at once in imminent danger. The couple, however, managed to get their
fore-feet on the ice, and the Hon. Secretary, Mr. W. J. Henman, with
some assistance, launched an old boat and proceeded to smash through
with the aid of crowbars. Proceedings were, naturally, somewhat slow,
but, happily, the hounds were reached in time and taken ashore.
* * * * *
We have to record the death of the Right Hon. A. F. Jeffreys, M.P.,
which occurred on February 14th at his residence, Burkham House, Alton,
Hants. Mr. Arthur Frederick Jeffreys was born in 1848. At one time
Vice-President of the Central Chamber of Agriculture, and President of
various agricultural societies, Mr. Jeffreys was recognised in the House
as an authority on topics connected with the land. The deceased
gentleman was a good all-round sportsman; at Oxford he played in his
college eleven (Christ Church), and later for the M.C.C., and also for
the Hampshire team in the seventies. He gained his blue at Oxford for
athletics, and won the quarter-mile against Cambridge in 1869; he was a
good shot, fond of hunting, and a keen preserver of foxes.
* * * * *
At the Leicester repository on February 17th, twelve hunters, formerly
the property of the late Sir James Miller, were sold; Cave 450 gs.,
Nipper 430 gs., Nobbie 340 gs., The General 260 gs., Sans Loi 125 gs.,
and Merry Boy 100 gs., were the principal prices, the average for the
twelve being £175. On the same day Mr. Hugh Owen sold Bentinck, 350 gs.;
Toffy, 250 gs.; and Caliban, 200 gs. There was a large gathering at the
same establishment on February 24th, when Lord Hamilton of Dalzell sent
up a number of hunters. The chief prices were: Stokes, 430 gs.; Phillip,
380 gs.; Pickpocket, 200 gs.; Governor, 180 gs.; Hamos, 120 gs.; and
Warwick, 100 gs. Captain E. York (Royal Dragoons) sold the following:
Warwick, 135 gs.; Cheesecake, 105 gs.; The Professor and Diana, 100 gs.
each.
* * * * *
Fulmen, by Galopin, bred by the late Prince Batthany in 1880, died at
the Gorlsdorf Stud on February 18th. Sold to Count Redern in 1889,
Fulmen was taken to Germany, and proved a very successful sire, his
stock having won over £150,000 between 1893 and the end of last season.
* * * * *
A well-known sportsman in the Shires passed away on February 26th, when
Mr. Hutchinson Dalby Hunt died at Caldecott at the advanced age of 91
years. A keen hunting man, Mr. Hunt attended the meets of hounds until
within four years ago; he was a good all-round supporter of sports and
pastimes, and in his time had bred and trained some successful horses;
Playfair, winner of the Grand National in 1888, being bred by him.
* * * * *
We have to record with regret the death of Captain James Thomas Richard
Lane Fox, which occurred at Bramham on February 26th, after a brief
illness. The deceased, who was born in 1841, was Master of the Bramham
Moor Foxhounds and a Deputy Lieutenant for the West Riding of Yorkshire.
A portrait with biographical sketch appeared in BAILY for February,
1906.
* * * * *
A correspondent, writing to the _Field_ of March 3rd, says: “An
interesting incident happened on Monday, when the Garth Hounds ran a fox
into the ice-house in Mr. Garth’s park. The house is thatched with
straw, and a bitch called Gaylass sprang on to the thatch, tore it open,
seized the fox, and brought him with her down to the ground into the
middle of the pack.” Gaylass is by Cheshire Partner out of Mr.
Mackenzie’s Gratitude, and was bought by Mr. Gosling at Mr.
Pennefeather’s sale.
* * * * *
For the nineteenth successive year the forage arrangements at the London
Spring Horse Shows at the Royal Agricultural Hall have been carried out
in the most expeditious and satisfactory manner by Messrs. Nickolls and
Baker, 18, Mortimer Street, London, W. The work was performed with all
the regularity and efficiency that come from long experience and
personal attention to the details.
* * * * *
During the Council meeting of the Football Association, held on March
12th, Mr. C. W. Alcock, who was for many years Hon. Sec. and
subsequently elected a Vice-President, was presented by his colleagues
with a handsome gold watch as a small token of esteem on the occasion of
the fortieth anniversary of his unbroken service to Association
football. The presentation was made by Lord Kinnaird in an admirable
speech, and was supported by Messrs. J. C. Clegg (Chairman) and C.
Crump. Mr. Alcock, in his reply, referred to the good football had done
to millions of people, inducing them to spend their time in the open air
and away from possibly squalid surroundings.
Captain W. G. Smyth, J.P., of South Elkington Hall, Louth, Lincolnshire,
had, says the _Sportsman_, his 150th ride to hounds this season on March
10th. He has hunted with five different packs.
* * * * *
Writing to the _Field_ from the Frensham Pond Hotel, Mr. G. A. W.
Griffiths gives the following: An extraordinary find here last Saturday
(March 10th) may perhaps interest many of your angling readers. My son,
seeing, as he thought, a dead duck floating on the water took boat and
went for it, but found, to his great surprise, two pike locked together
by the jaws—of course dead. Naturally the incident has caused much local
interest, and several persons came along yesterday to see for themselves
the strange partnership. The fish weigh about 2 lb. and 4 lb.
respectively, and the very curious part is that the head of the larger
is crammed into the mouth of the smaller to its utmost holding capacity,
rendering a further extension of the latter’s jaws impossible. The
general theory is that a desperate fight (certainly to a finish) was the
cause of so singular an incident.
* * * * *
We regret to record the death of the veteran huntsman, Frank Goodall,
which occurred at the residence of his son, at Acton, on March 16th.
Goodall was seventy-five years of age.
* * * * *
The Duchess of Sutherland had an alarming experience at the meet of the
Quorn Hounds on March 16th, at Frisby-on-the-Wreake. Just as hounds were
moving off to draw Cream Gorse, her grace’s horse slipped up, and fell
on its side, and the duchess was thrown right into the midst of a crowd
of motor-cars, carriages and horses. She sustained some injury to one
leg, and could take no part in the day’s sport, being conveyed in her
motor-car to her hunting quarters, Pickwell Manor.
* * * * *
In the unavoidable absence of the Duke of Westminster, the Earl of
Shrewsbury made a presentation to Mr. W. Brown, of Nantwich, in
recognition of an act of gallantry displayed during a recent run of the
South Cheshire Foxhounds. Mr. Reginald Corbet, the Master, had
endangered his life in attempting to save three hounds from a deep and
flooded stream in the neighbourhood of Nantwich, when Mr. Brown plunged
in and rescued the exhausted Master. The presentation consisted of a
handsome silver tray with tea and coffee service.
* * * * *
Major Deacon, the Master of the East Essex Foxhounds, sustained a nasty
accident. While taking a high hedge, his horse fell back upon him. The
muscles of his leg were strained and bruised, and he was otherwise
injured. It is feared he will be unable to hunt again this season.
* * * * *
The inhabitants of Goosnargh (Lancashire) organised a hunt after a fox,
which they assumed was responsible for the disappearance of many prize
poultry lately. The thief, however, says the _Sportsman_, was found to
be a fine dog badger, weighing nearly 28-lb., which was trapped in his
hole, together with his family, at Blake Hall.
* * * * *
Among the stands at the Horse Shows at the Royal Agricultural Hall we
notice, as usual, that of the Molassine Co., Ltd., of 36, Mark Lane,
London, E.C. This firm has the pleasure of counting the owners of many
of the prize-winning horses among its customers, a good testimony to the
value of the food. The champion mare at the Shire Horse Show, Sussex
Bluegown, we understand has been fed on Molassine Meal.