and once more faced the open country. Thrice had he been viewed, going at ease, and pausing every now and then, to cast a "longing, lingering look behind. "He's a wopper," said Alick the huntsman. And even bespattered as he was, he seemed a great size. The grass-fed horses have succumbed; a field of twenty-two have dwindled down to seven, and soon "another, and another still succeed," until Clarendon, Churbett, and Alick are the only three who can keep within view. Clarendon's weight begins to tell; he feels the little bay shortening his stride and rolling in his gallop. Once more the gallant little pack have crossed the creek with Music in the lead, and every hound within a whip's length, except old Cardinal, who is always going to be shot, as soon as he has rewarded Music for taking his place; he is useful, too, sometimes in bringing up any one who may have fallen behind, in event of a check taking place. Alick is the first to charge the creek, and giving Tommy (a Viscount horse, and a rare good one,) a refresher with the spur, and a shake together, he crams him at it, and gets over after a fashion; true, the bank gives way from his hind legs on landing, but Alick is off in a moment, and a cut or two with the whip soon persuades him to struggle out. Next comes Clarendon, who does all that coolness and good judgment can do, but it's not to be done, Bolivar has shot his bolt, and a grunt is the only answer to the heeling admonition; the little horse is baked, and stands with stiffened neck and quivering tail, whilst Churbett passes him and crams the weed at this Australian rubicon. No go. Turns him round and faces him at it again. “Lend me your whip, Clarendon; you won't need it now." The whip was handed to him, and giving the horse a cut on each shoulder as he neared the jump, to keep his head straight, and a sharp one behind the girth as a wakener, blood with a light weight tells, and Fred is landed safe on the other side. Two miles more settles the affair, and master dingo is run into, after a burst of an hour and twenty minutes without a check. He was, as Alick had declared, a wopper; larger and heavier than the generality of setters, with a mouth full of teeth that would have done credit to a hyena, and a tail that swept the ground; the latter can be seen at Messrs. Caries' and Podger's, where it has been preserved as a memento of this glorious run. Of the distance, accounts vary from eighteen to twenty-five miles; the former, I should fancy, was nearest the mark, or twenty miles about the maximum. Be this as it may, it was a noble run; and had there been a few miles more, both horses and hounds must have cried Peccavi! Another pleasant and social evening was passed at the master's, whose party was joined by many from Carie's and Churbett's, who although they did not nominally remain all night, yet as they only left at five o'clock in the morning 'twas mighty near the same thing; and thus ended the hunting season of the Mount Watton Hounds. Mount Gowie, Port Fairy. STOCK WHIP. and then dragging onward again for a mile or two, and after espying smoke, and feeling my heart bob with anticipation, and then the pleasant smell of cooked meats, I arrived, Heaven be praised, (for I almost feel my bones aching at the present moment with the thoughts of it,) at one of the most delightful little inns where man, half dead with fatigue and hunger, ever enjoyed a hard-earned meal, and a delicious, oh! a most de-li-ci-ous, deep, sonorous, warm sleep. What I did that night I am sure I can't remember; but I can well and do believe never shall forget the warm all-overish sensation, when, sleepy with digestion, I tumbled into a downy bed, and fell presently into one of the soundest sleeps that by dreams is never visited. I remember I awoke next morning to a ray of sunshine and a freshy smell, and with a sensation of such intense satisfaction and complacency of heart that my first desire was to laugh at the first reasonable excuse; the second, an insane wish to jump out of my skin; and the third, more reasonable, one of jumping out of bed and throwing open the window, into which streamed a golden flood of sunshine, and such a freshy air that I positively sucked it in as Falstaff would his morning draught of sack. I had hit upon good quarters indeed; beneath my bed-room window, washing the very walls, ran my desideratum, a river that would charm the most inanimate specimen of humanity. A glance told me here are trout, here are salmon, here are grayling; the trout are waiting to be caught, the salmon to be cooked, and the grayling to keep them company. The river sparkled gaily in the sun, and the morning air was such as morning air at such a spot can only be, so pure, so fresh, and so appetizing. I was delighted at my good fortune, and soon set to work. That morning I ate trout for breakfast, but such trout as those only who eat them with the seasoning that I did, the air and exercise, can duly relish : their creamy taste is on my palate as I write. There was a kind of balcony running under my window along the back of the house, and flowers had been trained about it, so that my apartments were a kind of angling paradise. I had not remained there long when I was joined by a friend to whom I had written, and we passed some excellent days. Being rival anglers we often had a trial of skill. It occurred once that we made a wager who should catch the most fish between four and eight o'clock on a certain morning. My friend, Mr. George, was rather a frolicsome fellow, and I had carefully hid my rod and tackle from his hands; but I certainly never anticipated the trick he had in view, nor he, I dare say, the success it was to meet with. When the morning came, on which this encounter was to be, I arose betimes, and, having dressed myself, went to the door to sally forth, when what was my surprise to find it locked! Kicking and hammering having failed, much vexed, though determined not to be outdone, a thought struck me. I have said a kind of balcony ran under my window; just above the house was a ford, and within a cast was a perfect nest for salmon and trout. I jumped out on the balcony -fortune favoured the truly valiant-a capital breeze came from behind, and with a little extra skill I cast my fly on the most tempting spots, and in two hours I had taken four trout and two grayling, the largest of which weighed little less than six pounds, and which I managed to draw up to my window in my night-cap tied to the end of a broomstick, luckily in the room. When my friend returned, and with the greatest naïveté enquired if I was well, and why I was not out, I was quite prepared for the meeting, and I warrant lost no flesh with laughing at his expense. And as tales never lose by telling, I have often heard of a certain angler who caught six salmon from his bed-room window, and landed them in his night-cap. April, 1850. S. S. HUNTING IN AUSTRALIA FELIX. THE LAST DAY OF THE SEASON WITH THE MOUNT WALTON HOUNDS. "Cœlum non animum mutant qui trans mare currunt." "Well, Peter, how does The Reprobate look to-day-fit to go to Mustins Creek?" said Bob Leslie to a strange little anatomy, halfjockey half-pickpocket, who entered his hut on a fine June morning, bearing a pair of flannel cord breeches, top boots, and spurs in one hand, and a jug of new milk, with a dash of rum, sugar, egg, and nutmeg in it, in the other. "My word," said Peter, who coming, or rather having been sent, from loved Erin, dealt hugely in expletives, "he's more like a lion than a horse this blessed moment; I thought he'd a eat me this morning when I gave him his corn, and sorra a still he would stand while I washed his legs with the bullock's blood that I saved yesterday a purpose, when they killed the cow." "Bullock's blood! what the deuce do you mean by smearing the horse's legs over with that filthy stuff?" "Oh! habocklish," said Peter, stop till you see him; there's not a purtier thing for laying the hair than that same; and since I've pulled the feathers from his heels, smeared his legs-as your honor 's pleased to call it and given him an hour's hand rubbing, he's as like winning a King's Plate as e'er a horse iver I seen in the Howth stable, and my father was -but here Mr. Leslie interposed, not wishing his friend Kennedy to be bored by an account of the life, parentage, and education of Peter's father, who had been, if Peter might be believed, a whipperin to Lord Lowth, and had been killed in taking "a wild divil of a coult" over Ballinasloe pound. "Well, Peter, we must have breakfast, as Mr. Kennedy and I are going over to Dunless, and in the cool of the afternoon you must lead The Reprobate over to the kennel; give Mr. Dark this note, and you'll get a stall for the horse: be sure you strap him down well and bandage his legs; and if you behave decently, and don't go poking down about the public house at Garnkirk, I'll lend you Bushman to see the first burst." "Oh! master, you know I've swurn 66 There, that will do," said Mr. Leslie; "tell the old woman to get breakfast, and to bring half-a-dozen raw eggs, some butter, and a saucepan. Now, Kennedy, you'll see what a holy omelette I'll turn you out; SPORTING INCIDENTS AT HOME AND ABROAD. (From the MS. Life of the Hon. Percy Hamilton.) COMMUNICATED TO AND EDITED BY LORD WILLIAM LENNOX. CHAPTER XXVII. "Now all the youth of England are on fire, HENRY V. "Now, lords, for France, the enterprise whereof SHAKSPERE. In and on the "Ocean"-Brussels, Enghien-Battles of Quatre Bras and Waterloo -Capture of " Peronne la Pucelle"-March to Paris-A night adventure. The "Ocean transport was as moderate a specimen of naval architecture as any vessel that has ploughed its namesake since the days of the great ship Harry grace de Dieu; she was something between the Thames floating-bath and a clumsy Dutch galliot; and being heavily laden, she pitched, lurched, and laboured, like some huge unwieldly monster, scarcely making any way, although we carried a heavy press of canvas under double-reefed topsails and courses, which made the old ship quaver; she only looked at the head sea, and instead of "Walking the waters like a thing of life," she rose humbly to the coming wave, as if she had no wish to dare the elements to strife. The song says but for the life of me I could not discover any sweetness in the venerable "Ocean;" this was the general feeling of all on board, who soon began to experience the discomfort of their situation. If there is one thing in the world more dreadful than another, it is a crowded transport; and the misery is increased a hundredfold when quadrupeds are mingled together with bipeds. The horses were all in the hold, strapped tightly up, to prevent their lying down; the men were huddled together upon the spar deck and booms; the women and children gathered together on the forecastle; but here we must drop a veil over the scene, leaving it to the imagination of our readers to fill up all the horrors of this floating hospital, this wooden-walled infirmary: human beings prostrate under that most distressing of all maladies-sea sickness; horses suffering torment from their cramped and "cribbed " position; the noise of the poor dumb brutes agonized the feelings, and was enough to stun the strongest aural faculties; while the unsavoury odours proceeding from bilge water, litter, fresh paint and tar, were anything but agreeable to the olfactory organs. Happily, towards night the wind chopped round to the westward, and after a passage of two-and-twenty hours we made Ostend. No sooner had we landed than I fell in with a staff-officer, whom I had known in the south of France, and who was about to join the Duke of Wellington at head quarters. We agreed to post the journey together; and after seeing my horses and baggage safely landed, I took leave of my brother officers, and started with Major P——, in a hired caleche, for Brussels, which, owing to the delays at the post houses, we did not reach until the following day at one o'clock. It was a lovely morning in May, and as we drove up to the Hotel Belle-vue, in the Place Royale, the scene that presented itself was one of the most animated gaiety. There might be seen officers and soldiers of the allied army-English, Hanoverians, Belgian, and Dutch: here the beauteous Flora was placing in the button-hole of some young dragoon a small bouquet of the most choicely assorted flowers; there a Belgian grisette was listening to the high-flown compliments of some smart Hanoverian hussar, who, curling his moustache, swore eternal constancy; there a vender of orgeat and lemonade was dispensing his grateful beverage to some black Brunswickers, just off an escort duty; there a sergeant of the Guards, with his wife decked in her homely English attire, attracted the attention of the passers by, as they inveighed against the taste of our islanders; here a stalwart corporal of the 42nd Highlanders, "kilted to the knee," caused the lookers-on to shrug up their shoulders at the barbarity of the costume; there a Bavarian broom-girl was screeching forth, at the top of her cracked voice, some native ditty, to the delight of a party of the waggon train--while a Dutch youth, with his squeaking hurdy-gurdy and white mice, was called "a broth of a boy" by some Fermanagh man, serving in the 27th, or Inniskilling, regiment of the line. Occasionally a mounted orderly rode through the crowd, the bearer of a dispatch to the Commander-in-chief, or a staff-officer passed in haste upon some military mission; while the whole scene was enlivened by the sound of "the shrill trump, the spirit-stirring drum, the ear-piercing fife," the warlike bag-pipe, or "the bugle's wild call" of the numerous troops then quartered in the town. "We had better leave the carriage here," said Major Pwalk to Fitzroy Somerset's office." "and "Agreed," I responded; and taking my companion's arm, we wended our way towards the head quarters of the Duke of Wellington. We had not proceeded many yards before we heard a violent shouting from the keepers within the park, the guard of pompiers was turned out, and in a second the whole body were in chase of some delinquent, who, setting all laws at defiance, was galloping across the enclosed ground; despite, however, of the numbers of his pursuers, the horseman, after giving them a sharp burst, turned short round, and charging the fence, cleared it into the street. Once there, the pursuit was given over, and as we were wondering who the hero of this chase could be, the youth approached us-" What, Percy !" he exclaimed, "I am delighted to see you." |