9 S Partridge-shooting in Ireland ends. r 8 103 First Sunday aft. Epiphany. s 4 1128 11 M Hilary Term begins. 12 T Wigtown Coursing Meeting. 13 W Altcar Club Coursing Meeting. 14 T Mere Down Coursing Meeting. 15 F 16 S r 8 529 6 44 12 s 4 20 4 8 18 178 Second Sunday aft. Epiphany.r 8 18 M Old Twelfth Day. 19 T St. Albans Steeple Chases. 20 W Baldock Coursing Meeting. 21 T Spelthorne Coursing Meeting. 22 F 23 S 5 627 4 4411 31 4 12 32 59 1 23 8 4 14 N r 8 3 1 s 4 17 2 4 14 4 31 8 4 23 r 7 58 9 22 610 25 711 30 4 48 5 6 5 23 5 39 5 56 6 14 8 4 26 THE OMNIBUS. "There he sat, and, as I thought, expounding the law and the prophets, until on drawing a little nearer, I found he was only expatiating on the merits of a browp horse." BRACEBRIDGE HALL. WAY BILL: -Mems of The Month-Mr. Studd-Deaths of Colsterdale and Orlando-Sales-Statistics of the Turf-Billiards-Hunting-Rowing-Meet. ings of the Month-A Review of Greyhound Cracks. Wtleman to another Intely, as they faced each other in an omnibus, have nothing but blossoms, sir, in Devonshire," said one gen and the latter, whose nose is exuberant all the year round with grog blossoms, felt its warm tip, and said, with a half-sigh, "that it was most remarkable." And so it is. Weather-profits and wild-geese, and the Illustrated News have alike proved sorry augurs. The only tip which has come off correct, has been the one which settled the election majority at from 100 to 120. Of the elections it may be observed, that almost invariably the party which led at 10 o'clock won the day, and that when the tide of war suddenly changed, after one, and the waiting horse came up and won, there has been an election petition. In one of these it will, it is said, be proved that a too excitable horse-dealer bet some hundreds of "the free and independent" a sovereign each that the candidate he wished to get in would'nt. They " tumbled to it" at once, brought him in, and won their sovereign. Perhaps the most facetious mob business was in Southwark. The opposite party were the majority in the room, and the respected vicar, instead of delivering a jeremiad on the fall of the Irish church, found himself virtually in the chair at an harmonic meeting of The Lively Codgers. A big drum was brought in, and several extempore parodies and national airs were sung, ending with " We'll hang Howard Morgan on a sour-apple tree." But all these Saturnalia are ended, and the Chancellor of the Exchequer (who is said, at Oxford, to have lost his first class in mathematics by rubbing out his calculations with his nose, owing to shortsightedness), has retired to digest his turkey and his figures, for the latter of which the people will feel no great appetite, when they do come. After the grievous crackers which have been invented about him for many week's back, and which have all returned void to their inventors, the Premier looks as fit as man can do, and ready for any amount of strong work. Earl Cork, of course, takes the Buck Hounds, and they talk of a testimonial to Earl Colville-a very bad precedent, to say the least of it. Of the dog shows we are absolutely weary, and we never went near the Birmingham. The same names appear so often in the judge's lists, and correspondents do quarrel so fearfully in The Field, that one heartily wishes that they were done with. There will be a Hound Show at Manchester, in connection with the Royal Show, and such heavy and light-weight hunters as their owners may chose to enter will have six £10 Cups to try for, over hurdles and water, in a paddock near the building. The giant is beginning to crack nuts at last. At Beverley there will, most probably, be a hound show, and the inhabitants will, we hear, give £50 if it is held inside the yard, free of extra charge. The Holderness as usual has been showing about the finest sport of any, and even Mr. Hall thinks he never rode in a faster thing than one they had this month over the wolds from Londesboro' Wood. The owners of blank covers, or at least two of them, have, it is s.id, promised amendment in earnest. The ladies may well take it up, for what is to become of hunt-balls and lawn-meets, all over the country, if they are to countenance and dance with men whose hands are indirectly bedewed with fox blood? A pamphlet used to be published annually, called a "Thunderbolt for Rome," and certainly Mr. Clark's certificate of the new Epsom Course may be called "A Startler for Studd." We hope that the committee may stand their ground firmly, even if the Derby has to be declared off, and that they will give a £2,000 Plate in its place round the new course. The demand that they should sign a lease for 21 years, at £2,500 for the first year, and £1,000 for each of the others, is an outrageous demand, which every turfite should help them to resist, and it does not make it any better that Mr. Studd should offer to give half of it in the first year to a stake. Mr. Brisco, the present Lord of the manor, is we hear, opposed to such a step, and all the precedents to which it would give rise. If he were to die, they know nothing about the terms they might make with his successor. They might not have the Downs at all, and yet be hampered with a £1,000 a-year rent till 1888. They have made a very handsome offer to take Mr. Studd's part of the course for £750 a-year, for five years certain; the 99 years lease to be determinable after that at a year's notice. The great majority of owners would hail the avoidance of the Derby, and who is to bring the actions? The betting men cannot, and it has been held already at Nisi Prius that the chance of cattle or horses winning prizes at a show is too remote a consideration to support an action. Why should it be held differently in the case of a race? Mr. Studd's portion of the course is very small, and why need they pander to such rapacious demands for the sake of a course which they don't want? Mr. Studd has every reason to be satisfied. He got his new estate entirely out of his Salamander winnings, and "unwilling Latimer," as he may be, he has rewarded the British public for the money he got out of them by being the indirect author of a better Derby course; so, at least, Mr. Clark thinks. His mind should, therefore, be at peace without thirsting for fresh gains; and the grand-stand proprietors must make up their mind to be quite a Brother Bountiful with added money. As it is, they give £4,000 a-year. The doubt which hangs over the Derby of these two next years should be promptly set at rest, and it certainly seems the duty of the Jockey Club to inove in the matter with the new year. The Jem Mace, Patent, and Calabaroono strains are all running well this year. Poor Lobelia has been beaten again. Bab at the Bowster, a grand daughter of Canaradzo's and one of the truest and gamest bitches that we have seen in the slips since the days of Riot, has had two tremendous towellings this month at Brigg, where she made short work of Trovatore. One of them was in a bye, where the bitch had all the work to do herself, and then she was no match at all for the hare. The other was in the last ties but one with Green Sleeve, and here she had another regular" Shap becker" to deal with. Good as she may be, "puss" again polished her off on the grass, and then took a straight gallop of a mile down the railway; poor Bab, game to the last, following as she could, hop, step, and jump, over the ballast. We never knew a great favourite so cut up two months before the Waterloo, but we quite trust she will come again. It would have been strange if such a bitch, for whom 500 gs. bas, we are told, been refused, had met her death on the railway. That great destroyer lays its iron hand on everything living, from a bull to a badger, as a sow" of the latter genus fell before it early one morning, in the West Midlands, last month, and had its requiem duly sung in the local papers. Masters of hounds always recommend engineers to put on steam instead of slackening when they see hounds coming, as it tends to make the train look like a solid mass, whereas when it goes slowly, high-couraged hounds are tempted to dash at the openings between the wheels. Among stud news we hear that a St. Leger winner has occupied his hours of idleness by kneeling on his attendant in his yard, and then and there biting off three of his fingers. Colsterdale has just lived long enough to see his son Lecturer installed at Men'more, where they seem to have rather tired of King Tom. Their racing changes ought to go deeper than that. None of the "Ellerdale's dam" family were fast, but Colsterdale was quite the slowest of the lot, with all the wind of the Lanercosts. Shafto was a son in his own mould, and was, we believe, about the first foal he ever got. Both had the same straight hind legs, but the son was a much faster horse than the sire. He beat Lifeboat (the winner of the Great Metropolitan that year) casily for the Queen's Plate at Lincoln. There is no doubt that the last son of Sir Hercules was stale from the dead heat and head defeat of The Speaker the day before, as he beat Shafto by a neck over a mile at Northampton the next month, when Zuyder Zee, King-at-Arms, Indifference, Tournament, and Fisherman were in the ruck, and next day easily over two miles, when Fisherman split the pair. It was on the strength of Colsterdale's Queen's Plate that Captain Skipworth and Frank Iles, and other Lincolnshire breeders rallied round Mr. Ashton, when he bought the horse, and there his chances began. Sir Tatton was much more partial to him than Snarry, who was jealous for Daniel's sake, and though he did not live to read of Lecturer's success, the old baronet never seemed to think £1,300 too dear for him. Ilis crest never filled up as a stallion's should, and, in fact, he always retained much of his old running form. He had no time to get fat, as his skin was so silky and fine that the smallest insect played gadfly with him. Tyke and Professor Anderson won very fairly on his behalf, and at least every third of his stock which started won some. thing. John Osborne fancied him, though he had no immortal drops of Priam in his veins, and admitted him to a share of his stud favours with The Cure, Lambton, Weatherbit, and Wild Dayrell. The Sheffield-lane Paddocks also gave him a fair allowance of mares, but his way of walking on his hind legs up to his mares, and not allowing any one to touch him, kept his groom in mortal dread that he would be over backwards, with a broken spine. Then "his halloos and screams" at the time were so hideous, that the young mares could hardly be held. At Sledmere he would turn round hour after hour, in the paddock, to catch his tail. Poor old Orlando will never again turn round his mild filmy eyes and beautiful quality crest to look at his visitors, on the Royal sale Saturday. Nearly all his stock had a tendency to inherit Vulture's speed rather than Touchstone's stamina. No one knew whether he was a great horse. What with squaring and wrong ages, his Derby was a heads and tails affair and told very little. Nat liked riding him, and said he was never on a horse, whose action was more true. Owners have weeded their stables more rigorously than usual this winter, and the "private contract" sale lists are very full. Mr. Beadman's stud was brought to the hammer on the 7th of December, and all were disposed of with the exception of the Stockwell-Touch-and-Go colt, who was very rough in his coat and looked amiss. The fifteen yearlings, which were warranted untried, averaged 155 guineas, which is not a bad price, considering that nine of them had no engagements. The best looking were undoubtedly the Oxford-Sulphur filly (400gs.) and Braemar, by Blair Athol out of Fleetwing's dani (650gs.). The former, which is a small but very handsome and speedy-looking filly, has unfortunately no engagements; but the latter, which is already as big as most three-year-olds, is in seven stakes, including the Woodcote, Middle Park, Derby, and Leger. The two Newminsters-The Witch out of The Deformed, and Maiden's Blush, half-sister to Sycee -fetched 350gs. and 300gs. respectively; but having been amiss, they were very dull in their coats, and did not show to advantage. Among the older horses, Ironmaster (350gs.) brought his full value, as he is only moderate, and has been fully exposed; while 850gs. seems a long price for the flashy nonstayer Orion. By the time Mr. Beadman's horses had been sold, nearly 3,000 people had collected in the yard in the hope of seeing Lady Elizabeth. "The Queen of Danebury" was put in at 300gs, and after some very mild bidding, the hammer fell to John Day's nod of just double that sum. The mare looked wonderfully well, and as she showed some return to form at the end of the season, is quite likely to win a good race next year if put into training. It is believed, however, that she is to go at once to the stud. Tho competition for The Duke was far more exciting. Starting at 1,000gs., he soon ran up to 1,600gs.; then 2,000gs. was bid; and finally the Messrs. Graham secured him for the Yardley Paddocks at 2,200gs., and have at once raised his fee to 40gs: Oxford and Knight of the Crescent keep him company at 30gs. and 20gs. respectively. Eight of Mr. Johnstone's horses were put up on the following Monday; but only two were sold, of which the Lady Melbourne filly, who has shown very fair form this season, was bought by Dover for 750gs. Drafts from Mr. Darley's, the Fyfield, and Mr. Thomas Dawson's, stables were also sold, of which old Skylark fetched 135gs.; Boanerges, who has so often been vainly expected to do a "good thing," 110gs.; and King of the Fairies 245gs. The private sale list comprises Lord Stamford's stud; Ladas, now at 25 to 1 for the Derby, and an unbeaten colt; The Earl, the "yearlings," Ackworth and Redcap, "likely to make good steeplechasers;" the cripples, Student and Marksman: Christmas Carol, that worst of all bad Derby seconds; Attaché, The Clown, Pantaloon, War, and several others. Mercury has been sold to the Austrian Government for 1,500gs. The Brewer was shot about five weeks ago in his 16th year. He won the Liverpool Autumn Cup some nine years back, and ran a dead heat with Prioress for second place in the Caesarewitch won by Rocket. |