OVER THE GARDEN WALL.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2073, 7 May 1907, Page 4

OVER THE GARDEN WALL.

JUMPING RECORDS. The appearance in England of a famous jumping horse owned by an American millionaire has set men seeking records of the feats accomplished by English and Irish horses. Many stories are told of jumps of between 8 feet and 9 foot done by British hunters, but these, though highly meritorious if authentic, do not count as records. They have come in the course of a day’s hunting, and nobody,has taken the trouble to return afterwards to the spot and tako exact measurement of the obstacles cleared. Men who hunt in Ireland might know something worth hearing of feats of this sort. The most surprising jump made in Ireland was one achieved by the late Empress of Austria. After a desperate chase a fox leapt the wall of Maynootli College, where the students were meditatively pacing to and fro, deep in contemplation. As the fox scurried across the ground the young clericals, it is said, were about to take up the chase themselves, when a beautiful woman, superbly mounted, cleared the wall in pursuit of the quarry.

It was the Empress. Dr. Walsh, the present Roman Catholic Archbishop of Dublin, received his' unexpected guest with gracious courtesy. The chase had taken her through deep .water, and her wet, clinging garments suggested the desirability of a change. But; there was not a

sliced of female attire at Muynooth College. They got out of the diffi-s c-ulty by the Empress’' throwing over her shoulders ~an academical gown belonging to Dr. Walsh, and in this she rode homo alter a pleasant chat with the president and professors. In exchange for her welcome wrap the Empress pressed upon the future

Archbishop a beautiful diamond ring. Nor did that end her expression of gratitude. On her return to Austria she sent to the college a superb statuette, in solid silver, of St. George and the Dragon, and for DOr. Walsh vestments of silk and gold worked with shamrocks in green silk. The best story of a horse’s jumps which comes to mind is that of a Californian cowboy. Ho was taking steers to Lcadvillc, and had camped ior the night on Bear River, near its junction with tho Litle Snake.

In the middle of the night something occurred to stampede the cattle. The man mounted his broncho and rode hither and thither on the flank of the herd until their fright had died away. Four or five times the rider left his horse give tremendous leaps, and with daybreak he discovered the cause. Tho cattle had climbed on to a level plateau which is intersected by a canyon four miles long, and

from 1500 feet to 2000 feet deep. Its walls incline towards each other at

the top, where, the distance is 15 feet or 20 foot. In riding the man had kept the steers circling about the plateau. Hoof marks showed him that the great jumps made by bis

horse were occasioned by the animal’s clearing the canyon each time it came to the taking-off spot.