Skip to main content

Full text of "Baily's magazine of sports and pastimes"

See other formats 


<5^-\ 


N°-  52. 


V 


1/6 


JUNE. 


WW 


fm> 


I'tj 


!t 


r 


BAILY'S 

MONTHLY 

MAGAZINE 


OF 


b 


-'■/_ 


di- 


sports and  Pastimes, 


4fr.*>- 


AND 


Turf  Guide^A^- 


c 


Hi 


^ 


«* 


gkd 


M 


Ml 


1864 


d 


TW 


-ie£s 


■/-'  '    SfSs, 


A.    H.    BaILY   &    CO.,   CORNHILL. 


\ 


JOYCE'S    AMMUNITION. 

The  following  Articles,  of  the  best  quality, 
Manufactured  by  EKEDEEICK  JOYCE  and 
Co.,  of  London,  may  be  had  of  all  Gunmakers 
throughout  the  United  Kingdom. 

TREBLE  WATERPROOF  CENTRAL  FIRE  PERCUSSION  CAPS. 

Chemically-prepared  Cloth,  Felt,  and  Paper  Waddings,  Cartridge  Cases  for  Breech- 
loading  Guns,  Wire  and  Universal  Shot  Cartridges,  &c,  &e.  Contractors  to  Her 
Majesty's  War  Department. 

FOB   HORSES. 

GIBTON'S  ERADICATING  WORM  AND  CONDITION  POWDER. 

These  Powders  are  recommended  as  a  safe  and  certain  remedy  for  destroying  every 
species  of  Worm  that  afflicts  the  horse,  as  they  supersede  all  other  medicines,  by 
giving  him  additional  strength  and  vigour,  purifying  his  blood,  and  adding  a  fine  gloss 
to  his  coating ;  and  may  be  given  without  making  any  alteration  in  his  food,  or  inter- 
mission in  his  labour. 
Sold  in  boxes,  at  3s.  9d.,  accompanied  by  a  '  Treatise  on  Worms.' 
The  Public  are  particularly  requested  to  observe  that  the  Signature  of  ROBT.  N. 
GIBTON  is  on  each  wrapper.  Sole  Wholesale  Agent,  W.  EDWARDS,  67,  St.  Paul's, 
London,  and  by  most  respectable  Chemists  and  Booksellers. 

THE    TEETH. 

08TEO-EIDOSf,    MESSRS.    GABRIEL'S    SPJECIAtlTE. 

The  numerous  advantages,  such  as  comfort,  purity  of  materials,  economy,  and  free- 
dom from  pain  obtainable  hereby,  are  explained  in  Messrs.  Gabriel's  pamphlet  on  the 
Teeth,  just  published,  free  by  post  or  gratis  on  application. 

27,  Harley  Street,  Cavendish  Square,  and 

Ludgate  Hill  (over  Benson,  Silversmith), 

London ; 

134,  Duke  Street,  Liverpool; 

65,  New  Street,  Birmingham. 


IpGABRT^ 

.^THEOLD  ESTABLISHED 


American  Mineral  Teeth,  without  springs,  best  in  Europe,  from  Four  to  Seven,  and 
Ten  to  Fifteen  Guineas  per  set,  warranted.  Single  Teeth  and  partial  sets  at  propor- 
tionately moderate  charges. 

Only  one  visit  required  at  the  London  Establishments  from  Country  Patients. 

Whole  sets  made  in  one  day  where  time  is  an  object. 

PRIZE  MEDAL,  GREAT  EXHIBITION,  1851. 
PRIZE  MEDAL,  INTERNATIONAL  EXHIBITION,  1862. 

BILLIARD   TABLES, 

L^IMIIFS,    .A-HSTID      G-.A-S      ZFITTIHSTO-S 
Of  every  Description,  for  Home  and  Foreign  Use. 

UNDER  THE  PATRONAGE  OF  THE  FOLLOWING   LONDON  CLUBS: 

Army  and  Navy  Club  Egerton  Club  Public  Schools  Club  St.  James's  Club 

Arlington  Club  Gresham  Club  Pratt's  Club  Travellers'  Club 

Albemarle  Club  Guards'  Club  Prince's  Racket,  Tennis,   United  University  Club 

Carlton  Club  Junior  United  Service  Club     and  Billiard  Club  United  Arts  Club 

Conservative  Club  (by  Mansfield  Club  Reform  Club  Union  Club 

Appointment)  Naval  and  Military  Club   Royal  Thames  Yacht         Volunteer  Service  Club 

Cavendish  Club  New  United  Service  Club      Club  White's  Club 

East  India  United  Ser-  Oxford  and  Cambridge       Raleigh  Club  Windham  Club 

vice  Club  University  Stafford  Club 

BURROUGHS  &  WATTS,  Soho  Square, 

London,  W. 


t 


BAILY'S  MAGAZINE. 

ADVEETISEMENTS. 


MUSGBAYE'S 

PATENT   STABLE  AND  HARNESS  FITTINGS. 

Musgrave's  Patent  Harmless  Loose  Boxes. 
MUSGRAVE'S  PATENT  [RON  COW  STALLS  AND  PIGGERIES. 

Gentlemen  who  have  not  seen  these  fittings  are  requested  to  write  for  Engravings  as 
tney  are  unlike  those  of  any  other  maker,  and  were  admitted  to  excel  all  the  work  of 
tneir  class  in  the  Exhibition.  They  can  be  seen  in  first-class  stables  in  almost  every 
county  m  England  ;  and  MUSGRAVE  BROTHERS  are  now  fitting  several  very  lame 
Establishments  under  Directions  of  London  Architects,  noted  for  adopting  only  what  is 
the  best  of  its  kind.     Particulars  of  these,  as  well  as  of  * 

MUSGRAVE'S  PATENT  SLOW-COMBUSTION  STOVES, 

•n/rrva  s*  f.  ^^  ke  forwarded  on  application  to 

MUSGRAVE  BROTHERS,  Ann  Street  Iron  Works,  Belfast. 

C    HDTkJ&S?  desire  really  WELL-POLISHED  BOOTS,  use 
f  «KHi      n    K.Q1TAS,  KELTOWUN  BRACKING.  It  renders  them  beauti- 
luuysort  durable,  and  waterproof,  while  its  lustre  equals  the  most  brilliant  patent  leather. 

h.  BROWN'S  Nonpareil  de  Guiche  Parisian  Polish,  for  Dress  Boots  and  Shoes, 
is  more  elastic  and  less  difficult  in  its  use  than  any  other. 

E.  BROWN'S  Waterproof  Varnish,  for  Hanting,  Shooting,  and  Fishing  Boots, 
is  strongly  recommended  to  all  Sportsmen, 

c    ioSx^l^'8  Brown  Boot-Top  Fluid  and  Polish,  and  Powders  of  all  Colours. 
t.  BROWN'S  Meltonian   Cream,  for  Renovating  all  kinds   of  Patent  Leather 
furniture,  &c, 

c"  §SSW/ W'§  R°yal  Kid  Reviver>  for  all  kinds  of  Black  Kid  Leather,  &c. 
L.  BROWN  S  Waterproof  Harness  Polish  is  far  superior  to  all  others. 

Manufactory,  67,  Princes  Street,  Leicester  Square,  London. 

RETAIL  EVERYWHERE. 
&.  BROWN  has  been  awarded  the  Prize  Medal  at  the  Exhibition,  1862. 


lil 


34,  JERMYN  STREET, 


made  in 


Beg  to  call  attention  to  the  various  improvements  in  Patent  ELASTIC 
STOCKINGS,  BELTS,  KNEE-CAPS,  SOCKS,  and  LADIES'  and 
GENTLEMEN'S  SPINE  SUPPORTERS. 
Gentlemen  taking  much  equestrian  exercise 
will  find  great  support  from  the  use  of  the 
Elastic  JBelt,  which,  constructed  on 
a  very  improved  principle,  whilst  it  give3  sup- 
port_  to  the  loins,  does  not  at  all  impede  the 
respiration,  as  it  retains  its  proper  position  un- 
der  the    most  violent  exertion,  and  which    is 

every  description  of  material.— Directions  for  measurement  sent  post  free. 

A  liberal  discount  to  the  profession. 

A  Female  to  attend  upon  Ladies. 


BAILY'S  MAGAZINE. 


$aHgV  Pagspe  of  Sports  aifo  pastimes. 

VOLUME  VII 

Our  Subscribers  are  respectfully  informed  that  Cloth  Gilt 
Cases  for  Binding  the  last  seven  Parts  (43  to  49)  forming  this 
Volume  are  now  ready,  and  can  be  had  of  the  Publishers,  and 
of  all  Booksellers,  price  One  Shilling  each. 

*}.*  Cases  for  the  preceding  Six  Volumes  can  also  be  had  at  the 

same  price. 
May,  1864, 

OFFICE-3,  ROYAL  EXCHANGE  BUILDINGS.    E.  C, 

Cloth,  gilt  edges,  price  2s.  6d.,  by  post  2s.  8d. 
16th  ANNUAL  EDITION. 

WHO'S  WHO  FOR  1864. 

"  A  complete  Epitome  of  that  handy  knoivlqdge  of  the  Personnel  of  the  Public 
Life  of  this  country,  ivhich  every  one  so  often  requires  to  refer. to." — Illustrated 
News.  

LONDON-A.  H.  BAILY:&  CO.,  CORNHILL. 

With  150  Woodcut  Illustrations,  post  8vo.,  10s.  6d., 

THE  ANGLER-NATUKALIST. 

By    CHOLMONDELEY   PENNELL, 

Author  of  "  How  to  Spin  for  Pike,"  &c,  &c. 
JOHN    VAN  VOORST,   1,   PATERNOSTER   ROW. 

Now  ready, 

THE  ART  OF  TROUT-FISHING  IN  RAPID  STREAMS. 

By  H.   C.  CUTCLIFFE,  F.R.C.S. 

Price  3s.  6d.,  post  free. 


W.  TUCKER,  BOOKSELLER,  SOUTHMOLTON,  NORTH  DEVON. 


LIFE  ON  THE  DOWNS. 

This  day,  never  before  published,  price  Is.  6d. 

THE     DERBY    J3A.Y: 

A  MOST  INTERESTING  ROMANCE  OP 

LONDON    LIFE    AT    EPSOM.      By    BRACEBRIDGE   HEMYNG. 

The  Saturday  Review  says  the  subject  gives  one  "a  springy -velvety  sort  of  a  feel  that 

Lfairly  invites  '  a  spill.'  " 

London     Hall,  Smart,  &  Allen,  and  all  Libraries,  and  Bail  ways. 


ADVERTISEMENTS. 


NOTICE 


BAILY'S  NEW  SERIES  OP  WINNERS. 


Messrs.  A.  H.  Baily  &  Co.  will  immediately  publish  the  portrait  of 

"BLAIR  ATHOL," 

THE  WOTER  OE  THIS  TEAR'S  DERBY, 

Price  One  Grninea. 


London :  A.  H.  BAILY  &  Co.,  Cornhill. 


U 


I, 


>> 


lOTER  OE  THE  DERBY  STAKES  AT  EPSOM,  1863, 

Painted  by  HARRY  HALL, 

and  Engraved  by  Harris,  beautifully  Coloured  after  the  original  Painting. 

Price     One    Grninea, 


London :   A.  H,  BAILY  &  Co.,  Cornhill. 


u 


a 


WINNER  OP  THE 

(BEAT  ST.  LEGrEH  STAKES  AT  DONCASTEH,  1863, 

Painted  by  HARRY  HALL, 

and  Engraved  by  HARRIS,  beautifully  Coloured  after  the  original  Painting. 

Price  One  G5-ia.in.ea. 

Lord  St.  Vincent  has  expressed  himself  entirely  satisfied  with  the  likeness. 

London:  A.  H.  BAILY  &  Co.,  Cornhill. 


THE      SUKPLICE 

A3  MADE  TO  MEASURE  BY 

JOHN  SAMPSON  &  GO 

SHIRT  TAILORS,  HOSIERS, 
AND  GL0VEK8. 

PRICES— 

Sis:  t or  4£>s  <§c  4@s. 
Washing  included. 


All  the  New  Patterns  in  Coloured 
Cotton  Shirtings. 

FLANNEL  SHIRTS,    | 

Warranted  well  Shrunk. 

123,  OXFORD  STREET 

KBAR  REGENT  CIRCUS, 

^London.     W. 

€ adfe  far  j$Hlf-wwstt«ment  forto^  on  Jjjglkaiiait, 


BAILY'S  MAGAZINE. 


On  May  31st  will  be  published,  price  One  Shilling,  No.  3  of 

THE 

FISHERMAN'S  MAGAZINE  AND  REVIEW. 

EDITED  BY  CHOLMONDELEY  PEMELL. 


London :— CHAPMAN  &  HALL,  193,  Piccadilly. 


TO  HER  MAJESTY  &  H.  R.  H.  THE  PRINGE  OF 
WALES. 

GEORGE    SIMPSON   AND    Co., 

"Whip  Manufacturers, 
314  OXFORD  STEEET,  LONDON.    W. 

N.B. — A  large  assortment  of  the  undermentioned  goods  always  in  stock  : — 


Spurs 

IDog  Couples 

„  Chains  &  Collars 
Greyhound  Slips,  &c. 
Coupling  Rings 


Whistles 

Ferret  Bells  &  Muzzles 
Dog  Muzzles 
Drinking  Flasks 
Saddle  Flasks 


Sandwich  Cases 
Hunting  Horns 
Post  Horns 
Bird  Calls 
Tourists'  Kegs 


THE  PRINCE  OF  WALES'  YEST.— No  more  braces.— The  greatest 
luxury  in  dress  is  William  Doo's  newly-invented  VEST,  in  conjunction  with  his 
well-known  TROUSERS,  admirably  adapted  for  gentlemen  of  all  ages,  which  gives 
unusual  ease  and  comfort,  particularly  in  riding,  sitting,  or  strong  exercise.  The  extra 
cost  is  trifling. — WILLIAM  DOO,  Tailor,  Trousers  and  Breeches  Maker,  15,  Maddox 
Street,  Regent  Street,  London.  N.B.  Trousers  from  £1.  Is.  Also  his  improved  BELT, 
so  indispensable  to  Sportsmen,  12s.  6d. 

NOTICE     OF"    REMOVAL. 


WILKINSON  &  KLDD, 

Saddlers  to  Her  MAJESTY  and  H.R.H.  the  PRINCE  of  WALES, 

Have  Removed  their  Establishment  from  the  Corner  of  Park  Street,  Oxford  Street,  to 

S,    HANOVER    SQUARE,    W. 

(Adjoining  the  Queen's  Concert  Rooms^. 

ADAMS'S 

NEW   PATENT   BREECH-LOADER 

EXCELS  ALL  OTHERS 

In  Durability,  Safety,  Simplicity,  and  Strength  of  Shooting. 

This  is  the  unanimous  testimony  of  all  who  have  tried  the  principle.  Any  gentleman 
is  at  liberty  to  test  the  Gun  on  the  premises,  the  patentee  having  a  range  of  upwards  of 
sixty  yards. 

ROBERT  ADAMS,  76,  King  William  Street,  E.  C. 
and  Factory,  Henry  Street,  Bermondsey, 

Patentee  of  the  Revolver,  and  Manufacturer  of  all  kinds  of  Fire  Arms. 


Price  List  and  Descriptive  Catalogues  free  on  application. 


ADVERTISEMENTS 


Noiv  ready,  Price  2s.  6d.,  by  post  2s.  8d. 

THE    SPRING    EDITION  (1864) 

OP 


BAILY'S  TURF  GUIDE 


CONTAINING 

THE  NOMINATIONS  FOR  1864;   AND  ENTRIES  FOR  THE  GREAT 

STAKES  OF  1865; 
WITH  THE  HORSES  INDEXED,  AND  THEIR  PEDIGREES. 

A  Calendar  of  all  Races  and  Steeple  Chases  in  Great  Britain,  Ireland,  France, 
Belgium,  and  Baden-Baden,  for  1S63, 

WITH   A  COMPLETE    INDEX; 

COLOURS   OF   THE    EIDERS  ;    LENGTHS    OF    COURSES  j    SALES     OF     BLOOD     STOCK  ; 
LAWS    OF   RACING  ;    LIST    OF   TRAINERS,    JOCKEYS,    ETC. 

WINNERS  of  GREAT  PRIZES  from  their  COMMENCEMENT. 


Opinions    of  tlxe    Press. 

"  I  never  opened  a  volume  containing  more  important  matter.     <  Baily '  is  without  exception,  the 
•very  best  guide  to  the  Turf,  past  and  present." — Morning  Advertiser. 

"  This  welcome  companion  is  published,  and  fully  maintains  the  high  opinion  we  have  so  often 
expressed  in  its  behalf.     Baily's  '  Turf  Guide  '  a  even  more  -valuable  than  heretofore" — Bell's  Life. 

"  Baily's  '  Guide  to  the  Turf  has  made  its  appearance,  and  every  line  has  been  strictly  revised 
by  the  proper  authorities." — Morning  Post. 

"Mr.  Baily  has  published  his  'Scarlet  Guide'  in  the  most  complete  manner.     The  informa- 
tion to  be  found  within  its  pages  is  of  the  most  accurate  character." — Birmingham  journal. 

"  'Baily's  Guide'  is  unquestionably  the  best  ivork  of  reference  on  racing  that  has  yet  been  published." 
— Manchester  Guardian. 

" '  Baily's  Turf  Guide' — this  indispensable  publication  is  issued,  and  is  quite  equal  to  its  prede- 
cessors in  excellence." — Manchester  Courier. 

"  Mr.   Baily  deserves  the  thanks  of  the  racing  public  for  his  valuable   '  Turf  Guide.'     He 
evidently  understands  the  wants  and  requirements  of  the  racing  world." — Sporting  Life. 

"  Mr.  Baily  has  issued  his  '  Turf  Guide,'  which  is  superior  to  '  Ruff'  in  its  best  day." — Daily 
Telegraph. 

LONDON— A.  H.  BAILY  &  CO.,  CORHHILL. 


CRICKETING  OUTFITTERS. 
JOHN    WISBEN    &z    Oo. 

(LATE  F.  LILLYWHITE  &  WISDEN) 

Beg  to  inform  noblemen,  gentlemen,  regiments,  colleges,  and  schools,  that  they  have  on 
hand  an  extensive  STOCK  of  all  kinds  of  Cricket  ill «-  Materials.  Every 
article  warranted,  and  those  not  approved  of  exchanged.  Also  Foot  Balls,  Dumb  Bells, 
Clubs,  Boxing  Gloves,  Backets,  Racket  Balls,  Foils,  Skittles,  Marquees,  Tents,  Nets, 
Cricketing  Bags,  Boxes,  and  every  article  used  for  British  Sport.  Nicholson's  Compound 
Cricket  Balls.     A  large  stock  of  Bluck's  superior  Rackets. 

Address— JOHN  WISDEN  &  Co.,  2,  New  Coventry  Street,  London,  W., 

■where  models  of  the  Patent  Catapulta  can  be  seen  and  worked.  Illustrated  Catalogues  of 
prices  post  free.  Export  orders  with  immediate  despatch.  Post  office  orders  payable  at 
Charing  Cross. 


BAILY'S  MAGAZINE. 


THE 

READING  IRON  WORKS, 

LIMITED. 

(Late  Messrs.  BARRETT,  EXALL,  &  ANDREWES.) 


Incorporated  under  the  Companies  Act,  1862. 

CAPITAL  £200,000,  in  10,000  SHARES  of  £20  each. 

FIRST  ISSUE  5,000  SHARES. 

£1  per  Share  to  be  paid  on  Application,  and  £Zper  Share  on  Allotment. 

Calls  not  to  exceed  £2  per  Share,  at  intervals  of  not  less  than  Two  Months.     Interest  at  the 
rate  of  5  per  cent,  per  annum  will  be  allowed  on  all  Calls  paid  in  advance. 


directors. 

ADOLPHTJS  SIMONDS,  Esq.,  Ivy  Lodge,  and  Bridge  Street,  Reading,  Chairman. 

C.  J.  ANDREWES,  Esq.,  Greyfriar's  House,  and  Katesgrove,  Reading. 

RICHARD  ATTENBOROUGH,  Esq.,  Whitley  Grove,  Reading. 

JOSEPH  CROCKETT,   Esq.,   Victoria   Square,  Reading  (Director  of  the  North  Wilts 

Banking  Company). 
WILLIAM  EXALL,  Esq.,  Castle  Street,  and  Katesgrove,  Reading  (Civil  Engineer). 
JOHN  SIMONDS,  E-q.  ( J.  &  C.  Simonds  &  Co.,)  Newlands,  Berks, and  Reading  (Banker). 
JAMES  W.  SILVERTHORNE,  Esq.,  43,  Regency  Square,  Brighton. 

(  With  power  to  add  tu  their  number.) 

bankers. 

Reading.... Messrs.  J.  &  C.  SIMONDS  &  Co. 

London  ....Messrs.  FULLER,  BANBURY,  &  Co.,  Lombard  Street. 

Solicitor. 

CHARLES  P.  FROOM,  Esq.,  Lincoln's  Inn  Fields,  London. 
Messrs.  SANDEMAN  &  DOBREE,  2,  Royal  Exchange  Buildings,  City. 

SKutuior. 

Mr.  STEPHEN  FULBROOK,  Manager  of  Messrs.  Simonds'  Bank,  Reading. 

Secretaries. 

Mr.  THOMAS  JAMES,  (Accountant  and  Financier  of  late  Firm,)  Katesgrove,  Reading. 
Mr.  CHARLES  BARBER,  (pro  tern.,)  17,  Abuhurch  Lane,  London.    E.  C. 

©ffices. 

THE  WORKS,  KATESGROVE,  READING. 
LONDON;— 17,  AbCHURCH  LANE,  CITY.    E.C. 


PROSPECTUS. 

This  Company  has  been  formed  for  the  purpose  of  purchasing  and  carrying  on  the 
important  and  well-known  business  of  Engineers,  Ironfounders,  and  Manufacturers  of 
Agricultural  Machinery  and  Implements,  which,  having  been  established  nearly  half-a- 
century,  has  been  conducted  for  the  last  thirty  years  by  Messrs.  Barrett,  Exall,  and 
Andrewes. 

The  demand  for  machinery,  at  home  and  abroad,  being  so  extensive,  capital  to  any 
extent  can  be  profitably  employed  in  its  production,  and  the  recent  transfer  of  so  many 
of  the  first-class  engineering  firms  in  the  country  to  companies  formed  under  the  Act 
of  1862 — among  whom  may  be  named  Messrs.  Fairbairn  &  Co.  and  Messrs.  Sharp, 
Stewart,  &  Co.,  of  Manchester,  Messrs.  Jno.  Brown  &  Co.  and  Messrs.  Cammell  &  Co., 
of  Sheffield,  Messrs.  Slaughter,  Grnning,  &  Co.,  of  Bristol,  &c. — is  at  once  proof  of  the 
advantageous  character  of  the  principle  of  Association. 

A  provisional  agreement,  equitable  and  satisfactory,  has  been  entered  into  with  the 
vendors,  which  secures  to  the  Company,  at  a  valuation,  the  freehold  known  as  "  The 


ADVERTISEMENTS. 


Katesgrove  Iron  Works,  Reading,"  together  with  other  valuable  freeholds  and  leaseholds, 
the  Goodwill,  Stock-in-Trade,  Plant,  Machinery,  Patent  Rights,  &c. 

The  Freeholds  consist  of  Water-side  Premises,  having  a  River  frontage  of  440  feet,  with 
a  roadway  on  the  other  side,  and  an  average  depth  of  175  feet,  on  which  are  erected  the 
large  and  commodious  foundry,  smithy,  boiler  shops,  engineers',  fitters',  and  erectors' 
shops,  replete  with  the  necessary  tools  and  machinery  ;  the  engine-house  with  its  hori- 
zontal engine  of  forty-horse  power,  pair  of  boilers,  baths,  gas  works,  offices,  &c,  as  well 
as  the  lofty  and  massive  store-rooms,  pattern  stores,  &c.  A  very  large  and  commodious 
wood  machine  shop  about  120  feet  long  by  30  wide,  and  a  converted  timber  yard,  occupies 
the  site  of  another  freehold. 

The  Leasehold  property  consists  of  10  acres  of  Meadow  Land,  separated  by  the  river 
Kennet  from  the  Katesgrove  Freehold,  and  easily  connected  at  any  time  by  a  bridge. 

As  a  guarantee  of  the  soundness  of  the  undertaking,  the  vendors  have  agreed  that  they 
will  not  receive  any  interest  on  their  shares  until  a  minimum  dividend  of  5  per  cent,  has 
been  paid  on  the  remainder  of  the  subscribed  capital,  which  agreement  is  to  extend  over 
a  period. of  five  years— while  Mr.  William  Exall  and  Mr.  Charles  J.  Andrewes,  who 
have  taken  respectively  the  Engineering  and  Commercial  Management  in  the  business, 
will,  as  soon  as  the  transfer  is  complete,  take  seats  at  the  Board,  and  bring  to  bear  their 
extensive  and  valuable  experience. 

Whilst  the  Directors  attach  much  importance  to  this  agreement  with  the  vendors,  they 
think  it  right  to  state  that  they  have  been  advised  by  those  capable  of  forming  a  correct 
opinion  on  the  subject,  that  the  Shareholders  may  fully  anticipate  a  safe  and  remunerative 
dividend,  and  will  therefore  only  add,  in  conclusion,  that  of  the  many  enterprises  now 
before  the  public,  few  can  surpass  it  in  this  reasonable  expectation,  inasmuch  as  its 
operations  will  not  be  suspended  for  a  single  day  ;  its  connexion  is  made,  the  profits  will 
also  be  immediate,  and  the  Directors  have  every  reason  to  hope  that  the  services  of  the 
present  executive  staff,  which  has  so  long  and  faithfully  served  the  retiring  firm,  may  be 
secured  to  their  successors. 

Prospectuses  and  Forms  of  Application  for  Shares  may  be  had  of  the  Bankers,  Brokers, 
Solicitor,  and  Secretary,  at  the  Offices  of  the  Company,  in  London  or  Reading.  Each 
application  must  be  accompanied  with  a  deposit  of  20s.  per  Share.  The  Articles  of  Asso- 
ciation may  be  inspected  at  the  Offices  of  the  Solicitor,  35,  Lincoln's  Inn  Fields,  London. 


CALLAGHAK'S  ■ 
0PE3A,  EACE,  FIELD,  AMD  YACHT  GLASSES 

Combine  great  magnifying  power, 
with  sharpness  of  definition,  and  are 
warranted  of  the  best  manufacture. 

PRICES  FROM  30s.  EACH. 
May  be  had  at  the  Bookstalls  of 
Messrs.  SMITH  &  SON,  at  the  prin- 
cipal RAILWAY  STATIONS  through- 
out the  Kingdom,  and  at  HUGH 
SNOWIEl'S,  INVERNESS, 

The  New  Aluminium  Mounted 
Glasses  (same  as  furnished  to  H.R.H. 
the  Prince  of  Wales),  though  of  the 
largest  size,  weigh  but  a  few  ounces. 

INVALUABLE  TO  OFFICERS  ON 
SERVICE  IN  INDIA. 

WILLIAM    CALLAGHAN, 

OPTICIAN,  23a,  NEW  BOND  STREET.  W. 

N.b. — Sole  Agent  for  the  celebrated  Glasses  and  Photographic  Lenses  made  by 
Voigtlander,  Vienna,  Catalogues  of  which  may  be  had  free  on  application. 


BAILY'S  MAGAZINE. 


HOESES'  LEGS  and  other  parts  FOMENTED 

By  Streams  of  Hot  Water  (or  Cold),  by  Patent 

Apparatus   of   Vulcanized    Rubber   Perforated 

Tube,  13s.    If  regulated  by  a  Tap,  15s. 

Wholesale  of  SILVER  &  0O-9 
3,  BISHOPSGATE  STREET,  E.  C,  and  SILVERTOWN. 

BLACK  WELL,  SADDLER,  4c, 

PATENTEE,  259,  oxford  st.   w. 

GUTTAPERCHA  AND 

WHALEBONE  JOCKEYS 

TO  BREAK  HORSES,  60s.  &  64s. 
(PATENTED  1864.)     GUTTAPERCHA 
JOCKEYS  56s.  &  60s.— HIRE  2s.  AVVEEK 
ANTICRIB  BITER,  ELASTIC  OF  GUTTA  PERCHA,  18*. 
SAFETY  SPRING  RIDING  AND  DRIVING  REINS,  12*. 
RUBBER  SPRINGS  FOR  STRAPS,  ROLLERS,  &c,  2s. 
METAL  SPRINGS  TO  CHAINS,  WHIPS,  REINS,  &c. 
WEB  FETLOCK,  SPEEDY  LEG  KNEE  BOOTS,  &c. 

Prize  Medals  (1851,  1862),  London,  and  the  only  1st  Class,  Paris,  for  saddlers'. 


GUMS,     RIFLES,    AMD     REVOLVERS, 

BY    EVERY    MAKER    IN   THE   WORLD,    SECOND-HAND. 

AMMUNITION    OF  EVERY   DESCRIPTION. 

A  large  Slock  of  Antique  and  Modern  Flate,  Second-hand  Watches  and 
Jewellery  of  the  best  Manufacture  only. 

N.B.— AS&YTHINOr    TAKF.I?    IN    EIICHAHGI. 


WHISTLED,  11,  STRAND,  near  Charing  Cross. 


ADVERTISEMENTS. 


THE  CRICKET  CHRONICLE  FOR  1863. 

Now  Ready,  Price  2s.  6cl,  hy  post  2s.  10d., 

THE  CRICKET  CHRONICLE: 

A  Record,  with  Full  Scores  and  Explanatory  Notes,  of  all  Matches  of  general  and  local 
interest  played  during  the  Season  l»b3.  Contains  Matches  played  by  the  Marylebune  and 
Surrey  Clubs  at  Lord's  and  Kennington  Oval,  the  All  England  and  United  Elevens,  the 
I  Zingari  and  Civil  Service  Clubs,  Oxford  and  Cambridge,  Eton,  Harrow,  Rugby,  Win- 
chester, Charterhouse,  and  Westminster  ;  and  all  the  Matches  of  Public  Schools  and 
Colleges,  County  and  Provincial  Matches;  Military  Matches  at  Aldershot,  Woolwich, 
Chatham,  the  Curragh,  &c. ;  and  many  played  in  Ireland,  Scotland,  France,  India,  and 
all  parts  of  the  Globe. 

LONDON— A.  H.  BAILY  &  CO.,  CORNHILL, 

And  may  be  had  of  all  News  Agents,  and  at  the  Railway  Stations. 

Second  Edition,  in  demy  4  to.  cloth,  gilt  edges,  7  plates  coloured  and 

28  woodcuts,  price  9s. 


This  Treatise  is  acknowledged  by  Players  to  be  the  Cricketers' 

standard  Handybook. 


London :  A.  H.  BAILY  &  Co.,  Cornhill. 


CISHURST    COMPOUND 


? 


PATENTED. 
For  preventing  and  destroying  Red  Spider,  Scale,  Mealy  Bug, 
Thrip,  and  Green  and  Brown  Ely,  American  Blight,  Ants, 
Bed  Bugs,  &c,  and  useful  in  Winter  Dressing. 
Whatever  strength  is  applied,  it  is  most  important  that  the  plant  should  be 
thoroughly  wetted  with  the  solution,  either  by  means  of  dipping,  which  is 
the  most  effectual,  or  by  means  of  a  syringe  or  sponge.     From  neglect  of 
this  thorough  wetting,  a  weak  solution  has  in  several  instances  been  sup- 
posed to  be  ineffectual,  insects  (never  touched)  having  been  found  still 
living,  and  a  needlessly  strung  solution  has  been  applied,  to  the  injury  cf 
tender  shoots,  and  the  character  of  the  Gishurst. 

In  BOXES,  Is.  for  first  trials  and  small  uses,  such  as  destroying1  Bed  Bug's. 
3s.  for  not  large  Gardens.    10s.  6d.  for  Nursery  and  other  Great  Gardens. 

NURSERY  AND  SEEDSMEN  SUPPLIED  BY 

PRICE'S  PATENT   CANDLE    COMPANY,    LIMITED, 
BELMONT,    VAUXHALL,    LONDON. 


RED  SPIDER.   Magnified. 


J 


This  Establishment,  with  its  covered  ride  of  150  feet  long,  and  Leaping  Bar  for  trial 
of  Hunters,  is  OPEN  for  the  RECEPTION  and  SALE  of  HORSES,  &c,  by  PUBLIC 
AUCTION,  EVERY  THURSDAY,  at  Twelve  o'Ciock,  and  Private  Commission  daily. 
Horses  intended  for  Thursday's  Auction  should  be  sent  in  on  Tuesday  in  time  for 
Catalogue.     Charges  the  most  moderate  hi  London. 

85,  High  Holbom.  W.  DANIEL,  Secretary. 

MESSB&  HOLT  &  CROOK 

Have  resumed  business  for  the  Season.  Commissions 
promptly  attended  to.  A  price  recorded  will  be  forwarded  on 
receipt  of  a  Stamped  Directed  Envelope. 


10  BAILY'S  MAGAZINE. 


ASCOT   HOTEL. 

This  Establishment  affords  Families  and  Visitors  every  comfort  and 
accommodation  upon  reasonable  Terms.  The  air  at  Ascot  is  bracing  and 
salubrious,  and  the  surrounding  scenery  unsurpassed,  It  is  within  easy  and 
pleasant  drive  of  Windsor,  Reading,  and  Staines. 

J.  SOETLAW,  Manager. 


HOTEL    ST.    ANTOINB, 

ANTWERP. 

The  attention  of  Travellers  is  directed  to  the  above  CELEBRATED  HOTEL, 
where  every  accommodation]  exists  for  private  Families  and  others  visiting 
Antwerp,  a  city  famous  for  its  renowned  Works  of  Art  by  the  most  eminent 


masters. 


THE   "AKGUS"   TESTIMONIAL. 

Several  members  of  the  Press  and  the  Sporting  World  who  sympathise  with  "  Argus  " 
in  the  treatment  he  has  received  from  the  Jockey  Club,  and  who  admire  the  independent 
spirit  he  has  shown,  are  desirous  of  presenting  him  with  a  substantial  TESTIMONIAL 
of  their  approbation  of  and  regard  for  him  as  a  public  writer.  With  this  view  a  com- 
mittee has  been  formed,  consisting  of  the  following  gentlemen : — 


Buckland,  F.  T,  Esq.,  M.  A. 
Crockford,  John,  Esq. 
Francis,  Francis,  Esq. 
Gruneisen,  C.  L.,  Esq.,  F.G.S. 


Ledger,  F.,  Esq. 
Lupton,  I.  J.,  Esq. 
Sutton,  J.  M.,  Esq. 
Walsh,  J.  H.,  Esq. 


Subscriptions  may  be  forwarded  to  the  account  of  the  "  Argus  Fund,"  at  the  Temple 
Bar  Branch  of  the  Union  Bank  of  London,  13,  Fleet  Street,  E.  C. ;  or  to 

W.  JAQUET,  Esq.,  Hon.  Sec.  and  Measurer. 
4,  Sergeant's  Inn,  Fleet  Street, 
April  22nd,  1864. 


ARE   TO  BE   HAD   OP 


E  L  S  T  O  B5 

JBEX-.T,  BREECHES,  &  TROUSERS  MAKER 

60;    NEW    BOND    STREET. 

FOR   21s.  PER  PAIR, 

Thoroughly  Shrunk  and  made  by  hand,  distinct  from  the  General  Tailoring  Trade. 

The  best  trousers  for  gentlemen  are  those  made  by  Elstob,  60,  New  Bond  Street  They  are  not  so  low  in 
price  as  to  necessitate  their  being  carelessly  put  together,  nor  yet  so  dear  as  to  gain  only  the  wealthy  as  nur 
chasers.     Elstob's  trousers  21s.  per  pair.     Shooting  and  hunting  coats,  belts,  and  breeches.— \knvc  1 

ALL  EIDERS  ARE  LIABLE  TO  RUPTURE  AND  WEAKNESS  IN  THE  BACK 
STOUT  MEN  MORE  SO  THAN  OTHERS. 

"  As  the  Hunting  Season  approaches,  it  is  a  fault  to  oneself  to  be  without  Elstob's  Hunting  Belt  whlnh 
adapts  itself  so  closely  to  the  back  and  loins,  that  its  presence  is  simply  recognised  in  the  comfort  and  support 
it  affords  the  wearer,  being  unequalled  as  a  preventative  of  rupture,  &c,  &c.  ;  having  worn  it  rinaa  (fen  m 
I  can  confidently  speak  as  to  itB  value."— J.  W.  Ashto.v.  Leicester  —Size  of  waist  fn  ha  ««,*  <mTi .  .u  j T  * 
Address,  60,  New  Bond  Street,  London,  W.-f  Adtt.1  t0  be  6ent  Wlth  the  wder' 


ADVERTISEMENTS. 


11 


SWAINE  <&  ADENEY'S 

EXTENSIVE  COLLECTION  OF  WHIPS,  CANES, 

&c. 


Manufactory— 185,  JPiccaclilly.    "W 


Important  to  Tourists,  Travellers,  Anglers,  Invalids,  &c. 


,9J21!i:!r^^  „  ELASTICS. 

The  extravagant  prices  hitherto  charged  for  the  various  Manufactures  of  India-rubber 
have  prohibited  their  general  use,  thus  depriving  the  public  of  its  valuable  adaptation  to 
numerous  articles  of  comfort,  luxury,  and  even  necessity.  The  following,  amongst  a 
great  variety,  are  offered  to  the  public  at  Maker's  prices,  and  of  a  quality  which  strictly 
justifies  them  as  Nonpareil,  thus  enabling  all  "  To  tread  the  •water  and  fling  aside  its 
enmity,"  by 

JOHN  RAPEE, 

INDIA-RUBBER    MANUFACTURER,    &:c, 

5,   HIGH   OUSEGATE,   YOEK. 

WATERPROOF    WRAPPERS. 

The  Palmerston  Drab,  with  black  proof £1     5  0 

„  with  enamel  proof 1    7  6 

The  Clyde  Check,  with  black  proof  15  0 

,,  with  enamel  proof „ 17  b' 

The  Russell  Black,  with  biack  proof    1    5  0 

These  Coats  are  light,  can  be  carried  in  the  pocket  or  a  satchel,  guaranteed  tn  stand  any  climate,  are  revers  ble, 
thus  can  be  worn  as  a  Dust  Coat  or  a  Waterproof.  More  than  40  inches  round  the  chest  {the  only 
measure  required)  are  charged  a  trifle  extra. 

Capes  as  above,  up  to  40  inches  in  length,  (may  be  worn  by  ladies,)  at  same  prices. 

Satchels  for  the  above,  with  Swivels  and  Strap.  3s   extra. 

Waterproof  Fishing  and  Game  Bags,  Check  or  Drab,  6s.  each. 

Waterproof  Gun  Covers,  Black,  6s. 

Fishing  Stockings  21s.,  Wading  Boots  25s. ;  these  are  an  admirable  and  recent  combination 

of  Fishing  Stocking  and  Boot— are  light,  portable,  and  not  inelegant. 

The  above  are  sent,  Carriage  Paid,  to  any  Railway  Station  on  receipt  of  remittance. 


BEWARE 

OF 

SPURIOUS 

TRADE 


AND 

PIRATICAL 

IMITATIONS 

OF 

MARK. 


CONSUMPTION, 

COUGHS,  COLDS,  ASTHMA, 

Bronchitis,  Neuralgia,  Rheuma- 
tisms, Spasms,  &c,  are  instantly 
relieved  by  that  marvellous  re- 
medy known  as  CHLORODYNE, 
which  was  discovered  by  Dr.  J. 
Collis  Browne,  M.R.C.S.L., 
(ex  Army  Medical  Staff, )  and 
the  secret  of  its  recipe  confided 
only  to  J.  T.  Davenport,  Phar- 
maceutical Chemist,  33,  Great 
Russell  Street,  Bloomsbury  Square,  W.  (J.,  who  is  the  sole  manufacturer.  Medical  testi- 
mony furnished  by  the  highest  authorities, [in  military,  naval,  and  civil  practice,  and 
numerous  gratifying  statements  from  the  public  generally,  establish  this  property  as 
invaluable.  It  relieves  pain,  soothes  the  system,  inducing  refreshing  and  soothing  sleep, 
without  producing  or  having  any  unpleasant  effects  like  opium,  and  may  be  taken  at  any 
time  in  a  few  drop  doses.  Observe,  the  genuine  has  the  words  "Dr.  J.  Collis  Browne's 
Chlorodyne  "  engraved  on  the  Government  stamp ;  none  other  is  pure,  Price  2s.  9d.  and 
4a.  (3d.  a  bottle. 


D".  J.  COLLIS  BROWNE'S 
CHLORODYNE 


12 


BAILY'S  MAGAZINE.-ADVERTISEMENTS. 


THE  PRIZE  R/IEDAL8, 

LONDON,  PARIS,  LONDON, 

1851,  1855,         1862, 


AWARDED   TO 


COTTAM  &  Co. 

2,  WINSLEY  STREET, 
LONDON,  W., 

For  Progressive  and  General  Improvements  in 

PATENT  STABLE  FURNITURE  AND  IMPROVED 
HARNESS  FITTINGS. 

Original  Inventors  of  the  Modern  System  of  Fittings  for  Stables. 


<fe  !§tx  IpBJtsfg'a 


goral  Jdters  |aient. 


Patronised  by  the  English  and  French  Governments,  the  principal  Nobility,  Gentry, 
Hunting  and  Railway  Establishments;  they  are  in  use  at  Her  Majesty's  Stables, 
Aldershot  and  Balmoral. 


The  advantages  of  these  Fittings  over  others  are — Improvement  in  Shape,  Increased 
Capacity,  no  Projections,  Free  Ventilation,  Preventing  Foulness  in  the  Pack,  Facility  in 
Fixing,  Safety  from  Accident,  Durability  in  Construction,  and  Cleanliness  in  use. 


STALL  FITTINGS  TO  ANY  WIDTH,  OF  IRON  ENAMELLED,  OR  GALVANIZED  IRON. 


COTTAM  &  Co.'s  STABLE  FITTINGS,  now  so  generally  specified  by  Architects  in 
their  Specifications,  may  be  seen  at  the  Manufactory,  2,  WINSLEY  STREET, 
OXFORD  STREET,  W.,  where  a  large  supply  is  always  on  hand,  and  regular  sizes 
kept  in  stock,  and  where  full-size  Stalls  and  loose  Boxes  (variously  arranged,  with  a  view 
to  the  economy  of  space),  can  be  examined. 


Illustrated  ( Stable)  Catalogues  and  Estimates  gratis,  upon  application  to 

oottajm:  «&  Co., 

2,  WINSLEY  STREET,  OXFORD  STREET,  LONDON.    W. 

Cottam  &  Co.'s  ONLY  address  in  London  is  2,  Winsley  Street.   W, 
N.B.— Winsley  Street  is  the  street  opposite  the  Pantheon. 


BAILY'S 

Monthly  Magazine  of  Sports  and   Pastimes, 

and  Turf  Guide. 


No.  52.  JUNE,  1864.  Vol.  VIII. 


Embellished  with  a  Portrait  of  Mr.  Francis  Popham. 


CONTENTS. 

SPORTING    DIARY    FOR    THE    MONTH.  PAGE 

MR.    FRANCIS    POPHAM  :     A    BIOGRAPHY.         .....  IO9 

THE     NATIONAL    SPORT    AND     THE     NATIONAL    TASTE.         BY 

THE  GENTLEMAN   IN  BLACK  .  ...  .  .112 

THE    GRAND    MILITARY    STEEPLE-CHASES    NEAR    VERSAILLES  121 

PAUL    PENDRIL. — CHAPTER    IV.    .            .            .            .            .            .  I23 

f 

THE    EARLY    DAYS    OF    AN    M.  F.  H. — CHAPTER  VIII.       .            .  134 

c  A      BOX      FOR     THE      SEASON.'        A     SPORTING     SKETCH     BY 

CHARLES    CLARKE.          .......  I44 

ROWING      .             .            .            •             •            •            •            •             •  I5I 

THE    OTTER    KING          .            .            •            •            •            •            •  r53 

4OUR   van'          .....••••  155 


LONDON :  A.  H.  BAILY  &  Co.,  CORNHILL. 

1864. 


DIARY  FOR  JUNE,  1864. 


M. 
D. 


W. 
D. 


OCCURRENCES. 


I 
2 

3 

4 

5 
6 

7 
8 

9 

10 

1 1 
12 

13 

14 

J5 
16 

17 
18 

*9 
20 
21 
22 

23 

24 

25 

26 

27 
28 
29 

3° 


W 
Th 

F 

S 

M 
Tu 

W 
Th 

F 

S 

£ 
M 

Tu 

W 

Th 

F 

S 

£ 

M 

Tu 

W 

Th 

F 

S 

£ 
M 

Tu 
W 

Th 


Wilkie  died  1841.     Prince  of  Wales  Yacht  Club  Match. 
Benjamin  Aislabie  (Hon.  Sec.  M.  C.  C.)  died  1842. 
Maidstone  Races.  [a.m. 

Royal  Thames  Yacht  Club  Ocean  Match.      New  Moon  11*40 
Second  Sunday  after  Trinity. 
Jeremy  Bentham  died  1832. 
Ascot  Races  commence. 

Ascot  Cup  Day.  [x.  and  xxiv. 

General  Meeting  of  Marylebone  Club  to  legislate  on  Laws 
London  Rowing  Club.      Eights. 
Third  Sunday  after  Trinity. 

Royal  London  Yacht  Club  (2nd  and  3rd  Class)  Match. 
Hampton  and  Newton  Races  commence. 

Royal  Thames  Yacht  Club  Schooner  Match.     Duke  of  Marl- 

[ borough  died  1722. 
Battle  of  Waterloo  1 8 1 5. 

Fourth  Sunday  after  Trinity.      Magna  Charta  signed  121c. 
Accession  of  Queen  Victoria  1837. 

Odiham  Races.      Royal  Western  Yacht  Club  (Ireland)  Regatta. 
Bibury  Club  and  Beverley  Races. 
Stockbridge  Races. 
Midsummer  Day. 

Thames  Rowing  Club,  Senior  Sculls. 
Fifth  Sunday  after  Trinity. 

[Newcastle  Races  commence. 
Queen  Victoria  crowned  1838.  Chelmsford,  Curragh,  and 
Prince  of  Wales  visited  Ireland  1861.  [teur  cricketer,  died  1849. 
Worcester  and  Ipswich  Races.    Mr.  W.  Ward,  the  celebrated  ama- 


CKICKET.— THE 

The  Martlebone  Club. 
2nd,  At  Lord's,  M.C.O.  andG.  v.  Gntl.of  Devon. 
6th,  At  Lord's,  M.C.C.  and  G.  v.  Cambridge 

University,  Return. 
9th, At  Lord's,  M.C.C  andG.  v.  Oxford  Uni- 
versity, Return, 
ijtli,  At  Lord's,  Oxford  v.  Cambridge. 
16th,  At  Lord's,  M.C.C.  and  G.  v.  Civ.  Serv.  Club. 
2otb,  At  Lord's,  Harlequins  v.  Quidnuncs. 
22nd,  At  Rickling,  M.C.C.  and  G.  v.  Rickling 

Green. 
23rd,  At  Lord's,  I  Zingarit).  Household  Brigade. 
21th,  At  Lord's,  The  Gentlemen  v.  The  Players. 
30th,  At  Lord's,  M.C.C.  and  G.  v.  Rugby  School. 


JUNE  MATCHES. 

The  Surrey  Club. 
2nd,  At  the  Oval,  Surrey  v.  Sussex. 
9th,  At  the  Oval,  Surrey  v.  Cambridge  Un  iv. 
ijtb,  At  the  Oval,  Surrey  v.  Yorkshire. 
16th,  At  the  Oval,  Surrey  v.  Oxford  University. 
23rd,  At  the  Oval,  The  Gtlmen.  v.  The  Players. 
30th,  At  the  Oval,  Gentlemen  v.  Players  of  the 
South. 

The  Middlesex  Ci.ttb. 
2nd,  At  Newport  Pagnell,  Middlesex  v.  Bucks 
6th,  At  Islington,  Middlesex  v.  Sussex. 
16th,  At  Maidstone,  Gentlemen  of  Middlesex 
v.  Gentlemen  of  Kent. 


OTHER  MATCHES. 

6th,  At  Southampton,  Willsher  and  H.  H.  Stephenson's  Eleven  v.  Twenty-two. 
13th,  At  Nottingham,  Kent  v.  Notts. 
15th,  At  Woolwich,  Royal  Artillery  v.  Royal  Engin  eers. 
16th,  At  Broughton,  Willsher  and  H.  H.  Stephenson  's  Eleven  v.  Eighteen. 
17th,  At  Woolwich,  Royal  Artillery  v.  Quidnuncs. 
20th,  At  Islington,  United  Eleveu  v.  Twenty-two. 
20th,  At  Brighton,  Kent  v.  Sussex. 
24th,  At  Woolwich,  Royal  Artillery  «.  Harlequins. 
30th,  At  Nottingham,  Yorkshire  v.  Notts. 


. 


ro  OW,     .    ' :    !  i       i  ■  i    •"  • 


!   m    i 


I 


BAILY'S    MONTHLY   MAGAZINE 


OF 


SPORTS  AND  PASTIMES. 


MR.  FRANCIS  POPHAM. 

Mr.  Francis  Popham,  whose  career  on  the  Turf,  though  brief 
was  brilliant — having  won  the  Derby  with  Wild  Dayrell — belongs  to 
one  of  the  oldest  families  in  England,  and  is  descended  from  the 
celebrated  Lord  Chief  Justice  Popham,  whose  abilities  as  a  Judge 
have  been  handed  down  to  us  by  the  most  celebrated  legal  his- 
torians. 

Mr.  Francis  Popham  was  born  in  October,  1809,  and  is  the  second 
son   of  Lieutenant-General    Edward  Popham,  of  Littlecote.      For 
many  years  Mr.  Popham  pursued  the  life  of  a  country  gentleman  of 
fortune,  passing  his  time  in  the  pursuit  of  field  sports,  and  those  occu- 
pations peculiar  to  his  position  in  life.     Although  fond  of  racing,  he 
never  kept  a  stud,  but  had    one  or  two  brood  mares   at  Littlecote 
to  experimentalize  with.      In    1850  Mr.  Popham  purchased  Ellen 
Middleton  of  Lord  Zetland,  and   sent  her  to  Ion.     The  produce 
was  Wild  Dayrell,  who  was   sold  when  a  yearling  to   Lord   Henry 
Lennox    for    100    guineas,    with    the    condition    that    if    he    won 
the    Derby  he   was  to   receive   500    more.     The  Duke   of  Rich- 
mond's   stud  being  broken  up,  and  Lord   Henry  Lennox  retiring 
at  the  same  time,  Wild  Dayrell  went  up  with  the  Goodwood  horses 
to  Tattersall's,  and  as  no  bidder  could  be  found  for  him,  the  secret 
treasure  was  taken  back  by  Mr.  Popham,  and  put  into  training  at 
Ashdown  Park,  where,  under  the  care  of  Rickaby,  the  stud  groom  of 
Mr.  Popham,    he    took  his  breathings.      Rumours   that  he  was   a 
nice   colt  were  occasionally  floating  about  in  the  South  of  England, 
by  those  who  knew  the  district,  but  he  was  never  seen  until  the 
First  October  Meeting,  at  Newmarket,  in   1854,  when,  ridden    by 
Marlow,  he  won  a  Two-Year  Old  Sweepstakes  in   a  canter,  Para 
and  Hasel  running  a  dead  heat  for  second.     The  impression  he  then 
created  was  so  favourable,  that-  inquiries  as  to    his    being   in    the 
Derby  were  made,  and  these  being  answered  in  the  affirmative,  the 
gentlemen  who  back  horses  from  a  knowledge  of  their  make   and 
shape,  and  are  judges  of  action,  at  once  determined  to  throw  away  a 

VOL.   VIII. — NO.  52,.  M 


no  mr.  francis  popham  :  [June, 

pony  or  fifty  on  him.     And  from  that  time  until  after  the  Derby, 
the  name  of  Wild  Dayrell  was  rarely  absent  from  the  Derby  quota- 
tions.    In  the  Spring,  the   fame  of  his   prowess  began    to    extend 
itself,  and  Lord  Craven's    friends  at  Ashdown  returned  to  London 
with  the  most  flattering  accounts  of  his  progress.     To  find  a  horse 
to  lead  him  in  his   work  was   a   matter  of  great  difficulty.     Lord 
Zetland   was   to  have  lent   Hospodar  ;  but  as  he    was  required  for 
Fandango,  there  was  nothing  to  be  done  but  to  give  sixteen  hundred 
guineas   for  Jack  Sheppard  ;  and  in  his  trial  with  him  he   gave  him 
eight  pounds,   and    Gamelad    twenty-one.      This    spin,  it  will    be 
admitted,  gave   him  a  great  chance  ;  and  Hampshire,  Wiltshire,  and 
Berkshire   literally  piled  its  money  on  him.      Still,  he  never  improved 
his  position  in  the  market;  and  certain  operators  never  ceased  laying 
against  him  under  any  circumstances.     This  naturally  alarmed  the 
suspicions  of  his  friends,  who  considered  there  could  not  be  smoke 
without  fire  ;  and  Mr.  Popham  was  entreated  to  remove  him  from 
the  care  of  Rickaby,  and  change  his  jockey,  Robert  Sherwood,  who 
had  been  specially  engaged  to   ride  him  in  his  exercise,  and  also   in 
the  Derby.     But  he  most  firmly  refused  the  request,  and  stated  he 
had  entire  confidence  in  the  integrity  and  ability  of  his  servants  ;  and 
his  estimate  of  them  was  not  overrated   or  abused.     Every  design 
that    villany  could    suggest    was   had  recourse    to  in  the  hopes    of 
nobbling   Wild    Dayrell;    but    never    being    left    for  an    hour    by 
either  his  trainer  or  jockey,  he  escaped   the  intended   '  coopering,' 
even   when     the    lynchpins    of  the  wheels    of  his  van   had    been 
tampered  with. 

To  get  out  now  of  the  large  sums  that  had  been  laid  against  him 
was  impossible ;  and  as  Rifleman  and  De  Clare  had  both  broken 
down  on  the  Sunday  previous  to  the  race,  his  prospect  of  winning 
became  so  great  he  was  almost  backed  against  the  field.  Since 
West  Australian  and  The  Flying  Dutchman  no  horse  created  so 
great  a  sensation  in  the  paddock,  particularly  when  it  transpired 
Mr.  Popham  had  been  offered  5,000  guineas  not  to  run  him.  Old 
John  Day  followed  him  about  with  delight  and  wonderment,  and 
said  he  would  be  beggared  if  he  would  not  have  a  monkey  on  at 
any  price,  for  he  could  not  lose.  How  he  won  in  a  canter  is 
notorious  ;  but  it  was  only  just  in  time,  for  the  hard  ground  told  on 
his  legs  with  such  a  carcass  to  carry,  and  the  following  morning  he 
was  lame.  By  his  victory  the  nobblers  were  routed,  and  a  good 
service  done  to  the  racing  community  by  Mr.  Popham,  who  felt  so 
keenly  the  anxiety  he  had  to  endure  during  the  last  few  months 
of  Wild  Dayrell's  preparation  that  he  said  nothing  on  earth  would 
ever  induce  him  to  have  another  Derby  horse.  Wild  Dayrell's 
next  appearance  was  at  York  August  Meeting,  where  he  beat  the 
6,000  guinea  Oulston  in  the  commonest  of  canters.  His  third  and 
last  effort  as  a  racehorse  was  at  Doncaster,  where  he  came  out  for 
The  Cup  with  horse-cloth  bandages  on  his  front  legs  to  face  Rataplan. 
But  all  was  of  no  avail ;  for  although  he  had  the  assistance  of  two 
aide-de-camps  in  Indian  Warrior  and  Little  Harry,  as  they  came 


1864.]  A    BIOGRAPHY.  Ill 

round  the  bend  of  the  T.Y.C.  Wells  found  something  going,  and 
Wild  Dayrell  never  troubled  another  bookmaker  or  entered  another 
enclosure.  The  Yorkshiremen  mourned  his  sorrows  as  much  as 
the  Southrons,  and  said,  c  He's  a  vast  deal  more  down  in  his  sinews 
1  than  ever  Maid  of  Masham  was.'  In  his  four  races,  in  each 
of  which  he  was  ridden  by  a  different  jockey,  he  won  5,575^.  ;  and 
as  Mr.  Popham  won  a  nice  stake  over  him  for  the  Derby,  he  has 
proved  almost  worth  his  weight  in  gold  to  him,  if  we  take  into  con- 
sideration his  earnings  at  the  stud,  wherein  he  has  acquired  as  high 
a  reputation  as  on  the  Turf.  For  the  information  of  breeders,  we 
should  say  Wild  Dayrell  stands  sixteen  hands  and  an  inch  high  ; 
has  a  lean,  blood-like  head,  strong  arched  neck,  good  oblique  shoulders, 
great  depth  of  girth,  and  good  back  and  ribs.  He  has  likewise  strong 
muscular  quarters  and  thighs,  and  immense  arms  ;  is  a  little  in  at 
the  elbows,  and  turns  out  his  toes,  but  is  altogether  a  magnifi- 
cent specimen  of  a  Sire.  Among  the  best  of  his  stock  may  be 
mentioned  Avalanche,  Hurricane,  Buccaneer,  Wildman,  Dusk, 
Investment,  The  Roe,  Becky  Sharpe,  Tornado,  Molly  Carew,  and 
Sea  King;  and  he  will  doubtless  add  to  their  numbers  before  long. 

Wild  Dayrell  was  named  after  a  species  of  Palmer  who  originally 
owned  Littlecote,  and  committed  a  series  of  atrocities  which,  if  Miss 
Braddon  had  been  alive,  would  have  furnished  materials  for  a 
romance  which  in  interest  might  have  rivalled  l  Lady  Audley's 
'  Secret.'  Accused  of  having  committed  pretty  nearly  every  crime  in 
the  Decalogue,  by  a  slice  of  luck  equalled  only  by  that  of  the  modern 
Smethurst,  he  escaped  the  penalty  due  to  his  crimes.  And  persons 
were  not  wanting  at  the  time  to  assert  that  he  c  got  at'  Judge 
Popham,  and  squared  him  by  making  over"  Littlecote  to  him.  Like 
many  criminals  of  the  deepest  dye  Wild  Dayrell  could  be  a  saint  if  it 
suited  his  purpose;  and  Sir  Walter,  in  '  Rokeby,'  thus  sings  of  him  : — 

'  If  Prince  or  Peer  cross  Dayrell's  way, 
He'll  beard  him  in  his  pride  ; 
If  he  meet  a  Friar  of"  orders  grey, 
He  weeps  and  turns  aside.' 

His  good  luck,  however,  did  not  benefit  him  long,  for  a  few  months 
afterwards  he  was  killed  by  a  fall  he  got  from  his  horse  in  attempting 
to  force  him  over  a  stile  in  Littlecote  Park. 

The  mansion  at  Littlecote  is  now  leased  by  Mr.  Padwick,  so 
well  known  on  the  Turf;  and  although  weak-minded  persons  still 
persist  in  the  belief  that  the  ghost  of  Wild  Dayrell  haunts  its  gal- 
leries and  bedchambers,  other  visitors,  whose  minds  are  of  a  more 
practical  character,  and  who  have  partaken  of  the  hospitality  of  the 
new  lessee,  have  never  been  troubled  with  such  qualms,  and  have 
escaped  without  any  such  midnight  visitations.  But  if  their  dreams 
have  been  disturbed,  it  has  arisen  more  from  stereoscopic  views 
of  Paris,  Prince  Arthur,  Birch  Broom,  and  Scottish  Chief,  than 
from  any  other  cause. 

Mr.  R.  Popham  is  married  to  Miss  Brock,  and  has  by  her  several 

m  2 


112  THE  NATIONAL  SPORT    AND  THE  NATIONAL  TASTE.      [June, 

children.  In  all  the  relations  of  life  Mr.  Popham  has  preserved  an 
undimmed  reputation.  As  a  follower  of  the  Chase  he  has  been  well 
known  for  years  with  the  Craven  Hounds  ;  and  the  streams  with 
which  his  estates  are  surrounded  have  contributed  to  his  fame  as  a 
fisherman.  In  short,  no  man  can  fulfil  the  duties  of  his  station 
better;  and  in  his  sphere  of  life  he  is  an  eminently  useful  member 
of  society. 


THE   NATIONAL   SPORT   AND   THE 
NATIONAL  TASTE. 

BY    THE    GENTLEMAN    IN    BLACK. 

c  Quot  homines,  tot  sentential. '  This  aphorism,  like  many  others, 
is  not  true  ;  and  a  close  examination  of  proverbial  expressions  will 
only  confirm  the  sentiment  of  David,  that  '  all  men  are  liars.'  Had 
the  royal  Psalmist  said  so  after  considerable  deliberation  rather  than 
in  haste,  it  would  have  been  but  a  ^more  necessary  result  of  longer 
and  deeper  thought,  and  have  added  weight  to  the  assertion.  The 
greatest  virtue  of  modern  days,  because  the  rarest,  is  truth  :  and 
perhaps  there  are  not  a  dozen  men  in  Europe  who  are  capable  of 
discarding  all  temptation  to  exaggerate,  and  whose  conversation  can 
be  characterized  by  c  yea,  yea,'  and  c  nay,  nay,'  and  nothing  be- 
yond it. 

It  is  not  true  that  there  are  as  many  opinions  as  there  are  men. 
There  are  quite  opinions  enough,  and  sufficiently  opposite  sentiments 
to  produce  discussion,  and  something  more  ;  but  the  increase  of 
population  has  put  the  witty  author  of  this  trite  piece  of  Latinity 
entirely  out  of  court  on  the  score  of  fact.  He  might  almost  as  well 
have  said  there  are  as  many  race-courses  as  men ;  an  expression 
which  serves  well  to  illustrate  one  of  the  prevailing  fashions  of  the 
day.  There  are  so  many,  that  it  is  no  exaggeration  to  say  that  every 
class  of  racing  man  has  his  own  course  :  that  the  true  sportsman,  the 
idler,  the  sporting-man,  the  aristocrat,  the  ring-man,  the  nibbler, 
and  the  nobbier  have  each  ground  on  which  they  can  operate  with 
greater  facility  than  elsewhere.  Even  the  Welsher  is  not  without 
his  small  county  meeting  of  third  and  fourth  class  horses  and  pro- 
vincial talent,  incognizant  of  the  policeman,  and  far  from  the  haunts 
of  his  lynx-eyed  victims,  where  he  can  gather  fresh  laurels  for  his 
brow, — shall  we  say  crowns  for  his  pocket  ?  The  insouciant  dandy- 
ism of  Goodwood  is  as  far  removed  from  the  business-like  air  of 
Newmarket,  as  the  First  Spring  Meeting  is  from  the  27th  of  July  ; 
and  Royal  Ascot  has  features  as  distinct  from  the  noisy  cork-drawing 
of  a  Derby  Day,  as  a  well-ordered  fight  is  dissimilar  from  a  street 
row. 

This  is  the  23rd  of  May  ;  two  days  before  the  Derby  of  1864. 
If  I  were  a  prophet,  which,  thank  goodness,  I  am  not,  seeing  how 
singularly  wrong  they  usually  are,  I  should  certainly  back  my  fore- 
knowledge at  once  instead  of  selling  it.     It  seems  to  me  a  remark- 


1864.]      THE  NATIONAL  SPORT    AND  THE    NATIONAL    TASTE.         II3 

able  piece  of  disinterestedness,  that  these  gentlemen  should  present 
such  very  valuable  information  to  the  readers  of  '  Bell,'  or  the  '  Field,' 
or  any  other  journal,  or  should  even  offer  it  to  strangers  for  half  a 
crown's  worth  of  stamps,  before  they  have  secured  to  themselves 
the  very  handsome  fortune,  which  would  inevitably  follow  a  practical 
outlay  in  accordance  with  the  exercise  of  their  prescience.  I  fear 
on  this  day  I  should  have  been  employed  otherwise  than  in  endeavour- 
ing to  amuse  the  readers  of  '  Baily's  Magazine.'  But  let  us  return 
to  our  muttons  ;  or  rather  let  us  take  the  first  slice  out  of  them. 
We  will  begin  with  Epsom. 

The  cockney's  first  holiday  is  the  Derby.  Your  true  and  genuine 
cockney  turfite  cares  nothing  at  all  about  the  earlier  meetings. 
Northampton  is  too  far  off,  Epsom  Spring  is  too  cold,  Newmarket 
has  no  booths  or  flags ;  and  he  has  nothing  to  learn  from  York,  Bath, 
or  Harpenden,  full  of  instruction  as  these  places  are.  He  looks  for- 
ward to  the  Derby  as  the  day  that  is  to  inaugurate  his  season  of 
racing  ;  and  considering  the  manner  in  which  his  mind  has  for  weeks 
been  occupied  in  arrangements  decorative  and  appetitive,  it  is  won- 
derful how  much  he  knows  about  the  horses  that  are  going  to  start. 
The  General,  Cambuscan,  Birchbroom  ;  he  talks  of  them  all  as  if 
they  were  intimate  acquaintance,  as,  indeed,  he  does  of  Glasgow,  John 
White,  and  Westmorland,  as  though  he  would  pay  them  a  compli- 
ment by  making  'household  words'  of  them,  like  Shakespeare's 
heroes  on  the  fields  of  Shrewsbury  or  Agincourt.  His  book  is  an 
instructive  one.  He  is  quite  sure  to  have  to  pay  gloves,  bonnets, 
and  scarves  to  the  extent  of  a  quarter's  salary ;  and  he  has  discovered 
only  to-day  that  he  cannot  possibly  win  anything,  and  will  probably 
lose  two  pounds  five.  All  that,  however,  goes  into  the  day ;  it  is  a 
pure  holiday — in  Young  Metropolitan's  opinion  not  intended  for 
making  money,  but  only  for  spending  it.  The  new  clothes  which  are 
to  come  home,  the  lemon-coloured  or  lavender  gloves,  the  thin 
paletot,  quite  unfitted  for  our  Siberian  spring  (the  last  ten  days  being 
only  an  exception  to  the  rule),  rival  the  glossy  bonnet  and  the  start- 
ling novelty  in  shawls,  fresh  importations  from  Paris  via  Regent 
Street  and  Madame  Elise.  Fortnum  and  Mason  are  au  desespoir. 
If  such  great  people  can  be  said  ever  to  have  had  any  wit,  they  are 
now  at  their  wit's  end.  Multifarious,  indeed,  are  the  orders,  and 
blank  are  the  looks  of  the  domestic  cuisine  :  shades  of  lamb  and 
salad  so  lately  eating,  the  one  the  other,  in  the  green  fields  and  on 
suburban  pastures,  now  to  be  devoured  together  ;  what  state  of 
mind  are  you  producing  among  the  good  plain  cooks  ?  Startled 
policemen  slink  away  from  the  area  railings,  feeling  that  the  season 
for  caterwauling  is  not  now.  Higher  pleasures  than  those  of  love 
are  taxing  the  energies  of  the  lower  regions,  and  the  Proserpines  of 
Tyburnia  are  engaged  in  seasoning  their  pigeon  pies  instead  of  their 
flirtations. 

By  the  way,  no  one  has  asked  after  Banting  about  this  time. 
Is  he  contemplating  suicide  ?  Will  he  bear  his  disappointments  like 
a  man  at  the  universal  disregard   of  his  advice  ?  or  will  he  be  found, 


114      THE  NATIONAL    SPORT    AND  THE    NATIONAL  TASTE.        [June, 

for  once,  transgressing  his  own  rules,  and  laying  on  pounds  of  flesh 
in  a  self-indulgence  which  merits  praise  if  only  for  its  rarity  ?  Surely 
plovers'  eggs  and  iced  champagne  will  find  favour  in  his  sight  for 
the  one  glorious  holiday,  to  which  our  friends  have  looked  forward 
ever  since  they  came  up  from  the  shires. 

Of  course  racing  men — i.e.,  the  few  thousands  who  profess  to 
know  anything  about  the  business,  who  lay  the  odds  or  take  the 
odds,  who  disregard  the  pleasures  of  personal  gratification,  voting  the 
crowd  an  insufferable  nuisance,  and  the  only  refreshment  necessary 
to  clear  their  throats  for  '  laying  against  Combustion  or  the  Broom,' 
a  ham  sandwich  and  a  bottle  of  stout — will  go  down  sulkily  and 
mysteriously  by  the  rail.  Perhaps  they  will,  have  taken  a  lodging  in 
the  town,  or  a  villa  in  the  neighbourhood,  according  to  their  late 
successes  (which  ought  to  have  been  great)  or  reverses.  But  our 
true  Derbyite  will  be  satisfied  with  nothing  but  Newman's  fours — 
greys  if  he  can  have  them,  and  a  yellow  barouche  packed  inside  and 
outside  with  creature  comforts  of  all  kinds.  This  is  the  true  road 
to  the  Derby  ;  any  other  is  spurious,  and  unfitted  to  the  great  occa- 
sion. He  will  turn  a  deaf  ear  to  the  weatherwise  :  he  will  not  believe 
in  rain,  though  a  stormy  petrel  settle  on  his  bolster  the  night  before ; 
at  least  not  more  than  enough  to  lay  the  dust.  To  all  offers  of 
laying  any  other  dust,  or  of  taking  it,  he  is  equally  and  happily  im- 
pervious. The  little  of  the  leg  that  he  has  in  his  composition,  as  an 
Englishman,  is  now  absorbed  in  his  personal  get-up,  his  attention  to 
his  alter  ego,  or  '  better- half,'  or  'temporary  helpmate,'  or  whatever 
his  name  for  the  ladies  of  the  party  may  be,  and  in  his  anticipations 
of  that  glorious  luncheon,  to  whose  promise  he  has  stifled  the  calls 
of  to-day's  breakfast,  and  by  whose  fulfilment  he  will  as  certainly 
settle  the  pretensions  of  the  same  meal  to-morrow.  Not  to  disap- 
point the  critics,  nor  to  hurt  the  feelings  of  the  general  reader,  I 
exclude  from  this  category  all  the  regular  frequenters  of  the  Turf, 
and  only  desire  to  exhibit  in  its  true  colours  the  peculiar  idiosyncracy 
of  the  frequenter  of  the  hill  on  the  Derby  Day. 

He  is  the  pink  of  propriety  as  far  as  the  course,  where  he  joins 
a  motley  group  of  drags,  omnibuses,  carriages,  on  four-wheels  and 
two,  donkey  carts,  provision  merchants,  and  that  numerous  class  of 
pedestrians  whose  duties  appear  to  lie  between  the  Stand  and  the 
Warren,  but  who  palpably  belong  to  neither.  Once  in  position,  and 
brushed  down  by  the  united  services  of  an  ex-pickpocket  and  a  sports- 
man in  scarlet,  but  without  shoes,  his  business  begins.  The  first 
races  pass  without  even  a  pretended  notice ;  for  he  watches  the 
Epsom  Town  Plate  and  the  race  for  the  Bentinck  with  his  head 
and  shoulders  in  a  brougham,  or  in  unearthing  the  pigeon  pies  and 
salad  from  the  boot  of  his  carriage.  A  walk  to  the  Warren  before 
the  race  of  the  day  fills  him  with  secret  alarm  for  his  patent  leathers, 
when  some  too  kindly  officious  friend  proposes  to  show  him  the 
horses  which  are  to  contend  for  the  Blue  Ribbon  of  the  Turf. 
What  cares  he  for  horses  on  the  Derby  Day  ?  He  is  satisfied  with 
a  coup  a"a?il,  which  is  not  to   be  beaten  in  the  world,  from  the  top 


1864.]     THE  NATIONAL  SPORT  AND  THE  NATIONAL  TASTE.  II5 

of  a  friend's  drag,  or  the  box  of  his  own  landau,  at  a  distance  of  two 
furlongs.  He  has  no  more  idea  of  the  colours  of  the  riders  than  he 
has  of  the  pretensions  of  the  horses,  and  the  whole  passes  by  him  as 
a  vision  of  an  intermittent  rainbow.  Roars  of '  The  General,  Cam- 
buscan,  and  Blair  Athol,'  fill  the  air ;  enthusiastic  friends  who  have 
spotted  the  winner,  shout  and  dance  ;  hats  fly  here  and  there  ;  and 
in  the  midst  of  an  unreal  enthusiasm,  he  takes  his  seat  in  a  plateful 
of  salad,  and  the  Derby  is  over  for  him. 

And  now  his  day  begins.  'Thank  goodness,  that  is  over,'  says 
he  ;  *  now  let  us  lunch.'  And  to  it  he  goes,  with  some  thousands 
more,  to  enjoy  the  pleasure  of  the  greatest  race  of  the  year.  This 
is  the  Englishman,  whose  love  of  a  horse  and  whose  knowledge  of 
horseflesh  is  applauded  by  admiring,  or  rather  envious,  foreigners. 
This  is  one  of  the  Public,  who  insist  upon  right  being  done  by  them, 
and  who  determine  upon  knowing  why  this  horse  or  that  is  scratched 
or  run,  according  to  the  will  of  the  owner,  instead  of  in  accordance 
with  the  convenience  of  thousands,  who  are  as  fond  of  racing,  and 
know  as  much  about  it,  as  our  metropolitan  type.  During  the  rest 
of  the  day  he  is  immersed  in  iced  champagne,  claret  cup  (thanks  to 
Mr.  Gladstone),  knock-'em-downs,  Aunt  Sally,  the  Christy  min- 
strels, fighting  boys,  the  ancient  doll  trick,  real  Havannahs  from 
Covent  Garden,  fortune-telling,  and  sherry  and  seltzer  water.  He 
resumes  his  journey  when  the  postboys  assure  him  that  the  last  race 
has  been  run.  His  equanimity  is  not  disturbed  by  chaff  or  pin- 
cushions, sawdust  or  gingerbread,  nor  his  temper  ruffled  by  all  he 
has  undergone,  though  he  has  lost  his  gloves  and  a  rather  severe 
walking-cane,  until  he  is  compelled,  after  long  altercation,  to  repay 
the  Sutton  Gate,  because  he  has  mislaid  his  ticket.  He  reaches 
Grosvenor  Place  about  half-past  ten,  if  lucky,  without  having  broken 
the  pole,  or  somebody  else's  pole  having  broken  his  back ;  and 
although  it  takes  him  a  week  to  recover  the  effects  of  his  love  for 
the  national  sport,  he  vows  there  is  nothing  like  it,  and  intends  to 
do  the  same  thing  again  at  the  Derby  in  '65.  The  national  taste 
must  be  supported  ! 

This  is  not  your  true  parasite  who  lives  upon  the  turf;  and  who, 
doubtless,  is  thought,  like  the  sheep,  to  benefit  it  immensely  by  feed- 
ing from  it  :  but  he  is  one  of  the  representatives  of  it  in  England,  and 
we  have  to  thank  him,  to  a  certain  extent,  for  the  enormous  reputa- 
tion we  enjoy  as  a  great  racing  people. 

As  the  season  advances,  and  fetes  champetres  are  more  in  vogue, 
when  laced  parasols,  charitable  institutions,  and  the  flimsiest  of 
bonnets  have  obtained  during  the  day,  and  when  about  four  weeks 
of  opera,  concert,  heavy  dinners,  and  petit s  soupers  have  had  a  some- 
what unlimited  run,  London  dissipation  is  again  intruded  upon  by 
the  second  popular  exhibition  of  the  national  sport.  Royal  Ascot 
invites  the  attention  of  the  racing  man.  This  time,  the  venue  being 
further  removed  from  London,  the  company  may  be  expected  to  be 
of  a  more  exclusive  class  ;  and  it  is  so.  The  rail  affords  vast  facilities 
to  many ;  but  the  privileged  classes  will  prefer  to  locate  themselves 


Il6  THE  NATIONAL  SPORT  AND  THE  NATIONAL  TASTE.      [June 

in  the  neighbourhood.  Neither  beauty  of  scenery  nor  convenience 
of  situation  is  deficient.  From  the  humble  cottage  or  villa,  which 
is  not  unfrequently  to  be  tenanted  at  the  moderate  sum  of  from 
thirty  to  fifty  guineas  a  week,  to  the  large  and  handsome  house  at 
from  one  to  two  hundred,  there  is  no  lack  of  accommodation.  The 
notion  of  a  man  who  intends  to  refresh  himself  with  some  country 
air  in  the  middle  of  the  season,  being  hurried  backwards  and  for- 
wards to  and  from  town,  is  an  absurdity.  That  it  has  struck  men 
so  appears  certain  from  the  admirable  hotel  which  has  been  built  at 
the  top  of  the  course,  and  which  seems  to  combine  the  advantages 
of  purity  of  atmosphere  with  proximity  to  a  race-course  ;  a  combina- 
tion so  seldom  to  be  met  with,  that  it  merits  a  trial. 

Let  me  assure  the  stranger  or  the  foreigner  that  this  is  another  of 
those  national  reunions  which  may  be  ascribed  to  our  love  of  racing, 
but  which  has  as  much  to  do  with  that  love  of  a  bonnet,  and  the 
pleasures  of  a  fashionable  squeeze.  It  boots  not  to  sing  of  days  when 
Ascot,  unapproached  by  rail,  and  unconscious  of  a  Grand  Stand, 
stood  conspicuously  forward  as  the  meeting  of  the  season.  Then 
on  either  side  of  the  course  were  carriages  filled  with  such  beauty 
as  only  an  English  aristocracy  can  produce,  and  which  even  those 
brilliant  toilettes  could  not  enhance.  There  was  a  pageant  to  be 
seen.  The  Royal  Family  came  in  their  carriages  of  state  ;  and 
Davis,  the  finest  horseman  in  the  country,  himself  a  sight  worth  the 
journey,  rode  in  front  of  them,  up  the  centre  of  the  course.  Be- 
tween the  acts,  there  was  a  promenade  of  striking  beauty,  in  which 
the  peer  and  the  peasant  played  a  part.  All  men  could  see  and  be 
seen  ;  and  as  the  horses  walked  down  the  course  to  start,  and  the 
bell  rang  out  its  warning,  the  ladies  retired  again  to  their  carriages, 
to  repeat  the  walk,  according  to  strength  or  inclination. 

Such,  of  course,  could  not  be  the  case  now.  But  Ascot  has  pre- 
served many  of  its  ancient  privileges.  It  is  neither  so  noisy,  so 
dusty,  so  crowded,  nor  so  drunken  as  the  Derby.  It  is  pre-eminently 
a  lady's  race-course :  and  whether  she  venture  among  the  pink 
bonnets  and  parasols  which  crowd  the  Stand,  and  render  breathing 
a  difficulty,  and  seeing  an  impossibility,  or  whether  she  confine  her- 
self to  the  more  healthy  and  convenient  shelter  of  the  carriage,  she 
has  nothing  to  dread  in  the  shape  of  the  hill.  The  gipsies  are  better 
behaved,  the  Christy  minstrels  less  noxious,  a  harp  and  violin,  out  of 
tune,  to  be  candid,  is  substituted  for  the  not  edifying  spectacle  of  a 
street  fiVht,  and  Aunt  Sally  and  the  cocoa-nuts  are  kept  out  of  sight. 
In  a  word  there  is  no  hill.  The  betting  ring  is  as  diabolical  as  else- 
where, but  it  is  an  exceptional  case,  no  more  a  feature  of  one  course 
than  of  another ;  and  not  less  honest,  or  less  earnest,  or  more  grimy 
than  in  other  places. 

Though  professional  vagabondism  musters  strongly,  very  strongly 
since  the  opening  of  the  railway,  as  it  always  will  within  twenty-five 
miles  of  London,  it  is  here  not  so  much  on  its  own  ground.  Like 
ruffianism  in  the  precincts  of  a  court  of  justice,  it  recognizes  the 
genius  loci  to  some  extent.       Trade  has   its  representatives  among 


1864.]   THE  NATIONAL  SPORT  AND  THE  NATIONAL  TASTE.  II7 

only  its  upper  classes  ;  wealthy  Jews  abound.  These  are  no  votaries 
of  the  national  sport,  but  followers  of  fashion,  and  pretenders  to  a 
sort  of  suburban  elegance.  Their  holiday  is  among  their  betters. 
The  villas  round  London  throw  out  their  inhabitants  ;  and  the 
cockney  element  is  no  less  present,  but  it  is  less  prominent,  than  in 
its  rival.  Its  mirth  is  not  so  boisterous  ;  and  it  borrows  less  from 
its  subordinates,  more  from  its  superiors.  There  is  an  element  of 
county  society,  less  marked  than  at  Goodwood,  and  wholly  wanting 
at  Epsom.  There  is  not  that  utter  abandon  to  the  pleasures  of 
sense  ;  and  the  sports  of  the  day  force  themselves  more  prominently 
upon  public  notice.  From  local  causes,  most  men,  and  women  too, 
see  some  races  besides  the  Cup  at  Ascot.  Thousands  at  Epsom 
never  see  a  horse,  excepting  the  jaded  cattle  that  drag  them  back 
wearied  to  their  homes.  Broken  glass  is  in  less  profusion,  and  in- 
capable postboys  fewer,  and,  oh  !  considerations  of  safety  !  further 
between.  ,  Distance  cannot  be  accomplished  but  by  relays,  and  few 
costermongers  enjoy  a  change  of  horses  on  the  road.  Vanity  Fair 
assumes  a  more  graceful  aspect  within  reach  of  royalty,  and  if  it 
furnishes  less  excitement,  Ascot  leaves  fewer  stings  behind. 

Goodwood  presents  us  with  no  marks  for  criticism.  If  Boccaccio 
could  have  sung,  and  Watteau  could  have  painted,  horseflesh,  we 
would  have  sent  him  to  the  hills  of  Goodwood  for  his  lesson.  It  is 
there  only  that  we  can  forget  that  on  the  left-hand  side  of  the  Stand 
is  a  clamorous  throng  of  thirsting  mendicants.  What  peace,  what 
beauty,  what  harmony  !  Beneath  the  shadows  of  those  beautiful 
trees,  on  a  lawn  dry  with  the  warmth  of  a  whole  summer,  and  soft 
with  a  verdure  entirely  its  own,  there  seems  to  be  spread  one  uni- 
versal pic-nic.  Racing  ! — heaven  save  the  mark  !  Who  ever  thinks 
of  such  a  thing,  excepting  that  vast  throng  which  I  reserve  for  future 
mention,  and  which  here  condescends  to  mingle  some  pleasure  with 
its  severer  duties.  Noise,  dirt,  dust,  and  champagne  fail  on  the 
Derby  Day  to  extract  aught  but  a  sigh  of  regret  from  the  speculator. 
Ascot  enjoys  her  own  without  alloy  ;  but  Goodwood  infuses  into  the 
hardest  crust  of  self-interest  some  sort  of  sentiment  for  its  beauties, 
apart  from  professional  attendance.  Pandemonium  feels  the  influence 
of  its  graces.  The  London  season  is  over,  and  Goodwood  looks 
like  the  first  step  back  to  the  innocence  of  rural  life.  We  have  left 
the  metropolis  far  behind,  and  few  are  hardy  enough  to  have  brought 
its  demoralizing  tendencies  on  to  the  Sussex  downs.  There  is  a 
semblance  of  goodness,  at  all  events,  in  a  people  who  can  enjoy 
their    luncheon    al  fresco.      Dress    yourself  well,    behave    yourself 

decently,  and  you  may  eat  with  the  Duchess  of  A ,  and  share 

the  somewhat  spacious  table  of  the  Countess  of  B .     You  are 

under  the  same  bright  blue  canopy ;  the  same  glorious  foliage  is  your 
curtain  :  fear  not  to  bask  in  the  same  sunlight.  1  hope  it  may  make 
you  happier — it  ought  to  make  you  a  better  man.  Goodwood,  that 
is  to  say  the  right-hand  side  of  the  Stand,  always  quiets  my  con- 
science. If  Ascot  is  a  lady's  race-course,  childhood  itself  might  play 
about  the  lawn  at  Goodwood.     If  vice  is  more  dangerous  as  it  loses 


Il8  THE  NATIONAL  SPORT  AND  THE  NATIONAL  TASTE.        [June, 

its  coarseness,  Goodwood,  if  vicious,  must  be  perilous  in  the  extreme. 
The  syrens  who  lured  Llysses  would  have  led  him  directly  to  his 
fate.  1  heir  very  charms  and  embraces  were  what  he  had  to  fear. 
I  hat  race-course  never  leads  me  beyond  a  speculation  on  primaeval 
innocence,  and  its  beauties  shut  the  door  to  an  entrance  on  its  less 
healthy  enjoyments. 

Thus  three  of  the  greatest  meetings  in  England  are  made  up  of  a 
society  which,  in  the  main,  cares  nothing  or  little  about  the  ostensible 
sport.  There  is  an  enormous  element  in  England  of  speculation, 
and  the  race-course  gives  the  plessantest,  easiest,  and  readiest  return 
for  the  outlay.  But  no  man,  unless  prejudiced  in  its  favour,  would 
give  it  the  preference  at  either  of  the  three  great  Southern  Meetings 
of  the  year.  It  might  be  a  question  as  to  how  far  the  southerners 
are  influenced,  as  a  people,  by  the  race-course  at  all ;  and  whether 
the  crowd  would  be  smaller  or  the  dissipation  less,  if  any  other 
announcement  were  made  by  the  officials  than  a  Derby  Stakes  of 
50  sovs.  each,  to  be  run  for  by  three-year  olds,  distance  one  mile 
and  a  half.  Anything  in  the  world  that  man  can  render  fashionable 
may  be  made  certainly  to  bring  together  a  mixed  crowd  of  well- 
dressed  people  to  a  spot  like  Ascot  Heath  ;  and  even  a  Volunteer 
review  and  a  sham  fight  created  ten  times  the  attention,  and  brought 
together  a  greater  crowd  of  respectable  persons,  than  Brighton  races. 
As  to  Goodwood,  the:  predominant  feature  has  no  more  to  do  with 
racing  than  the  Lords  of  the  Admiralty  have  to  do  with  fighting.  It 
is  a  mere  adjournment  of  the  aristocracy  from  their  summer  quarters, 
with  a  rest  on  the  road,  before  they  dive  into  temporary  obscurity 
for  the  autumn  ;  and  its  outskirts  are  made  up  of  the  more  wealthy 
and  respectable  of  the  middle  classes,  who,  very  naturally,  like  the 
opportunity  of  seeing  and  being  seen.  There  is  not  a  bazaar  in  the 
country,  if  fashionably  conducted,  and  having  a  good  strong  religious 
element  at  the  bottom  (that  is  a  great  point  with  us  all),  that  will 
not  bring  together  precisely  the  same  people,  and,  taking  into  consi- 
deration the  absence  of  pigeon-pies  and  iced  champagne,  in  quite  as 
great  numbers. 

But  if  there  were  anything  to  add  to  the  pleasures  of  this  latter 
meeting,  it  might  be  found  in  the  simple  viridity  of  the  country" 
people  who  assemble  to  see  the  l  foine  folks  '  on  the  Sussex  hills. 
We  cannot  say  that  in  these  days  of  progress  there  still  remain  the 
scarlet  neckcloth,  white  smock-frock,  and  hobnailed  boots  of  Hodge  : 
these,  like  Virgil's  mariners,  are  '  nantes  in  gurgite  rari.'  The 
labourer  has  his  beard  and  his  broad  cloth,  and  an  ungainly  beast  he 
looks  in  his  Sunday  clothes.  But  there  are  to  be  seen  the  Sussex 
farmers  with  their  handsome  daughters,  laughing  and  flirting  outside 
of  the  rails  :  remnants,  it  is  true,  of  a  generation  now  passing  away, 
with  their  drab  breeches  and  mahogany-topped  boots.  There  are 
the  quiet,  acute  tradesmen  of  the  small  towns  on  the  coasts,  who 
usually  have  a  pound  or  two  upon  something  for  the  Cup;  while  the 
rural  population  inspects  the  company  through  the  iron  railings,  and 
points  out  the  celebrities  that  have  arrived  from  the  Duke's,  from 


1864.]     THE  NATIONAL  SPORT  AND  THE  NATIONAL  TASTE.  1 1 9 

Bognor,  Chichester,  and  the  houses  in  the  vicinity.  Along  the  line, 
too,  Paterfamilias  in  the  family  barouche,  somewhat  lower  down, 
brings  the  whole  of  his  party,  foregoing  the  additional  expense  of  a 
Stand  ticket  for  each,  and  quite  sure  of  a  pleasant  visit  from  his 
neighbours,  who  have  known  where  to  find  him  any  time  these  thirty 
years. 

All  this  is  excitement,  and  a  great  deal  of  it  pleasure — real,  sub- 
stantial pleasure,  made  up  of  sunshine,  gay  bonnets,  and  feasting  ; 
but  it  has  nothing  to  do  with  racing,  which  appears  to  go  on  in  spite 
of  a  dead  set  against  it.  If  anybody  will  compare  with  this  the 
northern  Tyke,  with  his  cunning,  leary  look,  and  his  hands  in  his 
pocket,  not  for  show,  but  to  see  that  nothing  gets  out  of  it  without 
his  knowledge  :  if  any  one  will  see  him  examining  the  horses  with  a 
critical  eye,  and  watch  the  visible  interest  he  really  takes  in  the  day's 
proceedings,  he  will  pronounce  Doncaster  and  York,  notwithstandino- 
their  fashion  and  provincial  grandeur,  to  be  far  more  of  race-courses 
than  any  in  the  south.  Every  Englishman  is  a  gambler;  almost 
every  man  is  a  speculator  ;  all  the  chances  of  life  and  its  most 
important  events  are  the  subjects  of  as  much  calculation  as  a  betting 
book;  but  the  Yorkshireman  is  a  gambler  upon  horse-flesh.  The 
veriest  yokel  cannot  resist  the  temptation  of  a  '  stable  '  or  the  seduc- 
tions of  'private  information;'  and  his  half-crown  follows  in  the 
wake  of  his  convictions,  as  naturally  as  his  master's  team  succeeds  to 
his  master's  horses.  Even  the  northern  aristocracy,  though  they 
have  forgotten  something  of  their  former  state,  their  carriages  and 
four  and  their  outriders,  have  not  forgotten  their  enthusiastic  admira- 
tion of  the  Turf;  and  there  is  more  heart  follows  the  fortunes  of  the 
Leger  and  the  '  Coop  '  in  one  year,  than  is  invested  on  the  southern 
courses  during  a  quarter  of  a  century. 

But  if  pleasure  has  its  votaries,  to  the  exclusion  of  sport,  at 
Epsom,  Ascot,  or  Goodwood,  there  rs  a  place  which  for  true  love 
of  racing  beats  the  world.  It  is  not  for  the  instruction  of  Admiral 
Rous  and  the  racing  world  that  I  suggest  Newmarket,  the  head- 
quarters of  the  Turf,  as  fulfilling  every  condition  of  our  national 
pastime.  I  fear  no  contradiction  when  I  say  that  there  alone  is  to 
be  seen,  in  all  its  beauty  and  vigour,  the  full  development  of  that 
sport  which  has  gained  for  Englishmen  a  prestige  which  the  woful 
errors  of  the  system  have  not  yet  shaken.  Foreigners  may  wonder 
at  the  crowds,  the  eccentricities,  the  vulgarities  of  a  Derby,  as  parts 
of  a  saturnalia  which  they  cannot  comprehend  ;  or  they  may  admire, 
in  the  beauties  of  Ascot  and  Goodwood,  an  extension  of  continental 
notions  on  the  same  point ;  but  they  must  see  Newmarket  fully  to 
understand  an  Englishman's  sentiments  on  the  subject  of  horse- 
racing.  The  most  beautiful  sight  in  the  world  to  a  lover  of  the 
animal  is  to  be  found  on  a  fine  spring  morning  on  the  ground  called 
the  Lime  Kilns,  and  the  most  attractive  to  the  speculator  in  the 
afternoon  on  the  other  side  of  the  town.  Miles  of  magnificent  turf, 
unimpeded  by  trees  or  habitation  of  man,  stretch  before  him,  marked 
only  by   the  different  courses   and  the  place  known  as  the  Ring. 


120  THE  NATIONAL  SPORT  AND  THE  NATIONAL  TASTE.     [June, 

Carriages  are  counted  by  tens,  hacks  by  hundreds.  Bleak  and 
barren,  it  is  no  holiday  love-making  scene,  but  a  severe  trial  in  a 
north-easter,  recompensed  by  the  very  best  and  fullest  enjoyment  of 
a  race.  Then  comes  a  gallop  back  to  the  Ring,  when  nothing  but 
business  is  the  order  of  the  day.  Your  pleasure-seeker  may  go  else- 
where. The  few  carriages  which  draw  up  in  its  neighbourhood 
between  the  races  keep  their  commissioners  in  full  occupation  ;  and 
the  lovely  women  on  horseback  are  those  of  the  haute  volee,  who 
share  with  their  lords  the  pains  and  pleasures  of  their  taste.  Others, 
if  there,  sink  into  the  profundity  of  an  abyss,  compared  to  which  the 
hill  at  Epsom  is  positive  celebrity.  Men  who  want  to  bet  can  do 
so  in  comfort ;  men  who  want  to  see  the  horses  are  neither  jostled 
nor  insulted.  A  glass  or  two  of  sherry  and  a  biscuit  or  sandwich 
give  a  rational  relief  to  the  calls  of  hunger.  If  it  snows,  or  hails, 
or  rains  ;  if  the  sun  broils  or  the  wind  blows,  there  is  no  shelter,  no 
escape.  You  must  bear  it — grin,  if  you  like — but  you  came  to 
Newmarket  for  racing,  and  that  you  can  have.  You  may  be  ridden 
over,  too ;  but  that  is  your  own  fault.  A  hack  or  a  fly  is  indispen- 
sable. You  can  see  the  start  or  the  finish  ;  and  you  will  be  able  to 
do  anything  you  like  in  the  way  of  a  book  at  the  market-price  ;  but 
you  will  find  neither  sticks  to  throw  at,  booths  in  which  to  drink, 
gipsies,  Aunt  Sallys,  conjurors,  gingerbread  nuts,  nor  patent-leather 
boots.  The  only  thing,  indeed,  to  be  found  there  irreconcileable 
with  my  ideas  of  Newmarket  is  Joey  Jones — perhaps  I  ought  to  say 
his  costume. 

Further  than  this,  on  the  subject  of  Newmarket  Heath,  I  am  not 
called  upon  by  my  subject  to  express  myself.  Many  of  the  readers 
of  c  Baily  '  know  quite  as  much  as  I  do  about  it ;  and  my  only 
object  is  to  point  out  the  peculiarities  of  our  race-courses,  and  the 
motives  which  impel  men  to  the  same  end.  I  contend  that  racing, 
so  called,  at  Newmarket  influences  everybody.  That  business 
which  I  assert  with  pain  and  grief  racing  has  become,  is  the  very 
soul  of  the  place  :  that  a  man  interested  in  the  sport,  and  desirous 
of  seeing  the  thing  he  professes  to  have  in  view,  cannot  do  better 
than  take  an  annual  tenement  in  Newmarket.  But  I  should  as  soon 
think  of  recommending  the  Houghton  or  the  First  Spring  Meeting 
to  a  mere  champagne  and  lobster-salad  pretender,  as  I  should  advise 
an  empty  house  in  Capel  Court  for  a  bachelor's  ball.  Let  them 
stick  to  the  Derby,  or  Ascot,  or  Goodwood,  according  to  their  cir- 
cumstances and  tastes  :  they  may  be  happy  in  the  exhilarating  plea- 
sure which  each  offers  in  its  peculiar  form,  and  may  fancy  they  have 
been  racing.  There  are  men  racing  at  all  three  ;  and  a  very  pretty 
exhibition  the  twenty-fifth  is  likely  to  make  of  some  of  them.  But 
these  racing  and  betting  people  are  mere  spots  on  the  sun,  mere 
accidents  of  a  Derby  Day,  not  to  be  at  all  taken  into  account  except 
at  Tattersall's.  The  Derby  is  one  thing,  but  the  Derby  Day  is 
another.  In  the  first  they  are  all-powerful,  because  but  for  their 
horses  and  their  money  the  affair  must  change  its  name.  As  to  the 
second,  the  Abbot  of  Unreason  is  the  presiding  divinity,  and  feasting 


1864.]  GRAND  MILITARY  STEEPLE-CHASES.  121 

and  fumigation  the  great  business  of  the  day.  St.  Hubert  is  a  quiet, 
orderly,  rather  abstemious  liver  j  and  a  good  digestion  always  presides 
over  sport ;  the  god  of  the  Campus  Martius  and  the  Palaestra  delights 
not  in  pastry,  and  abhors  bottled  beer  ;  but  the  deities  who  preside 
over  fashion  and  folly  may  build  their  temples  on  the  Surrey  hills,  the 
Berkshire  heath,  or  the  Sussex  downs,  and  the  names  of  the  wor- 
shippers will  be  legion.  The  temples  on  Newmarket  Heath  will  be 
devoted  to  sport  alone. 

May  the  25th. — The  Derby  is  won.  I,  for  one,  regret  exceed- 
ingly that  the  best  horse  has  won.  It  would  have  given  me  infinitely 
more  pleasure  to  have  heard  that  Lord  Glasgow  or  Lord  West- 
morland, or  some  man  of  approved  position,  should  have  carried 
off  the  Blue  Ribbon  of  the  Turf.  However,  there  is  an  end  of 
it.  The  race  is  not  always  to  the  swift  nor  the  battle  to  the 
strong ;  but  it  seems,  in  this  case,  that  a  horse  which  has  been 
regarded  occasionally  as  a  dead  one  has  proved  lively  enough  to  beat 
the  winner  of  the  Two  Thousand.  That  Blair  Athol  is  an  extra- 
ordinary horse  there  can  be  no  doubt  :  and  we  refer  our  readers  to 
the  daily  journals  for  those  details  which  we  have  neither  time  nor 
inclination  to  furnish. 

May  the  27th. — I  hope  the  British  public  like  the  performances 
of  the  French  mare  on  the  English  turf.  Whether  this  is  an  exhibi- 
tion of  native  talent,  or  adopted  from  our  own  practices,  I  cannot 
say.  I  trust  it  may  not  become  general ;  it  might  give  racing  a  bad 
appearance  in  the  eyes  of  honest  men. 


THE  GRAND  MILITARY  STEEPLE-CHASES  NEAR 

VERSAILLES. 

For  some  weeks  past  placards  of  extraordinary  colour  and  dimen- 
sions have  been  posted  on  the  walls  in  and  around  Versailles,  and  in 
every  village  and  town  within  fifty  miles  of  Paris.  The  warning  of 
Defense  d'afficher,  side  by  side  with  the  bills,  seems  to  have  been 
utterly  disregarded  in  the  anxiety  to  give  a  wide  notice  of  the  above 
popular  meeting.  The  programme  is  inviting,  as  well  as  amusing, 
and  runs  thus  : — 

c  Lundi  de  la  Pentecote  16  mai  1864,  grand  steeple-chase  annuel 
4  military  (gentlemen-riders). — 5,000  fr.  dont  2,000  fr.  offerts  par 
4  l'administration  des  haras  pour  tous  chevaux.  Entree,  250  fr., 
4  moitie  forfait.  Le  second  doublera  son  entree,  le  troisieme  sauvera 
4  sa  mise.  Poids,  70  kil.  Legagnant  d'un  steeple-chase  de  2,500  fr. 
4  portera  2  kil.  de  surcharge  ;  de  deux  prix  de  cette  valeur  ou  d'un 
4  steeple-chase  de  5,000  fr.,  5  kil.  Le  gagnant  d'un  steeple-chase 
4  de  7,500  fr.  portera  7  kil.  de  surcharge ;  d'un  steeple-chase  de 
4  cette  valeur  (en  Angleterre)  ou  de  10,000  fr.  et  au-dessus,  10  kil. 
4  Les  gentlemen  n'ayant  jamais  gagne  un  steeple-chase  de  1,000  fr. 
4  recevront  une  dicharge  de  3  kil.     Distance,  6,000  metres  environ. 

4  Sont  admis  a  monter :  MM.  les  officiers  francais  ou  etrangers 


122  GRAND  MILITARY  STEEPLE-CHASES.  [June, 

4  en  activite  de  service,  les  officiers  des  haras  imperiaux  ou  toute 
*  personne,  sur  la  presentation  et  sous  la  responsabilite  de  deux 
4  membres  du  Jockey-Club  de  Paris  ou  de  celui  de  Berlin.' 

So  on  Monday,  May  i6th,  the  park  of  de  la  Marche,  within  two 
miles  of  Versailles,  was  thrown  open  to  the  expectant  world  ;  and 
long  before  the  appointed  hour,  the  rank,  fashion,  and  beauty  of  the 
metropolis  and  its  neighbourhood  poured  into  the  grounds  in  one 
continuous  stream.  The  main  road  almost  reminded  one  of  a 
Derby  Day  in  the  olden  time,  so  gay,  and  so  well  appointed  were  the 
equipages,  and  so  charming  were  the  fair  occupants  who  came  to 
visit  this  Olympic  scene.  There  was,  however,  no  element  in  the 
crowd  at  all  akin  to  the  ruffianism  that  marks  our  high  meetings  ; 
no  thimble-rigs,  no  gipsies,  no  gladiators,  no  roughs.  The  touts 
might  have  been  equally  vicious  ;  but  with  a  few  exceptions,  in 
which  the  Anglo-Saxon  type  of  countenance  could  not  be  mistaken, 
the  outward  features  did  not  bear  that  expression  of  low  cunning 
and  flagrant  vice  written  in  such  strong  letters  on  the  face  of  the 
English  ruffian.  The  price  of  admission  to  the  grounds  helped, 
doubtless,  to  sift  the  company  :  three  francs  ahead  stared  the  blousers 
in  the  face,  and  evidently  scared  them  :  whereas,  to  the  British 
public  our  downs  are  as  open  and  free  as  the  winds  which  blow  over 
them.  But  in  spite  of  the  watering  and  culture  given  to  the  racing- 
tree  by  such  men  as  De  Morny,  Lagrange,  Count  Talon,  and  even 
the  Emperor  himself,  it  has  not  as  yet  taken,  nor  is  it  probable  that 
it  will  soon  take  as  deep  root  in  France  as  it  has  in  our  own  British 
soil.  Still,  matters  are  mending  every  year  ;  cultivation  will  tell — 
the  tree  will  gain  vigour  and  bring  forth  fruit  in  due  season.  Within 
the  park  the  military  uniforms  of  every  imaginable  hue  and  pattern, 
from  the  cocked  hat  of  the  giant  Gendarmes  to  the  turban  of  the 
square  Turcos,  dotted  and  diversified  the  verdant  landscape  so 
picturesquely,  that  one  could  scarcely  conceive  a  more  attractive 
scene.  Horace  Vernet  would  have  done  it  justice,  and  so  would 
Rosa  Bonheur,  if  she  understood  the  points  of  a  thorough-bred  as 
well  as  she  understands  those  of  a  Normandy  cart-horse. 

But,  to  the  business  of  the  day  :  the  course  lay  in  a  pleasant 
hollow  meadow,  fringed  on  all  sides  by  extensive  woodlands  :  near 
the  water-jump  was  the  pavilion  of  the  Emperor,  in  which,  however, 
he  did  not  make  his  appearance  ;  and  near  the  winning-post  no  less 
than  five  grand  stands  were  erected,  from  which  a  good  view  of  the 
course  could  be  obtained  when  the  trees  did  not  interfere.  The 
jumps  chiefly  consisted  of  faggots  stuck  on  end  with  squire-traps 
on  the  ofF-side,  into  which  many  a  horse  and  its  rider  fell  incon- 
tinently. 

In  the  first  race,  termed  'The  Grand  Steeple-  chase  Annuel  Mili- 
c  tary  Gentlemen  Riders,'  five  horses  started.  One  soon  came  to 
grief;  and  the  rest,  hanging  together,  took  their  several  jumps 
steadily  until  the  last  round,  when  the  pace  improved,  and  L'Africain, 
M.  Vaillant's  horse,  admirably  ridden  by  Lieut.  Roques,  went 
ahead  and  won  cleverly  by  two  lengths.     Our  old  friend  Yaller  Gal 


1864.]  PAUL    PENDRIL.  123 

was  second,  and  the  Vicomte  de  Namur's  horse,  The  Colone',  third. 
The  second  race,  a  handicap,  was  won  by  Comte  d'Oimont's 
Amaranthe,  beating  Latalcia  by  four  lengths. 

For  the  third  and  last  race  no  less  than  nine  horses  started,  five 
of  which  were  soon  placed  hors-de-combat :  the  other  four  fought 
out  the  battle  gallantly ;  it  was,  however,  won  by  Vicomte  de 
Merlemont,  who  rode  his  own  mare,  Miss  Margaret,  in  very  spirited 
style. 

The  sport  was  fair  and  the  weather  charming ;  flower-girls  did 
duty  for  the  gipsies,  not  by  offering  cards  of  the  races,  but  bouquets 
of*  beautiful  flowers.  Ladies  in  fashionable  carriages  and  very 
fashionable  attire,  with  an  extensive  male  acquaintance,  fluttered 
"gaily  in  the  park ;  champagne  flowed  in  streams  ;  '  Bordeaux,  Ma- 
deira, and  calces  '  was  the  only  cry,  save  that  of  the  horses,  that 
disturbed  the  ear  ;  and  altogether  the  races  at  La  Marche  proved  to 
be  a  most  delightful  holiday. 


PAUL  PENDRIL. 

CHAPTER    IV. 


Whether  it  was  the  pleasant,  smiling,  neat-looking  hostess  that 
induced  our  travellers  to  adopt  the  Hotel  Paoli  as  their  head-quarters 
during  their  stay  at  Corte,  or  the  high  respect  they  felt  for  the  great 
patriot's  name  that  figured  so  conspicuously  over  the  entrance  door, 
it  is  hardly  worth  while  now  to  inquire  ;  suffice  it  to  say,  Madame 
Fiore's  comely  person  and  trim  appearance  were  true  indications  of 
the  comfort  within.  The  beds  were  fresh,  the  linen  white,  and  the 
table  well  supplied,  if  not  with  luxuries,  at  least  with  excellent  food; 
in  fact,  the  whole  menage  was  unexceptionable.  From  the  isolation 
of  Corte  the  difficulty  of  obtaining  the  mere  necessaries  of  life  had 
been  so  exaggerated  at  Ajaccio  that  our  friends,  fully  prepared  for 
the  worst,  were  agreeably  surprised  to  find  not  only  fair  accommoda- 
tion at  the  Hotel  Paoli,  but  ample  stores  in  the  town  for  the  supply  of 
all  customers. 

To  call  on  General  de  Leseleuc,  the  military  governor  of  Corte, 
and  to  present  his  letters  of  introduction,  was  the  first  duty  to  which 
Pendril  devoted  himself  on  the  following  day.  At  his  particular 
request,  both  Temple  and  AL  Tennyson  accompanied  him  to  the 
citadel,  while  Will  sallied  forth  with  the  dogs  in  the  direction  of  the 
Tavignano  for  the  purpose,  as  he  said,  of  giving  them  a  swim  in 
that  limpid  stream.  The  citadel  overhangs  the  town,  and  seems  to 
watch  over  its  safety  as  an  eagle  over  her  brood  of  young  ;  and  the 
idea  of  clambering  to  an  eyrie  not  unfrequently  crossed  our  friends' 
minds  as  they  mounted  the  steep  street  and  rugged  path  leading  to 
its  walls.  This  fortress  is  veritably  founded  on  a  rock,  and  is  said  to 
have  been  built  by  Vincentello  d'Istria  in  the  fourteenth  century. 
But,  whatever  may  be  its  early  history,  it  still  bears  on  its  battered 


124  PAUL  pendril.  [June, 

front  the  record  of  hard  times  and  the  scars  of  many  a  fierce  fray. 
Tales  of  surpassing  interest  are  told  in  Corsica  of  the  battles  fought 
on  every  yard  of  ground  within  and  without  these  walls  by  the 
patriots  on  one  side  and  the  Genoese  on  the  other.  To  an  ordinary 
beholder  it  would  appear  to  be  impregnable  ;  it  has,  however,  been 
taken  and  re-taken  by  slow  siege,  by  storm,  and  by  treachery ;  but 
more  frequently  by  the  last  than  by  any  other  means. 

As  the  gentlemen  entered  the  room  which  the  General  was 
accustomed  to  occupy  for  the  transaction  of  business,  they  found 
him  seated  at  the  end  of  a  long  table  covered  with  papers,  books, 
and  maps,  in  the  examination  of  which  he  and  several  officers 
seemed  at  that  moment  to  be  fully  occupied.  Two  orderlies  stood 
at  the  door  waiting  his  commands,  while  a  secretary  on  his  left  hand 
was  busily  engaged  in  transcribing  a  letter,  the  substance  of  which 
the  General  dictated  aloud.  '  Tell  him,'  said  he,  before  he  perceived 
the  entrance  of  our  friends  or  their  cards,  which  had  preceded  them, 
4  that  he  shall  have  a  troop  of  picked  gendarmes  for  the  service,  and 
*  that  if  they  don't  capture  Galofaro  alive  or  dead,  they  shall  be  tried 
c  every  man  of  them  by  a  court-martial.' 

As  he  spoke  out  with  much  energy  and  clear  enunciation  every 
word  rivetted  the  attention  of  his  visitors  before  they  could  advance 
sufficiently  near  to  apprise  him  of  their  immediate  presence. 

However,  in  another  instant  his  eye  caught  Pendril's,  and,  rapidly 
scanning  him  and  his  companions,  he  arose  at  once  and  saluted  them 
in  the  most  friendly  and  cordial  manner. 

4  You  are  welcome,'  said  he,  4  gentlemen  hunters,  to  the  land  of 
4  the  mouflon  ;  and  if  you  carry,  as  I've  no  doubt  you  do,  the  straight 
4  powder  for  which  England  is  so  famous,  you  will  find  plenty  of 
4  sport  in  these  rugged  mountains.  An  express  received  last  night 
c  from  Monsieur  the  Prefet  of  Ajaccio  apprises  us,  among  other 
4  things,  of  the  object  of  your  visit  to  Corsica.  But  I  believe  you 
4  bring  an  especial  letter  from  my  good  friend  on  the  subject,'  he 
added,  pointedly  addressing  Pendril. 

4 1  have  that  honour,  General,'  said  Pendril  with  a  respectful  bow, 
as  he  placed  the  letter  in  his  hands  ;  but  he  felt,  at  the  same  time,  a 
little  puzzled  to  account  for  the  readiness  with  which  the  General 
pitched  on  him  as  the  bearer  of  the  letter.  The  General,  however, 
did  not  keep  him  long  in  suspense. 

4  Your  identity,  Mr.  Pendril,'  said  he,  4  needs  no  written  creden- 
4  tials  for  me  ;  not  only  your  name,  but  every  feature  of  your  face 
4  reminds  me  of  your  father  so  strongly  that  I  can  scarcely  believe 
4  forty  years  have  elapsed  since  I  last  enjoyed  his  boundless  hospi- 
4  tality ' 

4 1  am  proud  to  be  thought  like  so  good  a  man,  General ;  but  permit 
4  me  to  inquire  what  fortune  brought  you  into  each  other's 
4  company  ?' 

4  The  fortune  of  war,  sir  ;  I  was  a  prisoner  at  Wincanton  for  five 

4  years.      Your  father  was  then  a  Captain  in  the  D militia,  and 

4  guarded  us  so  vigilantly  that,  whenever  he  went  on  short  leave  to 


c 


1864.]  PAUL    PENDRIL.  125 

his  country-house,  he  generally  managed  to  take  one  of  his  prisoners 
4  with  him — a  dangerous  experiment  for  both,  it  must  be  owned  ; — 
4  nevertheless,  many's  the  happy  hour  I've  spent  at  Goodwell, 
4  hunting,  shooting,  or  fishing  every  day  in  the  week  ;  but  for  my 
c  country,  sir,  I  could  have  wished  that  such  captivity  had  never 
4  ceased  j  and  now  tell  me  what  can  I  do  to  serve  my  old  friend's 
<  son  ?' 

Before  Pendril  could  express  his  thanks  or  surprise  at  this  unex- 
pected announcement,  and  before  he  could  find  words  to  confirm  the 
accuracy  of  the  General's  slap-dash  assumption  that  Paul  Pendril  of 
Goodwell  was  indeed  his  father,  the  General  brought  the  conversa- 
tion to  a  close  by  saying  : 

4  But  pray  come  and  dine  with  me  to-day,  you  and  your  two 
4  friends  punctually  at  six  :  I  have  now  a  little  business  on  hand,  a 
4  mere  bagatelle,  it  is  true,  but  it  requires  immediate  attention  ; 
4  when  that  is  arranged  I  shall  have  ample  time  for  the  enjoyment  of 
4  your  society.' 

The  General's  invitation  was,  of  course,  tantamount  to  a  com- 
mand ;  but  the  kindly  manner  in  which  it  was  made  drew  at  once 
from  Pendril  and  Tennyson  a  prompt  and  hearty  acceptance ; 
Temple,  however,  bowed  his  assent  with  a  cold  reserve,  which 
Pendril  thought  the  keen  eye  of  the  General  could  not  fail  to  detect. 
They  then  withdrew  from  the  citadel. 

In  three  hours  from  that  time  Temple  was  on  the  high  road  for 
Ajaccio ;  and,  as  Tennyson  and  Pendril  had  been  for  some  time  con- 
scious that  their  society  was  anything  but  courted  by  him,  they  had 
strolled  out  together  in  search  of  Will,  leaving  Temple  in  his  room, 
apparently  engaged  in  letter-writing.  The  torrent  of  the  Tavignano 
attracted  them  irresistibly  to  its  banks  ;  and,  although  in  tranquil 
condition,  it  reminded  Pendril  not  a  little  of  the  wild  Garry  ;  it  now 
tumbled  along,  however,  gently  humming  its  summer  song,  while 
echo  slumbered  in  the  rocks,  and  the  peace  of  the  valley  was  as  yet 
undisturbed.  Pendril  could  fancy  himself  hooking  a  twenty- 
pound  salmon  and  guiding  him,  as  well  as  the  huge  granite  boulders 
would  permit,  from  one  pool  into  another,  until  after  many  fierce 
flings,  and  many  a  sharp  struggle  for  life,  he  kicks  himself  high  and 
dry  upon  the  sandy  shore.  While  this  pleasant  picture  was  pre- 
senting itself  for  a  moment  to  Pendril's  imagination,  the  well-known 
sound  of  Charon's  note  suddenly  rung  on  his  ear ;  the  hound,  too, 
was  doubling  his  tongue  and  evidently  running  on  moved  game. 

4  What  on  earth  can  that  mean,  Tennyson  ?'  said  he.  4  If  the  old 
4  vagabond  has  got  upon  a  deer  it  will  cost  us  some  trouble  to  recover 
4  him  ;  let's  get  on  and  see  what  he  is  about.' 

A  few  short  notes,  however,  as  if  the  hound  was  at  mark,  soon 
convinced  Pendril  it  was  no  deer  ;  so,  waiting  for  Tennyson,  who  was 
scrambling  afcer  him  through  the  dense  scrub  and  over  masses  of 
granite  with  infinite  discomfort  to  his  battered  shins,  he  gave  a  rat- 
tling cheer  to  the  good  hound,  and  then  listened  with  all  his  ears  for 
his  next  note.     Again,  it  was   a  deep  short  roar,  an   unmistakeable 

vol.  vni. — no.  52.  n 


126  PAUL    PENDRIL.  [June, 

mark  ;  the  hound's  game  was  close  to  his  nose,  either  at  bay  or  at 
ground.  Then,  as  they  cleared  a  promontory  of  broken  rocks  that 
hung  in  fantastic  and  menacing  form  over  the  very  bed  of  the  river, 
they  could  plainly  see  Charon  plunging  into  a  deep  pool  and  striking 
down  stream  with  all  the  energy  of  a  hound  in  chase. 

4  Have  at  him,  my  lad  !'  shouted  Pendril  with  as  wild  and  cheer- 
ing a  note  as  ever  was  heard  on  that  river  ;  *  by  St.  Hubert,  it's  an 
4  otter,  and  the  old  hound  is  working  him  bravely.  Oh,  for  six  or  eight 
4  more  couples  to  join  chorus  !  what  exquisite  harmony  we  should 
4  have  in  this  hollow  ravine  !  But,  as  that  cannot  be,  let  us  hasten 
4  to  the  scene  of  action  and  see  how  nobly  the  old  hound  can  work 
*  him  single-handed.' 

So  down  they  hastened  towards  the  river,  and  there  a  sight  greeted 
them  which,  as  Pendril  said,  made  his  bones  shiver  with  delight.  At 
the  very  tail  of  the  pool  in  which  Charon  was  so  actively  engaged, 
stood  "Will  in  mid-channel,  up  to  his  coat-tails  in  water.  No  heron 
ever  gazed  more  intently  into  the  sparkling  shallows  than  Will  into 
the  depths  of  that  rushing  tide.  The  otter  did  not  dare  to  pass  him; 
for  every  time  he  attempted  to  do  so  Will  brandished  a  long  stick, 
and  lunged  at  him  so  fiercely  that  he  was  glad  to  turn  tail  and  escape 
again  into  the  pool  above.  There  Charon  took  up  the  running,  and 
by  his  close  pursuit  and  fiery  ardour  kept  the  otter  perpetually  on  the 
strain.  Then,  as  the  bubbles  rose  and  glistened  on  the  surface  like 
a  string  of  pearls,  Pendril  perceived  the  animal  must  land  soon  or 
inevitably  be  drowned.  In  vain  he  sought  the  lowest  depths  of  the 
Tavignano  ;  in  vain  the  darkest  nooks  of  the  granite  shore  ;  Charon 
was  hard  at  him  at  every  turn  :  the  only  spot,  indeed,  in  the  whole 
pool,  from  which  the  hound  could  not  readily  dislodge  him,  was 
under  the  arch  of  a  tiny  cascade  formed  by  an  overhanging  boulder. 
Behind  this  transparent  screen  he  managed  to  keep  his  head  above 
water  and  to  catch  fresh  wind  ;  but  it  was  only  a  short  respite  ;  for, 
ever  as  the  hound  discovered  him,  he  dashed  through  the  spray  and 
drove  him  headlong  into  the  depths  below. 

Tennyson  was  in  ecstacies  ;  he  had  never  yet  seen  an  otter-hunt ; 
and  it  was  with  some  difficulty  that  Pendril  dissuaded  him  from 
jumping  in  and  joining  Will  in  the  shallow.  Wildfire  and  the  two 
spaniels  sat  motionless  on  a  rock  hard  by,  watching  every  move  in 
the  game,  and  ready,  if  the  otter  landed,  to  chase  and  worry  him  to 
the  death. 

4  We've  been  at  him  for  an  hour  and  a  half,'  cried  Will  to  his 
master  ;  c  and  brought  him  a  mile  down  stream  before  I  could  head 
4  him  in  this  pool;  and  now,  sir,  he'll  beat  us  after  all  if  you  don't 
4  get  in  and  keep  him  away  from  that  fall.' 

4  That's  just  what  I'm  about  to  do,'  shouted  Pendril ;  and  suiting 
the  action  to  the  word,  he  plunged  waist-deep  into  the  tide  within 
arms'  length  of  the  boiling  cascade.  The  otter,  finding  that  point  no 
longer  tenable,  landed  at  once  in  the  very  face  of  his  enemy,  and 
sought  the  jungle  in  precipitous  flight.  Nov/  then,  Wildfire,,  the  turn 
you  have  so  patiently  waited  for  has  come  at  last !  and  away  he  goes, 


1864.]  PAUL    PENDRIL.  \1"J 

like  a  bolt  from  a  cross-bow,  head-foremost  into  the  thicket ;  and 
away  goes  Charon  on  the  line,  spaniels  and  all,  in  mad  pursuit ;  such  a 
storm  at  his  heels  never  yet  followed  that  otter.  But  the  wild  cry  that 
scared  the  valley  was  not  that  of  the  hounds  alone  :  five  or  six 
French  soldiers,  and  as  many  Corsican  peasants,  had  joined  the  pack, 
and  raised  such  a  din  as  might  have  been  heard  at  High  Olympus. 
Notwithstanding,  the  otter  did  not  escape ;  Charon  was  too  steady 
on  his  line  to  be  baffled  by  the  hubbub,  and,  with  a  terrible  purpose, 
was  running  for  blood.  Suddenly,  however,  the  cry  ceased,  a  deadly 
tussle  ensued,  and  in  a  few  minutes  the  otter  rolled  lifeless  in  the  dust. 
Poor  Brush  yelped  a  sad  requiem  over  his  remains,  lie  had  lost 
nearly  half  an  ear  in  the  fray ;  and  Wildfire's  leg  was  so  wounded, 
luckily  above  the  knee-joint,  that  he  hobbled  about  on  three  legs  for 
the  whole  of  that  day. 

On  their  return  towards  the  suburbs  of  Corte,  after  this  lively  and 
exhilarating  bit  of  sport,  Pendril  and  Tennyson  had  but  one  regret, 
and  that  was  that  Temple  had  not  been  present  to  share  it.  '  Had 
c  he  but  seen,'  said  Pendril,  '  the  old  hound  in  the  pool,  and  heard 
that  thrilling  note  of  his  every  time  he  fresh-marked  the  otter,  it 
might  possibly  have  diverted  his  thoughts,  at  least  for  a  time,  from 
the  all-engrossing  passion  which  now  rules  him,  body  and  soul.' 

*  It  certainly  has  been  a  charming  divertissement,'  said  Tennyson, 
and  must  have  delighted  Temple  had  he  been  there  to  see  it :  but 
its  impression  on  him  would  have  been  as  lasting  as  that  of  the 
summer  wind  on  the  waving  corn.' 

£  At  all  events  he  will  have  a  stirring  time  of  it  for  the  next 
month  ;  the  mouflon  are  shy,  and  the  gorges  of  Monte  Rotondo 
deep  and  declivitous  ;  and  if  he  follow  the  game  like  a  man  over 
that  country,  the  occupation  will  need  his  best  energy.  Reverie  is 
the  oil  that  feeds  the  fire — the  current  that  keeps  the  mill  going  ; 
exclude  the  supply  by  active  and  wholesome  work,  and  you  will 
1  soon  check  the  flame  and  bring  the  machinery  to  a  dead  stand- 
'  still.' 

As  the  party  approached  the  Hotel  Paoli,  Madame  Fiore  stood  at 
the  threshold,  apparently  awaiting  their  return.  Bland  and  profuse 
were  the  words  of  greeting  with  which  the  comely  hostess  received 
her  guests ;  but  Pendril  could  not  help  remarking,  as  she  handed 
him  Temple's  note,  that  something  had  occurred  to  disturb  the 
usual  bright  and  happy  expression  of  her  pleasant  face. 

*  Mr.  Temple,'  she  said,  c  requested  me  to  give  you  this  note,  and 
{  at  the  same  time  informed  me  his  bedchamber  would  be  no  longer 
c  required.  I  should  grieve  to  hear  that  he  did  not  find  my  house 
'  comfortable  :  he  came,  as  I  understood,  for  a  month,  and  has  left  in 
c  a  day  ;  my  guests,  in  general,  reverse  this  proceeding,  by  coming 
4  for  a  day  and  staying  a  month.  It  is  my  pleasure,  as  well  as  my 
'  interest,  to  maintain  the  character  of  the  great  name  by  which  my 

hotel  is  known  ;  and  this  can  only  be  done  by  making  my  guests 
4  happy.' 

While  the  fair  hostess  was  proceeding,  with  some  volubility,  to 

N    2 


c 


128 


PAUL  PENDRIL. 


June, 

descant  on  the  great  and  hospitable  character  of  Pascal  Paoli,  Pen- 
dril  tore  open  the  envelope,  and,  with  profound  surprise  and  vexation, 
read  the  following  note  : — 

c  Dear  Pendril, 

*  On  the  old  principle  that  all  stratagems  are  fair  in  love  and 
war,  you  will,  I  am  sure,  have  no  objection  to  endorse  my  de- 
parture with  a  bene  decessit.  I  would  gladly  have  gone  to  the 
front  with  you ;  but,  as  I  am  bound  to  own,  a  stronger  fancy  for 
game  in  the  rear  drags  me  in  an  opposite  direction.  I  have  little 
compunction  in  falling  back  and  deserting  the  mouflon  for  sport 
at  present  more  congenial  to  my  taste. 

*  If  you  write  to  your  people,  have  the  goodness  not  to  include 
my  name  in  the  correspondence  ;  for,  I  need  scarcely  say,  that 
letters  received  at  Goodwell  travel  from  the  Hall  to  the  Rectory, 
and  from  the  Rectory  to  the  Hall  with  telegraphic  rapidity.  My 
father's  views  sometimes  clash  with  mine,  and  then  there's  a  row  ; 
a  result  that  usuallv  leads  to  homilies  and  other  less  convenient 
inflictions. 

c  If  any  letters  arrive  for  me,  pray  forward  them  to  the  hotel  at 
Ajaccio,  from  which  point  I  hope  to  join  you  on  your  return  to 
England.  Commend  me  to  Tennyson,  and  say  all  that  is  proper 
to  the  General  on  my  account :  he  really  seems  one  of  whom  it 
might  be  said,  "Janua  patet,  cor  magis. 

i  Ever  yours, 

1  Godfrey  Temple.' 

c  Poor  fellow  !'  cried  Pendril,  gravely,  as  he  folded  up  the  cool 
note  ;  '  this  is  a  sad  step  indeed  !  Would  that  my  influence  had 
*  been  more  successful,  and  his  temptation  less  potent  !  Passion, 
4  however,  has  prevailed  over  reason,  and  trampled  out  the  spark  of 
4  light  in  his  better  nature, — a  tyrant  inexorable  as  Pluto,  and  cruel 
c  as  the  vulture  that  fed  on  the  vitals  of  Prometheus.  Can  nothing 
4  be  done  to  rescue  him  from  this  impending  evil  ?  I'll  consult  the 
1  General ;  and  what  cannot  be  effected  by  my  counsel,  may  be  con- 
1  trolled  by  his  power.' 

So,  strong  in  this  resolve,  he  turned  to  the  fair  hostess,  over 
whose  brow  the  cloud  of  disappointment  was  still  hanging,  and  ex- 
pressed a  cheering  hope  that  it  would  not  be  long  ere  Temple  was 
back  again  in  his  comfortable  quarters  at  the  Hotel  Paoli ;  a  re- 
assurance which  soon  brought  out  the  sunny  smile  on  her  bright  face 
again. 

While  Pendril  and  Tennyson  were  engaged  in  dressing  themselves 
for  dinner,  Will  was  amusing  himself  and  a  large  party  of  admiring 
peasants  by  stripping  off  the  otter's  skin,  which  he  managed  to  do  in 
the  most  adroit  manner.  The  animal  hung  in  an  open  doorway,  by 
a  strong  hook,  firmly  fixed  into  the  inside  of  his  upper  jaw.  With 
the  aid  of  a  sharp  knife,  the  lips  first,  and  then  the  skin  of  the  head 
were  inverted  and  drawn  back,  until  the  whole  body,  up  to  the  very 
tip  of  the  tail,  passed  through  the  mouth  ;  by  which  process,  as  Will 


1864.]  PAUL    TENDRIL.  120, 

demonstrated,  the  valuable  skin  was  obtained  4  as  sound  as  a  new 
4  glove.'  Poor  Brush,  too,  no  longer  of  merry  mood,  but  apparently- 
anticipating  with  downcast  looks  the  fate  that  awaited  him,  was 
coupled  up  to  a  post  to  undergo  a  sharp  operation  at  Will's  hands. 
After  carefully  rounding  off  the  jagged  edge  of  the  dog's  ear  with  a 
sharp  scissors,  Will's  tender  mercies  had  well-nigh  mastered  him,  as 
he  proceeded  to  apply  the  cruel  red-hot  iron  to  the  bleeding  wound. 
However,  it  was  soon  done  ;  and  then,  remembering  that,  under  the 
frizzled  and  hard  cicatrix  formed  by  the  actual  cautery,  the  ear 
would  thenceforth  be  case-hardened  against  gangrene  and  thorns, 
Will's  conscience  was  quickly  reconciled  to  the  severe  but  useful 
operation.  As  to  Wildfire's  wound,  it  was  wisely  left  to  the  sole 
care  of  his  own  tongue,  which,  by  its  cleansing  and  therapeutic 
power,  soon  effected  a  perfect  cure.  '  The  dog  wants  no  doctor,' 
said  Will,  4  if  he  can  only  reach  the  wound  with  his  own  tongue  ;' 
and  then  he  proceeded  to  moralize,  and  to  draw  between  the  hound's 
tongue  and  that  of  the  human  being  a  comparison  by  no  means 
flattering  to  the  latter.  4  St.  Paul  was  quite  right  when  he  called 
1  it  an  "  unruly  member  :"  even  a  dog's  will  heal  a  sore  ;  but  the 
4  too  frequent  use  of  a  man's  tongue  is  to  rip  it  up.' 

Before  we  follow  Temple  to  the  banks  of  the  Gravone,  and 
reveal  the  delirium  of  love,  which  led  him  in  a  state  of  moral  blind- 
ness to  the  very  brink  of  a  precipice,  let  us  accompany  our  two 
friends  to  the  General's  private  residence,  and  bear  testimony  to  the 
cordial  welcome  they  received  from  their  gallant  and  genial  host. 
He  regretted,  he  said,  Temple's  sudden  departure  for  Ajaccio 
(Pendril  had  assigned  no  reason  for  it),  but  hoped  soon  to  see  him 
again  at  Corte. 

General  de  Leseleuc  was  not  only  a  commander  of  high  reputa- 
tion in  the  French  army,  but  had  gained,  by  his  courteous  bearing 
and  straightforward  policy  in  diplomatic  service,  the  respect  and 
esteem  of  many  a  foreign  potentate.  At  that  very  time  he  was  ex- 
pecting, and  soon  after  received,  the  highest  military  honour  which 
his  king  could  confer  on  him,  namely,  that  of  a  Marshal's  baton. 
A  perfect  blaze  of  orders,  among  which  those  of  his  own  country 
were  not  the  least  conspicuous,  decorated  the  veteran's  breast  as  he 
sat  at  the  head  of  his  table,  and  did  its  honours  with  the  ease,  suavity, 
and  dignity  of  a  thorough  gentleman. 

The  banquet,  consisting  of  a  great  variety  of  dishes,  the  names  of 
which  are  scarcely  to  be  found  by  a  reference  even  to  Vefour's 
carte  or  that  of  the  Trois  Freres,  boasted  of  one,  however,  a  piece  de 
resistance  to  which  the  General  invited  his  guests'  particular  atten- 
tion. This  was  nothing  more  nor  less  than  a  glorious  haunch  of 
mouflon  venison,  roasted  a  merveille^  and  served  up  with  a  delicate 
sweet  sauce,  indicating  the  highest  flight  of  culinary  art. 

'  That  mouflon,'  said  the  General,  4  was  killed  by  my  piqueur, 
4  after  a  chase  which  lasted  two  days,  in  the  forest  of  Asco.  A  wild 
4  thyme  of  peculiar  sweetness  grows  on  the  porphyry  cliffs  of  Monte 
4  Cinto,  and  imparts  a  fine  flavour  to  the  mouflon  of  that  district. 


130  PAUL  psndril.  [June, 

4  In  the  absence  of  roast  beef  and  Southdown  mutton,'  continued  he, 
jokingly,  '  you,  M.  Pendril,  may  find  a  fair  substitute  in  our  wild 
'  mouflon  ;  so  pray  let  me  help  you.' 

Pendril's  appreciation  of  a  substantial  dish  was  equal  to  that  of  his 
countrymen  in  general ;  and  he  frequently  maintained  that  a  hand- 
some, well-fed  joint,  smoking  on  the  board,  and  suggesting  a  land  of 
plenty,  gratified  the  eye  and  the  anticipation  almost  as  much  as  the 
palate  itself.  Besides,  he  rather  liked  to  know  what  food  he  was 
eating,  a  point  of  information  not  always  attainable  when  an  En- 
glishman dines  on  the  wrong  side  of  his  herring-pool  ;  so  he  readily 
exchanged  his  empty  plate  for  that  proffered  by  the  General. 

4  Worthy  of  the  gods,  General !  The  Hampshire  downs  never 
c  fed  mutton  equal  to  this  ;  in  fact,  it  resembles  in  flavour  the  Castle- 

*  hill  venison,  but  is   far  superior  even  to  it  in  the  juicy  and  fine 

*  quality  of  its  fibre.' 

'  We  always  dignify  it,'  replied  the  General,  c  with  the  title  of 
1  venison,  inasmuch  as  it  is  the  meat  of  a  wild  animal,  bearing  a  far 
4  stronger  affinity  in  habits,  if  not  in  appearance,  to  the  chamois  and 
4  red-deer,  than  to  any  breed  of  sheep  known.' 

c  The  argali  of  the  Caucasus  is  own  brother  to  the  mouflon,'  said 
Tennyson  ;  4  but,  strange  to  say,  the  Cossacks  and  Calmucks  have 
4  the  bad  taste  to  despise  the  meat  of  that  mountain  sheep,  and  to 
4  value  it  for  its  skin  and  fleece  alone  :  indeed,  the  carcase  of  their 
'  domestic  sheep  is  rarely  eaten,  and  is  usually  considered  by  them  as 
4  unfit  for  human  food.' 

4  The  same  in  Spain,'  said  General  de  Leseleuc.  4  Your  grandee 
4  would  as  soon  dine  on  a  boiled  donkey,  or  a  raw  sausage,  as  on 
4  one  of  his  own  choice  merinos  ;  and  even  the  poorest  Spaniard 
4  prefers  a  dinner  of  herbs,  stewed  in  oil,  to  the  best  mutton  that  his 
4  land  produces.' 

4  The  weight  of  this  haunch  must  have  been  at  least  twenty-eight 
4  pounds  before  it  was  cooked,'  remarked  Pendril  ;  4  a  good  size  for 
4  that  of  a  well-fed  fallow-deer.  Have  you  any  notion  of  the  animal's 
4  age,  General  ?' 

4  He  must  have  been  more  than  four  years  old,  by  his  full  mouth  ; 
4  but  to  judge  by  the  rings  at  the  base  of  his  magnificent  horns,  I 
4  believe  him  to  have  been  at  least  six  or  seven.' 

Then  the  conversation  fell  on  the  best  district  for  hunting;  the 
mouflon.  An  officer  present,  Captain  de  Grenier,  who  as  yet, 
according  to  the  General,  had  earned  far  more  glory  on  the  moun- 
tain-top than  in  the  military  camp,  pronounced  strongly  in  favour  of 
the  forests  south  of  Monte  Rotondo,  in  the  gorges  of  which  might 
be  found  the  oldest  and  the  fattest  mouflon  of  the  island.  4  Besides,' 
added  he,  4  by  going  into  that  district  you  penetrate  the  chain  of 
4  mountains  known  by  the  names  of  Punta  della  Capella,  Monte 
4  d'Oro,  and  dell  Incudine,  the  most  inaccessible  and  the  least  dis- 
4  turbed  ground  frequented  by  the  mouflon.' 

4  A  grand,  wild  country  certainly,  and  abounding  with  game,' 
replied  the  General  ;  4  but  how  can  you  carry  on  a  campaign,  which 


864.]  FAUL    PENDRIL.  131 

is  no  child's  play,  at  such  a  distance  from  your  base  ?  The 
peasant's  lone  cot,  or  the  yet  more  miserable  hut  of  the  goatherd, 
are  the  sole  tenements  of  man  in  that  desolate  region  ;  and  they, 
you  need  scarcely  be  told,  are  utterly  insufficient  for  even  your 
necessary  wants  and  accommodation.  I  quite  understand  your 
intention  of  roughing  it ;  but  after  labour — and  such  labour  as 
yours  will  be — you  must  have  rest  and  good  food,  or  the  mouflon 
will  soon  be  the  victors.  Four  bare  walls,  with  a  single  aperture 
to  let  you  and  the  light  in,  and  the  smoke  out,  will  try  your  mettle, 
gentlemen  ;  and  as  for  the  fare,  chiefly  a  coarse  chestnut  bread,  and 
a  sup  of  goat's  milk,  it  would  puzzle  an  Esquimaux  and  his  dog  to 
subsist  on  it  after  a  hard  day's  chase.' 

1  We  have  enlisted  Madame  Fiore's  good  services  in  our  behalf,' 

said  Pendril ;  '  she  has  undertaken  to   send   daily  provisions  to   any 

given  spot  within  ten  leagues   of  Corte.     Then  we   carry  a   small 

tent  with  us,  which,  so  far  as  it  goes,  will  serve   us  for  rest  and 

shelter.' 

4  But  one  tent  is  not  sufficient,'  observed  the  General ;  £  you  must 
take  a  second  of  larger  dimensions  ;  you  shall  have  one  of  mine 
which  has  a  curtain-partition  and  two  tressle-beds  in  it:  this  will  at 
least  afford  you  and  M.  Tennyson  clean  quarters,  and,  by  bringing 
you  together,  will  probably  protect  you  against  the  intrusion  of  a 
couple  of  brigands  who  have  long  infested  that  district.' 

4  A  thousand  thanks,  General ;  it  would  be  a  home  in  the  wilder- 
ness for  us  ;  but  how  can  so  spacious  a  tent  with  its  paraphernalia 
be  conveyed  to  a  region  so  rugged  and  devoid,  as  you  say,  of  every- 
thing in  the  shape  of  a  road,  except  a  mere  bridle-path  ?' 

4  Easily  enough,  on  the  back  of  one  of  our  ambulance  horses. 
Leave  that  to  me ;  I'll  undertake  to  send  it  to  any  point  reached  by 
Madame  Fiore's  provisions.  Then,  you  shall  have  my  piqueur,  a 
mouflon-hunter  from  his  birth.  There  is  not  a  brooklet  that  tumbles 
into  the  Tavignano  or  the  Restonica,  which  old  Piero  has  not 
traversed  to  its  source  ;  so  you  can  depend  on  his  knowledge  of  the 
country,  and,  what  is  of  still  greater  use,  his  knowledge  of  the  wild 
animals'  habits,  as  well.' 

'  He  will  be  a  great  acquisition,  General,  I  feel  sure ;  still  I 
scarcely  like  to  accept  your  kind  offer,  lest  I  should  deprive  you  of 
his  services.' 

4  Oh,  never  mind  that ;  if  I  take  the  field,  which  I  hope  to  do 
some  day  in  your  company,  I  will  adopt  de  Grenier  in  the  double 
capacity  of  piqueur  and  aide-de-camp :  what  say  you,  my 
captain  ?' 

1  That  I  should  like  to  live  and  die  in  such  service  ;  the  camp  in 
the  forest  has  far  more  charms  for  me  than  the  dull  routine  of 
garrison  duty.' 

^4  Fulfil  your  duty,  de  Grenier,  to    the  utmost  of  your    ability, 
whatever  that  duty  may  be  ;  and  then,  depend  upon  it,  your  enjoy- 
ment of  life,  either  in  the  forest  or  elsewhere,  will  be  increased  a 
thousand-fold.' 


132  PAUL    PENDRIL.  [June> 

As  no  one  seemed  disposed  to  question  the  soundness  of  the 
General's  doctrine,  nor  to  doubt  for  one  moment  that  he  had  prac- 
tised it  himself  in  all  its  comprehensiveness,  de  Grenier  again  drew 
Pendril's  attention  to  the  ravines  lying  south  of  Monte  Rotondo,  the 
numerous  torrents  of  which  feed  the  foaming  Restonica,  and  pointed 
out  the  advantage  of  the  narrow  gorges  over  those  of  a  wider 
character ;  and  from  the  minute  manner  in  which  he  entered  into 
details  respecting  the  nature  of  the  country  and  the  mode  of  pursuit 
best  calculated  to  insure  success,  it  was  evident  he  had  devoted  no 
little  time  and  observation  to  the  engrossing  subject. 

Pendril  and  Tennyson,  therefore,  were  by  no  means  slack  in 
booking  the  hints  which  this  keen  forester  so  readily  bestowed  on 
them  ;  and  when  he  had  unfolded  a  small  pocket  map  of  the  district, 
and  marked  out  certain  central  points  around  which  they  were 
recommended  to  revolve,  he  handed  the  map  to  Pendril,  and  begged 
his  acceptance  of  it  as  a  small  token  of  regard  from  a  brother  hunter. 
A  more  useful  gift  could  scarcely  have-  been  made,  for  as  it  was  a 
transcript  from  the  government  military  map  reduced  by  de  Grenier's 
own  hands,  its  accuracy  was  complete.  The  chase  of  the  mouflon 
in  these  mountains,  thought  Pendril,  must  be  no  mean  training  for 
the  sterner  duties  of  a  soldier's  life ;  and  if  his  profession  calls  him 
to  hunt  the  wild  Kabyl  in  the  gorges  of  the  Atlas  range,  who  so 
likely  to  distinguish  himself  in  the  fierce  pursuit  and  deadly  encounter, 
who  to  detect  and  circumvent  the  panther-like  approach  of  the  wily 
savage,  as  the  man  whose  powers  of  mind  and  body  have  been 
already  invigorated  and  sharpened  by  the  severe  but  welcome  lesson 
taught  by  the  mountain  chase  ? 

The  great  Duke  of  Wellington  was  wont  to  say  that  the  hunting- 
field  was  a  fine  school  for  a  soldier;  Sir  Hussey  Vivian  was  a 
notable  example ;  and  the  name  of  General  Graham,  who  at  forty 
years  of  age  first  adopted  the  military  profession,  and  whose  conduct 
in  the  Peninsula  afterwards  shed  so  glorious  a  lustre  on  the  victories 
of  the  British  armies,  was  another  of  the  many  instances  to  which  he 
alluded  in  confirmation  of  that  opinion.  An  ardent  sportsman  from 
his  youth,  General  Graham  had  acquired  his  tactics  on  the  mountain- 
side ;  and  so  well  had  he  studied  the  game  of  l  mimic  war,'  on  his 
own  wild  hills,  before  he  engaged  in  that  of  giants  in  a  foreign  land, 
that  Napier,  speaking  of  the  battle  of  Barrosa,  pays  the  following 
tribute  to  his  character  as  a  general  in  these  glowing  words  :  c  The 
4  contemptible  feebleness  of  Lapena  furnished  a  surprising  contrast 
c  to  the  heroic  vigour  of  Graham,  whose  attack  was  an  inspiration 
4  rather  than  a  resolution, — so  wise,  so  sudden  was  the  decision, — so 
1  swift,  so  conclusive  was  the  execution.' 

The  merits  of  the  forests  situated  on  the  west  side  of  Corte  were 
then  freely  discussed  ;  but  the  sources  of  the  Golo  in  the  region  of 
Monte  Tavolato  seemed  to  be  so  little  known  by  the  majority  of  the 
officers  present  that  the  General  strongly  recommended  our  friends 
to  adopt  de  Grenier's  plan,  and  to  bivouac  in  the  valleys  lying  on  the 
right  bank   of  the  Restonica.     Accordingly  it  was  finally  arranged 


1864.]  PAUL    PENDRIL.  133 

that  on  the  following  morning  the  expedition  should  start,  under 
Piero's  escort,  up  the  gorge  of  that  river  ;  that  '  the  corporal '  bearing 
the  smaller  tent,  and  a  mule  the  larger  one  provided  by  the  General, 
should  be  accompanied  by  Madame  Fiore's  provisions  and  ascend  to 
the  very  outskirts  of  the  highest  beechen  forest. 

In  deference,  perhaps,  to  English  habits,  the  pleasant  little  dinner- 
party did  not  break  up  with  the  usual  post-prandial  despatch,  but  sat 
on  to  a  late  hour,  the  General  and  Pendril  chatting  of  old  times  at 
Goodwell  and  of  days  with  Newton  Fellowes,  John  Ward,  and  Far- 
quharson,  when  the  countries  of  those  heroes  of  the  chase  were 
enlivened  by  the  spirits  of  such  men  as  Billy  Butler,  Yeatman, 
Harry  Biggs,  and  young  John  Russell,  the  last  even  then  distin- 
guished for  his  superior  knowledge  in  all  matters  relating  to  sylvan 
craft. 

Tennyson,  on  the  other  hand,  was  looking  to  the  future,  being 
attentively  employed  in  listening  to  the  stirring  tales  of  the  forest 
which  de  Grenier  recounted,  and  in  gleaning  from  them  such  local 
information  as  might  be  useful  to  the  hunting  party.  When  the 
'good-night'  at  length  came,  de  Grenier  in  an  audible  whisper, 
intended  for  the  ears  of  the  General,  expressed  his  belief  to  the 
parting  guests  that  in  all  probability  he  should  drop  in  upon  them 
before  many  days  were  past. 

The  Genera!,  however,  thought  otherwise,  and  put  an  extinguisher 
at  once  upon  that  hope  :  l  To-morrow,'  said  he,  '  Capt.  de  Grenier 
c  goes  on  special  service  to  the  Gravone,  by  which  duty  he  will  gain 
4  more  profit,  though  perhaps  less  glory,  than  in  pursuit  of  the  wild 
£  mouflon.'  There  was  a  dash  of  sarcasm  unusual  to  the  General  in 
that  last  observation  ;  but  it  really  referred  to  the  service  in  which 
de  Grenier  was  to  be  employed,  and  not  to  any  doubt  as  to  the  readi- 
ness and  ability  of  that  officer  to  undertake  and  execute  any  order 
entrusted  to  him  by  his  General.  In  reality,  de  Grenier  was  an 
especial  favourite  of  his  ;  the  old  feeling  of  '  simile  simili  gaudet ' 
influenced  his  heart ;  and  no  one  knew  better  than  he  did,  that,  if 
de  Grenier  were  required  to  head  a  charge  or  storm  a  breach  in  the 
very  teeth  of  the  enemy,  it  would  be  done  with  a  chivalrous  intre- 
pidity worthy  of  the  days  of  ancient  Sparta.  Still  his  devotion  to  the 
chase  exceeded  all  other  considerations ;  and,  although  the  ordinary 
duties  of  his  military  profession  were  never  left  unfulfilled,  yet  was 
he  prone  to  regard  them  as  a  kind  of  collar-work  from  which  it  was 
unmanly  to  flinch,  or  even  as  a  penance  imposed  on  him  for  the  un- 
bounded licence  he  took  in  the  enjoyment  of  the  chase,  to  which  he 
gave  his  whole  soul.  The  General  thought  it  prudent,  now  and 
then,  to  put  on  the  drag,  and  to  restrain  the  impetuosity  of  his  aide- 
de-camp's  temper  by  special  service,  the  nature  of  which  might  or 
might  not  be  in  strict  accordance  with  that  code  which  regulated  the 
duties  of  a  French  soldier.  On  this  occasion  it  certainly  was  a  wide 
departure  from  it.  But  besides  the  salutary  check  on  de  Grenier, 
who,  like  many  a  man,  was  a  poor  judge  of  his  own  pace,  the 
General  had  other  good  reasons  for  appointing  him   to  a  command 


134  THE    EARLY    DAYS    OF    AN    M.  F.  H.  [June, 

which  required  hardihood,  quickness  of  thought,  and  the  activity  of  a 
mountain-cat.  De  Grenier  was  the  very  man  for  the  post;  but  it 
can  scarcely  be  said  he  was  flattered  by  the  confidence  with  which, 
in  this  case,  the  General  seemed  disposed  to  honour  him  ;  no,  he 
rather  winced  at  the  idea  of  being  turned  into  a  detective  and  sent  to 
capture  a  mere  smuggler  and  his  cut-throat  crew.  If  his  prey  was 
to  be  man  he  had  no  objection  to  a  regular  campaign  ;  but  to  track 
and  waylay  a  buccaneer,  a  pirate  at  sea  and  a  bandit  ashore,  such  as 
Galofaro  was  known  to  be,  he  could  not  reconcile  that  service  with 
his  own  notions  of  military  duty.  His  proud  spirit  chafed  at  the 
appointment ;  better  a  thousand  times  be  summoned  to  a  wolf-hunt 
by  the  Maire  of  one's  commune,  thought  he,  than  be  sent  at  the  re- 
quest of  a  cursed  Prefect  on  such  a  mission  as  this.  And,  after- 
wards, doubly  bitter  was  the  draught  proffered  to  his  lips  as,  on  his 
pillow,  his  fancy  pictured  the  pleasant  expedition  now  about  to  start 
in  pursuit  of  forest  game  ;  he  saw  a  noble-headed  mouflon  standing 
aloft  on  guard,  and  watching  over  the  safety  of  a  little  herd  that  fed 
securely  in  the  gorge  below  ;  and  he  saw,  in  his  rear,  Pendril  on  his 
hands  and  knees,  winding  up  to  him  like  a  Red  Indian  through  the 
tufts  of  grass  and  blocks  of  granite  that  lay  between  him  and  his 
prey ;  then,  how  far  his  imagination  might  have  carried  him  it  is 
hard  to  say  ;  but  at  that  point  the  sharp  rattle  of  a  kettle-drum  roused 
him  from  his  light  slumber  to  the  real  business  of  the  day ;  and  in 
another  hour  he  and  a  small  troop  of  horsemen,  lightly  accoutred, 
swung  into  their  saddles,  and  were  off  for  the  Gravone. 


THE  EARLY  DAYS  OF  AN  M.  F.  H. 

CHAPTER.    VIII. 

There,  is  no  time  of  life  more  enjoyable  than  that  when  a  youth, 
emancipated  from  the  drudgery  of  school,  let  it  be  called  by  the 
less  euphonious  name  of 'the  birch,'  considers  himself  absolved  from 
compulsory  tuition — beyond  the  restraint  of  play  bounds,  and  to  be 
at  once  thrust  forth  '  lanccj  as  the  French  have  it,  in  the  bright 
paths  of  the  world.  With  what  a  jolly  satisfaction  he  throws  away 
his  round  jacket  for  the  turkey-tailed  coat  or  shooting-jacket — to  tie 
a  loud  choker,  and  henceforward  to  have  a  chance  of  the  wing  and 
a  slice  of  the  breast  of  the  c  gallinacei '  instead  of  that  eternal  toug-h 
drumstick  !  It  is  a  time  of  great  peril;  and  the  more  of  assurance, 
in  a  right  sense,  and  of  confidence  that  he  may  possess,  the  surer 
will  he  acquire  the  power  of  resisting  improper  influences,  and  of 
bearing  himself  right  royally  in  the  tumultuous  existence  in  which 
he  will  be  compelled  to  take  his  part.  A  spice  of  devilry  is  virtue 
in  a  particular  phasis  of  action.  We  bear  in  mind  that  Democritus 
Junior,  otherwise  good  old  Robert  Burton  of  Lindley,  in  Leicester- 
shire, and  of  Brasenose  and  Christ  Church,  has  been  '  tabooed  ' 
from  the  pages  of  '  Baily  ;'  yet  it  must  be  allowed  that  an  excellent 


1864.]  THE    EARLY    DAYS    OF    AN  M.  F.  H.  I35 

and  practical  caution  directed  to  the  juvenile  fox-hunter,  on  the 
insanum  venandi  studium^  may  be  found  in  Part  I.  sec.  2.  of  that 
quaint  and  profound  work,  from  which  both  Bacon  and  Locke,  and 
again  Byron,  have  so  largely  borrowed.  And  the  inferior  doctors  in 
ethics  are  indebted  to  him  in  the  same  ratio  that  are  the  superior 
and  speculative  philosophers  to  Baruch  Spinoza.  Even  Butler  did 
not  disdain  to  make  use  of  him  in  his  Chapter  on  Virtue.  The 
'  Anatomy '  is  a  plum-pudding  of  knowledge,  mixed  up  according  to 
the  receipt — and  a  savoury  one — of  a  philosophic  Mrs,  Beeton — 

'  Heraclite  fleas,  misero  sic  convenit  sevo, 
Nil  nisi  turpe  vides,  nil  nisi  triste  vides. 
Ride  etiam,  quantumque  lubet,  Democrite  ride, 
Non  nisi  vana  vides,  non  nisi  stulta  vides. 
Nunc  opus  est ' 

to  relate  how  that  our  revered  parent,  called  familiarly  *  the  gover- 
'  nor,'  being  a  friend  of  Mr.  Canning,  was  persuaded  by  him  to  send 
us  to  a  private  tutor  for  a  twelvemonth  before  going  to  the  Uni- 
versity, and  forthwith  we  wended  our  way  to  the  kindest  and  most 
learned  preceptor  that  a  young  Etonian  could  have — the  author  of 
the  work  on  '  Human  Motives,'  then  residing  a  mile  from  Lincoln. 
The  parsonage  was  within  a  walk  of  the  Osbaldeston  kennels,  thirty 
miles  from  the  Brocklesby,  and  twenty-five  from  the  Belvoir  kennels. 
Besides,  that  most  excellent  sportsman,  known  formerly  in  Leicester- 
shire as  the  '  Flying  Parson,'  was  intimate  with  our  tutor,  and 
became  our  Mentor  in  les  menus  p/aisirs,  therefore  on  both  scores 
we  were  particularly  well  served.  As  the  lady  maternal  of  the 
«  Flying  Parson  '  resided  at  Lincoln,  and  a  relative  of  our  own  was 
located  near  Newark,  abutting  upon  the  Vale  of  Belvoir,  whenever 
we  had  a  few  days  of  liberty  we  had  always  a  safe  fixture  with  the 
range  of  Lincolnshire  and  the  cream  of  Leicestershire  for  a  chevy. 

All  that  has  been  lately  advanced  in  the  House  of  Commons  by 
the  sciolists  against  classical  education,  and  against  boats  and 
cricket  as  school  recreations,  is  a  weak  invention,  and  only  a 
rechauffe  of  what  had  already  been  said  by  Messrs.  Bright  and 
Cobden.  The  c  didicisse  fideliter  artes  '  is  an  accomplishment  that 
those,  who  are  shorn  of  that  advantage  in  the  House  of  Commons, 
feel  full  well  the  deficiency,  and  become  persuaded,  to  their  cost, 
that  the  satchel  with  Cocker  on  arithmetic,  and  the  rudiments  of 
ledger-keeping,  cannot  be  equivalent  in  value  for  the  substratum  of 
education  to  the  c  Propria  quae  maribus,'  and  the  <  As  in  praesenti '  of 
the  public  schools.  How  is  it,  and  why  is  it,  that  clergymen — 
almost  all  of  them  from  public  schools — invariably  write  correct 
grammar,  are  social  authorities  every wheie — accomplished  gentle- 
men welcomed  by  all — excellent  men  of  business,  ride  well  to 
hounds,  are  captains  of  eleven  in  provincial  cricket  matches,  and 
would  speak  better,  if  they  were  admitted  into  the  House  of 
Commons,  than  all  the  Manchester  Radicals  together  ?  It  is 
nothing  more  nor  less  than  a  cantankerous  envy  that  would  brino- 
down  the  superior  to  the  inferior.     Look  at  the  hungry  non-classical 


136  THE    EARLY    DAYS    OF    AN    M.   F.  H.  [June, 

visages  c  auri  appetentes  ' — that  never  made  a  pilgrimage  to  the 
c  fons  Blandusiae,'  and  are  not  c  splendidiores  vitro  ;'  and  contrast  them 
with  the  smiling  countenances  of  the  bucolic  senators,  fresh  from  a 
run  over  Ashby  pastures,  and  come  up  on  purpose  to  vote  in  favour 
of  Eton  and  Horace,  and  boating  and  cricket.  And  they  laugh  at 
the  denunciations  of  fun,  frolic,  and  the  games  of  schoolboys  by  the 
1  duffers  '  and  the  factory  masters — • 

'  Whose  minds 
Shape  strictest  plans  of  discipline.     Sage  schemes  ! 
Such  as  Lycurgus  taught,  when  at  the  shrine 
Of  the  Orthyan  goddess  he  bade  flog 
The  little  Spartans — such  as  now  chastise 
Our  Cobdens  and  our  Brights,  their  'prentices/ — Canning. 

And  hunting  is  regarded  at  Eton  as  the  grand  pastime  of  an 
English  elysium.  '  Pox-hounds '  had  always  been  a  prime  game 
with  the  lower  boys,  and  a  run  over  the  flat  by  Chalvey  ditch  was  a 
favourite  line  of  chase.  One  or  two  duckings  had  caused  some  of 
the  boys  to  stay  out  from  feverish  colds,  and  on  a  Sunday  when  we 
were  up  in  school  before  evening  chapel  to  hear  the  programme  of 
the  ensuing  week,  we  were  duly  cautioned  never  to  transgress 
bounds  for  a  fox-chase  over  Chalvey  ditch  under  severe  pains  and 
penalties.  The  next  whole  holiday,  after  four,  we  were  at  it  as  a 
matter  of  course  j  Mother  Coker's  chicks  backing  their  materialities 
against  Cartland  the  birchmaker,  and  the  chance  of  the  switch  in  the 
library.  We  were  well  in  chase,  running  hard  from  the  lower  end 
ofDorney  Common  on  to  Chalvey,  when,  lo  !  there  was  Keate  safe 
enough,  cocked  hat  and  all,  on  his  grey  mare,  out  for  a  ride,  in  ex- 
pectation, and  fit  for  a  start.  He  was  at  the  gate  beyond  the 
shooting-fields  bridge,  lying  in  wait  by  the  clump  of  trees  near  old 
Maguire's  house,  at  the  extremity  of  the  gravel  walk  leading  across 
the  fields  to  Chalvey.  To  be  whipped  off'  was  inglorious  ;  we  had 
a  fine  plough  before  us,  with  the  length  of  a  large  field,  and  the 
hedge  as  a  screen,  in  our  favour,  for  we  were  coming  across  the  middle 
ground  of  Chalvey  flat,  and  the  doctor  had  calculated  upon  cutting 
us  off".  Villiers  being  the  leading  hound,  was  the  first  to  descry 
danger  and  to  come  to  a  check.  We  knew  that  the  proper  line  of 
our  fox  was  ahead,  and  to  cast  back  would  have  been  to  class  our- 
selves with  drivelling  harriers.  There  was  a  stake  and  bound  for 
the  first  fence  after  the  gravel  walk,  a  bit  of  plough  again,  and  then 
for  the  Chalvey  Whissendine.  If  we  got  over  that  we  were  safe, 
as  the  chance  of  the  doctor  charging  it  was  out  of  the  question. 
With  our  second  wind  well  recovered,  and  carrying  a  good  head — 
forrard  away — forrard — not  mute,  like  fashionable  fox-hounds,  but 
giving  tongue  loyally  and  lavishly — forrard  away  !  The  little  doctor 
was  'cute  enough  in  his  generation,  and,  although  not  quite  a  Dick 
Christian,  had  plenty  of  pluck.  He  remained  patiently  until  we 
were  midway  and  without  the  possibility  of  a  retreat,  and  then  the 
grey  mare  was  called  upon  to  do  her  best.  It  had  been  well  for  him 
had  he  been  a  turn  more  horsey,  for  innocent  of  steeple-chase  ex- 


1864.]  THE    EARLY    DAYS    OF    AN    M.  F.  H.  137 

perience,  he  left  the  hard  gravel,  and  put  his  old  mare  along,  up  to 
her  houghs  in  the  plough,  with  a  loose  rein.  That  might  have  been 
all  very  well  for  Sam  Chifney,  with  his  peculiar  finger,  in  the  rush 
on  Zingaree,  but  this  was  another  story  ;  yet  the  Carthaginian,  fat 
as  a  pig,  and  roaring  like  a  grampus,  struggled  on  gamely.  We 
were  at  the  stake  and  bound,  well  collected,  with  a  fast  fling  and 
over,  no  tailing,  and  properly  whipped  up.  The  sharp  eye  of  the 
doctor  detected  a  low  gap  in  the  fence  and  he  made  for  it.  '  Boys — 
4  stop  boys — I'll  flog  you — I'll  turn  you  down  into  the  lower  school 
£  — stop — I  know  you  all — I'll  expel  every  one  of  you.'  {  Nix  my 
c  Dolly,  pals,  fake  away.'  The  grey  mare  plunged  on,  bellowing 
like  a  bull  of  Basan,  with  the  doctor  flog-a-ino-  hard  and   making-  his 

*  DO        D  O 

race,  seeing  that  his  oracular  charming  fared  the  fate  of  that  to  the 
deaf  adder  of  Israel.  The  mare  got  to  the  gap  and  blundered, 
throwing  the  doctor  on  her  neck,  smashing  his  frontispiece,  and, 
as  they  say  in  Devonshire,  '  he  blid  to  the  nos.'  Steady  !  now  comes 
the  still  deeper  plough,  and  we  run  the  dry  water  furrow,  luckily  in 
our  favour,  up  from  the  ditch,  and  then  with  a  bright  cheer  and  a 
run — a  shooter — ha  !  ha  !  we  are  landed  on  the  opposite  bank,  with 
a  few  splashes  right  and  left,  but  out,  omnes,  and  safe.  On  comes 
the  enemy — the  grey  in  grief  across  the  deep  furrow,  and  the  doctor, 
red  as  a  cardinal  with  passion,  approaches  the  water.  'Whoay — 
4  whoay — whoay  !' — all  in  vain.  The  snaffle  bridle  was  useless,  as  it 
always  is  in  difficulty,  and  the  mare,  ill-tempered  by  the  liberal  use  of 
the  whip,  floundered  heavily  on.  Not  having  strength  or  inclination 
to  swerve,  she  made  a  half  jump,  went  bang  into  the  middle  of  the 
water,  and  breasted  with  a  groan  the  opposite  bank,  upon  which  the 
doctor  was  deposited  with  a  loud  crack  of  his  nether  garments,  and 
with  his  coeked  hat  sailing  down  the  stream.      Great  was  the  fall. 

'  Your  hat  has  got  a  hole  in  't, 
So  have  your  breeches.'  Canning. 

1  Sic  transit  gloria  Doctoris,'  whilst  the  peccant  pack  was  well  in 
the  middle  of  the  next  turnip-field,  with  knives  out  and  munching 
the  said  vegetable  deliciously — very  indigestible,  granny  ?  Ask  a 
fourteen-year  old  stomach  whether  it  cannot  beat  Holloway,  Cockle, 
and  the  whole  lot.  The  grand  crash  of  the  scholastic  finale,  like 
that  of  Fidelio,  was  inspiriting,  but  the  c  Tourte  '  bow  of  the  orches- 
tral fiddle  was,  in  its  fashion,  like  unto  a  birch  rod,  with  the  high- 
arm  action  of  Costa  for  the  conductor  flagellant ; — we  caught  it,  and 
no  mistake. 

Our  first  introduction  to  the  'real  article'  of  fox-hounds  was  at 
Dinsey  Nook — with  the  hounds  of  Osbaldeston — a  few  miles  from 
Lincoln,  under  the  guardianship  of  Colonel  King,  the  owner  of  Bessy 
Bedlam,  who  became  responsible  for  our  preservation.  The  mur- 
derer on  the  gibbet  at  the  cross  roads  in  that  day  was  creaking  in 
his  iron  framework.  A  hedge  sparrow  had  built  its  nest,  during  the 
past  season,  in  the  skeleton  jaws,  and  the  birds  were  chirping  gaily 
round  their  grinning  home.     Wildboy,  by   the  Monson  Wonder, 


I38  THE    EARLY    DAYS   OF    AN    M.  F.  14.  [June, 

looked  up  with  Tom  Sebright,  the  first  whip,  at  this  exhilarating 
spectacle  of  civilization,  and  the  old  hound  pondered  perhaps  on  the 
future.  The  prospect  of  a  halter  as  the  reward  for  long  service 
smacked  of  ingratitude  ;  but  man  often  does  worse  than  that  even 
to  his  best  friend.  The  next  time  we  saw  Sebright  was  with  the 
Fitzwilliam,  in  all  the  pride  and  glory  of  his  successful  career. 
Trickster,  by  the  Belvoir  Topper,  was  there,  memorable  for 
being  the  sire  of  Tarquin,  the  hound  that  caused  Sebright  to  take 
his  place    amongst  the    Castalides    line    hunters,  in  a  plaintive  *  ad 


memonarn.' 


'  "Pis  here  my  favourite  Tarquin  lies, 
Turn  away,  sportsmen,  and  wipe  your  eyes.* 

This  is  true  pathos,  and  the  climax  of  popular  sympathy  for  the 
death  of  the  Osbaldeston  patriarch,  so  delicately  expressed  in  this 
duolinear  epic,  is  quite  affecting.  The  Horatian  laws  c  de  arte,'  are 
carried  out  to  the  very  letter.  *  Difficile  est  proprie  communia 
'  dicere,' — but  here  we  have  an  example  of  the  chastest  diction,  and 
the  rule,  c  publica  materies  privati  juris  erit,'  is  made  absolute. 
Tennyson  would  never  make  'bowld'  in  any  hound  simile,  as  a  pen- 
dant to  the  c  sea  blue  bird  of  March,'  to  trench  upon  this  hallowed 
ground, — never ! 

The  Monson  hounds,  strongly  ticked,  coarse,  and  clever  in  their 
work,  served  the  purpose  for  the  moment,  and  were  the  foundation 
of  that  splendid  pack,  for  a  part  of  which,  in  1840,  Osbaldeston 
refused  a  hundred  and  thirty-five  guineas  a  hound.  They  did  not 
satisfy  his  eye,  and  the  Middleton,  Vernon,  Vigilant,  and  Vanquisher 
were  a  great  acquisition  in  giving  a  fashion  and  a  grace  to  the  work- 
ing material.  In  his  earliest  day  he  took  for  his  admonitory  device, 
4  the  race  of  Rutland,  and  the  nose  of  Yarborough  ;'  and  in  his  sub- 
sequent operations  he  kept  to  this  proposed  standard  of  merit  with 
unflinching  constancy.  It  was  always  a  day  of  rejoicing  when 
we  were  enabled  to  meet  the  Belvoir  at  Newton  toll-bar,  under  the 
tutelage  of  the  '  Flying  Parson,'  during  the  last  winter  of  Shaw. 
There  was  the  stamp  and  type  of  the  thoroughbred  in  their  every 
movement — Belvoir  itself.  Light  in  action,  graceful,  and  with  a 
symmetrical  substance  that  might  have  made  '  Charley  Grey ' 
mingle  their  graceful  outlines  in  his  passionate  dreams,  with  the  rare 
beauties  of  Mary  Brandling — the  famed  tans  raced  away  with  a 
unity  of  action  that  was  a  security  for  their  belonging  to  one  family 
■ — to  their  having  been  bred  carefully  to  answer  to  one  standard  of 
excellence  in  form  and  deed.  We  were  young  in  years,  yet  even 
then  the  reality  of  worth  was  self-evident  to  our  unpractised  capacity. 
Early  impressions  are  lasting.  Those  of  a  pleasing  nature,  more 
welcome  in  after  years  than  any  others,  cling  to  the  retina  of  the 
imagination,  and  '  soft  as  the  memory  of  buried  love,'  are  never  for- 
gotten, and  hold  their  supremacy  to  the  last.  Molesworth  says  in 
one  of  his  early  essays  in  a  review  on  '  The  Philosophy  of  Sleep'  by 
McNish,  that  if  a  child  had  been  trained  to  believe  the  jumping 
backwards  and  forwards  over  a  stable  broomstick  to  be  an  accep- 


1864O  THE    EARLY    DAYS    OF    AN    M.  F.  H.  139 

table  act  of  devotion  to  a  higher  power,  never  afterwards,  despite  of 
reason  and  Rugby,  would  he  be  able  to  regard  the  sacrificial  besom 
without  an  inner  twinge  of  respectful  recollection.  And  so  says  our 
quarto  edition  of  the  infidel  Lucretius  that  Keate  gave  us  on  leaving 
Eton.  And  our  young  sense  of  animal  beauty  was  gratified  by  the 
sparkling  elegance  of  the  Belvoir.  The  impression  was  ineffaceable  ; 
and  never  has  that  standard  of  perfection  been  obliterated  ;  on  the 
contrary,  it  has  ever  governed  our  tastes  and  inclinations  in  the 
kennel  department  as  an  M.  F.  H.  ;  and  we  could  detect  the 
Belvoir  tan  and  gait  out  of  a  hundred.  What  is  a  sense  of  beauty? 
It  is  the  irresistible  cognition  of  the  fitness  of  a  thing  for  a  required 
purpose  ;  and  the  primary  source  of  all  beauty  is  form,  the  immediate 
perception  of  which  is  called  by  Kant  the  phenomenon  of  intuition. 
Distinct  from  the  artistic  wisdom  of  experience,  it  flashes  in  all  the 
brightness  of  reality  on  the  untutored  faculty  of  perception,  and 
gladdens  the  sensory  in  the  earliest  stage,  as  it  does  the  understanding 
in  the  later  period  of  life.  We  will  not  dive  into  Hogarth's 
c  Analysis  of  Beauty,'  or  Alison  on  c  The  Nature  and  Principle  of 
c  Taste,'  but  ask  the  simple  question,  founded  upon  an  argument  of 
Burke  on  'The  Sublime  and  Beautiful,' — whether  a  child,  on  being 
shown  a  thoroughbred  horse,  in  the  silky  bloom  of  condition,  and  a 
worn-out  cart-horse,  with  coarse  hair  and  gaunt  ribs  and  hips, 
would  hesitate  in  saying  which  gave  most  pleasure  to  his  eye  ?  And 
why  should  this  be,  except  by  the  sympathy  of  an  intuitive  percep- 
tion of  natural  beauty  ? 

How  little  did  we  imagine,  on  seeing  Rockwood,  that  he  would 
have  been  the  sire  of  Rosamond,  who  was  the  making  of  our 
little  kennel  in  1825,  '26,  '27,  and  '28.  He  was  a  fine  hound  ;  and  a 
better  than  his  daughter  Rosamond,  drafted  for  size,  being  under 
twenty-one  inches,  never  went  into  the  hunting-field.  We  were  not 
insensible  to  the  merits  and  commanding  presence  of  the  Brocklesby 
Ranters,  R-ingwoods,  Redrose,  Reveller,  and  the  descendants  of  that 
renowned  sort,  which  were  cynosures  to  the  eye  of  the  c  Flying 
Parson,' — nevertheless  we  remained  firm  in  our  allegiance  to  the 
Belvoir.     The  famous  Ranter  of   the  Yarborouprh  kennel  was  bred 

O 

in  1796,  by  Dover,  out  of  Redrose — sister  to  the  not  less  famous 
Ringwood  ;  and  Dover,  bred  in  1786,  was  a  descendant  of  the  Fitz- 
william  Ranger.  The  kennel  was  equally  indebted  to  Milton  for 
Truant,  son  of  the  Fitzwilliam  Traitor,  and  bred  in  1797.  The 
Ranters  at  a  later  day  were  again  crossed  with  the  Saville  Rallywood, 
and  again  the  Fitzwilliam  Druid  appears  to  have  been  of  service. 
The  Osbaldeston  Ranter  went  back  to  the  Brocklesby  Ranter, 
out  of  a  Vernon  bitch,  by  the  Monson  Wonder.  The  '  hunt ' 
and  c  stay '  of  these  hounds  was  ever  remarkable,  and  it  must 
be  borne  in  mind  that  the  Belvoir  Rallywood,  one  of  the  finest 
stud-hounds  of  his  time,  was  by  Sir  R.  Sutton's  Basilisk,  out  of  the 
Yarborough  Rosebud,  by  Rector,  of  the  Ranter  sort,  from  Mr. 
Foljambe's  Piper.     He  came  direct  from  Brocklesby. 

We  believe  that  Mr.  Osbaldeston,  known  for  evermore,  par  ex- 


14°  THE    EARLY    DAYS    OF    AN    M.    F.    H.  [June, 

cellence,  as  l  the  Squire,'  commenced  his  career  as  a  Master  of  Hounds 
in  Lincolnshire.  Mrs.  Osbaldeston,  his  mother,  had  taken  a  house 
in  Lincoln,  and,  profuse  of  hospitality  and  every  species  of  enter- 
tainment, managed  to  vivify  the  old  cathedral  town,  and  make  its 
grey-stone  houses,  and  sombre  green  on  the  top  of  the  steep  hill, 
for  once  assume  an  appearance  of  life.  The  county  families,  with 
their  seats  scattered  '  longo  intervallo,'  opened  their  houses  in  the 
neighbourhood  of  the  meets,  and  gave  a  zest  and  encouragement  to 
the  sport  which  materially  contributed  to  the  general  enjoyment. 
Whether  the  head  of  a  house  and  his  belongings  are  or  are  not  fox- 
hunters  is  not  absolutely  material ;  it  is  the  public  spirit  with  which 
the  grand  sport  is  upheld  by  one  and  all,  even  by  those  who  are  not 
participators  in  it,  that  gives  an  importance  and  adds  an  authority  and 
value  which  go  far  to  convert  it  into  a  national  institution.  Does 
not  the  fact  of  the  Prince  of  Wales  evincing  a  frank  predilection 
for  fox-hunting,  and  more — the  power  of  crossing  the  country  well — 
tend  to,  and  has  it  not  had  the  effect  of  popularising  in  a  still  greater 
degree  the  sport  itself,  and  the  Prince  who  rejoices  in  it  ?  And  the 
same  argument  holds  good  through  the  entire  chain  of  the  social 
grades,  from  the  first  tothe  last,  from  the  Premier  to  Jerry  Hawkins 
and  Sam  Laing,  who  join  equally,  and  have  a  community  of  in- 
terest, then  and  there,  in  the  national  and  exciting  sport  of  fox- 
hunting. Together  with  racing  it  has  found  its  way  on  the  Con- 
tinent, and  if  foreign  localities  are  not  quite  calculated  for  its  indul- 
gence as  in  England,  yet  it  has  introduced  a  taste  that  will,  in  some 
shape,  more  or  less  favourable,  bear  its  fruits.  One  of  the  few 
claims  that  c  Robin  des  bois '  had  upon  the  sympathies  of  his  vi- 
vacious and  unstable  subjects  was  derived  from  his  being  fond  of 
hunting  and  able  to  ride.  The  2000/.  that  he  spent  in  one  season 
for  drafts  of  the  largest  hounds  that  he  could  procure,  were  well  laid 
out  in  other  than  a  hunting  sense.  No  surer  mark,  also,  of  an 
entente  cordiale,  no  means  more  calculated  to  augment  it  could  have 
been  devised,  than  the  visit  of  the  Duke  of  Beaufort  to  France  with 
his  fox-hounds  ;  and  the  generous  cordiality  of  his  reception  was  a 
happy  earnest  of  the  future.  The  success  of  Count  Lagrange  on 
the  English  Turf,  and  his  personal  popularity,  are  all  steps  in  the 
right  direction  :  and  we  may  mention,  last,  though  not  least,  that  the 
Emperor  is  a  subscriber  to  the  English  Cricket  Club  at  Paris,  and 
has  become  an  honorary  member. 

The  principal  difficulty  of  continental  hunting  consists  in  the  in- 
veterate dislike  which  the  petty  proprietaire  and  the  peasant  enter- 
tain against  having  their  ground  trampled  upon  by  a  field  of  horses. 
They  neither  understand  nor  have  they  any  gratification  in  the  sport, 
and  conceive  that  Magrande  chasse  aux  chiens  courants,'  ouo-ht  to  be 
confined  to  the  forests,  and  the  legitimate  object  of  chase  to  be  a 
stag.  A  fox,  with  them,  belongs,  properly,  to  the  «  chasse  a  fusil ;' 
and  many  a  foreigner  in  a  bygone  time  has  come  out  to  meet  hounds 
in  his  own  country  with  a  gun  slung  at  his  back  !  We  remember, 
once,  in  Hungary  going  over  a  fine  wild  waste  beyond  Buda-Pesth, 


1864.]  THE    EARLY    DAYS    OF    AN    M.  F.  H.  141 

near  Tapio  Sczele,  and  running  into  the  suburbs  of  a  village,  where 
the  peasants  rushed  out,  and  seeing  some  of  the  hounds  jumping 
over  the  fence  into  the  gardens — for  the  fox  had  got  into  an  out- 
house— drew  their  knives,  and  with  pitchforks,  fought  savagely 
pro  aris  et  focis.  Many  of  the  hounds  were  wounded,  and  the  horse 
of  one  of  the  men  was  stabbed  ;  yet  the  nobleman  who  had  almost 
the  power  of  life  and  death  over  his  tenants  was  present,  without 
saying  a  word  ;  il  n'osoit  pas  se  mcler.  A  singular  and  lively  episode, 
a  kind  of  farcical  entertainment,  happened  with  these  hounds  as  they 
were  being  brought  to  Vienna.  The  person  who  had  charge  of  them 
judged  that,  as  the  summer  sun  was  burning  over  the  dry,  sandy 
plains,  it  would  be  more  agreeable  to  travel  early  in  the  morning, 
and  in  the  cool  of  the  afternoon.  One  evening,  rather  late,  with  a 
fine  moonlight,  they  got  into  a  glade  of  the  forest,  near  a  small  stream 
of  water,  where  the  hares  and  chevreuil  were  just  coming  leisurely 
out  to  have  a  bite  and  a  refreshing  lap.  The  scent  amounted  to  a 
steam.  Away  went  the  pack,  in  and  out  of  couples,  in  every  direc- 
tion— impervious  to  a  rate — now  with  a  hare,  now  with  a  roebuck — 
with  a  rattling  crash  that  rang  through  the  woods,  and  brought  back 
the  time  of  the  wild  huntsman  and  his  spectral  hounds.  Toot-toot- 
tooraloo-tooraloo  went  the  horn  ;  but  that  was  of  little  purpose — the 
hounds  were  happy  and  had  it  all  to  themselves,  going  away  and 
away,  and  round  and  round,  chiefly  in  view,  from  one  animal  to 
another,  for  many  a  long  hour,  till  the  condition  of  the  German 
black  broth  gave  way,  and  they  were  fairly  pumped  out.  The 
peasants  of  the  forest  were  not  of  any  assistance  in  effecting  their 
recapture,  and  only  crossed  themselves  in  the  most  abject  manner, 
thoroughly  appalled — '  Miserere  nostri,  Domine  !  Ah!  Jesu,  Jesus 
Maria !  misericordia  !'  The  hounds  were  got  together  by  degrees 
before  the  next  morning,  and  in  future  they  were  marched  in  couples, 
with  a  strong  rope  passing  from  the  first  couple  on  through  the 
entire  pack,  like  a  chain-gang  of  galley  slaves.  The  dryness  of  the 
atmosphere,  generally,  in  central  Europe  is  not  favourable  to  a  pad 
scent,  and  unless  it  be  a  wolf,  or  when  underwood  gives  a  side 
holding,  the  chase  is  reduced  to  short  courses,  affording  little  in  the 
shape  of  legitimate  sport.  Those  portions,  however,  bordering  on 
the  sea,  and  within  the  range  of  a  salt  wind,  hold  the  best  scent,  and 
even  in  Italy,  where  the  winter  sun  is  all-absorbing,  the  maremma, 
both  in  the  Roman  and  Tuscan  territory,  carries  a  sufficiency  for 
hunting,  as  we  may  have  to  recount  in  a  future  page. 

A  young  Master  of  Hounds,  with  large  means,  is  certain  to  keep 
the  ball  moving,  in  an  agreeable  manner  to  himself  and  others,  and 
it  is  in  the  matter  of  social  distractions  that  lies  the  danger  of  his 
efficiency  in  the  field  being  impaired,  especially  if  he  undertake  the 
task  of  being  his  own  huntsman.  This  was  not  the  case  with  c  the 
Squire.'  His  constitution,  which  was  one  of  iron,  could  stand  any 
amount  of  fatigue,  and  he  loved  hunting  for  hunting's  sake,  and 
not  for  riding  only,  with  the  other  accessories,  which  to  many  form 
the  principal  charms.     A  dash  of  warmth   and   eagerness  increases 

vol.  viii. — no.  52.  o 


*42  THE    EARLY    DAYS    OF    AN    M.  F.  H.  [June, 

the  chance  of  success  ;   for  Locke  himself  tells  us  that  nothing  can 
be  done  without  a  tincture   of  enthusiasm,  which  in   the  end  will 
overcome^  every  obstacle,  and   carry  us   straight  on   the  line  to  the 
finish.     Early  and  late,  in  the  kennel  and  out  of  it,  this    energetic 
sportsman  worked  at  the  minutiae  of  hunting,  with  a  determination 
of  mastering  every  detail ;  and  how  he  successfully  accomplished  his 
object  will    be  recorded    in    a    time,  perhaps,   when    fox-hunting, 
through  the  curse  of  nominal  utilitarians  and  cotton-spinners,  may 
belong  to  the  past.     He  was  fortunate  in  the  pack  that  he  first  pos- 
sessed, and  in  the  servant  that  he  had  to  assist  him.     The  Monson 
hounds  were  of  long  standing  in  their  country,  large,  powerful,  with 
somewhat  of  lumber,  of  a  fair  pace,  and  undeniable  in  line  hunting. 
They  could  do,  what  all   hounds  should  be   able  to  do— kill  a  fox 
without  assistance — and  their  excellent  working   on    a    cold  scent 
mainly  conduced  to  give  'the  Squire,'  in  his  younger  days,  that 
knowledge  of  the  ways  of  the  wild  animal  he  hunted — that  patience, 
and  perseverance,  which,  in  after  years,  made  him,  as  a  gentleman 
huntsman,  quite   as  capable  in  an  indifferent  as  in  a  good  country. 
He  found  his  fox  gaily  and  well,  often  chattering  and  chaffing  in  the 
most  amusing  manner  at  the  same  time,  and  his  dog  language  was 
most  cheery.     This  is  not  exactly  a  Latin  and  Greek  accomplish- 
ment, and  he  was  an  Etonian  ;  but  let  a  novus   homo  at  that  work 
—albeit  skilled  in  the  '  OeXco  Xeyeiv  ArpetSaq   and  other  tongues — try 
his  parts  of  speech  in  the  hunting-field,  and  prattle  a  little  with  «  the 
dogs,'  and  he  will  find  himself  in  difficult  and  unbecoming  latitudes. 
In  a  burst  no  man  was  more  brilliant,  with  his  eye  on  the  leading 
hounds,  watching,  at  the  same  time,  the  body  of  the  pack— the  fox- 
killers— making  sure  how  far  they  had  carried  it,  and  at  a  check, 
encouraging  them  in  their  own  efforts  at  recovery,  with  a  <  Yoi  doit, 
good  hounds,'   before  catching  hold  of  them  and   making  his  own 
cast.      He  was  a  most  consummate  judge  of  pace,  and  well  knew 
what   kind  of  a  fox  he   had   to  deal  with — the  amount  of  dusting 
which  he  had  had — when  he  was  sinking,  and  the  signs  of  it.     And 
if  the   scent  was  not  happy,  no  man  would   be   steadier  or   more 
patient,  giving  hounds  ample  room  to  feel  their  own  way,  and  not 
interfering  with  them  until  the  dash  and  science  of  the  huntsman  is 
called  upon  to  hold  them  on  forward,  ahead,  on  the  line  which  the 
depending  ones  have  indicated.      A  great  authority  has  said,  in  '  The 
c  Life  of  a  Fox-hound' — '  There  are  foxes,  and  circumstances,  that 
*  will  beat  the  best  huntsman  that  ever  cheered  a  hound  or  blew  a 
c  horn  ;   but  in  nine   cases  out  of  ten  the  cause  lies  in  not  paying 
c  attention  to  the  line  hunters.' 

We  remember  once,  when  these  hounds  had  passed  into  the 
kennel  of  Mr.  Harvey  Combe,  that  '  the  Squire '  came  down  to  see 
his  old  favourites  at  Devach  Park.  The  scent  was  flashy  and  light, 
but  they  ran  hard  for  a  short  time,  and  then  came  to  cold  hunting. 
The  huntsman,  wishing  to  get  near  his  fox,  abandoned  the  line,  and 
made  a  wild  cast  at  a  gallop,  quite  at  variance  with  the  opinion  of 
Harmony  and  others  who    held  back.     As   the  whip  was  going  to 


1 864.]  THE    EARLY     DAYS    OF    AN    M.   F.   H.  143 

turn  them,  Osbaldeston  stopped  him,  and  with  the  permission  of 
Harvey  Combe,  cheered  them  gently  on  the  line,  which  they  were 
feeling — held  them  steadily  on,  getting  on  better  terms,  and  the  body 
of  the  pack  returning  after  the  useless  cast,  they  sat  to  and  had  a 
good  hunting  run  with  a  kill.  This  was  in  the  season  before  the 
arrival  of  Will  Todd.  It  was  an  irregularity  permissible  by  peculiar 
circumstances  ;  but  we  shall  never  forget  the  force  with  which  cthe 
c  Squire '  gave  his  lecture  on  line  hunting.  It  was  the  reverse  with 
Assheton  Smith,  for  many  a  fox  that  he  had  lost  was  recovered  by 
Carter.  In  riding  to  hounds  they  were  equally  great ;  but  as  a 
huntsman,  the  superiority  of  Osbaldeston  over  '  le  grand  chasseur 
1  Smit,'  was  undoubted.  Walking  one  day — years  ago — into  the 
counting-house  of  a  well-known  wine  merchant  at  the  West  End, 
we  were  accosted  with  the  usual  salutation — 'What  sport  ?'  and  the 
conversation  turned  upon  the  hounds  of  Harvey  Combe,  and  of 
Osbaldeston  himself.  Some  allusion  was  made  to  the  person  known 
as  *  Craven '  Smith — and  as  a  fox  killer,  in  a  rough  way,  perhaps  no 
one  was  his  superior — when  we  observed  that  Osbaldeston,  starting 
with  a  pack  of  screws,  would  in  six  years  produce  a  kennel  of  bril- 
liant hounds  ;  whereas  the  other,  commencing  with  a  superior  lot,  at 
the  end  of  the  same  period  of  time  would  reduce  them  to  a  scratch 
pack.  <  Right,  sir,  right,'  exclaimed  a  stout  person  in  the  corner, 
discussing  a  glass  of  sherry  and  biscuit,  and  this  was  our  introduction 
to  the  well-known  c  Sam  Nichol.' 

Although,  as  a  rule,  the  scent  lies  well  in  Lincolnshire,  there  are 
broad  roads  on  the  headlands,  dry  and  sandy,  which  the  foxes — wise 
in  the  confidence  of  cunning — make  use  of  for  long  distances,  and 
therefore  it  is  indispensable  to  have  hounds  handy  at  this  work  ;  and 
there  were  never  any  better  than  the  Brocklesby.  The  Osbaldeston 
Rocket,  by  Vernon  Rallywood,  out  of  the  Vernon  Baroness,  was 
notoriously  great  upon  a  road,  and  was  a  successful  sire,  and  equally 
so  was  Ranter.  Although  the  Squire  has  performed  gallant  feats 
of  sporting  prowess  of  every  description,  yet  the  main  celebrity  of 
this  renowned  sportsman  will  always  rest  upon  his  having  bred  and 
perfected  one  of  the  most  brilliant  packs  of  hounds  that  have  ever 
appeared  at  the  covert  side.  No  matter  to  what  county  they  were 
taken  ; — in  Lincolnshire,  Nottinghamshire,  Hampshire,  Leicester- 
shire, Northamptonshire,  and  Hertfordshire,  they  equally  preserved 
their  acknowledged  character  of  superiority.  Confident  in  his  own 
judgment,  even  as  a  young  man,  the  Squire  selected  his  own  blood, 
and  carefully  crossing  the  stout  and  line  hunting  Monsons  with  the 
airy  and  graceful  Middletons  and  Vernons — and  these,  again,  with  the 
Brocklesby  and  Belvoir,  he  succeeded  in  bringing  before  the  rostrum 
of  Tattersall's,  where  they  were  ultimately  disposed  of,  a  pack  of 
hounds  that  reached  a  price  beyond  all  precedent ;  and  yet  which 
was  not  more  than  equivalent  to  their  high  blood  and  sterling  merit. 

The  stud-hounds  of  notoriety  that  belonged  to  the  kennel,  were — ■ 
Wildboy  (Monson),  Vaulter,  Vigilant,  Vanquisher,  and  Rocket  of 
the  Vernon   sort ;    Ranter,  uniting  the   Brocklesby  to  the  Vernon 

vol.  viii. — no.  52.  p 


144  '  A    B0X    FOR    THE    SEASON.'  [Jun^> 

and  Monson  strain  ;  Furrier,  by  Saladin,  from  Belvoir,  and  FalstafF, 
Foiler,  Flourisher,  Flasher,  Ferryman,  Flagrant,  Castor,  Random, 
and  Merryman,  all  by  Furrier.  This  famous  stud-hound  came 
either  in  an  unentered  draft  from  Belvoir,  or  at  any  rate  in  his 
first  season,  and  was  drafted  on  account  of  a  crooked  leg  from  an 
accident  when  at  walk.  He  was  a  fine  upstanding  hound,  black  and 
white,  of  twenty-four  inches — impatient — but  with  lasting  qualities 
and  pace  that  were  very  remarkable  ;  and  he  seemed  to  take 
to  line  hunting  better  in  the  end  than  in  the  beginning  of  a  long 
run.  According  to  our  judgment  we  have  ridden  by  the  side  of 
some  of  his  descendants,  Castor,  Foiler,  Random,  and  Merryman, 
that  we  preferred  to  him  ;  yet  it  is  fair  to  add  that  we  never  saw  him 
in  his  best  day.  For  many  a  long  hour  have  we  chatted  with 
Gardiner  in  Todd's  snug  little  parlour  at  Rickmansworth,  on  the 
various  episodes  of  the  Osbaldeston  kennel  ;  but  the  brave  old  feeder 
always  discoursed  with  most  relish  of  the  time  when  he  was  in 
Lincolnshire.  His  devotional  attachment  to  his  old  master  knew  no 
bounds,  and  he  would  have  backed  him  for  the  very  shirt  on  his 
back,  and  his  last  pair  of  shoes,  to  do  anything  against  anybody, 
1  no  matter  what.'  It  is  pleasing  to  record  that  all  the  servants  of 
the  Squire  that  we  have  ever  met — Shirley,  Dick  Burton,  Sebright, 
Dick  Sadler,  and  Jack  Stevens,  amongst  others — invariably  spoke  of 
him  with  the  most  respectful  regard,  and  with  an  acknowledgment 
of  his  ability  as  a  huntsman  that  professional  servants  are  not  often 
apt  to  admit.  The  last  time  that  we  saw  the  Squire  was  at  Tatter- 
sail's,  when  the  unrivalled  pack  was  being  dispersed  ;  and  although 
time  and  severe  accidents  had  left  traces  on  his  strong  frame,  yet  the 
same  spirit  and  hardihood  were  not  less  evident  than  on  the  day  when 
we  first  met  him  in  his  youth  at  Dinsey  Nook. 

Again  we  were  on  the  wing.  This  time  Lincolnshire  and  the 
private  tutor  were  abandoned  for  the  Continent,  and  the  advice  of 
another  great  authoritv  caused  us  to  be  entrusted  to  the  care  of 
M.  EtienneDumont  of  Geneva,  the  friend  of  Gabriel  Honore  Mirabeau 
and  of  Bentham.  The  sudden  change  from  Surley  Hall  and  New- 
ton toll-bar  to  the  lake  Leman  was  startling  and  rapid,  but  by  no 
means  disagreeable.  We  started,  not  unaccompanied,  for  we  had 
a  sharp  little  fox-terrier,  Trim,  just  entered,  which  we  had  procured 
from  Osbaldeston's  kennel ;  and  he  was  our  trusty  companion  in 
many  a  wild  adventure. 


<A  BOX   FOR   THE    SEASON.' 

A  SPORTING  SKETCH,  BY  CHARLES  CLARKE. 

Fast  and  furious  is  the  pace  and  taste  of  the  present  on  all  events,  and  the 
lighter  literature  of  the  day  would  seem  compelled  to  succumb,  by  a  unity  of 
action,  to  the  sensational  exactitude  of  the  more  solidly  concrete  or  volatile 
intellects  for  whose  especial  entertainment  and  instruction  the  gossamer  pages 
are  worked  up  and  set  in  order.  And  the  words  entertainment  and  instruc- 
tion, in  good  sooth,  belong  to  the  pages  of  '  A  Box  for  the  Season,'  on  the 


J864.]  '  A    BOX    FOR    THE    SEASON.  I45 

which  we  purpose  to  hazard  a  few  galloping  remarks  in  mimic  consonance  with 
the  prescribed  unities. 

Criticism,  to  be  just  and  honest,  must  be  composed  of  agro-dolce  ingredients ; 
and  as  the  palate  of  the  scientific  gastronome  is  delicately  acidulated,  to  be 
made  more  sensible  of  the  relish  of  the  after  lusciousness  of  an  abounding 
flavour,  so  is  it  meet  to  examine,  first,  the  less  perfect  portion  of  a  passing 
volume,  before  rushing  into  the  vortex  of  those  sensational  scenes  with  which 
a  Bluebeard  public  insists  upon  being  supplied  for  the  satisfaction  of  its  insatiate 
craving. 

The  sporting  story  of  '  A  Box  for  the  Season '  first  appeared  in  the  pages 
of  the  old  «  Sporting  Magazine ' — a  fact  that  is  not  stated,  but  which  should 
have  been  stated  by  the  publishers  in  the  title-page.  This  is  a  serious  and 
reprehensible  error,  for  which  the  author  is  not  in  any  way  responsible.  The 
act  is  voluntary  and  intentional ;  for  the  work,  in  its  present  shape,  comes  before 
the  public  with  the  jaunty  grace  of  a  fresh  and  original  novel,  instead  of 
stating  the  plain  truth,  that  it  is  the  reprint  of  a  serial  which  had  already 
appeared  in  the  ancient  periodical,  made  famous  in  a  former  time  by  the  letters 
of  '  Nimrod  '  and  the  '  Old  Forester.'  Looking  at  the  names  of  the  eminent 
publishers,  it  must  cause  both  surprise  and  regret  that  such  a  sorry  deception — 
for  it  is  nothing  less — should  have  been  practised  upon  a  public  that  has  always 
reposed  in  their  long  course  of  catering  for  literary  entertainment  such  a 
thorough  confidence.  The  '  Box  for  the  Season  '  possesses,  in  a  certain 
degree,  the  imperfections  of  a  serial  when  collected  and  published  as  a  whole 
and  entire  work.  The  shaping  of  each  chapter — and  there  are  thirty-seven — 
exacts  a  different  mode  of  treatment  from  that  where  a  continuity  of  relation 
is  not  fettered  by  the  repeated  « tops  and  bottoms '  inseparable  from  the 
construction  of  a  serial  for  monthly  perusal.  This  defect  can  be  traced  in  the 
most  popular  works  of  those  authors  who  have  resorted  to  the  modern  fashion 
of  the  French  feuilleton.  In  '  Digby  Grand  '  the  process  of  the  spinning 
machinery  may  be  easily  traced ;  and  the  more  careful  writing  of  '  Vanity 
Fair '  is  not  entirely  free  from  this  inconvenience,  which  we  can  only 
compare,  in  its  saltatorial  abruptness,  to  the  unpleasant  jerkings  of  the  physique 
on  an  American  corduroy  railroad. 

Keep  moving  is  the  order  of  the  day  in  this  <  Sporting  Sketch.'  The 
nomenclature  is  happily  adapted  to  scenes  rapidly  dashed  off,  and  the  varying 
incidents  of  flood,  field,  stable,  and  boudoir  course  each  other  at  a  pace  that 
cannot  admit  of  a  minute  detail,  leaving  the  imaginative  reader  to  fill  up  the 
vacancy  ad  libitum.  It  is  an  honest  and  pleasant  race  throughout,  without 
roping,  or  tampering  with  the  scales.  The  hunting  particulars,  as  is  the 
wont  in  these  fashionable — let  us  say  metropolitan  itineraries — are  brief,  and 
avoid  hound-detail.  It  is  evident  that  the  thirty-five  minutes-up-wind  authors, 
excepting  always  '  Scrutator'  and  Mr.  Mills,  are  not  thoroughly  at  home  in  the 
kennel  or  in  matters  touching  the  hound  qua  hound.  First  and  foremost  of 
these  defaulters  was  the  mighty  Nimrod  himself,  with  whom  we  have  conversed 
on  the  subject  of  hounds  frequently,  and  are  therefore  competent  to  form  an 
opinion  on  this  point.  These  clever  and  amusing  writers  may  be  able  to  ride, 
without  gainsay,  and  probably  have  caused  the  loss  of  many  a  fox,  and  maimed 
hounds  possessing  instinct  and  cleverness  that  might  have  put  to  shame  their 
godlike  intellect.  We  have  handled  the  splendid  creatures  too  long  and  fondly 
not  to  speak  of  them  con  amore.  '  Scrimmager '  and  '  Bloody-nose  '  are  jocose 
names ;  and  although  Mr.  Mills  has  called  his  kennel  hero  by  the  ancient  and 
not  euphonious  appellation  of  « Trimbush,'  yet  he  had  the  authority  of  the 
famous  old  Trimbush  of  the  York  and  Ainsty,  by  the  Badsworth  Tickler,  out 


I46  *  A    BOX    FOR    THE    SEASON.'  [Ju^e, 

of  the  Yarborough  Virgin,  tracing  down  from  Osbaldeston's  Vanquisher,  by 
the  Vernon  Vigilant.  He  was  bred  at  Brocklesby,  and  was  one  of  the  most 
celebrated  and  best  stud-hounds  of  his  day. 

'  Yoick  over,  Scrimmager!' — 'Get  to  him,  Bloody-nose!  and  then  were 

*  heard  the  "  clash-clash  "  of  the  whips,  and  the  "  toot-toot "  of  the  huntsman.' 
The  best  fox  always  goes  away  at  the  slightest  warning,  and  is  sure  to  be  the  old 
Hector.  Whenever  you  have  a  customer  on  hand  that  has  known  persecution 
and  objects  to  martyrdom,  he  never  waits  to  be  found.  You  cannot  be  too 
quiet :  the  old  gentleman  is  wide  awake ;  and  at  the  first  crash  of  the  dry 
thorns  on  coming  over  a  fence  into  covert,  and  before  the  first  whip  can  get  to 
the  far  side  up  wind,  he  is  away  for  his  point  under  the  tallest  hedge-row, 
often  running  the  dry  ditch  out  of  sight  before  turning  down  wind,  and  leaving 
his  helpmate  to  her  fate.  Horn  and  whip  should  be  charily  used  until  he  be 
up,  and  then  both  have  their  proper  signification  for  the  hounds.  What  would 
Lord  Portsmouth  say  if  Dan  Berkshire,  on  throwing  into  Rackenford  Gorse, 
commenced  a  staccato  voluntary  on  his  horn,  with  an  obligato  accompaniment 
of  crescendo  cracking  by  Charley  Littleworth  and  George  Whitemore,  without 
rhyme  or  reason  ?  '  Presently  one  hound  opened — then  another  ;  then  a  fine 
'  old  melodious  note,  which  set  all  doubt  at  defiance,  and  in  a  minute  or  two 

*  there  was  a  regular  huntsman's  chorus  from  the  whole  pack.'  (P.  22,  vol.  ii.) 
This  is,  indeed,  joyful  intelligence,  for  the  Belvoir,  Quorn,  Fitzwilliam, 
Pytchley,  Wynnstay,  and  others  have  been  running  mute,  in  and  out  of  covert, 
for  many  a  long  day.  Breed  instantly  from  this  fine  old  melodious  piper  that 
played  before  Moses — put  every  bitch-hound  that  you  can  to  him.  Our 
tastes,  a  Meltonian  might  say  our  prejudices,  are  entirely  with  our  author,  in 
agreeing  that  the  '  huntsman's  chorus '  should  be  an  imperative  adjunct  of  the 
chase,  both  for  pleasure  and  utility.  Pace,  to  a  certain  extent  only,  renders  a 
hound  chary  of  tongue ;  but  the  moment  a  cunning  one  finds  an  advantage  of 
it  to  himself,  and  gets  the  start  of  his  fellows,  the  error  becomes  permanent 
through  jealousy.  The  defect  is  hereditary,  notwithstanding  that  all  hounds, 
as  a  rule,  are  disposed  to  be  free  of  tongue  on  their  entry.  But  this  particular 
subject,  on  which  we  mav  descant  more  fully  on  a  future  occasion,  would  lead 
us  too  far  away  from  our  '  Box '  in  the  country. 

We  are  pleased  to  be  once  more  amongst  gentlemen.  Tom  Crackenthorpe 
belongs  to  good  society,  and,  whatever  the  amount  of  his  fast  failings,  may 
well  pass  muster  and  take  his  place  amidst  the  haute  volee  of  sportsmen,  or, 
more  properly  speaking,  hard -riding  men.  Soapy  Sponge  was  a  low  vagabond 
and  sharper,  commonly  called  a  thief — one  who  at  his  very  best  had  no  pre- 
tensions to  get  beyond  the  butler's  pantry,  and  then  only  provided  that  the 
plate-chest  were  locked — while  in  the  meantime,  and  notwithstanding  his 
remonstrance,  we  should  have  ushered  Lucy  Glitters  into  our  sanctum  with  the 
same  smiling  alacrity  which  she  would  have  evinced,  and  have  provided  her  with 
five  o'clock  tea  and  2.  petit  verre  of  rare  curacoa.  Then,  again,  John  Standish 
Sawyer — an  unadorned  snob — feeding  upon  beef-steak  pudding  and  cheese  and 
beer,  with  a  plentiful  supply  of  hot  stopping,  is  permitted  with  impunity,  if  not 
laudation,  to  swindle  the  Honourable  Crasher  in  the  Marathon  affair  after  the 
fashion  of  a  North  American  Secretary  of  State — an  act  of  rascality  that  would 
have  insured  his  being  kicked  out  of  every  club,  not  excepting  the  Refuge  for 
the  Destitute.  And  yet  these  ragamuffins  are  trotted  out  for  popular  sym- 
pathy, and  exhibited  as  types  of  an  ordinary  class  of  modern  fox-hunters. 
We  should  hope  extraordinary  would  be  a  more  correctly  characteristic 
adjective.  The  authors  of  these  sporting  narratives  are  warranted  and  well- 
bred  gentlemen  in  every  sense  of  the  word ;  and  it  is  not  easy  to  divine  the 


1864.]  '  A    B0X    FOR-    THE    SEASON.'  I47 

reason  for  the  selection  of  their  sporting  heroes  from  out  the  purlieus  of  low 
life  and  infamy  in  thought,  word,  and  deed, — and  still  worse  that  the  villanies 
of  the  said  unworthies,  instead  of  being  punished,  should  end  in  undeserved  suc- 
cess and  approval. 

This  objection — and  it  is  one,  be  it  observed,  that  has  been  of  frequent 
notice  amongst  legitimate  sportsmen,  and  already  pointed  out  in  '  Baily' — does 
not  derogate  from  the  racy  interest  of  these  sporting  nouvelettes — of  which 
'  Soapy  Sponge'  and  '  Handley  Cross'  were  the  originals.  '  Soapy  Sponge'  is 
to  *  Market  Harborough  '  what  '  Le  Juif  Errant'  was  to  «  Monte  Christo  ;'  and 
the  public  must  be  grateful  that  the  brown-booted  lover  of  Lucy  Glitters 
should  have  paternised  the  conception  of  Buffer  Standish  and  Cissy  Dove  of 
the  long  eyelashes.  The  instalment  that  has  been  given  of  <  Facey  Romford 
and  his  Hounds  '  affords  evidence  that  fresh  laurels  were  in  store  for  the 
clever  and  lamented  author ;  and  it  is  sad  to  know  that  the  inevitable  decree 
should  have  changed,  at  such  an  early  time,  the  bright  wreath  of  bays  into  a 
mournful  chaplet  of  '  immortelles.' 

The  writer  of  the  present  work  takes  a  far  more  correct  line.  His  precepts 
and  admonitions,  racily  given,  possess  a  high  and  manly  tone,  whilst  he  weaves 
them  artistically  with  credit  to  himself  and  amusement  to  his  readers.  The 
errors  of  the  jeunesse  doree  are  firmly  but  not  ill-naturedly  depicted,  and  the 
pitfalls  that  surround  the  fox-hunting  tyro  with  more  money  than  brains, 
'  Voluptatis  appetens,  stultitiae  profusus'  should  be  carefully  noted  by  that  young 
minion  of  fortune  and  unwary  creature  of  impulse.  The  money-lender  from 
Palestine,  escaped  from  being  cast  into  the  river  by  the  order  of  Pharaoh,  and 
turned  loose  upon  Christendom,  in  judgment,  and  to  let  out  shooting  manors  at 
an  extravagant  premium,  in  which  there  is  neither  feather  nor  flax — the  bland 
scrivener  of  Pumpington,  with  hungry  daughters  seeking  for  coverture — and 
a  pretty  horsebreaker  who  has  obtained  such  coverture  illegitimately,  take  their 
proper  share  in  the  drama,  and  point  a  moral  whilst  adorning  the  tale.  It  has 
been  asked  by  a  prurient  critic,  <  Is  this  a  book  for  a  drawing-room  table,  and 
'  for  the  perusal  of  our  wives  and  daughters  ?'  There  is  nothing  in  any  part 
of  the  story  of  an  objectionable  character,  beyond  the  common  occurrences  of 
every-day  life,  which  are  fairly  within  the  scope  of  an  ordinary  relation. 
When  contrasted  with  the  sensational  novels — lavish  of  murder,  bigamy, 
trigamy,  seduction,  and  'barren  honour,'  which  would  mean  that  virtue 
does  not  pay,  that,  although  a  winner,  the  stakes  are  not  paid  over,  and  that 
the  race  of  life  is  not  on  the  square — these  sketches  may  come  out  of  the  ordeal 
with  far  greater  credit  than  many  of  their  neighbours.  There  cannot  be  a  more 
serious  injury  to  the  good  cause  than  an  over-sensitiveness  which  borders  on  the 
ridiculous,  and  the  Cockswain  and  Night-cap  of  America  ought  to  be  a  beacon 
and  a  guard  against  similar  absurdities. 

It  is  in  the  common  nature  of  things  that  the  galled  jades,  who  have  been 
the  lay  figures  for  the  work  of  revelation,  should  wince  upon  being  punished, 
and  call  out  loudly  and  piteously  to  those  of  their  gang,  cunning  of  fence,  for 
justification  and  protection. 

'  And  lest  some  prudish  readers  should  grow  skittish, 
I've  bribed  ray  grandmother's  Review,  the  "  British,"' 

is  an  old  dodge  of  antediluvian  histoiy,  and  we  marvel  not  at  any  attempt  of 
Barabbas  to  obfuscate  the  uninitiated  and  to  whitewash  the  foul  amongst  those 
of  his  generation — '  and  Barabbas  was  a  robber.'  Wives  and  mothers  may 
indeed  listen  to  the  following  with  profit : — '  She  was  not  an  "  Anonyma," 
'  nor  a  pretty  horsebreaker,  nor  any  one  of  those  very  curious  things  which 


148  '  a  box  for  the  season.'  [June, 

'  seem  to  be  talked  about  in  a  language  which  has  no  advantage  beyond  con- 
'  cealing  vice,  and  which  affords  an  opportunity  for  women  to  talk  on  subjects 
'  which  ought  to  be  a  closed  book  to  the  mothers  and  daughters  of  England. 
'  "  Slang  "  is  bad  enough  ;   "  pace  "  is  almost  disreputable  in  a  woman  ;   but  it 

*  is  a  thousand  times  better  that  they  should  call  certain  things  and  persons  by 

*  their  right  names  than  that  they  should  gloss  over  startling  vices  by  employing 

*  wrong  terms.' — A  proper  rebuke  and  perfectly  to  the  point.  An  indelicacy  of 
subject,  however  silvered  over,  is  more  than  presumption  ;  it  is  direct  evidence 
of  a  tainted  mind  that  only  wants  opportunity  and  security  to  indulge  its 
oaprices. 

It  is  well  known  that  some  twenty  years  ago  an  intent  was  dictatorially 
expressed  to  Germanize  England.  High  art  was  told  to  behold  the  glories 
of  the  brush  and  palette  in  Winterhalter,  and  to  disregard  Cattermole  ;  and  it 
was  asserted  that  sticking  grunters  within  a  paled  park  was  a  more  noble  and 
exhilarating  pastime  than  fox-hunting.  Fashion,  supported  by  the  atnrs 
damnees  of  the  higher  circles,  aided  and  essayed  to  convert  the  youth  of  Eng- 
land into  a  smoking,  beer-swilling,  and  slovenly  cohort,  with  unshaven  beards 
and  tainted  breath.  They  abjured  the  drawing-room  after  dinner,  adjourned 
to  the  tobacco  den,  and  there,  with  long  cherry-tubed  pipes,  drinking  malt, 
gin,  and  brandy,  and  surrounded  with  a  cloacina  of  spittoons,  they  sat  them- 
selves down  to  ape  with  all  their  might  and  main  the  low,  vulgar,  and  foul 
German.  He  stinks,  you  stink,  they  stink,  is  the  correct  mode  of  conjugating 
a  German — man,  woman,  and  child  ;  and  we  have  had  a  certain  experience 
all  round  the  Teuton  wrekin.  We  do  not  cheer  that  same  wrekin,  or  its 
memories — not  at  all.     Our  dander  rises  rather  at  his  sight. 

'  And  chill'd  remembrance  shudders  o'er  the  rest.' 

But  our  glorious  and  beautiful  women,  pure  and  undefiled  in  person  and 
mind,  made  war  against  the  pseudo-German,  and  denied  him  access,  pipe  in 
hand,  to  their  more  proper  manors,  driving  him  to  the  baths  of  Ostend — 
where  the  savoury  fraus  come  once  a  year  to  wash  off  a  ten  months'  accumu- 
lation of  impurities — there  to  dance  quadrilles  in  the  sea,  '  in  mixes  ' — we  like 
an  honest  fox-hunting  term — with  those  swinking  delicacies  of  the  Vaterland. 

'  Simplici  myrto  nihil  allabores 
Sedulus  euro ' 

— and  the  leaf  of  the  Horatian  myrtle  is  less  ample  than  that  of  the  '  ficus 
carica'  of  Genesis  and  Linnaeus — by  a  long  chalk. 

Listen  to  our  author.  '  Did  you  ever  see  a  German  student  ?  Of  course 
'  they  are  of  all  sorts ;  yet  they  are  all  the  same.  Pipes,  beer,  flaxen  hair, 
■*  scarlet,  blue,  or  yellow  caps  convey  no  idea  of  the  individual.  En  masse  they 
'  do  look  something  like  that.  But  we  smoke  at  our  Universities '  (proh 
pudor  /)  '  and  drink  beer,  and  wear  hair  in  all  sorts  of  places,  and  caps  of  all 

*  shapes  and  colours,  and  have  adopted  the  most  unmanly  and  unbecoming  habits 

*  of  mind  and  body  at  those  celebrated  seats  of  classic  learning.      Our  young 

*  men  are  nearly  a  disgrace  to  the  British  Isles.  Thank  goodness  !  we  have 
'  not  quite  arrived  at  "  that  lowest  German  pitch  "  yet  in  Oxford  and  Cam- 
'  bridge — a  pitch  that  defiles  whoever  handles  it.'   (P.  214,  vol.  i.) 

But,  alas !  the  pitch  of  filth  which  has  been  repudiated  in  the  flesh  by  the 
University  men  of  England  has,  in  a  doctrinal  and  materialistic  sense,  been 
fostered  and  encouraged  by  their  very  pastors  and  masters — by  those  who  have 
been  apostolically  commissioned  to  instruct  their  higher  natures,  in  order  to 
corrupt  and  damnify  their  spiritual  intelligences.  They  have  had  presented  to 
them  by  these  traitors  a  consomme  of  the  <  Philosophical  Dictionary'  of  Voltaire, 


1864.J  i  A    B0X    FOR    THE    SEASON.'  149 

without  its  wit,  and  of  the  « Vestiges  of  Creation'  without  their  research  ;  and 
the  new  version  of  the  '  Te  Deum  laudamus,  et  verbum  tuum  in  seculum,  et 

*  in  seculum  seculorum,'  has  been  thus  rendered — 

'  And  when  those  fables  strange,  our  hirelings  teach, 
I  saw  by  genuine  learning  east  aside, — 
Even  like  Linnjeus  kneeling  on  the  sod, 
For  faith  from  falsehood  severed  thank  I  God.'* 

Julian  the  Apostate  was  a  gentleman,  and  a  sportsman,  who  hunted  boar 

*  in  the  happy  plains  of  Ionia,'  and  kept  a  kennel  of  hounds  on  the  island  of  the 
Seine  at  Paris ;  but  this  fellow  is  a  recalcitrant  Judas  for  the  thirty  pieces 
of  silver  which  he  pockets  as  the  fruits  of  the  most  blinding  infamy.  He 
would  have  been  expelled  from  Eton  for  the  sentiment,  after  having  been 
flogged  in  the  library  for  the  worthless  versification.  Shelley  was  driven  from 
Oxford  for  much  less. 

To  return  to  our  author.  The  fox-hunters  of  England  are  largely  indebted 
to  him,  and  likewise  to  the  '  Gentleman  in  Black,'  for  boldly  attacking  the 
attempt  to  denationalize  and  Germanize  the  youth  of  England.  '  Mens  sana 
1  in  corpore  sano,'  in  reference  to  this  truly  serious  question,  is  a  choice  and 
apt  text  that  will  serve  for  more  than  one  lecture  from  the  same  judicious  and 
stern  teacher.  Let  that  manly  boat-race  which  we  have  lately  witnessed,  under 
the  auspices  of  the  heir  to  the  throne  of  England,  be  taken  as  a  sample  of  the 
tastes  and  capabilities  of  English  youth  in  their  hour  of  glad  recreation.  That 
was  an  exhibition  of  aristocratic  prowess,  in  its  peculiar  and  Anglican  form,  that 
does  not  come  within  the  range  of  the  Durchlauchts  and  Erlauchts  of  a  crass 
Teutonism  either  to  understand  or  to  imitate.  Prince,  peer,  commoner,  and 
artisan  went  forth  to  see  a  trial  of  hardy  dexterity  in  which  all  were  in- 
terested, in  which  all  delighted,  and  by  which  a  unity  of  feeling  was  made 
perfect  betwixt  all  ranks  that  had  a  value  beyond  a  mere  participation  in  the 
mere  amusement  of  the  hour.  Let,  then,  the  young  athlete  of  honour  abjure  a 
mimicry  of  foreign  bestialities ;  let  the  Germans  revel  in  dirt  temporal  and 
rejoice  in  atheism  spiritual — but  let  not  Englishmen,  first  flight  men  in  every 
sense,  brave,  patriotic,  and  devout,  consent  to  betray  the  Word  of  Life,  and 
abjure  their  own  nationality,  to  become  the  followers  of  Teutonic  dirt  and 
impiety. 

Tom  Crackenthorpe  receives  a  fitting  reward  for  the  abandonment  of  the 
short  cuts  to  a  grass  Paradise  ;  but  the  angel  of  light  whom  the  Sisters  of  Pro- 
vidence have  provided  for  his  delectation  is  as  shadowy  and  impalpable  as  the 
vision  of  Astarte  : — 

'Appear! — appear! — appear!1 
Who  sent  thee  there,  requires  thee  here.' 

A  most  sensible  command  preliminary  to  the  first  act  of  a  '  Baily '  pastime, 
but  as  Emily  Gladwish  declines  to  appear  in  the  carnality,  we  must  accept  the 
'  pretty  horsebreaker  '  in  her  stead.     '  She  was  of  fair  complexion — good  red 

*  and  white,  with  fine  hazel  eyes  and  straight  features.  Her  mouth  was  full 
'  and  bold,  but  clearly  enough  defined ;  her  hair  was  light-brown,  and  well 
{  dressed — not  a  lock  out  of  place.  She  wore  a  hat  of  the  most  practical, 
«  unromantic  shape,  and  her  habit  of  dark-blue  was  short,  plain,  and  admirably 
'  fitted  a  rather  full  form.  The  lady  sat  well  back  on  her  horse,  and  held 
'  her  head  up  as  if  she  were  not  ashamed  of  it.'     And  who  would  be  ? 

Her  husband — an  intense  scoundrel — does  not  prove  his  case  against  her 
very  substantially,  although  premeditated  bigamy,  with  a  view  to  extort  a  round 

*  '  The  Anglican  Clergy  and  the  Bible.'  —Bunsen. 


150  £  A    BOX    FOR    THE    SEASON.'  [Jurie, 

sum,  does  sound  rather  queer.     He  convicts  himself  without  reluctance  ;  and  it 

may  be  fairly  said — 

'  Arcades  ambo 
Et  cautare  pares,  et  respondere  parati.' 

He,  the  swindler,  bribed  and  paid  for  his  repentance,  and  pensioned  for  his 
dishonour,  is  made  comfortable  and  rewarded,  whilst  the  other  and  the  better 
portion  is  lost  sight  of;  and  the  land  of  milk  and  honey  knoweth  her  no  more. 
This  is  all  wrong.  We  must  find  out  her  Pariah  cell,  even  if  we  fee  the 
husband  largely  for  the  act  of  decent  benignity,  and  we  will  convey  her  to  the 
Magdalen  of  whitebait  and  Lenten  fasting,  heavy  with  the  weight  of  Shaftes- 
bury tracts  and  the  Liturgical  emendations  of  the  pious  Ebury.  We  will 
order  the  dark-green  brougham  from  Tilbury,  and  proceed  incognito  to  the 
cell  of  that  most  perfect  of  penitentials  Nell  Gwynne,  and  peruse  those  Ebury 
tracts,  and  digest  them,  together  with  water  '  souchets,'  '  cotelettes  de  saumon,' 
'  fiches  a  la  Maintenon,'  '  petits  puits  d'amour  de  homard,'  diluted  with 
'  ponch  a  la  Romaine,'  and  a  bottle  of  <  la  Veuve  Clicquot  bien  frappee.' 

*  Don't  say  nay,  charming  Judy  Callaghan, 
Don't  say  nay.' 

Leaving  the  penitent  and  the  confessional,  we  come  back  to  the  moving 
accidents  of  flood  and  field.  Steeple-chasing  is  on  the  increase,  and  the  desired 
object  in  supporting  this  amusement  is  to  give  a  premium  to  those  who  breed 
horses  that  may  be  fit  to  cany  weight  over  a  country,  and  also  to  provide  a 
ready  market  for  their  disposal.  For  farmers,  especially,  who  train  and  ride 
their  own  horses,  these  meetings  are  intended  to  be  an  opportunity  of  remune- 
ration to  them  as  sellers,  and  a  convenience  to  those  who  may  be  buyers. 
Whether  these  objects  are  likely  to  be  attained,  unle.s  stringent  rules  are  made 
to  prevent  practices  that  may  directly  defeat  them,  shall  be  shown  by  the 
following  quotation  : — 

Run  a  horse  !  and  what  sort  of  a  horse  am  I  to  run  1     I've  nothing  fit, 
but  a  thorough-bred  one ;  and  he's  a  hack ! 

'  Can  he  gallop,  sir  ? 

•  0  yes ! 

'  I  presume  he  is  not  in  the  "  Stud  Book  V 

'  No ;  but  he  can't  jump,  I  should  think.  He's  quite  unfit  for  a  hunter. 
1  He  can't  carry  anything  ;  or  I  suppose  we  could  teach  him  to  jump. 

'  They'll  jump,  sir;  between  ourselves,  there's  nothing  big  enough  here  to 
'  upset  a  donkey  ;  we've  made  it  fit  for  the  gallopers.  So  if  you've  anything 
'  that  can  stay  four  miles,  and  carry  a  fair  weight 

'  And  what  should  you  call  a  fair  weight  ? 

c  Well,  now,  h — u — u- — um,  that  depends  so  much  upon  circumstances. 
'  The  top  weight  of  course  is  nominal ;  the  real  beginning  is  at  about  eleven 
'  stone ;  and  if  you  go  for  the  stakes,  you  understand,  why,  of  course,  the 
'  weight  ought  to  be  there  or  thereabouts ;  if  not,  why,  of  course,  it  makes 
'  all  the  difference. 

'  I  don't  quite  see  that,'  said  Tom,  somewhat  puzzled.  '  What  difference 
'  can  it  make  whether  I  go  for  the  stakes  or  not  ?' 

'  You  see,  sir,  the  stakes  are  worth  six  or  seven  hundred  pound,  and  if  your 
'  horse  is  good  enough  to  run  for  that  sum — well,  we  can't  throw  him  in  ;  if 
'  you  don't  want  the  stakes,  why,  then,  you  see,  sir,  we  could  afford  to  give 
'  him  a  chance  1 

1  What  do  you  say  to  8st.  71b.  ]  I  suppose  a  pretty  good  one'  couldn't 
*  lose  'i 

'  Not  very  easily,  unless  there  happens  to  be  one  equally  good,  put  in  at 
'  7st.  81b.'     Tom  began  rather  to  see  his  way  through  the  mist. 

But  what  becomes  of  the  stakes?    Doesn't  the  winner  take  them  ? 


1864.J  ROWING.  151 

1  ISTot  if  he  wins  under  such,  circumstances  as  that.  Never  thinks  of  asking 
'  for  'em  ;  indeed,  he'd  be  quite  ashamed  to  ask  such  a  thing.  And  if  he  don't 
'  win,  the  next  time  he's  handicapped  his  horse  goes  in  for  nothing.  So,  you 
'  see,  any  how,  it's  a  good  thing. 

'  It's  not  a  bad  idea  ;  but  I  never  heard  it  before.' — (Vol.  ii.  p.  118.) 

Once,  and  once  only,  we  had  a  hunter  in  a  steeple-chase,  and  a  robbery  was 
perpetrated  against  us,  of  a  nature  still  more  dishonest  than  that  in  the  fore- 
going quotation.  Had  it  not  been  for  a  disinclination  to  be  mixed  up  in  a 
steeple-chase  wrangle  with  persons  of  disrepute,"  certain  parties  in  that  day, 
would  have  had  to  pay  a  sharp  penalty. 

'  All's  well  that  ends  well.'  Virtue  meets  its  reward,  despite  of  the  caution 
of  '  Barren  Honour.'  Vice  and  Mrs.  Bransby  retire  from  the  scene,  and 
even  Bob  Munster,  after  having  been  well  dosed,  derives  profit  from  having 
tasted  the  bitters  of  money  lenders,  Jews,  and  blacklegs. 

We  lay  down  the  '  Box  for  the  Season,'  with  many  thanks  to  the  author 
for  the  amusement  derived  from  its  perusal,  and  confident  that  its  disclosures, 
like  '  Stable  Secrets '  by  Mr.  Mills,  will  have  a  healthy  tendency  in  guarding 
the  inexperienced  and  unwary  from  becoming  an  easy  prey  to  those  who  live, 
move,  and  have  their  be  ing  through  the  polluted  sources  of  knavery  and  crim. 


ROWING. 

The  London  watermen,  who  have  during  the  last  few  years  been  a 
most  disunited  body,  have  at  last  made  a  move  in  the  right  direction  ; 
and  with  the  view,  let  us  hope,  of  preventing  further  inroads  into 
their  glory  and  profit  on  the  part  of  the  Newcastle  men,  formed 
themselves  into  a  club.  The  Pride  of  the  Thames  Rowing  Club 
consists  entirely ~of  professionals,  and  Kelley  is  the  captain.  Under 
such  auspices  it  ought  to  prosper,  and  we  feel  sure  it  has  the  good 
wishes  of  the  rowing  world  ;  for  strictly  just  as  we  may  be,  and 
virtuously  anxious  for  the  best  crew  to  win,  it  becomes  somewhat 
aggravating  to  our  vanity  as  Southrons  that  the  best  crew  should 
afways  come  from  such  a  very  long  distance,  and  carry  off  the  best 
prizes  of  the  Thames  National  whenever  they  put  in  an  appearance. 
The  wordy  war  between  Chambers  and  Kelley  has  been  going  on 
by  fits  and  starts  for  some  time,  but  with  no  result ;  and  we  are 
beginning  to  get  tired  of  the  subject  in  the  newspapers.  It  seems 
to'us  that,  if  either  were  very  anxious  to  row,  they  would  make  a 
slight  concession,  and  force  the  other  to  make  a  match  ;  but  no  such 
favourable  symptoms  appear,  and  the  affair  will  probably  end  in  talk. 
Cole  and  Hoare,  two  promising  youngsters,  have  entered  into  nego- 
tiations with  a  much  more  satisfactory  result,  and  are  matched  to 
row  on  the  21st.  The  match  was  talked  of  last  year,  but  Cole's 
friends  did  not  then  think  him  good  enough  :  he  has,  however,  now 
greatly  improved,  and,  if  well  on  the  day,  will  have  a  fair  chance. 
Whoever  wins,  the  race  ought  to  be  a  splendid  one.  The  only 
event  of  interest  among  professionals  hitherto  has  been  between 
Kilsby  and  Biffen.  They  met  last  year,  when  Biffen  won,  and 
having  done  some  wonderful  trials,  he  was  made  a  hot  favourite  at 


152  rowing.  [June, 

2  and  3  to  1.  The  talent  were,  however,  quite  in  the  wrong;  for 
Kilsby  never  gave  him  a  chance,  and  won  any  distance.  If  they 
row  for  c  the  rubber,'  we  should  advise  Biffen's  friends  not  to  work 
him  so  hard  just  before  the  race,  as  he  came  to  the  post  quite  stale, 
and  seemed  to  have  lost  all  the  energy  and  dash  he  showed  in  his 
practice.  Kilsby,  on  the  other  hand,  had  been  prudently  eased  for 
the  last  day  or  two,  and  was  as  lively  as  a  kitten.  He  trained  at 
the  c  Feathers,'  under  Horace  Cole,  and,  with  Harry  Salter  to  look 
after  him,  was  of  course  in  splendid  trim. 

The  amateur  rowing  clubs  have  been  very  industrious  during  the 
last  few  weeks.  The  London  have  had  an  eight-oared  race,  junior 
fours,  senior  sculls,  for  Mr.  Clifford's  cup,  and  the  c  trial  eights,' 
which  were  started  two  years  ago,  with  the  idea  of  testing  the  capa- 
bilities of  aspirants  for  Henley  honours.  The  race  was  this  year 
scarcely  up  to  L.  R.  C.  form,  as,  though  the  crews  may  have  con- 
tained a  deal  of  good  rowing  material,  it  is  at  present  in  such  a  raw 
state  as  to  be  likely  to  be  more  available  for  next  year  than  this 
year's  Henley.  The  West  London  have  had  a  couple  of  races, 
eights  and  fours.  The  latter  showed  some  good  rowing  on  the  part 
of  the  winning  crew,  though  the  others  did  not  appear  to  great 
advantage.  The  Leander,  Ariel,  Corsair,  Twickenham,  and  the 
other  clubs  have  also  been  hard  at  work,  and  will  no  doubt  put  in  an 
appearance  at  the  forthcoming  regattas.  We  are  glad  to  see  several 
junior  clubs  arranging  matches  with  each  other,  as  men  display  more 
enthusiasm,  and  devote  themselves  more  thoroughly  to  these  con- 
tests than  to  mere  club  races.  Last  year  the  Ariel  and  Corsair  and 
Corsair  and  Excelsior  Clubs  rowed  some  capital  matches.  This  year 
these  are  to  be  repeated,  also  a  match  between  the  Excelsior  and 
the  Thames,  a  very  rising  club.  There  was  a  capital  race  on  the 
23rd  between  the  University  College  and  Guy's  Hospital  Clubs. 
The  former,  going  from  the  worst  station,  had  a  hard  race  for  some 
distance,  but  at  the  point  got  a  length  in  hand,  and  afterwards 
increased  it  to  two,  the  rowing  of  the  losers  being  all  through  very 
lively  and  determined.  We  hope  to  see  many  more  of  these  races 
during  the  season. 

The  College  eight-oared  races  at  the  Universities  have  begun  and 
ended  during  the  past  month.  The  racing  at  Oxford  commenced 
on  the  4th,  and  after  some  hard  rowing,  Trinity  maintained  its 
position  as  head  of  the  river.  The  Cambridge  races  began  a  week 
later,  Third  Trinity  starting  at  the  top  of  the  tree  with  a  host  of 
confident  partisans  :  they,  however,  had  to  succumb  to  Trinity  Hall, 
who  held  the  place  of  honour  with  great  ease  during  the  week. 
They  will  probably  go  to  Henley,  as  will  the  Trinity  (Oxford)  boat, 
and  if  they  meet,  we  fancy  the  dark  blue  will  repeat  their  Mortlake 
victory  of  last  March.  The  Henley  meeting  is  fixed  for  the  23rd 
and  24th  June  ;  it  is  a  long  while  to  look  forward  to,  but  as  it  will 
be  all  over  before  our  next  number  is  in  print,  we  must  give  our 
crude  ideas  as  to  who  will  put  in  an  appearance.  For  the  Grand 
Challenge   Cup,  the    London   and  Kingston  Clubs    are   already  at 


1864.]  THE    OTTER.    KING.  153 

work ;  the  London  crew,  under  Mr.  Playford's  tutelage,  have  had 
Mat  Taylor  rowing  stroke  in  their  twelve,  and  it  is  a  treat  to  see 
him  row  a  spurt  with  a  fine  strong  crew  to  back  him  up  ;  but  we 
fancy  the  Londoners  will  not  be  good  enough  to  bring  the  big  prize 
to  Putney  this  year.  For  the  Stewards'  Cup,  they  will  have  three 
out  of  last  year's  four,  Mr.  Hood's  place  being  now  filled  by  Mr. 
May,  and  if  they  do  not  train  all  the  strength  out  of  themselves  as 
they  did  last  year,  they  will  be  pretty  well  up  at  the  finish.  At  pre- 
sent nothing  is  done  about  the  second  four,  so  we  cannot  say  whether 
the  London  Rowing  Club  will  be  represented  in  the  Wyfold,  and 
they  will  leave  the  Diamond  Sculls  to  the  Universities.  The  King- 
ston Club  will,  no  doubt,  get  a  good  eight  out  of  the  University 
men  for  the  great  race,  and  do  their  utmost  to  keep  the  Wyfold 
Cup  at  Kingston,  with  what  success  we  cannot  say  at  present, 
though,  if  their  crew  is  as  good  as  last  year's,  they  have  a  great 
chance  of  beating  their  London  antagonists  for  the  great  race.  The 
Diamond  Sculls  will  bring  together  Messrs.  Woodgate  and  Parker 
from  Oxford/and,  we  hope,  Lawes  of  Cambridge.  Mr.  Michell,  of 
Magdalen,  Oxford,  too,  having  won  the  University  sculls  in  Mr. 
Parker's  absence,  may  be  disposed  to  try  his  luck,  as  it  is  a"  shorter 
course  than  the  Putney  one  where  Parker  beat  him  last  year.  If 
this  lot  meet  it  will  be  a  most  interesting  race,  and  no  gift  to  either ; 
but  if  all's  well  with  each,  we  expect  to  see  the  present  amateur 
champion  lead  the  way  at  the  finish.  The  Pairs  and  other  minor 
events  of  the  Regatta  we  cannot  say  anything  about  at  present. 

Close  after  Henley  comes  Walton  Regatta,  on  the  2nd  July, 
which  is  always  a  most  agreeable  day's  sport,  and  will,  no  doubt, 
bring  crews  from  the  London,  Kingston,  and  West  London  Clubs, 
and,  let  us  hope,  several  others.  Barnes  Regatta,  which,  from  the 
character  of  the  racing,  and  the  splendid  Challenge  Cup  offered  for 
fours,  is  justly  considered  the  chief  Metropolitan  Regatta,  is  fixed  for 
the  30th  July,  and  will  doubtless  show  good  entries,  all  styles  of 
rowing  men,  from  gigs  upwards,  being  anxious  to  score  a  win  at 
Barnes.  Kingston  and  Kew  Regattas  are,  we  believe,  not  yet  fixed, 
but  we  hope  to  see  good  days'  sports  at  both  these  pleasant  places. 
Bedford  and  a  host  of  provincial  regattas  are  also  fixed,  but  these 
are,  no  doubt,  of  less  general  interest  to  our  readers. 


THE    OTTER  KING. 

Macgillivray  informs  us  that  in  Scotland,  the  white  or  the  spotted 
otter  is  considered  to  be  the  King  of  the  Otters.  The  former  is 
doubtless  an  albino,  or  lusus  natures ;  but  the  latter  is  usually  an  old 
otter  dotted  by  ticks,  to  which  the  animal  is  very  liable.  Of  these 
the  writer  of  the  following  lines  has  killed  many  specimens,  beauti- 
fully marked,  like  a  flea-bitten  grey  horse,  while  of  the  former  he  has 
only  killed  one,  which  he  found  on  the  river  Dart,  in  the  Forest  of 
Dartmoor. 

Bowhays  is  the  owner  of  a  well-known  pack   of  otter  hounds  in 


154  THE  otter  king.  [June, 

East  Devon.  Pisciculturists,  fishermen,  and  the  public  at  large  owe 
him  at  least  a  tribute  of  thanks  for  the  energy,  ability,  and  success 
with  which,  for  so  many  years,  he  has  pursued  the  salmon's  greatest 
enemy. 


Now  winding,  wandering  pensively, 
The  flowery  meads  among, 

The  Exe  has  left  his  forest  home 
And  trolls  his  summer  song. 

And  downwards  as  he  gently  glides, 

So  dreamily  and  slow, 
The  golden  catkins  stoop  to  kiss 

His  waters  as  they  flow. 

But  list,  ye  gods !  a  sound  is  heard 
That  makes  the  welkin  ring  ; 

Bowhays  is  come  with  hound  and  horn 
To  seek  the  Otter  King. 

In  vain,  in  vain  the  finny  tribe 
Their  nightly  doom  deplore  ; 

Not  harder  fate  the  race  await 
Upon  a  Stygian  shore. 

Ah  !  long  upon  that  blighted  stream 
The  Nereid's  note  is  still ; 

And  patient  anglers  labour  long 
Their  empty  creels  to  fill. 

But  now  the  hounds  are  trailing  on, 

The  otter  need  be  bold ; 
For,  if  he  hear  Bowhays'  cheer, 

'Twill  make  his  blood  run  cold. 

Louder  and  fuller  swells  the  peal 
That  greets  the  felon  grim  ; 

Sweet  music  to  Bowhays'  ears, 
A  mourning  peal  to  him. 

But  down  beneath  a  gnarled  oak-tree, 

A  fathom  deep  or  more  ; 
Above  his  head  the  turf  is  spread, 

And  water  bars  the  door. 

He  scents,  he  hears  the  coming  strife 
That  gathers  o'er  his  head  ; 

The  thunder  seems  to  swell  around 
And  shake  his  old-oak  bed. 

As  Hercules  on  Cacus  closed, 
The  gallant  '  Prince '  goes  in  ; 

The  hero  of  a  hundred  fights, 
That  dog  is  safe  to  win. 

A    muffled,    rumbling,    earthquake 
sound, 

And  then  a  stifled  cry, 
Down  in  the  roots  a  fathom  deep, 

Quivers  the  oak  hard  by. 

'  Hold  on !  hold  on !  thou  true  Black 
Prince !' 
The  ardent  Owen  cries ; 
"While   close  at  hand  he   takes   his 
stand, 
To  view  him  as  he  flies. 


Then  suddenly  Bowhays'  cheer 

The  hollow  valley  fills  ; 
The  wild  dun-deer  the  sound  might 
hear 

On  distant  Winscombe  hills. 

He's  down  the  stream ;  away,  away ; 

The  Otter  King  is  gone  ; 
And  on  his  track  the  plunging  pack 

Are  madly  pouring  on. 

Oh  !  'twas  a  glorious  sight  to  see 
Those  mottled  things  in  chase ; 

The  water  dashed  in  silver  spray, 
And  every  hound  in  place. 

'  Now  steady  all !'   cried  stern  Bo- 
whays, 

{ Now  steady,  hounds  and  men ; 
Old  Charmer's  nose  was  never  wrong, 

She  winds  him  back  again !' 

And  now  the  song-birds  cease  to  sing 
Upon  that  frighted  shore ; 

The.miller,  too,  has  stopped  his  mill 
To  join  the  sylvan  roar. 

Through  many  a  dark  and  gurgling 
pool 

The  deadly  strife  prevails ; 
And  many  a  drop  of  blood  is  spilled 

Before  that  otter  fails. 

Though  tunefully  he  leads  the  choir 
On  peaceful  Sabbath  morn ; 

Bowhays  has  sworn  a  dreadful  oath 
Upon  his  bugle  horn  : 

'  Good  hounds,'    said  he,   '  be  true 
to  me, 

Pll  never  eat  of  bread ; 
Nor  climb  into  my  couch,  until 

The  Otter  King  is  dead.' 

Then    striding   out   in   rough 
stream, 
With  bugle-horn  in  hand  ; 
'  No   rest,   I  trow,   the  game 
know, 
While  here  I  take  my  stand.' 

Breathless  at  length,  and  pressed  full 
sore, 

The  otter  seems  to  fail ; 
And,  as  he  lands,  the  hounds  rush  on 

Just  like  a  storm  of  hail. 

Then,  once  again,  that  mighty  cheer 
Shakes  water,  sky,  and  plain ; 

And  fishers  on  the  Barle  might  hear 
The  Otter  King  was  slain. 


mid- 


shall 


1864.]  *  OUR    VAN.'  155 

'OUR  VAN.' 

The  Invoice. — The  May  Meetings  and  Mortality. 

MAY  may  have  been  a  merry  month  to  the  general  public,  but  to  the  general 
backers  of  favourites  it  has  been  quite  the  reverse  ;  and  the  frequenters  of  the 
Meetings  in  Exeter  Hall  could  not  have  had  longer  faces  than  some  of  those 
we  have  seen  at  the  Corner  on  Mondays  and  Thursdays.  The  Metropolis  is 
now  in  the  full  swing  of  its  gaiety,  and  the  Sporting  man's  hours  and  energies 
are  taxed  as  severely  as  those  of  the  '  little  busy  bee,'  but  we  fear  with  scarcely 
the  same  moral  result. 
Chester — 

'  Where  nags  are  squared  on  principles 
That  very  seldom  tail, 
Till  the  public's  grown  so  weary, 
It  declines  to  fill  the  pail,' 

was  the  first  place  on  our  circuit ;  but  '  the  Cause  list '  was  so  poor,  that  very 
few  of  the  '  great  guns '  went  down,  unless  they  had  '  special  retainers  '  in  the 
neighbourhood.  Nor  can  they  be  blamed  for  the  course  they  adopted  ;  for  the 
racing  being  sacrificed  entirely  to  the  Victualling  interest  an  afternoon  on 
the  Rhodee  has  become  as  tedious  and  irksome  as  waiting  for  bail  in  a 
spunging-house.  The  minor  dishes,  most  of  the  good  judges  left  untouched  ; 
but  many  of  them  found  in  the  Cup  as  deadly  a  draught  as  Socrates  in  olden 
times.  In  fact,  the  number  of  horses  that  crossed  '  The  Herring  Pond '  had 
never  been  exceeded ;  and  it  would  have  required  a  Kensal-Green  sexton,  of 
many  years'  standing,  to  have  enumerated  the  corpses,  and  a  most  experienced 
racing  surgeon  to  have  detected  the  living  from  the  dead.  The  dread  of 
contracting  contagion  kept  the  general  public  ofF  until  the  last  moment,  when 
they  poured  in  their  supplies,  and  allayed  the  grumbling  of  the  book-makers. 
Since  Macaroni's  Derby  Day,  we  never  saw  so  many  raintraps  hoisted  on  a 
race-course  before,  and  the  Rhodee  looked  as  if  covered  over  by  one  gigantic 
umbrella.  With  the  ground  as  heavy  as  on  the  Pontine  Marshes,  it  is  not 
surprising  the  young'uns  should  have  had  to  succumb  to  the  old'uns,  and  the 
veteran  Flash  in  the  Pan,  flashed  by  every  horse  as  the  winner,  to  the 
astonishment  of  the  whole  world,  with  the  exception  of  the  Epsom  folks,  who 
had  been  warned  in  the  morning  that  in  all  probability  plenty  of  employment 
would  be  furnished  to  the  milliners  of  the  place,  by  the  silk  dresses  that  would 
be  given  away  on  the  occasion.  As  throughout  the  season,  the  Prophets  were 
floored  to  a  man,  with  the  exception  of  those  great  amateurs  '  John  of  Malton ' 
and  '  John  of  Middleham,'  who  sent  Flash  in  the  Pan  to  their  respective 
friends,  wholly  irrespective  of  remuneration  either  in  postage  stamps  or  com- 
mission. Thus,  Mr.  Hughes's  long-expected  good  thing,  for  which  his 
followers  waited,  as  ardently  and  patiently  as  the  disciples  in  the  belief  of  the 
Millennium,  came  off  at  last.  And  many  who  thought  old  Flash  was  destined 
to  give  increased  speed  to  Mr.  Arthur  Heathcote's  Stag-hounds,  were  not  a 
little  surprised  to  find  him  turn  up  in  a  new  character.  John  Day's  pair 
found  their  way,  like  Scotchmen  in  England,  into  *  good  places,'  for  which 
he  received  a  vote  of  thanks  from  the  House  of  Lords.  Immediately  after 
the  race,  the  swells  retreated  in  great  force  upon  the  Metropolis,  leaving  the 
quaint  old  City  completely  in  possession  of  the  Book-makers,  who  having  only 
themselves  to  prey  upon,  could  do  little  execution  with  their  pencils,  and  had 
to  employ  themselves  in  counting  up  the  killed  and  wounded.  Next  year, 
we  are  glad  to  learn  that  the  delay  between  the  acts  will  be  curtailed  in  their 
VOL.  VIII. — NO.  52.  Q». 


156  £  OUR  van.'  [June, 

proper  dimensions,  and  the  convenience  of  the  supporters  of  the  Turf  consulted 
before  that  of  the  proprietors  of  the  canvas  hotels,  who  have  hitherto  reigned 
omnipotent,  and  would  hear  of  no  reform.  From  the  Rhodee  to  the  Knaves- 
mire  was  the  next  move  of  the  Pilgrims  of  the  Ring,  who  mustered  in  good 
force  to  watch  the  movements  relative  to  the  Yorkshire  Derby  horses.  The 
first  day  opened  with  the  RawclifFe  sale,  and  such  an  unhealthy  feeling  against 
General  Peel,  that  in  the  evening  Mr.  Payne  went  over  to  Middleham  for 
Lord  Glasgow  to  inquire  into  it,  and  returned  with  a  clean  bill  of  health. 
The  RawclifFe  private  view  was  as  numerously  and  fashionably  attended  as 
that  of  the  Royal  Academy ;  and  strolling  through  the  paddocks,  we  came 
across  both  Lords  and  Commons.  All  bore  testimony  to  the  excellent  con- 
dition of  the  Yearlings  ;  and  could  they  have  been  kept  another  month,  Mr. 
Tattersall's  commissions  would  have  been  much  larger.  In  most  instances 
our  views  as  to  the  prices  were  realized ;  and  the  growing  predilection  for 
Leamington,  who  has  always  been  a  special  favourite  of  ours,  is  worth  noting. 
The  racing  on  Knavesmire  was  as  good  as  we  see  in  the  Spring ;  and  the 
Great  Northern  Handicap  furnished  another  Flash  in  the  Pan  in  East 
Lancashire  ;  but  Mr.  Rich,  to  whom  he  belongs,  was  not  so  acquainted 
with  his  '  good  thing  '  as  Mr.  Hughes  ;  for  he  only  backed  it  for  a  triple, 
believing  the  Major  was  too  formidable  to  be  beaten.  It  seems,  however,  the 
Metropolitan  field  must  have  been  horribly  rotten,  by  the  subsequent  running 
and  trials  of  those  in  the  front  rank ;  and  we  cannot  come  to  any  other  con- 
clusion than  that  the  number  of  bad  horses  in  training  is  rapidly  increasing, 
and  only  one  in  a  thousand  a  real  clinker.  On  the  morning  of  the  second 
day,  the  new  Lord  of  Fairfield  gave  a  public  breakfast  to  his  friends,  prior  to 
an  inspection  by  them  of  his  breeding  establishment,  which  is  well  designed, 
and  has  been  well  patronised  since  he  has  taken  to  it.  The  dejeuner  com- 
prised the  delicacies  of  the  season,  which  were  partaken  of  with  a  zest,  which 
led  us  to  remark,  as  they  do  on  board  ship,  that  we  would  rather  keep  some  of 
the  guests  a  week  than  a  fortnight.  Among  the  latest  visitors  was  old  John 
Osborne,  who  was  in  great  force,  retailing  anecdotes  of  his  Nursery  days, 
when  Johnny  was  little  more  than  a  feather,  and  the  pride  of  Manchester. 
Like  the  rest  of  the  party,  his  buttonhole  was  adorned  with  a  bouquet  of 
geraniums  which  would  not  have  disgraced  Covent  Garden  ;  and  during  the 
process  of  fastening  it,  the  veteran  blushed  like  '  a  maiden  of  bashful 
'  fifteen.'  Among  the  Sires  at  Fairfield,  worthy  of  attention,  are  Zetland, 
who  is  growing  into  a  nice  horse  ;  Neptunus,  or  '  Little  Nep,'  as  his  owner 
was  wont  to  term  him,  who  only  wants  a  little  more  furniture  to  attract  mares 
to  him  ;  and  a  long  low  powerful  horse,  called  Scandal,  who  from  an 
accident  has  never  run,  but  who  from  his  proportions  and  blood,  should  not  be 
passed  over  by  breeders,  for  he  will  bear  both  meeting  and  following. 

From  York  to  Salisbury  is  a  long  run,  but  as  the  Broadway  Swells  of  the 
South  were  to  be  met  with,  the  gold-hunters  followed  them,  as  in  Australia, 
when  a  new  vein  of  gold  has  been  discovered.  That  something  generally  goes 
at  Salisbury  is  a  received  axiom  among  the  Ring  ;  and  hence  the  desire  to 
improve  the  occasion.  Now,  however,  there  was  but  little  mischief  done, 
although  the  attack  on  Scottish  Chief  was  fiercely  maintained  until  some  of  his 
staunchest  followers  could  not  be  done  out  of  the  belief  that  it  was  '  a  case.' 
In  the  meanwhile  Mr.  Merry,  wholly  unconscious  of  the  movement,  was  quietly 
doing  his  duty  to  his  constituents  of  the  Falkirk  Burghs  in  the  House  of  Com- 
mons, when  an  Irish  Member  rushed  in  with  the  intelligence.  A  verbal 
assurance  that  all  was  right,  as  far  as  the  owner  knew,  sent  the  fond  backer 


1864.]  '  OUR    VAN.'  I57 

home  rejoicing.  And  how  such  an  idea  could  have  got  abroad  as  to  her  having 
met  with  an  accident  is  unaccountable.  Prince  Arthur  having  got  the  dust 
inside  his  boot,  and  chafed  his  leg,  was  also  the  subject  of  hostility;  but  General 
Peel,  supported  as  he  ought  to  have  been  by  British  Steel,  was  as  firm  as  a  rock; 
and  it  looked  as  if  he  could  never  be  supplanted.  Bath  had  a  fair  list  of  company 
horses  and  favourites,  and  the  weather  was  as  hot  as  the  latter,  the  temperature 
being  a  trifle  warmer  than  that  in  which  Sergeant-Major  Lilley  and  his  wife 
were  baked  for  so  many  days  by  Colonel  Crawley.  Strong  men  gave  way 
under  it,  and  fell  out  of  the  ranks  of  the  ring,  as  soldiers  in  a  marching  regi- 
ment ;  and  those  who,  on  leaving  the  city  of  Beau  Nash,  started  with  black 
hats,  found  on  their  return  they  had  been  changed  to  white,  so  thick  was  the 
dust.  John  Day  was  in  great  force  during  the  two  days,  and  he  proved  that 
his  Teneriffe  was  worth  tasting  after  *  the  Stakes,'  even  by  the  most  fastidious 
tippler.  Lansdowne  is  a  favourite  rendezvous  for  Mr.  Sutton's  two-year  olds ; 
and  on  this  occasion  Jezebel  proved  her  right  to  have  her  name  changed,  for 
she  told  him  '  the  truth,'  which  was  not  the  original  characteristic  of  the 
dame  from  whom  she  took  her  sponsorial  appellation.  On  our  return,  we  were 
startled  by  an  announcement  which  appeared  in  a  daily  paper  that  General 
Peel  had  been  placed  in  the  hands  of  the  police  by  Lord  Glasgow,  who  had' 
applied  to  Sergeant  Tanner,  of  Scotland  Yard,  to  send  him  down  two  experi- 
enced detectives,  and  they  had  departed  for  Middleham,  and  had  the  General 
in  close  custody.  Now,  considering  the  long  and  intimate  friendship  which 
had  subsisted  between  Lord  Glasgow  and  General  Peel,  we  confess  we  were 
quite  taken  aback  when  we  read  the  statement  in  question,  more  especially  as 
the  General  did  not  imitate  the  conduct  of  M.  Moequat  in  his  letter  to  the 
editor  of  '  The  Owl,'  and  state  to  the  public  through  the  same  source  in  which  the 
original  statement  appeared  that  the  General  Peel  now  in  custody  before  being 
brought  to  trial  at  Epsom  was  not  the  General  Peel,  Member  for  Huntingdon. 
Knowing,  also,  how  that  gallant  sportsman  applies  himself  to  his  official  duties, 
the  addenda  to  the  paragraph  « that  he  was  doing  strong  work,'  tended  to 
confirm  the  intelligence,  which  the  following  day  was  dispelled  by  the  General 
appearing  in  the  House  of  Commons  as  usual,  and  no  honourable  Member 
putting  to  him  any  question  on  the  subject. 

Monday  took  a  distinguished  party  to  Leatherhead  to  see  the  Whitewall 
team  put  through  their  facings  ;  and  so  much  was  Baragah  liked,  that  a  Noble 
Lord,  one  of  our  best  Gentlemen  Jockeys,  declared  he  should  not  hedge  a 
shilling,  as  he  had  seen  quite  enough  to  satisfy  him.  Mr.  Bowes  also  declined 
to  hedge,  and  the  Wizard  said  he  cared  nothing  for  those  tremendous  trials 
which  certain  horses  had  had,  but  he  knew  his  own  were  fit,  and  certain  to  get 
home.  The  absence  of  Mr.  Rudston  Read,  generally  the  life  and  soul  of  the 
party,  and  the  jidus  Achates  of  Mr.  Bowes,  was  much  felt  ;  as  from  his  fall, 
which  broke  the  tendons  of  his  knee,  he  has  been  thrown  on  his  beam  ends  for 
we  fear  some  time  to  come.  However,  if  the  sympathy  of  his  friends  can  aid 
in  promoting  his  recovery,  he  will  soon  be  about  again,  for  the  knocker  of  his 
lodgings  in  Wells'  Street  has  been  worn  as  thin  as  a  sixpence  in  inquiries  for 
him.  Blair  Athol,  about  whom  there  was  as  much  mystery  as  with  the  late 
Mr.  Dunkeld,  arrived  at  Sherwood,  and  passed  his  first  examination  with  credit 
to  all  concerned  with  him.  Mr.  I' Anson,  however,  moved  about  so  sedately, 
and  maintained  such  an  air  of  reserve  about  his  horse,  that  not  a  trainer  dare 
question  him  about  his  chance,  and  he  seemed  to  have  found  himself  in  a  false 
position.  Tom  Oliver  was  as  lively  as  <  a  Cricket  on  the  Hearth '  about  Ely, 
whom  he  declared  would  be   as  loving  and  troublesome  to   the  cracks  at  the 


158  c0UR  VAN.'  [June, 

distance  as  a  certain  insect  in  a  London  bedstead.  And  had  he  won,  all, 
we  believe,  Tom  required,  was  an  estate  of  five  hundred  per  annum,  with  ex- 
cellent pheasant-shooting.  Paris  was  not  fancied  by  the  professional  critics, 
who  did  not  like  his  going  so  wide  behind,  and  breathless  whispers  were 
dropped  about  his  having  '  a  heel,'  a  phrase  which,  for  the  benefit  of  those  who 
have  not  been  pupils  of  Professors  Spooner  or  Field,  we  must  translate  as 
meaning  a  sandcrack.  But  the  favourite  of  the  whole  lot  was  The  Scottish 
Chief,  with  whom  every  trainer  was  taken,  and  we  heard  no  more  of  last 
year's  constant  phrase  '  of  a  neck  from  Midnight  Mass,'  which  grave  men 
would  firmly  maintain  to  be  his  real  form.  And  the  intelligence  that  Jemmy 
Adams  was  to  ride  him  instead  of  Edwards  did  not  prejudice  his  chance.  No 
doubt  it  was  a  hard  fling  for  Edwards  to  be  taken  off  such  a  mount,  but  at  the 
same  time  it  was  perhaps  better  for  his  own  interests,  as  from  the  horse  beaten 
there  could  be  no  grounds  for  blaming  him,  and  he  escaped  the  remarks  which 
he  had  to  endure  after  the  Two  Thousand,  from  the  extraordinary  per- 
formance of  Fille  de  l'Air. 

Two  wet  Derby  days  in  succession  would  have  been  too  much  for  human 
nature  to  have  endured  ;  and  the  Clerk  of  the  Weather,  as  if  heartily  ashamed 
of  his  conduct  last  year,  when  he  indulged  in  too  much  '  heavy  wet,'  satisfied 
everybody. 

The  Prince  of  Wales,  who  was  received  by  Mr.  Dorling,  as  he  is  at  Covent 
Garden  by  Mr.  Gye,  went  at  once  to  his  stall,  and  seemed  not  a  little  pleased 
to  find  he  could  look  at  the  horses  in  the  paddock  without  being  crushed  by 
the  mob.  This  abstinence  from  annoyance  arose,  perhaps,  not  so  much  from 
a  desire  to  consult  his  personal  convenience  as  from  the  superior  attraction 
of  the  Derby  horses  themselves,  so  engrossed  are  the  million  with  their  fancies. 
Birch  Broom  was  the  first  nag  that  presented  himself  to  our  notice  as  we  made 
our  way  through  the  wooden  labyrinth  that  leads  to  the  paddock.  Very  tall  on 
the  leg,  light  in  his  barrel,  and  with  a  coat  as  dry  as  a  chip,  he  walked  like  a  man 
with  tight  boots ;  and,  as  Tom  Oliver  once  remarked  in  our  hearing  of  a  similar 
style  of  animal,  '  One  might  have  read  "  Bell's  Life  in  London "  through 
'  him.'  This,  no  doubt,  accounted  for  the  hostility  latterly  shown  to  him  in 
the  Ring,  which  no  money  could  allay.  Captain  Little  superintended  his 
toilette,  taking  especial  care  of  the  girths.  Planet  followed  the  Broom  as  his 
aide-de-camp,  but  the  superior  officer  enjoyed  all  the  gape-seed.  Prince 
Arthur  was  as  full  of  muscle  as  a  statue  in  the  Vatican  ;  but  there  were  marks 
of  a  blister  on  his  fore-legs  that  convinced  us  John  had  better  have  hedged  his 
10,000  to  100  which  he  had  taken  about  him  the  year  before.  Moreover, 
he  was  scarcely  bigger  than  a  cob  ;  and  a  second  Daniel  O'Rourke  a  trainer 
will  find  very  difficult  to  meet  with.  By  his  side  stood  Cathedral,  tall  as  his 
name,  and  with  a  great  deal  of  very  bad  *  architecture  '  about  him.  It  is  no 
flattery  to  the  head  of  Woodyeates  to  say  that  Historian  looked  magnificent ; 
and  he  was  just  the  sort  of  animal  that  an  Heiress  hunter  in  Rotten  Row 
would  like  to  have  for  the  season  ;  but,  like  Prince  Arthur,  he  wanted  a  larger 
frame.  By  the  coat  of  Ackworth  a  man  might  have  shaved  himself  without 
cutting,  so  brilliant  had  John  Day  got  it ;  and  his  last  remark  to  his  friend 
was  that  if  he  did  not  win  the  Derby,  he  should  at  all  events  get  before  The 
Scottish  Chief.  His  enemies,  however,  poured  in  such  a  deadly  fire  upon  him 
that  he  could  never  rally  under  it ;  and  the  doom  of  Fazzoletto's  son  seemed 
to  be  decreed.  Oran  on  Welcome  headed  the  Whitewall  pair,  Jem  Perren 
leading  Baragah  according  to  etiquette,  and  Hollyfox  being  consigned  to  the 
second  in  command.     Both  had  had  justice  done  them  at  home  ;  and  those 


1864.]  cOUR    VAN.'  I59 

who  recollected  St.  Alban's  traced  a  "strong  family  likeness  to  him  in 
Mr.  Bowes's  horse.  Cambuscan  held  his  levee  in  the  field  adjoining,  and,  as 
the  Court  Newsman  would  say,  it  was  numerously  and  fashionably  attended. 
1  Very  handsome  and  blood-like,  but  too  delicate  for  so  tough  a  job,'  was  the 
common  verdict  of  the  special  jury  before  whom  he  was  tried,  and  their 
conviction  was  confirmed  by  the  Court  of  Appeal.  The  Warrior  was  nothing 
but  a  slashing  grey  hunter  up  to  sixteen  stone  to  hounds.  Ely,  with  the 
Olivers,  pere  et  Jils,  at  his  head,  had  been  done  very  well,  but  had  not  grown 
since  last  year,  which  is  generally  fatal  to  a  would-be  Derby  winner.  Coast 
Guard  might  readily  be  discerned  from  his  coarseness,  as  well  as  from  his 
bandages ;  and  however  Godding  could  have  been  so  eat  up  with  him  is  an 
Asiatic  mystery.  Superior  to  Drummer  Boy  at  even  weights  last  year  was 
given  out  to  be  his  form,  but  then  he  did  not  look  or  run  like  it ;  and  were  the 
pair  matched  to  run  in  public  in  the  July  Meeting,  we  have  little  doubt  but  the 
old  'un  would  be  made  the  favourite :  so  in  this  instance  the  trainers  proved 
themselves  better  judges  than  the  gentlemen.  For  Appenine's  appearance 
some  allowance  should  be  made,  as  he  had  been  amiss  three  weeks  before. 
Bold  as  "Curtius,  Mr.  Brayley  sent  Rappell  and  Outlaw  into  the  paddock, 
so  that  the  world  should  not  accuse  him  of  being  too  mysterious  with  the 
pair ;  and  perhaps  he  is  the  only  owner  of  racehorses  in  modern  times  who  can 
boast  of  having  obtained  the  liberal  offer  of  ten  thousand  to  a  tenner  about  a 
pair  for  the  Derby.  It  is  needless  to  add  that  the  layer  was  no  more  nervous 
than  the  taker ;  but  it  would  have  been  a  glorious  bet  to  have  landed.  Tom 
Dawson,  with  a  scarlet  and  white  neck-scarf,  heading  an  enormous  crowd,  told 
us  General  Peel  and  Strafford  were  coming  on  parade.  Whether  from  the 
mob  pressing  on  him  too  closely,  or  from  being  a  little  above  himself,  the 
General  did  not  exhibit  the  quiet  demeanour  of  his  namesake,  and  kicked  and 
lashed  out  in  all  directions.  With  time  he  will  make  a  magnificent  horse,  for 
he  stands  on  nice  short  legs  ;  and  next  year,  when  fully  developed  and  furnished, 
he  may  be  shown  against  anything  in  training. 

Strafford  was  handsome  as  paint,  but  a  fearful  hock  at  once  convinced  us 
that  if  Lord  Glasgow's  first  barrel  failed  him  his  second  would  be  of  no  use. 
In  the  condition  of  Paris  no  one  could  pick  a  hole  ;  and  Mr.  Ten  Broeck 
thought  he  could  not  be  beaten.  If  General  Peel's  parade  was  well  attended 
the  Scottish  Chief  was  greeted  with  quite  '  a  gathering  of  the  clans,'  who  gave 
him  a  highland  hearty  welcome.  Lord  Coventry,  who  had  given  up  his  jockey 
to  him,  seemed  to  take  the  greatest  interest  in  his  saddling  ;  and  Mat  Dawson 
looked  as  confident  as  if  all  was  over.  Never  did  a  horse  take  the  public  more  by 
surprise  than  the  Chief,  for  he  was  very  different  to  the  shelly  colt  of  last  year. 
In  the  meanwhile  nothing  had  been  seen  of  Blair  Athol,  although  the  paddock 
had  been  scoured  for  him,  like  the  Limerick  Mountains  for  Hayes  the  mur- 
derer. A  rumour,  however,  was  in  circulation  that  Lord  Glasgow  and 
General  Peel  had  been  taken  into  his  stable  to  see  him,  and  that  he  was  as 
right  as  the  mail. 

By  degrees  the  paddock  is  emptied,  and  the  boxes  of  the  Stand  have  not 
even  standing  room  left  in  them.  Glasses  are  arranged,  some  quiet  hedging 
proceeded  with,  and  all  wait  to  see  what  Mr.  Clarke  has  to  say  about  it,  and 
whose  fortune  he  will  have  made  ;  when,  lo  and  behold,  a  startling  chesnut 
with  a  white  blaze  on  his  forehead,  and  going  like  a  cricket  ball,  led  by  young 
I'Anson  on  Caller  Ou,  was  discerned  in  the  offing,  and  at  once  made  out  to 
be  Blair  Athol.  'What  a  goer  !'  was  the  general  remark  ;  and  revived  corpse 
caused  a  thrill  to  pass  through  the  system  of  those  who  had  potted  him,  in  the 


\ 


160  t  our  van.'  [June, 

belief  he  was  as  dead  as  George  the  Third.  Nothing  but  the  annual  black  dog, 
which,  we  suppose,  is  bred  and  trained  for  the  occasion,  and  which,  as  usual, 
raced  before  the  Stand,  kept  the  spectators  from  complaining  of  the  delay  at 
the  post.  But  when  they  were  sent  away  nothing  could  have  been  better ; 
and  if  we  say  that  General  Peel  made  nearly  the  whole  of  the  running,  waited 
upon  by  Blair  Athol,  until  the  hill  in  front  of  the  Stand,  where  he  went  up 
and  beat  him,  our  readers  will  know  all  that  is  necessary  for  all  useful  pur- 
poses. Scottish  Chief  was  right  in  front  of  the  others,  and  Knight  of  Snowdon 
struggled  up  fourth.  Had  Mr.  I'Anson  been  less  mysterious  about  his  horse 
his  victory  would  have  been  better  received  ;  but  the  reception  which  was 
given  to  Blair  Athol  was  more  the  result  of  admiration  of  the  son  of  Blink  Bonny 
than  of  her  owner,  who,  from  some  cause  or  another,  does  not  seem  to  under- 
stand the  British  public.  It  was  the  same  with  Blink  Bonny  and  with  Caller 
Ou  ;  and  yet  we  believe  a  better  intentioned  man  does  not  exist  than  Mr. 
lAnson.  But,  added  to  a  natural  reticence  of  disposition,  there  is  a  want  of 
confidence  in  his  own  judgment  which  prevents  him  assisting  his  friends  as  he 
might  do.  As  might  have  been  expected,  from  War  Dance  having  been  lent 
for  the  trial,  the  Whitewall  stable  would  have  known  the  issue  and  benefited 
by  it.  But  not  a  member  of  it  won  a  shilling,  and  from  being  such  neighbours 
the  circumstance  of  course  was  an  irritating  one.  To  Lord  Glasgow  the 
defeat  of  General  Peel  was  a  bitter  pill  to  swallow  ;  and  he  felt  it  more  when 
he  saw  the  chief  backer  of  his  horse  leading  in  the  winner.  That  the  General 
wanted  time  there  could  be  no  two  opinions,  for  he  had  the  marks  of  an  over- 
reach on  one  of  his  legs.  And  how  Aldcroft,  who  is  usually  accused  of  laying 
too  far  from  his  horses,  should  have  made  running  with  him  is  quite  unintel- 
ligible, for  he  not  only  cut  his  own  throat  but  those  of  all  the  others,  with  the 
exception  of  Blair  Athol,  who  won  by  the  proceeding.  Being  '  a  fancy  horse ' 
the  public  were  his  chief  supporters ;  and  the  bulk  of  the  Ring  money  goes  to 
them.  As  a  proof  of  the  estimation  in  which  he  was  held,  we  may  instance 
that  last  year  a  subscription  was  made  by  two  cavalry  regiments  to  back  him  ; 
and  the  result  is  they  have  won  some  twelve  thousand  in  each  corps.  And  so 
ended  the  eventful  Derby  of  Eighteen  Hundred  and  Sixty  Four.  Nearly  all 
the  prophets  were  floored,  for  they  feared  the  metallics  about  him.  '  Trou- 
1  badour,'  however,  in  a  weekly  contemporary,  did  not  make  a  bad  hit  when  he 
sang  at  the  end  of  his  lay — 

'  In  short,  if  you'd  summer  in  clover, 

And  send  to  the  devil  the  Jews, 
Believe  me,  the  Derby  is  over, 
Blair  Athol  can't  possibly  lose.' 

If  the  Derby  had  its  sensation  horse,  the  Oaks  had  its  sensation  mare  ;  and 
for  the  first  time  in  the  memory  of  man  the  winner  had  to  be  escorted  back  by 
the  lowest  ruffians  of  the  prize  ring  and  a  squadron  of  mounted  police.  At 
one  time  the  populace  were  so  infuriated  to  obtain  possession  of  the  saddle,  so 
as  to  destroy  it  and  prevent  Edwards  weighing  in,  that  the  police  had  to 
draw  their  sabres  ;  and  for  a  moment  we  were  on  the  eve  as  it  were  of  a 
second  Peterloo.  Custance,  whose  cap  and  jacket  closely  resembled  that  of 
Edwards,  was  very  nearly  becoming  a  victim  ;  but  with  great  coolness  and 
self-possession  he  addressed  the  mob,  saying,  '  It's  not  me  ;  I  did  not  ride  her 
'  at  Newmarket ' — it  is  believed  a  piece  of  information  for  which  his  com- 
panion in  arms  will  be  very  grateful.  How  Edwards  escaped  was  a  miracle ; 
and  henceforth  we  trust  to  find  no  English  jockey  ever  crossing  Fille  de  PAir 
again.     As  it  was,  the  saddle  would  have  been  smashed  in  pieces  but  for  Mr. 


^ 


1864.]  *OUR    VAN.'  l6l 

Payne,  who  rescued  it  at  the  gate ;  and  Captain  White,  who  went  to  his  aid, 
we  regret  to  state,  received  a  severe  blow  on  the  arm  with  a  large  stick. 

In  the  Stand  the  excitement  was  equally  great,  the  Ring  calling  loudly 
for  vengeance  on  Jennings  and  his  party,  while  the  amateurs  hissed  the  mare 
as  they  would  an  unsuccessful  piece  at  a  theatre.  Count  La  Grange  fled,  and 
Jennings  was  locked  up  for  three-quarters  of  an  hour  in  a  room  at  the  back 
of  the  Stand,  to  save  his  life.  Nine  thousand  is  said  to  be  the  amount  that 
was  got  out  of  her  for  the  Two  Thousand,  and  bills  for  that  amount  are  said 
to  have  been  transmitted  to  Paris.  As  yet  the  Stewards  of  the  Club  have 
made  no  sign  of  investigating  the  case,  but  surely,  after  the  Tarragona  and 
Michelgrove  Court  of  Inquiry,  they  are  bound  to  do  so.  Because  a  few  legs 
fancy  they  see  something  in  the  betting  on  a  wretched  match  at  Newmarket,  all 
the  machinery  of  the  Club  is  put  in  motion  against  the  owners,  and  the  west 
end  of  London  thrown  into  a  complete  conflagration,  by  the  correspondence 
of  parties  connected  with  it,  both  male  and  female.  Why,  then,  do  they  not 
bestir  themselves  now,  when  they  would  have  all  England  on  their  side,  as 
well  as  the  Continent,  for  France  having  bled,  cries  equally  loud  for  an  investi- 
gation. Perhaps  Crump  then  might  make  a  better  use  of  certain  parties'  books 
than  he  did  of  the  Guardsmen,  and  if  a  conviction  could  be  obtained,  public 
opinion  would  support  the  infliction  of  the  punishment  that  would  naturally 
follow.  Well  as  Fille  de  l'Air  ran,  but  for  the  accident  which  occurred  to 
Saragossa  we  believe  she  would  have  been  beaten  by  her,  and  then  the  foreigners 
would  have  witnessed  a  demonstration  of  another  kind,  in  which  public  and 
private  worth  would  have  been  recognised  in  a  manner  peculiar  to  our  nation, 
and  which  being  unbought  is  still  more  welcome  to  the  object  of  it.  Count 
La  Grange,  it  is  stated,  fled  before  the  race  was  run,  but  we  trust  this  state- 
ment will  be  contradicted,  and  all  we  can  say  with  pride  is  that  such  a  cir- 
cumstance never  occurred  to  an  English  winner  of  the  Oaks.  Whether 
an  investigation  will  take  place  into  the  circumstances  remains  to  be  seen,  but 
were  we  in  the  Count's  position  we  should  demand  one.  If  he  is  innocent, 
he  has  nothing  to  fear  from  it,  and  if  guilty,  he  must  take  the  consequences 
of  it. 

Our  monthly  mortality  includes  the  name  of  one  who  for  many  years  occu- 
pied a  most  conspicuous  position  on  the  Turf  as  a  better  ;  we  mean  the  late 
Major  Brabason,  who  soon  followed  in  the  wake  of  Mr.  Fitzroy  Stanhope 
and  Mr.  Magennis.  The  Major,  who  was  better  known  by  his  old  name  of 
Higgins,  belonged  to  a  good  Mayo  family  in  Ireland,  and  served  for  many 
years  in  the  *i  5th  Hussars,  spending  some  time  with  that  regiment  in  India. 
On  quitting  the  service  he  took  to  the  Turf,  and  became  one  of  the  heaviest 
bookmakers  of  the  day,  standing  invariably  on  the  field  ;  and  when  the  long 
Captain,  as  he  was  called,  took  a  favourite  in  hand,  he  generally  made  short 
work  of  him.  Of  course,  like  other  people,  he  made  mistakes  at  times,  and 
Surplice  was  a  heavy  blow  and  great  discouragement  to  him.  When  the 
Emperor  gave  him  Dervish  to  lay  against,  as  being  the  safest  of  all  Scott's 
lot,  he  also  got  into  trouble  for  having  betted  a  fabulous  sum  against  him 
through  others,  and  the  Commissioners,  as  the  horse  had  come  to  6  to  1,  getting 
nervous,  and  expressing  a  hope  he  would  be  prepared  for  an  emergency,  he 
soon  quieted  their  fears  ;  for  stepping  across  the  room  to  Davis,  he  returned 
in  a  minute  to  them,  and  said  they  were  perfectly  right  in  mentioning  the 
matter,  and  he  had  got  them  out  as  he  had  just  backed  Dervish  back  for  four 
thousand  in  one  line.  On  a  great  settlement  day  at  Tattersall's,  he  was  always 
conspicuous  by  the  large  black  japanned  tin  box  in  which  he  carried  his  money 
to  the  Corner.     In   his   habits   he  was  very  temperate,  and  he  scarcely  ever 


102  '  our  van.'  [June,  1864. 

wore  a  great  coat.  Of  his  honour  he  was  very  querulous,  and  many  years 
back,  being  a  witness  in  a  case  in  the  Queen's  Bench,  the  late  Sir  John  Jervis, 
who  was  opposed  to  him,  told  the  jury,  with  the  license  of  counsel,  to  discard 
from  their  mind  every  syllable  of  the  evidence  that  Captain  Higgins  had  given. 
This  was  too  much  for  the  gallant  Irishman,  who,  the  next  day,  sent  the  late 
Sir  Challoner  Ogle  to  him  to  demand  an  apology.  Sir  John  replied  the  Bar 
would  not  permit  him  to  retract  the  observations  he  had  made  in  his  speech, 
when  he  was  informed  that  the  honour  of  Captain  Higgins  was  as  dear  to  his 
brother  officers  as  that  of  Sir  John  Jervis  to  the  Bar.  And  Sir  Challoner 
stated  he  was  instructed  to  inform  the  Solicitor-General  unless  he  apologised, 
Captain  Higgins  would  assuredly  horsewhip  him.  This  intimation  had  the 
desired  effect,  and  the  same  evening  Captain  Higgins  received  a  satisfactory 
communication  from  the  learned  counsel.  Latterly  his  health  gave  way,  but 
he  was  full  of  vigour  until  the  tidings  of  the  murder  of  his  son  in  China  reached 
him,  when  the  blow  smote  him  almost  to  the  ground,  for  he  was  an  officer  of 
the  highest  promise.  As  soon  as  he  could  collect  himself  together,  he  made 
his  mind  up  to  proceed  to  China,  and  offer  a  reward  of  twenty  thousand 
pounds  for  his  recovery,  as  a  strange  fancy  took  possession  of  his  mind  that 
he  was  alive  and  treated  as  a  slave.  The  fact  of  his  departure  having  been 
noised  abroad,  and  it  having  incidentally  transpired  that  there  was  some  little 
delay  in  preparing  the  securities  for  raising  the  sum  in  question,  Messrs.  Pad- 
wick  and  Hill  presented  him  with  a  letter  of  credit  on  Dent's  at  Hong-Kong, 
in  the  most  delicate  manner,  thus  expressing  the  confidence  they  had  in  his 
honour.  The  act  was  one  which  reflected  highly  on  both  parties,  and  only 
among  racing  men  could  such  mutual  reliance  be  found  to  exist.  On  his 
return  from  China,  Major  Brabason  was  unfortunately  knocked  down  by  an 
omnibus  in  Oxford  Street,  and  compelled  to  use  crutches  for  the  remainder 
of  his  life.  If  at  times  he  was  irritable  in  his  temper,  he  was  easily  appeased, 
for  his  heart  was  in  the  right  place,  and  he  retained  his  friends  to  the  end : 
and  he  will  be  regarded  by  all  who  knew  him  as  one  of  the  most  remarkable 
men  of  a  very  remarkable  period  of  the  Turf. 

Mr.  Wilson,  who  died  so  suddenly  on  the  first  day  of  Epsom,  where  he 
was  staying  with  Mr.  Cathcart,  the  owner  of  Prince  Arthur,  was  well  known 
in  Yorkshire  as  an  attache  to  John  Osborne's  stables,  having  managed  the  late 
Mr.  Harland's  horses  for  him.  Latterly,  through  the  death  of  that  gentleman,  he 
had  come  into  an  accession  of  fortune,  and  joined  what  is  called  '  The  Young 
Yorkshire  Party.'  A  constant  frequenter  of  the  northern  meetings,  he  was  a 
close  observer  of  character,  and  the  fund  of  anecdotes  he  had  acquired  rendered 
him  a  pleasant  dinner-table  companion. 

Among  the  new  Sporting  books  which  have  just  made  their  appearance, 
the  most  conspicuous  for  its  utility  is  '  Cecil's  Hunting  Tours,'  from  which 
the  old  school  may  revive  their  recollections  of  the  past,  and  the  young  ones 
be  able  to  put  themselves  on  a  level  with  their  seniors.  Cecil  is  not  one  of 
the  fast  school  of  writers,  but  he  travels  by  a  steady  train,  which  brings  his 
readers  safe  to  the  end  of  a  pleasant  journey  amidst  scenes  that  must  possess 
a  fund  of  interest  for  them.  '  The  Fisherman's  Magazine,'  which  is  now  in 
its  infancy,  promises,  if  nourished  by  the  same  treatment  as  is  visible  in  the 
conduct  of  the  first  two  months,  to  arrive  at  a  degree  of  healthy  maturity. 
The  plates  are  excellent ;  that  which  adorns  the  first  number  is  a  pike,  which, 
to  say  the  least,  is  '  to  the  manner  born  ;'  and  the  second  is  a  sketch  after 
the  frontispiece  of  '  London  Society,'  of  a  gentleman  rowing  a  lady  in  a  boat, 
with  the  motto  '  Dum  capimus,  capimur,'  attached  to  it. 


,a  BEL' 


dunting  Belt  for  Gentlemen  gives  great  sup- 
port to  uib  loins,  and  will  keep  its  position  during  the 
most  violent  exertion.  Those  accustomed  to  much  exer- 
cise, subject  to  corpulency,  weakness  in  the  back,  lumbago, 
&c,  and  particularly  those  who  follow  field  sports,  should 
not  be  without  one. 

MEASURES  REQUIRED, 
Depth  of  Belt  in  front ;  circumference  at  a  ;  ditto  at  B. 


*  The  Lowther  Thigh  Band. — We  have  just  seen  some  testimonials  from  several  of 
the  highest  authorities  in  the  hunting  field,  which  speak  in  very  high  terms  of  the 
comfort  derived  from  using  the  "  Lowther  Thigh  Band  "  and  "  Hunting  Belt,"  which  are 
so  satisfactory  that  we  can  assure  those  of  our  readers  who  suffer  from  strains,  weak- 
ness in  the  thigh  and  loins,  that  they  are  likely  to  derive  great  benefit  from  their  use, 
being  so  simple  in  their  construction,  and  yet  keeping  their  position  during  the  most 
violent  exercise,  a  desideratum  so  very  essential,  and  yet  not  generally  obtained.' — 
Field. 

Circulars,  with  full  Particulars  and  Prices,  sent  post  free  on  application  to 

SPARKS  &  SON, 


28,  CONDUIT  STEEET,  LONDON,  W. 


All  the  world  knows  Mr.  MILES  has  not 
removed,  but  is  still  at  68,  New  Bond  Street, 
where  his  celebrated 

Sixteen  Shilling  Trousers, 

THE  BEST  IN  LONDON, 

jlir/e  ousrxjir  to  be  stolid. 


HIS  EXTENSIVE  NEW  SPRING  STOCK 

Is  now  ready  for  Inspection. 
BLUE  OR  BLACK  FROCK  COATS  FROM  £2  10*. 
FOOTMAN  COATEE  SUITS,  £4. 


rfAlNT  PANUJJa^ 


OLD  S AIN'T  PANCL. 

Five  minutes  from  the  Great  Northern  Railway  Sta^-,  ^yua^*  ^u  ot.  Pancras  Church. 


PROFESSOR  VARNELL'S  STABLE  ARRANGEMENTS. 


These 

FITTINGS 

have  been  awarded 

THREE 

SILVER  MEDALS 

and  are 

recommended 

by  the 

Royal 

Veterinary 

College, 


mi^tAfu. 


Are  secured  by 

SEVEN  SEPARATE 

PATENTS, 

(Latest  1859,) 

And  are  shown  in 

full  size. 


STALLS 

AND 

LOOSE    BOXES. 


PATENT  WROUGHT  IRON  STABLE  FITTINGS 

Should  be  adopted  for  the  following  reasons,  viz. — 

That  the  BKEAKAGES  in  Oast  Iron  FITTINGS  are  numerous,  and  that  one  fracture 
from  a  Mck  or  other  cause  may  occasion  an  injury  to  a  horse,  and  involve  a  loss  equal  to 
the  entire  expense  of  fitting  up  the  stable.  The  fear  of  this  has  led  to  the  use  of  wood, 
and  in  the  case  of  Oast  Iron  Gutters,  to  the  adoption  of  another  and  less  effective  mode  of 
draining,  while  the  cost  is  prevented  exceeding  that  of  cast  iron,  by  the  employment  of 
specially  adapted  machinery, — 

Enamelled  Top  Plate  Manger,  with  Rack  and  Water  Trough, 

The  whole  of  which,  except  the  rack,  being  enamelled,  can  be  kept  as  clean  as  a  dinner  plate. 

Cleanliness,  comfort,  economy,  imperviousness  to  infection,  prevention  of  crib-biting,  &c, 

with  the  better  thriving  of  the  horse,  are  some  of  the  characteristic  advantages  of  this  in- 

The  Halter-ball,  attached  by  a  new  improvement,  works  noiselessly  on  the  guide-bar,  and 
almost  without  friction. 

PATENT  FASTENINGS  FOR  THE  DOORS  OF  LOOSE  BOXES. 

These  catches  and  hangings  work  easily,  are  self-acting,  and  cannot  be  put  out  of  order ;  by 
their  use  all  projections  by  which  horses  are  often  blemished  are  rendered  impossible, — 
advantages  peculiarly  their  own. 

THE    PATENT    HARNESS    FITTINGS 

Keep  the  Harness  and  Saddles  in  shape,  and  are  constructed  so  as  to  admit  the  air  getting 
to  the  underside  of  them  when  hung  up,  thereby  insuring  a  quick  and  perfect  airing  from 
any  wet  or  moisture.    They  will  be  found  great  preservatives  of  the  Harness. 


Sllratrntti  mti  ^ritti  fists  mt  lyplirctinn. 


Hurdles,  G-ates,  (Conservatories. 
GENERAL  IRfN  WORK.