Part 59

Exmoor stag-hunting closed on April 11th, after an unusually brilliant season. The final fortnight after spring stags was a most successful close to the sport. The best run was on Friday, 6th, from Venniford Cross. Sir Thomas Acland’s coverts, as usual, when this fixture is on the card were drawn, and at one o’clock a stag was found, or rather two, but one soon disappeared, while the other went on. There had been just a sprinkle of rain the day before, and in spite of an east wind and brilliant sunshine hounds ran well, even over the plough. The first part of the run from Selworthy to Venniford Cross was bright and full of dash, and hounds swept on to Tivington Plantations, hard on their stag, which by this time had shed one antler. Then he laid down and allowed the field to go close to his lair, till hounds were too near to be pleasant, then he sprang up with a tremendous crash and literally hurled himself through the bushes and trees. He did not stop again till he reached Stonley Wood, some seven or eight miles from the start. Twice he came down to the stream below Monkham Wood, and we all thought the end had come. But in the course of the hunt in Monkham he shed the other horn, and thus lightened climbed the steeps of Langridge, and taking a line past Treborough Church, one of the highest placed buildings on the Brendon Hills, he went down to the water in Haddon coverts. Strange to say all trace of him was lost here, and he was given up. As hounds ran they covered about fifteen miles, and the pace was good. The field, including a good many strangers, was scattered, and only a few got to the end—the Master, the hunt servants, and one lady from Minehead, Mrs. Blofield. For my part, I could not get beyond Stonley, and not a few were left here. The day was warm, the pace was good, and fourteen stone riding the line honestly was bound to come to the end of the horse.

I am able on good authority to assure the readers of BAILY that there are plenty of stags and hinds for next season and for many more after that. This season was better than last, and the next will be even better if the weather is favourable. There are, as I have said, plenty of stags for sport, and not so many as to interfere with hounds. They have been thoroughly and systematically hunted, and thus are more likely to run. Mr. R. A. Sanders remains Master of the Devon and Somerset, Mr. E. A. Stanley and Sir John Amory provide the subsidiary packs, and in these three masters are three men who can hunt a red deer with a skill, keenness and science well worthy of the sporting traditions of Exmoor.

The close of the season has been clouded by several rather serious accidents and one fatal one (Mr. Bovill was killed while hunting with the Warnham Staghounds). The cause of this last fall was said to be wire. At all events, the summer is the time to try to lessen this scourge. I am firmly convinced that wire should never be marked in countries where the use of this fencing prevails. There is sure to be some place where there are no warning signs, and it is here that fatal accidents so often happen. There is one step that might be taken and ought to be taken. Men who hunt and are favourable to hunting should remove all the wire that is under their control from their own properties, whether they themselves hunt in the country or not. Then those who have influence with their tenants should endeavour to reduce the quantity on land they own but do not occupy. There is nothing more certain than that if all the wire was taken down by hunting men and hunting landlords on land in their own occupation it would greatly reduce the quantity and would set an example sure to be followed.

Mr. David Ker, who has held the mastership of the County Down Staghounds for two seasons, has retired, much to the regret of his followers. Captain Hugh Montgomery, only son of Mr. Thomas Montgomery, D.L., of Ballydrain, co. Antrim, has been elected as Mr. Ker’s successor, and he should do well, as he is popular, a keen sportsman and fine horseman.

SOME SPRING PRODUCTIONS AT THE THEATRES.

At the Adelphi Theatre Mr. Otho Stuart is scoring heavily with his series of Shakesperian productions. Miss Lily Brayton and Mr. Oscar Asche are the aptest pupils of the Benson school, and the immortal Bard in their hands shows to very great advantage.

“The Taming of the Shrew” made a great hit, and “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” was delighting the town when it was withdrawn to make room for “Measure for Measure.” It seems rather a bold venture to put up this play, as the original text makes it a play to which every young girl might not like to take her mother. But as arranged and produced by Mr. Oscar Asche there is slight risk, and the comedy runs along through its ten scenes in the nicest way.

To Miss Lily Brayton belong the chief honours of the evening, and her study of Isabella, sister of the guilty Claudio, is as charming as is her appearance in the white uniform of the probationer. Mr. Oscar Asche is as virile as ever in the part of Angelo, the demoralised deputy, with a passion and beard happily reminiscent of Mr. Pinero’s Maldonato—who gave the cheque book to Iris and finally smashed the furniture of the flat. Who shall say that Maldonato was not a lineal descendant of the determined Deputy of Vienna?

Mr. Walter Hampden presents a Duke full of dignity, considering that the conduct of Vincentio in lurking about his city disguised as a friar, when he is supposed to be out of town, is as undignified an act for a potentate as one can well imagine.

Miss Frances Dillon makes the best of the ungrateful part of the slighted Mariana, who in the gloomy shades of the “Moated Grange” brings off a _coup_ of which Monte Carlo might well be proud.

“Measure for Measure,” written by Shakespeare, is undoubtedly strong meat, as produced by Mr. Oscar Asche it is in every way a digestible, and better still, a most palatable dish.

“The Beauty of Bath” at the new Aldwych Theatre is probably the most successful show in London at the present time, and our thanks are due to Mr. Seymour Hicks for a most delightful entertainment.

It is all against the canons of so-called musical comedy that either the music or the comedy should be too fresh or original, and probably any adventurous spirit who attempted to deal in such dangerous goods as an entirely new and original comedy-opera would speedily find himself amongst the registrars and receivers in Carey Street, W.C.

And Mr. Seymour Hicks is at the head of his profession, and knows what his public wants. From the story of Cinderella he fashioned the phenomenally successful “Catch of the Season,” and now from an idea in “David Garrick,” and the marked resemblance in personal appearance of his brother, Mr. Stanley Brett, to himself, Mr. Hicks has evolved the story the “Beauty of Bath,” who comes to town, falls in love with a prominent actor, and finds herself at the end of the play engaged to marry his double, a dashing naval officer.

Miss Ellaline Terriss makes a perfect beauty from Bath, Mr. Stanley Brett is the distinguished actor, and Mr. Seymour Hicks is breezy Dick Alington the sailor hero of the story, with a large fortune and a long and exacting and admirably played part. Mr. Hicks is at his best in a pathetic scene between Dick and his mother upon the return of the former from China. And in the second act his scene of pseudo-drunkenness _au_ David Garrick is very well done.

In “Bluebell” he was not on the stage nearly enough to satisfy his admirers, who, in the present production, are delighted to see more Hicks. Amongst other members of a long cast, that accomplished actress, Miss Rosina Filippi, does wonders with a part which seems scarcely good enough for her; and Master Valchera as a call-boy, adds to the popularity he won as Bucket, the page-boy, in the “Catch of the Season,” and Miss Barbara Deane sings as charmingly as ever.

Beautiful ladies in beautiful costumes form a prominent and most attractive feature of the entertainment, and the Twelve Bath Buns, as they are styled, might any of them challenge the “Judgment of Paris.”

The two scenes, representing the foyer of a theatre and a ballroom, are very fine, and reflect the greatest credit upon Mr. W. Hann, the painter: and altogether there seems to be nothing but praise for everyone concerned in this handsome production.

Why the Comedy should not be a more lucky theatre is a problem which we have never heard solved in a satisfactory way. It is very conveniently placed and is a nice enough house, and yet a long run there is more or less a rarity. Following the short run of “The Alabaster Staircase,” a revival of “A Pair of Spectacles” presented those consummate artists, Messrs. John Hare and Charles Groves, in their original parts, but even this did not fill the bill for long, and upon April 5th, Mr. Chudleigh reverted to an old-time method of his at the Court Theatre, and put up a triple bill. The first piece is by Mr. Austin Strong, the author of “The Little Father of the Wilderness,” which a few months ago afforded Mr. Huntley Wright a good opportunity of displaying his ability as a pathetic actor.

“The Drums of Oude” deals with an incident in the Indian Mutiny, where a small body of English troops are in peril and it is a question of death before dishonour when, at almost the last desperate moment reinforcements spell rescue. The chief feature of this little drama was the very telling performance of Mr. Matheson Lang as the resolute Captain Hector Macgregor. The rest of the evening was devoted to two pieces by Mr. J. M. Barrie—“Punch,” a toy tragedy in one act, and “Josephine,” a _revue_ in three scenes.

“Punch” deals with the misfortunes and ruin of the senior dramatists before the growth of Superpunch. Besides Punch and Judy, the other two characters in the tragedy are ὁ χαριεις a fishmonger’s boy, who announces that he represents the voice of the public. Mr. Barrie is such a profound and elaborate jester that one looks closely for a joke in his every word, but this ὁ χαριεις is too perplexing for us, unless, indeed, the explanation offered by a super-Scotchman be the correct one, that a fishmonger’s boy would, of course, carry ice. This is bad enough, but we would rather adopt that view than believe Mr. Barrie to have put up a fishmonger or butcher’s boy to represent δι χαριευτες the Attic “men of culture and taste.” However that may be, the other character in the tragedy is not so involved, and before Superpunch had come on the stage we were prepared for the notorious Bernard Shaw beard, and for the complete triumph of the new man. We should think it improbable that “Punch” will enjoy such a long run as is usually the case with anything from Mr. Barrie’s fertile pen.

“Josephine” is called on the programme “a Revue,” but this is unfair to a distinguished institution which belongs to Paris, and we prefer to call “Josephine” a political skit. The story is of the household of sleepy Mr. Buller, where his three Scotch sons take it in turns to play at being eldest son, and mismanaging everything, with flirtations with Mavourneen Blarney to pass the time, and more serious engagements with Josephine. Bunting is a youngest son, representative of the growing Labour Party, and Fair and Free are two beautiful ladies who each claim to assist in the housekeeping, with disastrous results.

The three scenes are made up of personalities at the expense of Lord Rosebery, Mr. Balfour, Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, and, of course, Mr. Joseph Chamberlain, who is represented in woman’s clothes by a male actor. This might be regarded as an error of judgment, were it not that Mr. Dion Boucicault plays this difficult part with the best of taste and discretion; at the same time we see no reason why the part should not have been played by a lady, as is the case with Mavourneen Blarney, who is admirably represented by Miss Eva Moore. We cannot find much to say in praise of “Josephine,” but there is much to be said in praise of the company who play it.

As we have said, Mr. Dion Boucicault does wonders for the part of Josephine. Mr. Graham Browne is excellent as James, whose golf-clubs and dilettante attitudes proclaim him the late Prime Minister; and Mr. Kenneth Douglas and A. G. Matthews are excellent respectively as C. B. and Lord Rosebery.

Mr. Louis Calvert is nicely sleepy as John Bull, and Miss Grace Lane and Miss Mabel Hackney, as Fair and Free, look very charming, and indulge in some Grigolati work on a wire, although we cannot quite make out why they should. It seems impossible that Mr. Barrie’s jokes should ever be anything but successful, so probably these will enjoy a long vogue, but personally we would prefer to see such an excellent company of actors and actresses playing in something in which they have a chance of showing to better advantage.

At the Haymarket Theatre the welcome revival of “The Man from Blankley’s” is proving a great success, and eight times a week Lord Strathpeffer has been dining with the Tidmarshes and their strange acquaintances.

Mr. Anstey’s story of how his lordship found his way into the wrong house in Bayswater, and being mistaken for the hired guest from Blankley’s emporium, spent a perplexing evening amongst strangers, is extremely funny. And it is made funnier still by the fine company playing at the Haymarket. Mr. Charles Hawtrey is immense in his original part of Strathpeffer, and Messrs. Henry Kemble and Aubrey Fitzgerald as the pompous uncle, Gilwattle, and the brainless Poffley are inimitable. Moreover, Mr. Arthur Playfair resumes his part of the hired butler, out of which he extracts any amount of undignified fun. Mr. Weedon Grossmith now plays the host, and fits the part to perfection. Of the ladies Miss Fanny Brough is as humorous as ever in the _rôle_ of the worried hostess, and Miss Dagmar Wiehe, a new-comer, is very charming and natural as the Governess.

“The Man from Blankley’s” is just about the most amusing unmusical entertainment in London nowadays, and is a very prominent example of the success which can attend a revival of a popular play done by a first-class company.

We were interested by the remark of a very wise woman who traced a great similarity between “The Man from Blankley’s” and that great masterpiece, “His House in Order.”

In each case there is a girl very much out of her element amongst the strangest beings that imagination could depict, and in each case there comes to her rescue a man of distinction. The Tidmarshes live in Bayswater, and Mr. Jesson lives in the provinces. It was amusing to hear the comparison of the two plays, but we have no space now to do more than make a passing reference to the ingenuity of our wise friend.

At the Lyric Theatre, Mr. H. B. Irving is to be complimented upon his good work as the adaptor, producer, and interpreter of a very interesting play.

“Jeunesse” is the name of the work by Mr. André Picard, as produced at the Odéon Theatre, but since the title “Youth” has already been appropriated for an English play, Mr. Irving has been well advised to call his production by the name of the heroine, “Mauricette,” for she is the keynote of the whole composition.

It is a pathetic little story, this, which comes, unlike most French successes, healthily enough into a London theatre without any excision or operation of the scalpel of the censor.

Roger Dautran is a senator in the prime of life—that is, from the point of view of a man of fifty—he has a most devoted wife, past the prime of life—from the point of view of the man of fifty—and childless. Dautran has a large heart and a great yearning for sympathy from the other sex, and he frankly admits that if ever he has made a telling speech in debate, his only inspiration has been the presence of a sympathetic spirit in the ladies’ gallery. So the impressionable senator, finding home-life somehow incomplete, has drifted into the habit of consistently dining out, and leaving his devoted wife to the desert, of tedium of an improving book to read in nice large print.

On the first night of our acquaintance with the restless Roger, he is just off to dine at a restaurant, when his wife presents to him a girl whom she suggests she shall retain in their household as companion for them both, to lend a fragrance of youth to their dull, middle-aged menage. Mauricette is a beautiful child, eighteen years of age, and so soon as Dautran has seen her he elects to dine at home that very evening, and for the next six weeks it would be good betting that he never dined out.

After six weeks we find the party very much united at Dautran’s country house; to the delight of his wife, the senator has become quite redomesticated, but the pity of it is that this has only come about at the expense of the heart of poor Mauricette, who has fallen in love with her elderly admirer, who in his turn can think of nothing but her and himself.

The second act is full of good things; a doctor, the type of youth in the district, and a _protégé_ of Dautran, thinks it would be a very good thing for Mauricette and himself if they married, and tells the girl so with the full approbation of Mme. Dautran, who by this time is getting a little tired and doubtful of her scheme for the re-domestication of her husband. Mauricette has no room in her heart for the doctor, and asks for time to consider his offer, but closely following upon this she is exposed to an offer of a less honourable nature from a visitor to the house, and in less time than it takes to tell there is a terrible storm raging in the drawing-room, and Dautran is inadvertently but obviously proclaiming his love for the girl. Mauricette, to put matters right, agrees to marry the doctor, and forthwith leaves the house, to the grievous distress of Dautran.

In the last act we find, six months later, Mauricette married to the doctor and the best of friends, but Roger still holds her heart. He is bent upon again seeing her, and so an interview is granted by permission of the doctor.

At first Mauricette talks affectionately to Roger without looking at him, until in a very dramatic moment she looks up, sees his grey hair and careworn face, and recoils from the man who had taught her to love him. And so youth mates with youth, and the doctor is made happy.

Miss Dorothea Baird is a charming Mauricette, and deserves the highest praise for her performance. Since her great success as “Trilby,” she has not, in our opinion, had such a good part, and she certainly makes the most of it. Mr. H. B. Irving gives us an extremely clever study of Roger Dautran, especially in the last act, where the senator is made to realise that he is beaten by the clock.

Mr. Leslie Faber has an unsympathetic task in playing the doctor, who is the representative of youth, but he succeeds in his difficult task. Miss Marion Terry supplies a large share of the success of the evening, her study of the loving wife, who, in her anxiety to please her husband, introduces a very pronounced element of discord into the home, being extremely clever.

“Mauricette” is altogether charming.

GOLF.

The annual match between the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge was played this year at Hoylake, this being the first time a northern green was chosen for the contest. In accordance with custom the match was decided by holes, and Cambridge won by no less than 30 holes against 7. Oxford only won a single match, and halved another. Her captain, Mr. G. E. Grundy, played Mr. A. G. Barry, the amateur champion, and, after playing two rounds of the course, they had a tie. Mr. Barry’s brother played a good match with Mr. R. H. Hill, whom he defeated by two holes.

The Mid-Surrey Club won the first foursome tournament for London clubs. Its representatives were Mr. S. H. Fry and J. H. Taylor, who, in the final tie, beat, by 9 up and 8 to play, Mr. W. Herbert Fowler and James Braid, of the Walton Heath Club. The latter couple showed poor form, much to the disappointment of their friends.

The Inter-county Tournament, arranged by the Cricketers’ Golfing Society, was won by Yorkshire, which in the final round, played at Walton Heath, defeated Sussex by 3 points to nothing. The winning county was represented by Mr. Ernest Smith, the Hon. F. S. Jackson, and Mr. T. L. Taylor; and Sussex by Mr. G. Brann, Mr. W. H. Dudney, and Mr. C. A. Smith. Each of the former trio won his match. This was the first Inter-county Tournament, and it was considered necessary to play it under handicap, but it is to be hoped that on a future occasion it may be possible to put the competitors on their merits.

Muirfield witnessed some good play at the spring meeting of the Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers. Mr. Charles L. Dalziel carried off the club medal with a score of 80, while Mr. John E. Laidlay, tied for second place with Mr. A. W. Robertson-Durham with 83. Mr. Laidlay won when the tie was played off. Mr. Leslie M. Balfour-Melville, another ex-amateur champion, took 89 for his round. The course is reported in splendid condition for the Open Championship in June.

Last year eight of the Edinburgh clubs possessing private greens inaugurated a foursome tournament, and this year they repeated it. On this occasion play took place on the links, at Duddingstone, of the Insurance and Banking Club. The local club was the fancied winner, but in the final round it was defeated by the Murrayfield Club, which, with four strong representatives, won by a single hole.

Newcastle in County Down saw the first of the championship meetings of the year. There the ladies of Ireland held their annual meeting, and they showed their interest in it by turning out in very large numbers. For the second year in succession Miss May Hezlet and her sister, Miss Florence Hezlet, competed in the final round, and again the former won by 2 up and 1 to play. Miss May Hezlet has now won this championship on four occasions, and the Ladies’ Open Championship twice.

Sporting Intelligence. [During March-April, 1906.]

Following an operation for appendicitis, Colonel Stanley Arnold, of Barton House, Moreton-in-Marsh, died on March 14th. A prominent member of the Warwickshire Hunt Club and of the Heythrop Hunt, the deceased was a good preserver of foxes.