IT'S something like the hedgehog syndrome. In the bitter weather we've been having, you tend to stay buried in your own heap of leaves, only leaving occasionally to get further sustenance. And rustling and turning regularly in your heap you come across some odd finds. Such as a one hundred year old copy of our esteemed contemporary and kinsman The Irish Field of 1896. Just short of the century, for it is dated June 6th. What a lovely masthead. The letters in the title being in the form of branchy logs. And there is a secondary title: Gentlemans Gazette. And a third: Incorporating the Irish Sportsman. The most surprising aspect of all is the number of advertisements, everything from cycles and pneumatic tyres for carriages; from financial notices to guns, horse rugs and food for pheasants (aromatic Spanish meal) etc; lotions, tonics and hair restorers. And, of course, gunsmiths, tailors and bootmakers. But to sport.
The leading article is, surprisingly, about angling. And a stern warning to the sportsmen of Westmeath. The Irish Game Protection Association can only function competently if people would pay their subscriptions. And pay early. "This laxity and indifference is what leaves Ireland as she is, and we fear that Westmeath shows symptoms of dropping into line with other Irish counties." It refers to "those glorious and picturesque sheets of water, Loughs Derravaragh, Owel, and Ennell." How right.
It is a pity, the article says, that more interest isn't taken by the resident gentry as well as those birds of passage who give the matter hardly a thought. Until the fiery cross goes around again that the May fly is "up". The poor assistant secretary is no doubt backed up by a few of "the noblemen and gentry" of the area, but everyone must pull up their sox or such like.
Naturally most of the wordage goes to the horses. Huge slices of short items about individual animals and an item "Epsom and the Derby", but cricket, tennis and other sports get their coverage. Thirty pages of small type. Price one penny or a penny halfpenny per post. Six shillings and six pence if you take it annually. Payment in advance, of course.