The road! what pleasant reminiscences do these words awaken in the mind of those who delighted in seeing (and who did not ?) a wellappointed coach! what recollections of times gone by does it stir up! times ever to be remembered and admired. I do not allude to the Dick Turpin age, but to the period when coaching was at the height of perfection (for perfection it certainly had arrived at, when at one fell swoop the railways destroyed the hopes of the admirers of the road); when the Little Quicksilver, The Wonder, The Age, The Vivid, The Magnet, the Berkeley Hunt, the Exeter Herald, the Hirondelle, and Hibernia were on the road; these and numerous other coaches used to attract an admiring crowd to see them start from Piccadilly. Well do I remember the Little Quicksilver, with her team of chesnuts; and four such chesnuts! few gentlemen's carriages could boast such cattle; and they were held together by a first-rate whip.

In those days the question was, "what gentleman is going to drive us?" for frequently the "waggoner" was of the highest blood. Sir St. Vincent Cotton drove the Age Brighton coach, Mr. Willan the Magnet, Tyrwhitt Jones the Pearl, Captain Probin from Reading to London, Stevenson the Brighton coach, Mr. Bigg the Mazeppa.

The Londoners enjoyed an Easter Monday with Her Majesty's Staghounds, which has been duly recorded, and here it may not be uninteresting to refer to a similar hunt some seventy-three years ago: "In the Easter week of 1796, the sport of the three days was excellent. The concourse of people present on the Monday, on turning out the deer at Ascot Heath, was great, almost beyond all comparison, and the run proved destructive to several of the horses. Almost as soon as the deer had been liberated, the hounds suddenly broke away, and continued the chase in such unusual style, that in the first burst of ten miles the slow-going gentry formed a tail line of full four miles; upon reaching Blackwater, in the great western road, the deer turned to the right, through Sandhurst and Finchampstead, till nearly reaching Wokingham town end, and suddenly turning to the left, he continued his course in the most gallant manner through the parishes of Barkham, Arbonfield, over Farley Hill, Swallowfield, Mortimer, through the river Kennet, and to Aldermaston, near Newbury; where he was taken after a run, it was supposed, of nearly fifty miles.

"On the following Thursday a deer, called Sir Henry Gotte was turned out (having been presented to his Majesty by a Buckinghamshire Knight of that name), and went off in the most gallant style imaginable. Ten minutes law was allotted him, and as the scent was uncommonly good, the hounds ran breast high, and could only be stopped once during the first hour and a-half. The deer ran over nearly the same ground as the stag which had been turned out on Monday, till he roached Wokingham, the gardens of which town he passed through, and made way over Frognall Green, through the parishes of Binfield, Warfield, the Hayes, and Shottesbrook coverts, Braywick, and was taken at Holyport, after a chase of four hours, as fine running as possible.

"On Saturday in the same week, the stag, brother to Sir Henry Gotte, was turned out near the race-course at eleven o'clock, and, fac

ing the open country, went away in style that seemed to bid defiance to his pursuers. After a circle of some few miles upon the heath, and by Sunninghill Park, he passed Sunninghill Wells, Brummel Hut, and through Tatsnell's Warren, where he turned to the left, and reached the bridge at Virginia Water; here he waited till the hounds came nearly up to him, when surveying the approach of the field for a few seconds, he broke away, and took the whole of the swampy country, and over the large fences to Thorpe Green; leaving Chertsey to the right, he passed through the meadows and crossed the Thames, continuing his course over the fields to Staines. Here he amused the inhabitants in their gardens and orchards, where he and the hounds were repeatedly together, and his escape from destruction appeared almost impossible; but by clearing some most surprising leaps he once more broke away, crossed the western turnpike road, and again led the chase in a very gallant style. Crossing the intervening enclosures to Wyradsbury, and nearly reaching Combrook, he made way to the right, and was taken near the seat of Sir W. Gibbons, at Stanwell, after a fine run of two hours and a-half."

The visit of Prince Arthur to Ireland has, despite the badness of the weather, proved a most propitious one, and his Royal Highness who is popular with all classes, from his affability and the interest he takes in everything connected with the Emerald Isle, has won "golden opinions," and has been met everywhere with a thorough warm reception. This is alike due to himself, and is a just and loyal compliment to his royal mother, who rules over the hearts of all true Irishmen; and here I would remark that, as a sporting country, Ireland offers unbounded advantages, both as regards hunting, fishing, and shooting. There are several packs of fox-hounds, stag-hounds, and hariers kept up in firstrate style, and the gallant sons of Erin never appear to greater advantage than in the hunting field, where, with a reckless contempt of danger and an ardour that nothing can subdue, they ride over stone walls which to a stranger seem almost impracticable.

Foxes are plentiful, and a lover of hunting may enjoy the sport to his heart's content provided he is mounted on an Irish horse, and possesses adamantine nerves. In addition to salmon and trout-fishing, the lakes and rivers abound in pike and perch, and here it may not be out of place to give a brief account of fishing localities.

The Shannon affords capital trout-fishing, more particularly about two miles above Athlone, where it forms itself into a large lake called Lough Ree: a splendid sheet of water about twenty miles in extent, and studded with numerous islands, around the shores of which, and on the shoals trout abound. The trout here are very large, frequently exceeding 10lbs., and seldom under 2lb. In the nets it is no uncommon thing to take them from 15lbs. to 20lbs. in weight. Here it is much the habit of anglers to fish with cross lines, as the large trout are very shy, and fishing with the single rod very uncertain, except when the green drake is on the water. Yew Point, The Cribs, and Quaker Island are some of the best falls for trout.

About the first week in June, the green-drake comes well out, and the single rods then come into play, as the fish leave their haunts, and go all over the lake in search of their favourite food. The stone-fly,

clarets of all shades, particularly very dark, olives of all shades, fiery brown, deep orange, cinnamon colour, with mallard wing tied large, are the flies best suited for these waters, but as a general rule we should advise the angler to consult some experienced fisherman well acquainted with the locality in which he finds himself, who will recommend a fly according to the state of the weather, and the water.

The principal rivers in the county of Clonmel are the Suir and the Annar, which are both well supplied with trout, and salmon is to be met with in the Suir. The Nire sweeps along the waters from the valleys which separate the mountains south from Clonmel to the Suir, which it meets four miles below Ardfinnan, and trout, though not of a very large size, will furnish excellent sport to the followers of Old Izaak. Here the wren is a favourite fly, but black and red hackels, in all their varieties, will be found very useful. The Blackwater river near Kenmare in Kerry affords excellent sport to the angler, especially in the spring. During summer, except after heavy rains, the fisherman will meet with little or no sport.

Pass we on to Lake Inchiquen, about ten miles from Ennis, where there are red and white trouts, and pike also of large size. Flies of the medium size, with red or brown fur bodies, light gold twist, and wings either of partridge and land-rail mixed, or else mallard with a few feathers of the peacock's breast. There is also a very favourite dropper fly, called the rush fly, which has a reddish brown body, with wings of a small land-rail's feather, not stripped off the quill. Although the beauty and grandeur of the Lakes of Killarney remain to the tourist, the attraction for the angler has long ceased. Departing hence, let us now transport our views northward towards Connaught, glancing only at Lough's Corrib and Mask, the former famed for its salmon and trout, and the latter for its perch and chub.

At Ballyshannon the salmon fishing is excellent, the Erne flows out of the lough of the same name, and contains some of the largest salmon to be found in Ireland. The Nore, which flows through the county of Kilkenny, would be one of the very best rivers for salmon and trout, were not the weirs so numerous, and did not unlicensed fishermen who frequent its banks use both nets and cross-lines for the destruction of the fish. At Mount Juliet, the seat of Earl of Carrick, Norelands, and Woodstock, the river is partially preserved, and fly-fishing may there be had to perfection. There are other rivers and loughs abounding in fish, but unfortunately in the Emerald Isle river-poaching is carried on to a great extent, many families making their living entirely by this illegal practise.

A REMINISCENCE OF THE INAUGURATION OF THE RACE-COURSE,"

"LONGCHAMPS

For more than two months in the summer 1854, competing almost in speculative interest with the news from the Seat of War in the East, to the Parisian Sporting world more especially, the approaching inauguration of the new race-course "de Longchamps," since more generally known as that of Neuilly, had been a constant topic of discussion.

The plan of the course had been submitted to the Emperor, who had approved of it, and it was now so near completion, than an early date of the month in which we then were (September) was spoken of as the opening day of the "New Hippodrome of the city of Paris"-a race-course which we had heard averred by many enthusiastic Parisians would surpass not only that of Chantilly but those even of Newmarket and Epsom in England. This new enterprise had, I was informed, resulted from the association of several sharp-sighted individuals, under the style and title of "Societé des Sports de Longchamps," to whose appetite for speculation the obviously increasing taste, or rather passion, of the Parisian public for the sensationallyscenic episodes incidental to steeple-chases, was guarantee sufficient for a profitable dividend, more especially as such an institution would present, so to say, at the very doors of that numerous class of the Parisian world who readily pay for easily-accessible pleasures, yet upon rare occasions only, and few in number venture so far as the distant La Marche, or even to aristocratic Chantilly, to gratify their curiosity by way of holiday with the spectacle of their "grandes luttes hippiques.

Although having business which called me to Brussels and Liege, yet, being very desirous to see the first races run upon this much-talked of hippodrome, I yielded to the pressing solicitation of my trusty Parisian Achates to defer my departure for Belgium, and remain his guest for another ten days. Meanwhile, in order to satisfy ourselves beforehand as to the truthfulness or exaggeration of the superior topographical features or terrain of the locality selected for the future arena of the hippic festivals of the French capital, we rode over one fine morning to Neuilly, as most convenient and approximate centrepoint whence to inspect and form a correct estimate of the chief characteristics of the new ground.

This, in a few words, we found, as, by current public report, situated in the extensive and picturesquely-bounded plain which stretches between the Bois de Boulogne, the River Seine, the Abbey de Longchamps, and the village of St. Jacques.

The 17th of the month was at length definitively fixed on for the opening day of the new enterprise, and was to be preceded on the 14th by a banquet to be given upon the race-course itself, as indicated in the address of invitation to the Parisian press by M. de Toqueville, who had the repute of being one of the greatest amateurs of the sports of the turf in France.

Notwithstanding this persuasive form of argument, for reasons the

detail of which I do not now clearly recollect, having failed to note them at the time with the other circumstances in my diary, the greater part of the Parisian press failed to enter an appearance. Nevertheless, as subsequently reported by those journals whose rédacteurs were influenced by more generous motives, the company which assembled on the occasion of this inaugurative banquet was both numerous and select, composed for the most part of the most influential members of the French Jockey Club and sporting world then in Paris, as also from the provinces and many other places.

The tables were covered and re-supplied with viands of the most recherché culinary skill, by one of the first Parisian restaurateurs. The wines were both abundant and varied: champagne of the best brands sparkled on every hand during the courses; appropriate toasts were given, and speeches made of the most spirited and appropriate purport. Though the health of the press was proposed, it was drunk almost in silence, and in striking contrast thereto the toast given by the Curate of Neuilly, "To the prosperity of the enterprise in which young men would find in manly exercises distractions at once healthy and exhilarating both to body and mind," was received with enthusiasm. Another toast was responded to with a fervour that was universally contagious; it was as follows: "To our brave soldiers and those of our allies of the army of the East who are now emulating so nobly in the race of glory."

This fête, which commenced shortly after the hour of noon, under the bright rays of a September sun, was scarcely terminated when the shades of evening began to descend upon the throng of equestrians and vehicles on their return to Paris from the convivial scene.

Sunday, the 17th, the day which had been fixed upon for the opening of the flat races and grand steeple-chase, which were to inaugurate the turf of Neuilly in the presence of the Parisian public, was far from favoured by the same delightful weather as the day of the banquet. From the early morn, as though the first precursor of the storms of autumn, the rain had fallen in torrents and flooded the roads, giving a wintry aspect to all around. But this was by no means a damper to the hippic monomania with which not only the Parisian public, but the French nation throughout, had now become so thoroughly imbued as to awaken a cordial feeling of gratulation in every native of the land whose national sport they had appropriated, and naturalized among them with a geniality of spirit, and heartiness of abandon so worthy of admiration.

Personally, more than many Englishmen then perhaps present, such were my reflections; for so far back as from shortly after the restoration of the Bourbons, I had had at several subsequent intervals of time, opportunity of observing the progress of this wonderful change in the general character, tastes, and amusements of the French people, resulting from the long more friendly relations of the two countries, and which, shortly after 1830 assuming the form of a social fact of international good omen, had now, in 1854, become fully accomplished, under favour of the countenance and example of a ruler of sincerer personal predilections and sentiments of amity to England, and the English; as also, wiser in his conception of the true national interests and prosperity of France, than any of his predecessors.