One is apt to associate the noble science of foxhunting with the United
Kingdom alone, and certainly to partake of this most fascinating sport
in its perfection the United Kingdom must be visited. But foxhunting,
good, bad, and indifferent, is to be found in many quarters of the wide
world. A “Gib.” reynard is pursued amongst the rocks and cork trees; in
Belgium there is more than one “_equipage au reynard_”; and in Virginia,
Maryland, and other states of the Union foxhunting has flourished for
centuries.
In France there are “equipages” innumerable, but the object of their
pursuit is the stag, the roedeer, the wild boar, or the hare; and
reynard is looked upon as vermin, except in the little far-off corner of
the Republic which, till the days of Henri IV., although its sovereign
bore the more ambitious (if empty) title of King of Navarre, composed
the tiny kingdom of Bearn. Here, with its headquarters at the ancient
capital, “La bonne ville de Pau,” foxhunting has flourished for over
fifty years, and at the present time is pursued with the greatest vigour
and success.
The earliest record of hunting around Pau dates from 1840, when Sir
Henry Oxenden brought a pack of foxhounds, and a numerous stud, to the
Chateau of Aureilham, near Tarbes, and found active employment in
hunting the wild fox for four days a week. Three years after, on Sir
Henry’s resignation, Messrs. Cornwall and Standish, then residents at
Pau, established kennels at Bordes, not quite half way between Pau and
Tarbes, and carried on the sport.
The mastership has, in the course of the long period that has elapsed
since the hunt was started by Sir H. Oxenden, passed through many hands,
Mr. J. Alcock, Mr. W. G. Tiffany, Mr. J. Stewart, Major Cairns, Mr. T.
Burgess, the Earl of Howth, Mr. J. Gordon Bennett, Mr. Frederick Maude,
Sir Victor Brook, Baron Le Jeune, Baron D’Este, being amongst those who
have presided over affairs. The Mastership is now held by Mr. C. Henry
Ridgway, who is in his sixth season, and the unvarying good sport he has
shown has seldom been equalled and never surpassed.
Mr. Ridgway, although born in France, is of American parentage. He was
educated at Oxford, and for several seasons hunted from Market Harboro.
His sixty couple of hounds are all drafts from the best English packs,
and his hunters all come from the shires. The whole equipment would do
credit to any country, and the sport he has shown has never been
equalled. An all-round sportsman, his racing colours have often been to
the front on French turf, whilst he is a finished whip, a capital shot,
and the captain of the golf club.
The hounds are divided into three packs—the “ladies,” the dog pack, and
a mixed pack. All three packs have shown great sport; but for drive,
quickness and looks the bitches are unsurpassed. Mr. Ridgway has a
guaranteed subscription of 50,000 francs, and hunts always four days a
week, and sometimes five days.
In January of this year, at a large complimentary dinner held at the
English Club, he was presented by Mr. W. Forbes Morgan, on behalf of the
members and subscribers of the Pau Hunt, with a beautiful two-handled
Queen Anne Cup, and an address of thanks for the rare sport shown during
his Mastership. Pau is fortunate in possessing, in addition to the
foxhounds, a good pack of drag hounds, which meets once or twice a week,
and which provides a fast gallop for those who prefer this kind of
sport. In former years the drag was by far the more popular branch of
the sport, but foxhunting has become more and more popular, and the drag
has suffered in consequence.
The horn is carried by Walter Smethurst, who has been over ten years as
huntsman with the Pau hounds. The fields, after the new year, number
fifty and upwards, consisting principally of American and French
sportsmen, and there are at least half a dozen ladies who hunt and go
well. The number of English who hunt is very limited, although in former
years there were a good many members of this nationality.
The Pau country may be said to resemble parts of Ireland, consisting of
wide tracts of moorland, and small enclosures, fenced with bank and
ditch, the former bearing very often a thick hedgerow, and the latter
being very blind, with gorse and briar. In the Oloron Valley, to which
the drag goes once or twice a season, stone walls and hedges are met
with, and the going is all grass. The Garderes district—about ten or
twelve miles from Pau—is a fine open country with clean fences and sound
going; and the Auriac, in the other direction—to the east of the
Bordeaux high road—is a grand country with high banks that take a deal
of doing.
Good hunters can be hired at Pau, and stabling can be easily procured in
the town. The Hon. Secretary to the Hunt, Mr. J. Barron, will always
supply any information that may be required with regard to hunting in
the neighbourhood.
South African Policy of the Marylebone Cricket Ministry.
“England _v._ South Africa,”
“The Fifth Test Match,”
“An Innings Defeat for England.”
“Mr. Warner, interviewed, said South Africans were undoubtedly the
superior side, especially on their own wickets. It was a good thing
that they had won the Test matches, as it had given a fillip to the
game in South Africa.”—_Reuter’s Special Service_, April _2nd_,
1906.