A Brief History of the Early Years of "Riding to Hounds" by Members of the Country Club at Pelham

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Those who visit the Historic Pelham Blog regularly know that recently I have tried to document the sport of "riding to hounds" by members of the Country Club located in Pelham during the 1880s. See:

Thu., April 16, 2009: A Serious Carriage Accident and Many Tumbles During the Country Club of Pelham's Riding to Hounds Event in November 1889.

Wed., April 15, 2009: More About the Country Club Sport of "Riding to Hounds" During the 1880s in Pelham.

Tue., April 14, 2009: 1889 Account of the Sport of Riding to Hounds by Members of the Country Club Located in Pelham.

I now have located a brief history of the early years of the sport at the Country Club located in Pelham published in Harper's Magazine. I have transcribed the pertinent excerpt from an article in that magazine below, followed by a citation to its source.

"From that time, about 1881, there was no hunting in Westchester until, in 1885, a pack of harriers was imported by Mr. James M. Waterbury, and by him given to the Country Club, then located at Pelham. To this pack the Country Club loaned its name and provided stabling and kennels, but the hounds were supposed to be maintained by an uncertain subscription list, and were hunted by different members of the club, who, in an informal way, were annually chosen at the hunt dinner.

Such a haphazard method, of course, proved very unsatisfactory, so that when the Country Cloub moved from Pelham to near Westchester town, the hunting members organized an independent club -- although the old harrier livery, green coats faced with canary, was retained -- called it the Westchester Hunt, and moved the kennels to the neighborhood of White Plains. New hounds were bought -- mostly from the Meadow Brook, which now had about thirty-five couples in its kennels -- the quality of the hunt improved througout, and Mr. T. A. Havemeyer, Jun., the first master, had an immediate and flattering success. Mr. N. C. Reynal succeeded Mr. Havemeyer, after the latter had served several years, and the pack continued to show good sport; but, alas, there came a cessation of interest, which last year caused the sale of the hounds, and to-day the only hunting in Westchester is done by Mr. William Iselin's superb pack of beagles. Of the names most closely identified with Westchester hunting are Messrs. T. A. Havemeyer, Jun., James M. Waterbury, Major Cooley, De Lancey Kane, Edward C., Howard, and Robert Potter, Charles Pelham-Clinton, Laurence Jacob, N. C. Reynal, and William Iselin."

Source: Whitney, Caspar, 'Cross-Country Riding in Harper's New Monthly Magazine, Vol. XCIV, No. DL, p. 832 (May 1897).

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A Serious Carriage Accident and Many Tumbles During the Country Club of Pelham's Riding to Hounds Event in November 1889

Please Visit the Historic Pelham Web Site
Located at http://www.historicpelham.com/.
Please Click Here for Index to All Blog Postings.

Recently I have been trying to document the sport of "riding to hounds" hosted by the Country Club once located in Pelham during the 1880s. See:

Wed., April 15, 2009: More About the Country Club Sport of "Riding to Hounds" During the 1880s in Pelham.

Tue., April 14, 2009: 1889 Account of the Sport of Riding to Hounds by Members of the Country Club Located in Pelham.

The sport seems to have been part of a fad that swept the region in the 1880s and early 1890s. See, e.g., A Dozen in at the Death; Brilliant Riding to Hounds on Staten Island, N.Y. Times, Oct. 3, 1889, p. 5; An Exciting Hunt; A Great Day for the Richmond County Country Club, N.Y. Times, Oct. 6, 1889, p. 5; The Essex County Hunt; Following the Hounds Over a Heavy and Rough Course, N.Y. Times, Dec. 4, 1892, p. 3; A Lively Hunt at Lakewood; Large Field of Riders and Many Spectators in Carriages, N.Y. Times, Dec. 22, 1895, p. 7.

Today's posting to the Historic Pelham Blog transcribes a report published in 1889 that describes a hunt hosted by the Country Club located in Pelham during which there was a serious carriage accident and numerous tumbles.

"TUMBLES WERE NUMEROUS

-----

BUT THE COUNTRY CLUB HAD A FINE RUN.

EXCITING SPORT FROM BEGINNING TO END -- MISS CAREY CARRIES OFF THE HONORS -- A CARRIAGE OVERTURNED.

Although the weather was unfavorable for riding to hounds, the Country Club of Westchester has seldom known a more enjoyable time than that which it experienced yesterday. Major James C. Cooley, a prominent member of that organization, gave a hunt breakfast at his pretty country place just outside West Chester Village, and almost the entire membership of the club responded to his cordial invitation to be present. The guests were so numerous that the commodious house was overcrowded, but that fact only heightened the pleasure of Major Cooley and Mrs. Cooley, who are never so happy as when entertaining their friends.

Among the many present were Mrs. W. H. Sands, Sir Frederick Franklin, Mr. and Mrs. James M. Waterbury, Mr. Frank Watson, Mr. and Mrs. Charles Pelham-Clinton, Mr. and Mrs. Story, Mr. Louis Haight, Mrs. Jacob Lorillard, Mrs. McDonald, Mr. William Chapin, Miss Carey, Mr. Dwight Collier, Mr. M. V. B. Davis, Mr. Henry Watson, Mr. and Mrs. Howard Potter, Mrs. Zerega, the Messrs. Thorne, Mr. and Mrs. E. C. Potter, Col. and Mrs. DeLancey Kane, Mr. and Mrs. William Iselin, Miss Campbell, Mr. John Davis, Mr. Robert Potter, Mr. Frank Johnson, Mr. and Mrs. Oliver Iselin, Mr. and Mrs. Hoyt, Mrs. Taylor, Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Hunter, Mr. and Mrs. Blois, Mr. and Mrs. Wissmer, Mr. and Mrs. Henry Carter and Miss Carter, Mr. Henry Adee, Mr. Ernest Adee, Miss Pinchot, Mr. Clarence Sackett, Mr. Theodore Havemeyer, Jr., the Messrs. Harriman, Mr. Boyle, Mr. Lee Taylor, Mrs. McDougall, Miss Camilla Moss, Mr. Cram, and many others prominent in Westchester society.

The exterior of Major Cooley's residence was almost as interesting during the breakfast as the interior. The grounds were filled with gay traps, while directly in front of the main entrance more than a score of spirited hunters were paraded. Outside in the roadway were many vehicles of farmers, who had taken advantage of the holiday to watch the sport, even though they were not invited to be present. In the yard to the rear of the house the hounds were penned, and they kept up a constant and impatient accompaniment of yelps to the laughter of the gay throng indoors. The whole scene was striking in its color and its life.

When the breakfast had ended, Mr. Theodore Havemeyer, Jr., who has taken Mr. Pelham-Clinton's place as master of the hounds, announced that the chase was about to begin. Instantly the house was emptied of its occupants, and there was a general scurrying for horses and carriages. Among the ladies having mounts were Miss Carey, Mrs. Howard Potter, Mrs. Collier, Mrs. Story, Miss Pinchot, Mrs. William Iselin, Mrs. E. C. Potter, and Miss Camilla Moss. The gentlemen who started out to follow the hunt numbered at least twenty-five, while Master Cooley and Master Iselin brought up the rear on ponies, and another little boy was grotesquely mounted on a big-eared donkey.

The order of the gay cavalcade as it filed into the highway was as follows: The hunds, the horsemen and horsewomen, the gay traps of the invited guests, and promiscuous assemblage of farm vehicles that had never before been put to such use. The entire line was flanked on either side by a hilarious throng of urchins and half-grown boys on foot, who found some amusement and infinite exercise in trying to keep up with the swiftly-moving train.

The throw-off was in an open field about 200 yards from Major Cooley's residence. Unfortunately for the riders, this field was guarded by a high stone wall. The result was that about half of the pack broke away from the huntsman, climbed this wall, caught the scent, and were away with a chorus of yelps before the riders realized what had happened. Then the remaining dogs followed suit, and all the hounds were in imminent danger of being lost in the thick underbrush, toward which they were rushing with startling speed.

A majority of the riders stood immovable with astonishment when Mr. Havemeyer led the way at the formidable fence. His horse refused, and not another animal would take the obstacle. It was a critical moment, but the master of the hunt was equal to the occasion, and with a whoop and a rush, plying both whip and spurs, he got over. Major Cooley followed, with Miss Carey and Mr. Robert Potter at his heels, and the doubt as to the pack being lost was dissipated. Away these few riders went splashing through a bog and then climbing a rocky hill until they were lost in the dark brown cover of the woods.

The other riders made no pretense of following, but hurried away with the carriages up the road to the place where it was known that a check would be held. Here they had the satisfaction of getting into line and parading through Westchester Village and past the grounds of the New-York Jockey Club to the resumption of the drag. In this parade a very painful accident happened. Mrs. McDonald and Mr. William Chapin were driving in an open wagon. As they were turning the corner of the street in the village, a heavy six-seated vehicle was driven recklessly behind them. It caught the rear wheels of the light wagon, and in an instant the whole thing was a jumbled wreck in the gutter by the roadside. Mrs. McDonald fortunately escaped, but Mr. Chapin sustained serious injuries. His forehead and cheek were cut open and both eyes were blackened. He was knocked senseless by the shock, but recovered sufficiently to bind a handkerchief about his head. Then he was taken to the clubhouse attended by several friends, who refused to follow the hunt after witnessing the accident.

A majority of the people, however, were happily ignorant of Mr. Chapin's misfortune, and they continued pell-mell after the hounds. The going was remarkably rough and at times dangerous, not only on account of the stiffness of the country, but by reason of the soggy and uncertain condition of the ground. With the exception of a half dozen daring spirits the riders decided that discretion was the better part of valor and kept to the road.

But the others kept up with the pack, and after a hard run of about ten miles had the satisfaction of coming in at the death, or at least of being in at the place where the death would have been if there had been a fox instead of an aniseed bag. Miss Carey was the only lady who succeeded in following the hounds, and she would have succumbed to the perils of the going had she not possessed remarkable pluck and skill. As it was, she had two heavy falls, but remounted after each and dashed away in the lead of Mr. Havemeyer.

Mr. Sackett also got an ugly fall, but suffered nothing beyond a shaking up. The master of the hunt, the Messrs. Potter, and Major Cooley escaped accident, but the run was generally considered the most exciting and, consequently, the most successful that the Country Club has yet had. Major and Mrs. Cooley were awarded most cordial thanks for their entertainment and Miss Carey was deservedly the heroine of the day."

Source: Tumbles Were Numerous -- But the Country Club Had a Fine Run, N.Y. Times, Nov. 6, 1889, p. 3.

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1889 Account of the Sport of Riding to Hounds by Members of the Country Club Located in Pelham

Please Visit the Historic Pelham Web Site
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Please Click Here for Index to All Blog Postings.

For a number of years in the 1880s, Pelham was the site of the "Country Club" -- the nation's second suburban country club founded for the recreational enjoyment of its members in a "country" setting. I have written much about the Steeple Chase races and the "base ball" games that took place at the Country Club.

For years, however, I have known that members of the Club maintained kennels on the ground and held grand horseback "hunts" throughout lower Westchester County. I have searched in vain, however, for detailed accounts of the hunts.

Finally I have located one such account from the October 13, 1889 issue of The New York Times. It is transcribed below, followed by a citation to its source.

"RYE LAUGHED AT THE HUNT

RAIN ENDED THE COUNTRY CLUB'S CHASE.

FASHIONABLE RIDERS TAKEN UNAWARES BY YESTERDAY'S THUNDERSTORM AND VERY MUCH DISGUSTED.

Accustomed as it has been to no more exciting sport than a paper chase or a tennis tournament, the quiet little village of Rye was stirred to its centre yesterday afternoon by the appearance of a pack of hounds and a large number of horsemen in its streets. As the merry horn of the huntsman and the yelping of the dogs were thrown back in echoes from the white sides of the cottages, the entire population turned out to see what was the matter.

The cause of the unwonted [sic] disturbance was the advent of the Country Club hunt, which had come up from West Chester to give the fair ladies of Rye a treat in the way of chasing the elusive anise seed. Mr. Charles Pelham-Clinton, the master of the hunt, rode proudly down the main thoroughfare of the hamlet with the eager pack close at the heels of his charger, while close behind followed Major Cooley and Mr. Theodore Havemeyer, Jr., in the bottle-green coats of the Country Club, well mounted and courageous; the three Potter brothers, Howard, Edward C., and Robert; Mr. Jacob Cram, Mr. Clarence Sackett, Mr. C. G. La Farge, Mr. W. K. B. Emerson, Mr. Ramsay Turnbull, Mr. Wainwright, Mr. Arthur Turnbull, Mrs. Howard Potter, Mrs. E. C. Potter, the Misses Benedict of Greenwich, and a score of other ladies and gentlemen, all on horseback and all palpitating with suppressed excitement in anticipation of the invigorating sport of riding to hounds.

After these was a grand parade of vehicles from West Chester, Pelham Manor, Larchmont, Mamaroneck, Harrison, Greenwich, Cos Cob, and the immediate neighborhood of Rye. Everybody admitted that it was the finest turnout ever seen in that vicinity, and Rye was consequently very proud and very happy. In the various traps were many well-known fashionable people, including Mrs. Pelham-Clinton, Miss Jacob, Mrs. Catlin, Mrs. E. C. Benedict, the Misses Stephens, Mrs. De Ruyter, Mrs. Erving, and dozens of others.

Many of the ladies were driving and showed themselves to be adepts [sic] in the use of the whip. Moreover, they were arrayed in gala colors and were otherwise prepared for an afternoon of splendid fair-weather sport. There was not a thought of anything but blue skies and golden sunshine and therefore open-top vehicles predominated, and any close carriage of whatever description was occupied by farmers or common country folk, who were not the happy possessors of T-carts, jaunting cars, buckboards, or other kindred traps. An umbrella or a mackintosh would have been an insult to the weather god, and all such articles had been carefully left at home. The assumption was that so fair a promise as the morning gave could not be gainsaid by the afternoon, and in all the gay throng there was not one who had a suspicion of rain and mud.

From the rendezvous at the Rye railway station the brightly-dressed cavalcade moved slowly and imposingly through the village out into the picturesque country road leading to 'The Hermitage,' as the local outdoor club is called. When this pretty resort was reached the hounds were led into a neighboring field for the throw-off, and immediately thereafter the pack was baying full tilt on the scent of the drag.

The Country Club members dashed after them precipitately, taking every jump with Major Cooley gallantly leading the van. The riders from Rye were less experienced, but not less brave, and they followed with reckless daring. The ladies and a few of the more cautious men took to the road with the whirling carriages, and the chase was under full headway.

Across the green fields swept the yelping pack, swift as the wind, their heads erect, their tails stiff and straight, their red tongues lolling out, and their eyeballs rolling fiercely in the madness of the run.

Away down Wilton's Point they sped, then back again across the old Boston road over to Harrison, and off toward beautiful Mamoroneck [sic]. So swift was the pack that whip and spur had to be freely used on the good, game horses to keep up with the hounds.

As for the roads, they were filled with scurrying vehicles drawn by animals on a dead run and still lashed by their excited drivers.

'Isn't it glorious!' cried the ladies of Rye, and with ribbons streaming on the wind, with cheeks reddening, and eyes dancing in excitement, they stretched their white necks as they flew along the brown roads eager to see every jump and to lose no note of the inspiring music made by the vanishing pack.

The drag had been planned with admirable consideration for the pleasure of the road riders, and there were but few moments when some part of the chase could not be seen from the carriages. So great was the excitement that a huge black cloud rising in the west was not noticed until an ominous peal of thunder startled the gay crowd and caused it to look upward. Flashes of lightning were playing about the ragged edges of the overhanging mass, and suddenly there fell a patter of big, splashing raindrops that instantly diverted the attention of the ladies from the hunt to their handsome gowns and costly millinery.

They looked in vain for shelter and then, stopping suddenly, the most of them turned and incontinently fled for home. The effort was useless, for the rain had got [sic] too much of a start in the race, and, wholly unprotected as they were, it pelted them mercilessly. Off came their hats and bonnets to be stowed carefully under skirts and wagon seats, but the relentless rain kept coming down and drenched them through and through.

The bold hunters were in no better plight. The sudden and continuous shower made the going slippery and dangerous and destroyed the scent. There was but one thing to do. The dogs were called off, whipped in, and the entire company, which had left astonished little Rye with floating colors, light laughter, and exuberant spirits, rushed for cover dripping, bedraggled, and soaked to the skin.

Thus was the brilliant promise of the sunny midday fulfilled, and thus ended what was thought to have been the red-letter day in the gala almanac of Rye. A few of the ladies and gentlemen found some consolation in a tea at the Hermitage after they had exchanged their soaking garments for others that were dry and comfortable.

'Oh, it's a shame!' cried one of these with a suspicion of tears in her eyes. 'It was all so splendid, and to think it should end like this. A thunder shower in October -- just think of it! Such a thing could not have happened in any other place than Rye!'"

Source: Rye Laughed At The Hunt, N.Y. Times, Oct. 13, 1889, p. 2.

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