# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Bindley, Charles

​BINDLEY, CHARLES, better known as Harry Hieover (1795–1859), sporting writer, was born in 1795. His favourite topics were hunting and stable management. His first work of any importance was 'Stable Talk and Table Talk, or Spectacles for Young Sportsmen,' 2 vols. 8vo, the first published in 1845 and the second in 1846. His autograph was prefixed to the book under a life-like portrait of him which formed its frontispiece. A rollicking 'Hunting Song,' and 'The Doctor, a true Tale,' comically rhymed, helped to enliven his animated prose. His second venture was 'The Pocket and the Stud, or Practical Hints for the Management of the Stable,' 1848, 16mo, pp. 215, the frontispiece being here again a portrait of Harry Hieover 'on his favourite horse Harlequin.' His next book was 'The Stud for Practical Purposes and Practical Men,' 1849, 16mo, pp. 205. Two admirable illustrations in the volume. each engraved 'from a painting by the author,' represented respectively a well-shaped roadster, 'A pretty good sort for most purposes,' and a wicked-looking, unsightly hack, 'Rayther a bad sort for any purpose.' Another book from the same hand, similarly illustrated, was 'Practical Horsemanship,' 1850, 16mo, pp. 213, the engravings, again from paintings by the author, portraying the one 'Going like workmen,' and the other 'Going like muffs.' In the same year (1850) Harry Hieover brought out another book called 'The Hunting Field,' 16mo, pp. 221, with pictures of 'The Right Sort' and 'The Wrong Sort.' In 1852 Harry Hieover produced a new edition, carefully revised and corrected by him, of Delabere Blaine's 'Encyclopædia of Rural Sports, or complete account, Historical. Practical, and Descriptive, of Hunting, Shooting. Fishing. Racing, &c.,' 8vo, pp. 1246. His next works were: 'Bipeds and Quadrupeds,' 1853, 16mo, pp. 174; 'Sporting Facts and Sporting Fancies,' 1853 8vo, pp. 452; 'The World: How to square it,' 1854, 8vo, pp. 290; and 'Hints to Horsemen: Shewing how to make Money by Horses,' 1856, 8vo, pp. 214. Harry Hieover had long been writing in several of the most important of the sporting periodicals. Essays from the 'Field' on such subjects as 'Bridles,' 'Martingals,' ' Buck-jumpers,' 'Kicking in Harness,' &c., were in 1857 reprinted under the title of 'Precept and Practice,' 8vo, pp. 267. Another collection from the 'Sporting Magazine' upon 'Red Coats and Silk Jackets,' 'Nobs and Snobs,' 'Hints on Coachmanship,' 'Imperturbable Jack,' and 'Dare-devils,' appeared in 1857, entitled 'The Sportsman's Friend in a Frost,' 8vo, pp. 416. In 1858 appeared 'The Sporting World,' 8vo, pp. 261, and in 1859 'Things worth knowing about Horses,' 8vo, pp. 266. His health haa been seriously declining, and in November 1858, in hopes of improving it, he left London for Brighton, where he became the guest of his friend, Sir Thomas Barrett-Lennard, Bart., and died in his friend's house on 10 Feb. 1859, aged 63. In the number for that very month of the 'Sporting Review' and the 'Sportsman' appeared his last contribution to the magazine, 'Riding to Hounds, by Harry Hieover.' He was a sporting writer of the old school, and seemed to write under the same exhilaration of spirits as he might have felt when going across country.
[Times, 15 Feb. 1859; Field, 19 Feb. 1859. p. 137; Era, 20 Feb. 1859, p. 3; Sporting Review, March 1859, xli. 155.]
C. K.