HAVELOCK.

Tuapeka Times, Volume III, Issue 167, 20 April 1871, Page 6

HAVELOCK.

(From a Correspondent.)

On Wednesday, the 12th inst., the residents here were much astonished and somewhat alarmed at the sight of a large cavalcade descending the slope of Grant's Hill, leading to the township. The cause of the invasion was for a few minutes the subject of considerable speculation ; some were inclined to think that the Prussians had appeared somewhere off the coabt, and that the

horsemen were the Tnapeka Volunteers,

telegraphed for to oppose their landing, while others inclined to the opinioD that they they were a body of Fenians on their wav to sack Dunedin. This

last surmise seemed to be that most favoured, till the procession crossed the bridge, and it was seen" to be headed by Mr. Donovan, of the Shamrock Hotel, Lawrence, when the loyal and pacific

nature of the demonstration was at

once taken for granted, and we were of , coui'se reassured, but still much puzzled. On a nearer view, the procession resolved itself into a buggy and

pair, some four score horsemen, and a

vehicle suspiciously like a baker's van, which brought up the rear, and on which was inscribed in large letters the name of '' Harris," dear to Mrs. Gamp, of immortal memory. The horses were of all description, heavy and light draught xipstanding, saddle and light harness, and inferior ditto — the latter class predominating. The riders on

the whole would scarcely witch the

world with horsemanship. As a rule, their toes were well turned, and their trousers had worked well up, displaying socks of various colours, and calves red with the unwonted friction. Most of them, like John Gil pin, stooped down, because they couldn't sit upright, and as they passed up from the township at

a trot evidently reserved for' the occa-

sion, their backs rising and falling they appeared for all the world as if they

were engaged in a

lively game

of leap-frog. From a straggler, I was enabled to learn that the procession was intended to escort the Roman Catholic Bishop from Waitahuna to Lawrence, and that his Lordship was expected by the coach, which then appeared on the crest of the Round Hill. The prearranged place of meeting was Waitahuna township, and there the procession arrived just before the coach, and prepared to

receive him. But how shall I describe ?. the blank dismay which appeai'ed in every face when the coach pulled up, bearing indeed a Pope, but no Bishop ; and how joy ngain illuminated their countenances when Tommy announced that be had left his Lordship on the Round Hill ; and how joy again faded to anxiety when further told that he had taken the other road to Havelock, and that they must make great haste to be there before him. Helter-skelter, neck or nothing, off they flew. The sight was picturesque in the extreme. Those yA\o stooped before now absolutely crouched, and leap frog gave place to vaulting. Their hands forsook the bridles for the mane, for sure the horses heads were homewards, and it may safely be averred that n ver were two miles — not even at Chevy Chase, or Bull's Hun — got over by so many in shorter time?' ' However, the roads were "good, and they all arrived, much to their own surprise, at Havelock safe in wind and limb, " Barring some

leather lost behind," and they were there before his Lordship. For just as the hindmost horseman left the township, the Bishop drove in. The flight of his escort at his approach must have appeared to him unaccountable. Many would have been disconcerted. Not so his Lordship. The lash was vigorously applied to the horses, and off they flew after the fugitives, and the novel and entertaining sight was presented of a fourscore hurry scurry in headlong pursuit of a Bishop, while the said Bishop was on his part straining every nerve to overtake his pursuers. But a stern chase is a long one, and the procession had halted at Havelock ere his Lordship drove up. He at once stepped into a carriage which awaited him, and the strangest scene of this eventful history was then enacted. A gentleman, who had taken the precaution to dismount, then called out, " Three cheers for the Bishop," when every horseman convulsively grasped his bridle with one hand, his horse's mane with the other,

and clung desperately with his legs to the saddle, his face assuming at the same moment an aspect of extreme terror. The invitation to cheer was responded to only by the occupiers of the van, and the dismounted horseman who, gave it. - This arose, not from any waut of welcome to the Bishop, but solely, I am persuaded, from a very, natural cause. Each horsemen, like myself, expected hurrahs, loud, long, and reiterated, and

each felt cjnvincedthat ( his steed would resent the clamour. The instinct of

self-preservation, for the moment swallowed up every other feeling, and so thinking, if he thought at all, that his individual silence would not be remarked in the general acclaim, every horsemen devoted all his energies to keeping his saddle. Hence the result I have described. Despite the efforts of the four aforesaid, the cheering was

not on the whole, perhaps, a success.

And it was better so. For if the corteg.j had cheered, and they would have d< ne if standing on the sod, the peal would have awakened a soul under the ri'-'S of the sorriest scrub that ever wore brteks A stampede would have

taken place, and the consequences been disastrous. Fancy four score horses, foam bespread and hopelessly foundered, galloping riderless up Peel-street and into Donovan's back-yard. Fancy eighty cavaliers sprawling in the dust at one fell .shock, or wearily limping, batteied and bruised, in procession to Lawrence. Honour to the cheerers, but honour also, I say, to those who refrained.

The Bishop having tuitably acknowledged the -compliment, drove oft' Some slignt^lay occurred ere the procession followed his Lordship, owing to Mr. Donovan, who, for some reason unknown to me, posted on the bridge, and armed only with a heavy riding-whip," which checked single-handed the ncU^ vance of the whole body. Perhaps lie was smitten with a sudden ambition to rival the achievements of Horatius, who, from a similar vantage ground, beat back a whole army. Their situations were remarkably alike I fancy, and I cannot better describe them than in the words of the ballad — Alone stood brave John Donovan, Eut constant still in mind. With three times thirty men before, And the broad flood behind. A scrimmage was imminent ; but after a time he allowed them to pass covering their retieat, and his stalwart proportions mounted on a piebald charger. Vanishing over the hill was the last we saw of the procession.