Peep-o'-day Boy, and Roland have perhaps even now a more improving appearance than when we left them last month. On the other hand, despite the respect with which she is always mentioned, Lady Evelyn does not command the support which might have been expected; we fancy, however, she will be a much better favourite before the race is over, with, should she come well to the post, some very fine hedging for those who can be tempted to get on now. Of the others we may add, that John Scott threatens his opponents this year in a very qualified tone with the Knout and Chantrey; while all Ireland roars as mild as sucking doves with the grey Whin Colt, we once wrote as first pick.

Turning from this table of weights and measures we come at last to a little excitement on the Derby, occasioned by a "certain race-horse, as in parliamentary lingo they refer to him, getting into Chancery. The family have certainly made a very pretty quarrel of it, and contrived to send "the certain horse," which we may perhaps be pardoned for naming as Bolingbroke, back a good many points. On his "rights" we have no doubt the white-legged one would still be first favourite, for he is reported as never in better form, and, by the stable authority, will never leave it till he has won the Derby. In contradiction to this, we have the Goodwood party in immense force with two horses, the Nigger now getting close up to the other, though, so far, without either suffering from the rivalry; it does not exactly appear yet which is to give way. In other respects our list is a short one, with business to match it.

Since writing the above Bolingbroke has come again with a rush, and may fairly be reported as again at the head of the poll, the Chancery business promising not to " run on.

EMBELLISHMENTS.

"HOW THE RACE WAS WON."

ENGRAVED BY J. B. HUNT, FROM A PAINTING BY E. CORBET.

AND

66 WONT YOU COME OUT TO-NIGHT?"

ENGRAVED BY J. WESTLEY, FROM A PAINTING BY G. ARMFIELd.

245

251

259

THE EARLY SPRING MEETINGS.-BY CRAVEN

THE TURF.-BY THE EDITOR

COUNTRY PRACTICE-THE BEAUFORT HOUNDS.-BY GELERT

NOTES OF THE CHASE.-BY CECIL

PASSAGES IN THE LIFE OF TILBURY NOGO, ESQ.; OR THE UN-

SUCCESSFUL MAN.-BY FOXGLOVE

SPORTING INCIDENTS AT HOME AND ABROAD (FROM THE MS.

Life of the HON. PERCY HAMILTON).-COMMUNICATED

TO AND EDITED BY LORD WILLIAM LENNOX

GIBRALTAR SIXTY YEARS AGO.-EDITED FROM THE ORIGINAL

MS. BY W. H. MAXWELL, ESQ.

CAPTAIN PIGSKIN'S VISIT TO THE BATH AND BRISTOL steeple

CHASES; TOGETHER WITH SOME DETAILS OF THE NEIGH-

BOURING SPORTING QUARTERS.—BY LINTON

266

274

284

HOW THE RACE WAS WON."-WITH AN ILLUSTRATION

EDWARD CORBET, AND AN ELUCIDATION BY

CORBET

"WONT YOU COME OUT TO-NIGHT?"-BY OXONIAN

STALLIONS FOR THE SEASON

6 S Old Lady Day. Hoo RACES

7

Low Sunday

8 M Fire Insurance due

r 5 2425 3 32 10 10 10 45

1 M Easter Monday

2 T KENILWORTH and other ST. CH. s 6 3220

s

S 6 39 24

2

58 8 45 9 25

s 6 4226

111 25 Midnight.

12 F

0 50 1 10 1 30 1 45 202 20

18 0

2 40 2 55

11T

r 5 2027 4 28 No tide 0 25

9 T CROXON PARK RACES 10 W Oxford & Cambridge Term beginss 6 45 28 4 53 EPSOM SPRING MEETING 5 1529 5 16 RACES and STEEPLE CHASESS 6 49 N SETS r 5 11 14S Second Sunday after Casters 6 52 15 M Easter Term b. NEWMKT. CRAVN. 5 7 16 T NEWMARKET HANDICAP D. [M.s 6 55 17 W

Morning.

4 25 4 45 r5 25 55530 s 6 59 60 40 5 50 6 15 r4 58 71 34 6 45 7 15 s 7 2 8 2 20 7 50 8 30 r4 54 9 2 55 9 15 9 55 s 7 510 3 2710 4011 20 r4 5011 3 55 11 50 No tide s 7 812 4 21 0 20 0 45

18 T Banbury Fair

19 F

21 Third Sunday after Easter 22 M Bedford Fair

23 T BATH RACES

25 T St. Mark. Loughborough Fairr 4 46 13 26 F

24 W Hungerford Fair

27 S Broughton-in-Furness Fair

28 Fourth Sunday after Easters 7 15 16
29 M NEWMKT. FIRST SPRING MEET.r 4 38 17 10 31
30 T THE 2,000 GS. STAKES DAY s 7 1818 11 26

THE EARLY SPRING MEETINGS.

BY CRAVEN,

"I am resolved to double till I win."

DRYDEN.

Nothing sublunary is stationary-all is moving onward or backward, or turning to the right hand or to the left-action is the canon of nature. Shakspere's "seven ages" tell the tale of man's movement from its first pulsation to its last. Horace's "Reddere qui voces," points out the course he is most prone to take; and the poet from whom I have borrowed my thesis, asserts that

"The French and we still change; but here's the curse-
They change for better, and we change for worse;"

which helps us to the pith of the proposition. We have changed places: the moral of the couplet is reversed. While the weather was dirty, and the bark craved wary steering, John Bull kept the lead going; and now with a fair way, and a fair hope before him, he is bound upon a prosperous voyage. How fares it with La Grande Nation? Behold she

"Thinks of shallows and of flats

Aud sees her (merry) Andrew docked in sand;
Veiling her high tops lower than her ribs,
To kiss her burial."

While all in life thus keeps moving shall we be surprised that racing has
not stood still, While progress-forward or backward (Hibernicè)-is
the rule, is it expected that the turf should be the exception? We will
anticipate the answer, and proceed to treat that revolution in its economy
which is now in process, as a consequence of the nature of things-
irrevocable, inevitable. It is now some dozen years ago that steeple
chasing first assumed the character of an English national sport. Like
all else beneath the sun it had its vicissitudes, or, to use a phrase more
apropos,
its " ups and downs." Many whose opinions were entitled to
respect denounced the novelty as an unsporting barbarity; certainly if it
has its pour, it has its contre also. Because I say this, let no man
imagine me a convert to the new philosophy of cant-

"The quality of mercy is not strained;"

and where sentiment bathes the perfumed cambric with tears shed for the horrors of a stag hunt, let it be had in memory that man is not the only animal having a natural bias for the pursuit and consumption of venison. Surely the deer tracked to its doom, and torn and devoured by the wolf of the desert, "feels a pang as great" as the hind pulled