amount of speculation that the visitor may choose to call for to be had at the bar. "Waiter!—a bottom of brandy; and a pound's-worth of Chester Cups." 66 It's a pleasant thing to draw the writing-table towards the fire, when the frost is freezing as hard as it can, and speculate upon the sportsman's hopes when the winter of his discontent shall have passed away. There can be no objection to cock-shooting (to say nothing of its consequences upon toast)-neither against skating and such like contrivances wherewith to circumvent the enemy. But they are not matters to write themes on, while the turf, like the game of whist, is an affair of " infinite variety."..... Racing is the moral of the maxim which declares that everybody's business is nobody's business." It literally is "everybody's business"-men, women, and children, are engaged in its lotteries public or private, with twenty-thousand pound books at Tattersall's, or packets of Isidore's French gloves, or "tucks-out" of sausages and rum-and-milk at Mr. Ticklem's, of Turnham Green. Nine-tenths of the family of Bull-including domestic servants-are at this moment suspended as to their anticipations on the Derby, or the Chester Cup, or the Two Thousand or some or 'many of the issues of the approaching spring; but it's "nobody's business" nobody's business" to alleviate the agony of him or her that" doubts, yet hopes." Those who are of ma ture age among the males pick up now and then crumbs for themselves, and take care none of them shall fall to the share of their fellow-sinners; it's all one to the feminine gender-win or lose, the gentleman is expected to supply the "kid;" and the rising generation, by dint of gin-andwater, seek to soften the hearts of such adjacent ostlers as enjoy a reputation for being "awake." It is not, indeed, to be supposed that the mysteries, or even the social details, of a training stable are to be at the disposal of mankind, upon the principle of the liberal air; neither, on the other hand, is it reasonable to expect that the race of two-legged animals without feathers should be as indifferent to information as the adder that refuseth to hear. Your turf Rosicrusian professes an art, whereof the motto is " Everyone for himself "-the second moiety of the "saw" does not apply to the "modern instance." Racing secrets-if of any intrinsic value at all-must be worth more than they fetch, because in the ratio that they cease to be private they part with their consideration. It is said, indeed, that the mere public is not entitled to know anything about the policy or proceedings of owners of race-horses, but to that we write non-content. Therefore this paragraph set out with saying it was a pleasant duty for one professing the responsibility to lucubrate under fostering auspices upon the hidden things of the stud and the course, and turn such musings into type for the benefit of all whom they may concern. It is a standing subject for grumbling among sporting readers that as regards the curiosities of horse-racing, the murder rarely sees the light of publication. Petty larceny lots, they say, abound; when" Snob" cuts his stick, it is in next morning's gazette; but if "Nob" is "scarce," every respect is shown to his retirement.. .... "Thus commentators each dark passage shun, But this is a hasty, if not an unfair conclusion. Slight reports only reach short distances; but when a sixty-four pounder goes off, it is heard from Dover to Calais. When an extreme outsider breaks down, it is probably not known to a dozen of those who regularly keep the market; but let the "crack" be "off," or "queer," and all Rumour's tongues are talking of it everywhere at the same time. The old stagecoach, which used to take you where you were going for nothing, and give you a guinea for your custom at the end of the journey, was utterly slow in the opposition line, compared with a modern "tout." "Aut Cæsar aut nullus" is his maxim; so if he can't forestall his brethren, he takes care their venture shall be worth as little to them as possible. If Leary Cove "electrics" the "office" by the Brummagem wires, Hookey Walker is down on him with the Trent Valley line. "Mum" is the shibboleth of the fraternity; but the instant one opens his mouth, the whole society howls out in chorus. Silence is the science all-sufficing for the M.A. of the ring. He listens while his quarry betray themselves by their sound. Fair sporting is no part of his system-indeed, it would be superfluous, seeing that the world is a preserve that furnishes a never-failing supply of his game........................... "Then 'carpe diem,' Juan, 'carpe, carpe,' To-morrow sees another race as gay, And transient, and devoured by the same harpy. Life's a poor player'-so play out the play, Not what you seem, but always what you see." The episodes of racing policy will ever constitute a sea of speculation, whereon enterprize shall find its spirit amply employed, albeit the discoveries may not remunerate the adventurer. No local charts are to be had. He must keep the lead going, while a beacon here and there points out the locality of some more obvious risk. Foremost among the hazards that threaten those who, in the present year, shall invest their money in racing speculations, is the monopoly with which they will have to contend. As a clique of monster capitalists lead or drive the money market at their will or caprice, so, as coming events cast their shadows before, it must be in the ring. The middle of the nineteenth century is the cycle of marvels. Would any man have believed you, had you said on the first of January, 1848, that before the anniversary of another new year a Napoleon Bonaparte would occupy the palace of the Elyseé Bourbon, and govern the French people? What odds would have been laid you, had you offered to bet, three months ago, that before St. Peter's should celebrate another high mass for the festival of Christmas, the Pope should set off for a tour, in moustaches and a cocked hat? And when a recent addition to the sporting architecture of Newmarket was in process, if one of the workmen employed upon it had been pointed out to you as destined in a few brief years to become "the head stone of the Corner" (not to speak it profanely), how would you have received the intimation? Nevertheless, thus it is, as the proverb runs-"miracles shall never cease." "But these are few, and in the end they make Some devilish escapade or stir, which shows That even the purest people may mistake Their way through virtue's primrose paths of snows: And then men stare, as if a new ass spake To Balaam, and from tongue to ear o'erflows Quicksilver small talk, ending (if you note it) With the world's amen-' who would have thought it?'"' A few years ago a nobleman, whose premature loss drew forth an ex pression of sympathy as honourable to his memory as to those by whom it was offered, tried the experiment of a racing stud upon a scale not previously attempted. His nominations for stakes appeared as if they were made upon the principle of securing all the prizes in a lottery by buying all the tickets. It is rarely the promoter of a scheme that profits by it the gainers are those who succeed-in both senses of the word. Lord George Bentinck's representative in the Derby for the present year is Mr. Mostyn: I speak by the Book-Calendar. He has the largest lot for those stakes. Next in number-indeed only one less in amount-are Mr. Benjamin Green's nominations. The former, now the property of Lord Clifden, represents the ancien regime of racing; the latter its commercial, or modern interests. I do not contend for the legitimacy of one more than another; the principle is against the public. Power, in the doctrine of chances, exercises compound effects; it commands both direct and indirect influence. A force of horses on the turf, ably manœuvred, may win more fields by diplomacy than conquest. "Caw me, caw thee," is the alchemy of moral philosophy. A score of nominations in a great public race, the betting conditions of which are "play or pay," is the nearest approach to the discovery of the philosopher's stone that has been made as yet. One of the German sublimities says, "Philosophy begins where common sense ends"-probably the limits between honour and honesty bear similar relations; the former being the soul, and the latter the body of justice. Every man, however, is not a professor of logic; so mistakes occur, and money strikes the balance. The future career of those who launch upon the course, therefore," craves wary walking." Let us turn from horses to books. Among the novelties of literature is the practice of comprising that which formerly was a library in a single volume. This system is being extended to the ring. Instead of hundreds of little morocco duodecimos that used to be exposed "all of a row" in the subscription rooms appropriate to the race meetings and at Hyde Park Corner-and elsewhere-one gigantic ledger does the business. That which the Governor and Company of the Bank of England is to the east, Mr. Davis is to the west-equally extensive in his operations, and, to his credit be it added, equally punctual in his engagements. But there is no satisfying the human heart: merchants call for an extension of the manufacture of money, as a means for facilitating the supply and there are those who insist that if the odds were got up in several houses, in lieu of one, there would be a greater variety in the article, and prices would be easier. "Non cuivis homini contingit adire Corinthum :" it isn't everybody that can go for comestibles to Fortnum and Mason's. Mr. Davis is an exemplary man, but he is not an archangel, any more than is the director of a railway company. When the world in a phrenzy of philanthropy offered the means of locomotion at rates lower than travellers could walk, the great trunk lines announced their fares cheaper than people could stay at home. So philanthropy gave up the contest in despair, and travellers were left to contemplate the result in the same way. If Mr. Davis, with his "Seizer's Commentaries" puts an extinguisher on the " essays" of humbler writers, he will be the bull in that china-shop, the ring; while the leg in the background will present a living illustration of the "bear" in Johnson's dictionary-" one who nominally sells." These anticipations are not meant in a mocking spirit, though the vein in which they are expressed be not the gravest. Counsel, like physic, should be administered in as palatable a preparation as it admits of. The dose will be received with wry faces, most probably, as it is: the will must plead for the deed. ... When Sir James Graham pronounced against gambling on race-courses, their doom was sealed by the hasty of deduction: when lotteries receive their coup-de-grace, we are told the turf will be immediately damaged; but it won't. There is a disposition abroad to extend the sport of racing, that will be more than an equivalent for the miscellaneous popularity it derived from being the agent of "play" for the million. The attempt to establish two meetings annually where there used to be but one, has succeeded everywhere that it has been made in earnest. Epsom spring races this year will be over the country, as well as over the course; steeple-racing being announced for a second day. This will in fact be an equestrian festival, consisting of two of the most stirring acts of national horsemanship. The plan will no doubt be followed in other places; and I wish it success.... Less betting, gentlemen, and better sport to ye !-there's many a worse new-year's gift than that has found cordial acceptance. In the session whose sitting will commence next month, the gamelaws are to undergo another overhauling. Mr. Cobden overlooked them when prescribing his universal social panacea for the constitution of England; or probably he left them to the care of Colonel Sibthorp, as being part of the rural policy, and consequently more suited to the peculiar talent of the gallant member for Lincoln. Roast hare has already come to be accounted a delicacy: shall we survive to see the pheasants go the way of the bustards? To be sure, Mr. Cobden recommends the abolition of the duty on advertisements, which will be found beneficial now that the plan of jogging gentlemen's memories through the medium of newspapers has been adopted in reference to money so long due for bets as apparently to be absolutely forgotten.... Fox-hunting, like all else sublunary, has obeyed the laws of changeand for the better, beyond all question. The chase is now a sport in the spirit as well as in the letter. People don't rise to put on their sporting et-cæteras as if the house were on fire, nor sally forth at unnatural hours, neither do they toil at their pleasure from star-set to moon-rise. Hounds are within easy reach of everybody-those who dwell in uttermost Cockayne, as well as those who set up their staff in Melton Mowbray. When Punch's map of England, à la gridiron, appeared, it was foretold that the reign of the virgin goddess drew fast to a close. But it was a false alarm-the iron has not entered into her soul. On the contrary, her disciples have multiplied exceedingly, as well as the appliances and means for her worship. I am writing these dottings-down in a country that now possesses three first-class hunting establishments, where five-and-twenty years ago there was but one. that period the Hampshire country very nearly embraced the whole of the county, which occasionally called for a journey to cover-a transit of some thirty miles or more. Now, if Lord Gifford is at a distance, the Vine are at hand, or the Hursley are come-at-able, or for the farafield there are the Hambledon hounds and country. It is the same in every fox-hunting district in the land. At And then look at the amateur marine-there indeed "Britancia rules the waves." Not only in its increase, but the character of its economy, yachting within the last half dozen years has assumed an importance that was not even dreamt of in the days of the sailor king. We have now our pleasure craft circumnavigating the globe, and we have societies of gentlemen-sailors that put the old play and political clubs to utter shame. The Royal Victoria Club House at Ryde would have opened the eyes of the celebrities of White's and Brooks's of the good old times. Suppose Izaak Walton had been invited to join a salmonfishing party for a fortnight's foray among the fjords of Norway, he would first have asked permission to make his will. The representatives. of the aspiring sportsmen who took the town by storm when they related their morning accidents among the Scottish hills, now take their pleasure among the lions of the Orange river, or the tigers of Mysore. You meet young fellows every day in St. James's Street, who have shot their brace or two of giraffes-animals that were considered fabulous when Colonel Thornton wrote his book "as big as all dis scheese," and ostriches are as available to us, as were grouse to our grandfathers. years The characteristic of our time is facility-none of your sneers, Mister Hypercritic, about facilis descensus. A man can do tenfold as much now as he could have done sixty years ago. The whole population of the earth could not produce with their hands that which the manufacture of Great Britain furnishes by the aid of such of its inhabitants as adopt handicraft in lieu of agriculture. The means of society, taken as an aggregate, are certainly not reduced within the last quarter of a century; while the worth of money, in reference to that which it represents, is increased fifty per cent.-though the advance is certainly not so equally balanced as might be wished. The change has principally affected luxuries-but with these we are dealing here. In the item of travelling expenses, the annual outlay of persons of condition in this country is probably as two shillings in the pound to what it was antecedent to railways. Great people, for example, who lived a dozen ago a couple of hundred miles from the metropolis, paid forty pounds for their journey up-four horses at four shillings a mile. My lord and my lady, valet and lady's maid, now accomplish it, without wear and tear of company or carriage, for a ten pound note. And let it be had in memory, that the cost of moving from place to place is one of the heaviest et-cæteras of sporting. Here, at all events, is one set-off against the costly practices that now, more than formerly, attach to some of our national amusements. If betting must be a parasite of the turf, the personal charges of the proprietor of race horses are less than they were. Less horseflesh is required by the foxhunter. The moorshooter can seek his pleasure in the land of brown heath upon as reasonable terms as heretofore he accomplished a morning on the Brighton Chain Pier. For my part, I am not one of those who love to view life "through a glass, darkly:" and if the truth was always told, such would be found the actual taste of mankind. But there appears to be a conventional imposition upon the family of John Bull, that their morale should receive God's blessings as Byron says their physique bears vegetables" in a grumbling way." Jonathan is no Chesterfield in his manners, but one can't avoid admiring his candour. The philosopher of Slickville hits him off to nature: "Mr. Slick, I'll tell you what; of all the work I ever did in my life, I like hoeing potatoes the best; and |
