cap fits, he is welcome to it. In my turn, I should wish to be informed what he understands by "punishing prettily," and whether the castigation I have been obliged to give him comes under that denomination. Stephen further accuses me of plagiarizing an expression or two from other writers. Will he kindly inform me, as I do not recollect to have met with them, in what author they are to be found? He will, perhaps, further oblige me by stating if "laughing in your sleeve," "betting a penny," and other vulgarisms of a similar stamp, which I notice in his last critique, are borrowed from the same author or another. I have now done with my re SIR, marks; and, though they are cer- NOSING TOм. STEPHEN'S FOURTH CRITIQUE. Having concluded my third notice of your contributors with a hint that I should pay my respects to S. Y. S. in this my fourth critique, so shall I endeavour to perform my promise with a resolved and impartial hand. For what care I for the quips and quirks of such maudlin scribblers as "Misericordia?" I can treat his sneers with silent contempt, and throw the gauntlet of defiance at his threats. "Sporting Recollections of Life in the Deccan" is spiritedly written, and upon the whole is a fair description of what hog-hunting once was in this part of the world, but the author is too fond of marked antitheses and alliteration: conjectures are afloat as to its being a painting from life, or only from fancy; but this is of little consequence. Chapter iv. is not so well written as the first three, though it contains matter of more interest, for there is an evident carelessness in the former which would appear to have been carried to an anxiety to detail the events of the day, without pausing to select his words or even his phrases; and though probably he thought he needed not to be very choice in his language, still he might have mended his style without injuring the spirit of his production. He has contributed, I find, very lengthily to your last. "Hurrah for the spur and the spear" bears his initials, and is certainly a very spirited song, while his paper "On the Proportions of Celebrated Arabs" is, as far as it goes, a valuable contribution; but then, how far does it go? It tells you that a speedy horse must have speedy points, and that Bundoola and others measured so much in the hind quarter, and so much in the fore; but what information, or rather, I could say, what instruction is to be gathered from this? Had he as I suspected to have is by upwards of a hand, than in the rear? The knowing ones must talk to S. Y. S. about this, for I confess it puzzles and perplexes me; besides, he has detained me too long from "other metal more attractive." I have no reluctance in pronouncing "the Bombay Hounds," by "Looker On," as a very capital letter, and one that does credit to your work, and the Sholapoor hunting is a good match to it. These are the kind of correspond seen-had he contrasted the proportions of the known and tried good racers with the measurements of known and tried bad ones, then, indeed, some sort of comparison might have been made which would have proved useful to those who are in the habit of purchasing horses for the turf. However, on this I cannot say much, since I do not pretend to understand it. I wish others would follow my example. But I must mention one thing which certainly strikes me as being very singular. It is in the extraordinary shape of Harlequin; he is set down as 14-whether this half means half an inch or half an hand I know not-it is immaterial to my present remark, but as I see he is frequently called "a great horse," I conclude it is meant that he should be marked as fourteen hands two inches. In this case, then, as his measurement at his depth of fellers is thirtyfour inches and a half, and from the fellers to the ground thirtyone and a quarter, it stands to reason that his height over the loins must have been sixty-five inches and three quarters, or sixteen hands and 13 inches! which, even if his real height be fourteen hands two inches, will make him (within a quarter of an inch) two inches higher at the croup than at the wither. This appears to be very strange; but as all swift animals, like the hare and the antelope, are found higher behind than before, this extraordinary peculiarity in the shape of Harlequin may constitute his great racing point; but then again, how much does this militate against the speed of "Little Tough," who at the head points measures only 12 hands 1 inches, and at the shoulder 13 hands inch, so that he stands higher before by 4 inches, that ents you do well to cherish. The song by S. P. is good, though he gives a splay foot to his second line; his fourth stanza calls to mind "There is a Lethe in the bowl," that is, in its excellence and its style. O. to O. K. may be proper, and looks respectable, but there is a filthy allusion to "the gentleman in brown," which ought to have been left out, though, as S. Y. S. also makes use of it, it leads me to suspect he writes under more signatures than one. Squirrel is right-the pigeon shooting at Poonah deserves to be shown up as he has done it; next comes that dreadful letter from Phoebe Harpurlet it, oh, let it be the last. My prophecy in my third critique regarding Dragsman and AntiDetonator has proved correct. Nosing Tom improves as he goes, though I still wish he would polish a little more, and recollect that writing bad grammar is but a poor apology for silly writing, and vulgar, too. I confess I do not quite understand Philo Fun, nor can I make out whether he really did dream the dream he relates so well, or whether he has drawn from fiction. Nimrod's share of the No. 9's pages is much better than any I have yet seen-it is interesting and not too much spun out; he is evidently following my advice, and improving in style and perspicuity. This, therefore, flatters me not a little, and I am consequently in too good a humour to animadvert on one or two little inaccuracies which I should otherwise have pointed out, for he may rest assured I have selected them. Erin go Bragh is a prince of a correspondent, writes well and spiritedly, and is highly amusing. STEPHEN. OBSERVATIONS ON SHIKARREE'S LETTER TO THE I am going to criticise, Mr. Editor, but my business is not with you, nor, indeed, with any of your correspondents, in whom I think you are most fortunate. It is with a Bengal sportsman, several of whose letters have appeared in the E. S. M., and one of which has found insertion in your last number. Now, I would not have you mistake me for Stephen in disguise, for I am very easy to please, and do not, therefore, often appear in my present character; but without any disposition to find fault you must allow me to say that Shikarree's sketches do not by any means come up to the standard of excellence, inasmuch as they have a tendency to cast a slur on the body of Indian sportsmen generally, and are calculated to mislead our friends at home, who are for the most part lamentably ignorant of those matters, and would laugh outright at what Shikarree has denominated "glorious sport." For my own part, did his own style not assure me to the contrary, I should be tempted to put the whole down for a quiz at once. Your valuable magazine has already thrown much light on the true character of Indian sporting, and will in due time enable our Transatlantic friends to appreciate the extent of Shikarree's success; E. S. M. but as a lover of the field and flood myself, and one who has had an opportunity of enjoying almost every diversion this country affords in the highest perfection, I cannot permit the opportunity to pass without some attempt to convince the readers of the E. S. M. that, whatever may be the heinous offences of our brethren in Bengal, we have a least no such snob as Shikarree on this side of India ; and, in thus seeking to avert an imputation which could not fail to be cast on us by all who shall peruse the letters now, under consideration, I am tempted to believe that I record not only my own sentiments on the subject, but those also of every true sportsman under the Bombay Presidency. As it is not my intention to descend to a particular review of the transactions of each day, in the order in which they are recorded, but simply to offer a few general remarks, I shall not put myself to the inconvenience of re-perusing Shikarree's very tedious epistles, but shall rely principally on my recollection of their contents. And first with regard to the tiger, because I observe it to be his weak point. He cannot seriously have considered "three couple of snipe and a black driver," or a few waterhens, or even "a dozen quail," to be worthy a place in the archives of sporting, or I would solicit his attention to No. 4 of the O. S. M., wherein he will find recorded what is by no means a rare occurrence, 500 brace of quail killed in a few days. I could further inform him that I have myself been of a party of three, when 200 brace of painted partridge were registered in six consecutive days, and 80 brace of quail bagged before breakfast; but a brown partridge, of which he gives so minute and clever a description, was never even fired at. I would not however be understood to imply that the game "flew languidly," or that I made use of a "flint gun," for I abhor the very name of one. Shikarree's geese are not swans, but Brahaminee ducks, rank carrion, worse than the vile Brahaminee kite about which he has written almost a volume. With us, duck and teal are so plentiful during the season, as to be considered game for Portuguese cooks, and are therefore slaughtered without a show of mercy. Besides, who ever dreamt of killing a peafowl, except when Mull was the order of the day? but Shikarree speaks of them with rapturous ecstasy, and I have heard other Qui hi's do the same. He even runs after them slipshod; oh! how delighted I was to find by the sequel that he cut his foot, for he richly deserved it. I never before heard of No. 5 for quail or snipe when smaller shot were to be had; and Shikarree by his own confession always fires the wrong barrel, or else both at once, which is very bad indeed. I am quite confident that a party of clerks, who had "made Sunday of it" at Salsette, would never confess to having shot at a blue pigeon or golden plover, whatever they might have done in reality. With regard to rifle shooting, his affair with the faun was a really a very extraordinary performance, well worthy of record, as it is almost the only instance in which he appears to have been successful. I fancy I see him now in a Manilla hat and hobnail boots crawling on his belly, and then throwing down his flint gun and running as if the devil had kicked him, with Don at his heels. Spotted deer and antelope are generally to be met with in great abundance, and are not therefore often an object of attraction, unless they place themselves in the sportsman's way; but I am confident I speak the language of every lover of the rifle on this side of India, when I assert that he would consider half an hour, much more a whole day, very ill repaid by an antelope or a peafowl, of all things in the world; neither do I clearly understand by what system of reasoning the leash and deer shooting can alone be enjoyed with security. I have often sighed for a trip to Hindoostan, that I might put a little gumption into Qui hi's, in which I were sadly deficient. country holds out no ments than these, I confess I think they are wise to stay at home, and I to follow the example. some of the fancied they But if their more induce And now, Sir, I approach a more important subject than the fowling-piece. I recollect to have heard several Bengal gentlemen assert that they possessed no finer hunting ground than the banks of the Ganges, although I cannot speak to it of my own knowledge. But here we find a party of persons styling themselves sportsmen, and Shikarree at their head, deliberately shooting hog, or attempting to do so, which is every bit as bad, on the noblest hunting ground the Bengal Presidency can boast of!! Gracious Heaven, defend us from so foul a stain! You can't kill a hog with a gun, Sir; he must be ridden, and fairly ridden too. Nimrod in the East has explained very clearly how the trick is to be done, and the Sporting Magazine teems with the records of those who have done it; but the man who will shoot a hog must at once resign his pretensions even to the name of a sportsman. Then we have most of us heard of coursing and hunting a jackal, but I am quite incompetent to appreciate the delight of shooting one. This brings me upon coursing, of which I have had some experience; and here I am reluctantly obliged to confess that Shikarree has given me the go by, since it has now fallen to my lot to meet with a one-eyed bob." In fact, I do not even recollect to have heard in a dream of a fullgrown antelope being killed in a fair course with greyhounds, nor do I believe that such a thing could ever have occurred. Besides, his argument altogether is conflicting. "The antelope," he says, "loses its superiority on soft ground; but the conformation of an antelope's foot is very similar to that of a hog, who will notoriously leather the best and speediest horses over soft ground;" and again, a horse's foot is not แ spongy, like a camel's;" so, in the name of common sense, how did Shikarree contrive to gain any superiority? His spearing a well-grown antelope is really too impossible to be even laughed at. Nimrod in the East will be better able to appreciate Shikarree's valuable hints regarding foxhounds than I can; for, although I have seen many brilliant runs, I never hunted dogs of my own. I certainly never heard of permitting a pointer to retrieve a wounded deer, or bringing a setter to bait civet cats; and, to say the truth, I think these kind of dogs are better away altogether, since their place is sufficiently well supplied by beaters, with the advantage of being more under control. They are a never failing source of disappointment, and no dog can stand more than one day's work in the heat of the sun. I have seen more than one buffalo turned up, and can assure Shikarree that he entertains a very sorry and imperfect idea of the powers of that noble animal, who is exceedingly wild and ferocious, and I have seen a horse gored completely through and through the flank by one at bay; and except when hunted are not very easily approached. The one to which he has alluded may have run like a devil, but had he run like a buffalo, his Cavalry colleague might have said his prayers. Shikarree sports a few desultory remarks on the elephant, but, as he has not pretended to meddle with tiger hunting, I shall waive the subject too; but I do not apprehend his descriptions can be considered any ornament to ornithology, or his stuffed speci mens to a museum. I have now had my say, Sir, and it has been rather a long one, but, as I have been engaged in a good cause, I feel confident I shall neither be considered querulous or prosy, and you, Mr. Editor, must really forgive me if I suggest to you. the propriety of admitting no more of Shikarree's trash to your valuable little miscellany. His letters never ought to have seen the outside of the writing desk, and, as far as Sporting is concerned, can only serve to place it in a ridiculous light. I am, |