morable hunts in Warwickshire, and for his two packs, one of Gentlemen and the other of Ladies, of which, soit dit en passant, as the grey mare is often the better horse, the female pack always afforded more sport than the male one. Mr. Stubbs, who was a friend of the other sporting Squire, kept a small pack of fast beagles, and was not less fond of the sports of the field than his friend who had two packs. It so happened that the jolly old gentleman had a fox brought to him on a Saturday, which he placed.in a tub, promising himself great sport on the Monday following. Mr. and Mrs. Corbet were constant attendants at church, the latter being a very strict Protestant, and a lady of most regular and exemplary habits. Not so friend Stubbs, whose time was differently employed, and who was only booked for an outsideplace at the House of Prayer. Full of his sporting anticipations for Monday, he could not refrain from taking a sly look at reynard during the time of Service; and he accordingly paid a visit to the tub in order to see how the animal looked; when, to his great disappointment, he found that the fox was more cunning than those who had confined him, and that he had actually bolted. The old sportsman was furious at this, but he swore that he would not be done in this way. His horse was at hand, saddled and bridled, and the thought came into his head that he was still in time to have a bit of sport. He accordingly went to the kennel, let out his famous beagles, laid them on the scent, run through the churchyard, the scent being breast high, and the clattering of his horse's

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hoofs, together with the cry of the pack, alarming and astonishing both the Clergyman and congregation. It is said that the Clergyman was so astounded, that when he was about to pronounce "the righteous man shall flourish like a green bay tree," he mistook and said a green bay horse: that "amen" stuck in the clerk's mouth at an after-part of the service: and that the sexton did actually run after the pack. The church belles were all put in confusion, and Mr. Corbet scarcely able to restrain himself from following the pack and joining in the chase. Meanwhile old Stubbs, after a capital run of three quarters of an hour, killed the fox, and, in returning, met his brother sportsman, to whom he communicated the event. Mr. C. enjoyed the joke; but Mrs. C. was so shocked at this Sabbathbreaking, that a considerable time elapsed before he (Mr. Stubbs) was restored to favour, or permitted to partake of the hospitality of her house. -Thus ended the tale of a tub, which gave place to the next tale which occupied the neighbourhood.

HUNTING ANECDOTE.

I was one day hunting near Haddington, when the late Sir James Baird (an excellent horseman and keen sportsman) espied a bailiff of most unsportsmanlike appearance amongst the field. "We will have some fun with this fellow," said he; and, galloping up to him, he accosted him with, "Ha! Mr.-, I thought that you were a hunter of men, and not of foxes; pray what sport have you had to-day?"-" Very good, Sir James," replied John Doe (a truly hunting cognomen). "I had infor

mation of the animal's being at large, so I started with one of my concurrents-(his followers-the devil run a hunting with them!) and pursued him; we then, with the assistance of a number of gentlemen, wiled him into a corner and apprehended him, and the caption seemed to give general satisfaction." The whole field burst into a roar at the bailiff's account, and he was literally laughed down. It is not usual for the followers of the law to be followers of the chase, although John Doe and Richard Roe are names likely to take the field: the true sportsman, however, is the true son of Liberty, and, in the words of the immortal Scots Bard,

" He wanders as free as the winds on his mountain, Save love's willing fetters, the chains of his Jane."

HAWKING.

THIS noble old sport is almost become obsolete amongst us. My reminiscences of it are almost entirely confined to the Northern States of the Continent, and to the olden time; but, at that period, I found something very grand in it. I was once gratified by a very good day's hawking with Colonel Thornton, of sporting memory; and my last view of this scene was near Diddlington Hall, where a friend of mine brought me. I then and there saw Colonel Wilson, the Father of the Turf, the worthy Nestor of sportsmen, and who does things on a very fine scale in the line of falconry, thus keeping up a part of Old English field-sports of the very first class. Everything with him is in the highest style and perfection. He has a superb heronry, and every season a fal

coner from Flanders, together with other followers from the Netherlands, brings over some of the finest that the world can produce, and at very great expense. These birds fly at the noble heron in a very superior style to common hawking. The grand falconer, mounted on a thoroughbred horse, attends with two falcons hood-winked on his arm; and as soon as the heron returns from the marshes the sport commences. On the occasion which I have mentioned, I witnessed a most tremendous flight, the altitude of which was beyond all calculation, the heron and hawks being often and for some time completely out of sight, lost in the clouds, to which they soared in a most majestic style, and with a celerity quite unequalled. There was only one horseman in with the falconer when the heron was taken within half a mile of Swaffham, a distance, I believe, of about five miles from the Hall of the hospitable Colonel, and we were all riding at the very top of our speed all the while. The scene reminded me of Sir Walter Scott's descriptive lines on this Kingly sport, and of the days of yore, when Ladies bright and Barons bold, adventurous and amorous Knights, and Amazonian fair ones graced the field and took part in its pleasures.

I am well aware that staghunting and fox-hunting are, in many particulars, preferable to this sport; but I like to see the olden pageantry of the field kept up-our bowmen, our falconers, and the like. They are both national and chivalrous, and suit my old-fashioned ideas. As falconers I should prefer foreigners, inhabitants of the North; but in

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no other department of Sporting. I shall never forget a German being very nearly torn to pieces by a pack of fox-hounds from his speaking bad English. My friend, who had a hunting establishment in France, dismissed his feeder, an English lad, and took a German. The names of the dogs were called over, and the different dogs were pointed out to him. The animals ceived him with an evil eyethey seemed as if they regretted their old friend and feeder. Next day the German went into the kennel at feeding time to perform his office: snarling and growling was heard on every hand. He was now about to call out Rattler, Sweetlips, Minikin, and others of the pack; and he commenced with a base, low-toned, foreign accent, Rat-lore, Minor-skin, Sweet-leaps;" when the pack flew on him, and would have despatched him but from the prompt assistance of my friend and his whipper-in.

In conclusion of my subject, if hawking is not easily come-atable, nor so useful, pleasant, and convenient as the other pursuits of the sportsman, it awakens recollections and procures air and exercise, so necessary to health, that the famous Doctor Abernethy once said to a consumptive patient of his, "I can do nothing more for you, Sir; but air and exercise may, diet and locomotion-make a donkey your Apothecary, and a horse your Doctor. In other words, take ass's milk and horse-exercise." And his patient recovered.

ANECDOTE OF GEORGE IV.

ONE evening, when the then Prince of Wales was enjoying his

festive circle at Carlton House, of which he was truly the star, the conversation ran on hard drinking, at which His Royal Highness could then well play his part: each gave his own account of himself; and, lastly, the Hon. Mr. D., who stated himself to be able to carry off daily (and be sober) his four bottles of Port. The Prince, smiling, observed, "Well, I can't swallow that!"

QUALITIES OF THE DOG.

THE dog is not only the friend of man, but the defender of the oppressed. In the wise order of the creation, this animal seems always to have been designed to be the friend and companion of man, his fellow-traveller, the follower of his fortunes (and he never deserts him as our fellow man does), his watch, and the minister to his wants and pleasures, inasmuch as he is essential to the hunter in procuring at once his food and his amusement, and, if allowed to plunder, is no bad caterer in time of necessity. So many proofs exist to bear us out in this statement-so many examples of high courage and unshaken fidelity-that it would be superfluous to enlarge upon this subject. We are now about to give a farther proof of the high qualities of the dog, by shewing him the avenger of wrong and the defender of the oppressed, and that not towards man, his lord and master, his patron and benefactor-him whom he loves and fears, and on whom he depends-but towards one of the brute creation, not of his own species, but of one with which no common animal sympathies could subsist, and which is gene

rally deemed wholly at variance with the canine race; in a word, the Cat.-Not to trespass further on our sporting brothers' time, nor to wear out the indulgence of our reader, we shall simply detail a scene that took place at Liverpool some years back, the proofs of which still exist, together with the living animals which furnish the following story.

An ill-fated cat fell into the hands of some juvenile ruffians, commencing the first stage of cruelty, which often leads to great crimes and to an ignominious end: the little wretches had passed from cruelty to cruelty, alternately stoning their victim and dragging it through a dirty pool of water, then beating and bruising it, and menacing it with drowning. Bipeds passed by, unheeding the agonised animal's cries of distress, which were now nearly coming to a close with its life, when a feeling quadruped came forward to save it. The dog, having contemplated for some time this scene of inhumanity, and barked his

disapprobation thereof, rushed forward upon the young assassins, and, driving them one by one furiously off the spot, sprang to the rescue of the fainting and bleeding animal, and withdrawing it from the deep ditch, bore it off in triumph to his quarters. There, extending it upon straw, and licking it all over, he recalled the vital spark, and then, laying himself down upon it, restored it to some degree of ease from the warmth imparted to it. After this, the kind and feeling dog fetched provision to his sick charge, and the people of the house, inspired by the example of the minor animal, gave it warm milk. Day after day did the dog tend the sick object of his care until it was perfectly recovered, and they are both to be seen at this day, after a long lapse of years, at the Talbot Inn, Liverpool. - These lessons from the brute creation to him who proudly calls himself the effigy of the Divinity, are humiliating, but may be useful to the many who need them.

THE HERMIT IN LONDON.

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