for the Great Metropolitan Stakes Pyrrhus the First carried, or will do so should he run, 9st. 2lb., and Remembrancer 4st. 10lb.; for the Chester Cup Sir Tatton Sykes has 9st. 2lb. up, and Glen Saddel 4st. 4lb. ; and for the Somersetshire Stakes Pyrrhus the First is required to carry 9st. 4lbs., and Egremont 4st. 10lbs,

The handicaps for these races were published in the sheet Calendar which appeared on the 20th ult. This journal also contained the entries for several of the popular young stakes, all giving evidence of the widely extending popularity of the turf, and the spirit with which breeding is carried on all over the United Kingdom. Contemporary with these pleasant announcements- as if it was fitting there should always be a bitter, by way of a moral alterative-the newspapers gave an account of the examination at one of the police offices of one Halford, alias Harris, charged with wilful perjury and obtaining £10 from Mr. Loyd, of Brook-street, Grosvenor-square, under the false pretence of requiring that sum to produce witnesses who should prove the wholesale poisoning, past and prospective, of the Goodwood stud. It has long been an on dit that the Duke of Richmond is under the impression that his horses have been, and continue to be, unfairly dealt with. Most probably this rumour, idle or otherwise, reached the ear of a "gentleman in difficulties," who regarded it as a good foundation for a spirited little Olympie masque. At present it seems likely that the dénouement will not be precisely as the author had plan'd it. Should it be the means, however, of eventually demonstrating that the reports concerning the medical treatment of the great Sussex stable are as visionary as Mr. Halford's or Harris's contrivances, good will come of the evil communication" of that personage.

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The appearance of the weights for the popular handicaps will have the effect of still further crippling the little movement there was in the Derby betting. Moreover, the influence of their publication on the position of one animal within compass of its operation was very emphatic. Blaze, the winner of the Hopeful, with 8st. 71b. on him, is "in" for Chester at 6st.; and as there is no Derby work for him to do in the ring or on the course, he will most probably go-with what chance is another affair. It is said by those of some authority that a hundred will accept for the Trades' Cup of this year. If the starters bear any

proportion to that amount, where they will find room to race will be a momentous problem for their jockeys, whatever their owners may think of it. People seemed generally satisfied with the handicapping for these early baits. Sir Tatton gives weight to Pyrrhus; Cossack to War Eagle. Perhaps this is all right, but the deductions are not the same from similar premises. I have conned them over-that is, the weightswith some care, and I cannot see that they should lead to any other policy than that every animal which touches 20 to 1 should be laid against. A vast field of horses will surely be in the market for the Chester Cup, and no race is more remarkable for the disposition of stables and parties to back their fancies. With very little industry you may "get on" against a squadron: only look alive, therefore, about your customers, and there is money to be made.

The entries for the Two-Year-Old Stakes in the Epsom First Spring Meeting are above par-more promising certainly than the look of the Great Metropolitan. They number eighteen, with good names as

their Olympic godfathers. When I alluded to this meeting in a preceding portion of this article things looked by no means flatteringly. In some way this second reading of the bill-of nominations-has mended the matter wherefore, the following paragraph, with which the "intelligence extra" of the last sheet Calendar, may in some degree account: Owing to an accident a portion only of the nominations for the Two-Year-Old Stakes at Epsom appeared in the Racing Calendar (No. 1). The following is the complete entry." By the new version the entries for the Two-Year-Old Stakes are eighteen instead of nine, and the entries for the Woodcote twenty-two in lieu of eleven.

Has the

Among the statements in the second number of the Calendar is one in the form of an advertisement, and therefore most probably correct. It is to the intent that one Mr. Paine has had by this time the honour of disposing, by auction, of Mr. H. T. Forth's training tackle, that individual being about to relinquish the craft of a public trainer. light of Mitchell Grove faded? and is, indeed, all its glory fled? The assertion which ran the round of the sporting papers, that Mr. Meiklam was about to secede from the turf, however, had no truth in it; the fact was that Mr. Meiklam found his stud growing old and stale, and set to work betimes to renew his forces. Some of his nags last season looked the very ideal of "screws. Apropos of changes, the style of winter we have so far had must have been very propitious for the new Derby course, as the grass might have grown, if it pleased, as luxuriantly at Christmas as at Midsummer. Should a dry and forward spring vouchsafe its auspices to the undertaking, for the first time the curious will be enabled to see the whole operations of their fortunes upon Epsom Downs, instead of, as heretofore, being in the agonies of suspense and obscurity during their carly moiety. According to the conditions for the Derby of 1848 it is to be run over the new course, should it be considered fit for the purpose.

As at Epsom, so elsewhere, new facilities and advantages are in progress, both as regards the pastime of horse-racing and its profitable pursuit. There can be no doubt that the position of the turf is infinitely higher than it ever was, or that a brilliant career is before it, which only the folly and culpable wrong of those in authority in its councils and direction can mar. Let it only have respect for itself, and the popular respect shall be secured to it as matter of course. But far otherwise must it be should the episodes of the past season be repeated in that which will so soon be the present. No social condition could long keep its head above water if laden with the mountain of opprobrium which fell upon racing in '47. It was not because the legs committed petty larcenies, or the professionals levanted upon system, but because men of mark and conventional honour did base things, and submitted to contumelious reproach. When it becomes a bye-word that a gentlemanone ennobled by birth-had heaped upon him every possible epithet of scorn and contempt, and that he deserved and would have suffered personal chastisement but that the law protected his back and shoulders ; when this fact is in every man's mouth, can it be any wonder that a pursuit which entailed such consequences should seem an abomination in honest eyes? Now there was such a "modern instance" as this; and not one only. There were men, who ought to have died rather than expose themselves to such a possibility, who ran the risk for the hope of

lucre, who bartered the main on a chance of success against ignominy; in either case perpetrating a most dastardly fraud. Such was the fate of turf gamblers, of those who use the race-course as dicers do the hazardtable; and such it must be, so long as mathematical conclusions help us to results. And looking at the encouragement it gives to the practice of chicane and evil communications-considering the comfort it holds out to the idle and unprincipled-is it meet or safe, as relates to social convenience, that a vast stimulus to indiscriminate betting should exist? When people went mad about railways, and journals published double supplements, one of the daily papers had courage and disinterestedness enough to denounce the popular lunacy, and to foretell what must inevitably come of the frenzy for realizing capital by illegitimate means. People are now out of their sober senses about schemes for growing bank-notes from shillings and half-crowns. This state of mental alienation is less in degree, indeed, than the distraction aforesaid; but not the less is the lottery bubble opposed to public propriety. I have conscientiously set my face against this new contrivance. I am satisfied that did it ever need such assistance, the turf would be "more honoured in the breach than the observance" of it. But I am also satisfied that a great national sport can be upheld in England without levying blackmail in form of a per-centage upon the working man's earnings, or the purse of young city gentlemen of enterprise and spirit, perhaps less legitimately furnished.

A merry Christmas to you, and a happy new year ! What notions of merriment and happiness some men have. Pudding and bills! Can any one be happy with the retrospect of having contracted bills, and the prospect of having to pay them? This is Christmas-this is the happy new year! Nice men those commercial travellers are. One of them writes to the Times, expressing his hope that everybody will pay regularly this year. He must forget that his pressure is ours-that the tightness in the money-market affects all people equally. Who's he, that he should have money, and all the rest of the world go without? 'Pon honour my I think the merriment of Christmas is all a mistake. As to the foxhunter, he looks upon it with a very suspicious eye; hard frosts, deep snow, lame horses, influenza, and small bills, are the last things in the world to put a man in good humour. However, with regard to frost and snow this season, he ought to be a happy man. Lame horses are plentiful; I know of six out of eleven in one stable. I know of about £800 given for four, two of which are hors de combat for a month at least; and as to the screws, they've no chance in a country like ours, with two months' hard running on soft ground. But happily we have studs in the Pytchley country which no manner of weather will affect.

Of all the seasons I ever knew, not one has exceeded the present in its brilliancy of promise and sport. The hounds are in magnificent order ; from the commencement they have been so. I do not profess to know anything about hounds; few men do, though many would offer an opinion. But it is the general notion that the Pytchley never were looking better. Mr. Payne's stud is first-rate; the old ones are well known, the new ones have been tried. With a man riding as George Payne does, always with his hounds, and a heavy weight, over a country as deep in grass as many are in plough—at times racing, and never very slow-it requires something better than common to carry him. His horse by Colwick is an admirable hunter; I think he rode him from Crick last month in the crack run; he has one with white heels, called Original," as perfect an animal as a man can see, both imported by Mason, I have heard. His white horse still carries him well, though not with the turn of speed that Mr. Payne ought to have. Alaric must be his best, if the others are not better. He does carry the weight; and the proof of the pudding is in the eating.

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Talking of studs, you ought to see a few of Mr. Crawford's-a good man, about fifteen stone in the saddle; until you see them go, you would be apt to doubt the pace: only ride alongside of them. Mr. Rolt has quantity and quality; and one which he bred himself, but has not done much yet, is a perfect picture of an English hunter. English, by Jove! there are no others. The Irish are so turbulent that they must be forbidden to fence; their very horses will become outrageous. The great Irish whisperer, John of T――m, will, I trust, exert his influence in an opposite direction. Whatever the hunting may be in that country, there's no denying the shooting. However, we've nothing to do with that; and it's quite delightful to think that the majority of the sense of the nation is employed in running down foxes-those destructive varmints, whilst the muffs of the nation are engaged in devising plans for the suppression of crime and vice in the sister kingdom. What does it signify to Captain M'Blatherwick-with £500 per annum, who gives himself credit for £5,000 per annum-what becomes of his Irish estates? As they are really worth nothing, they are certainly not worth looking after. Captain M'Blatherwick is quite right. So down he came to meet us at Vanderplank's Cover on the 1st of December, instead of bothering himself in the Albany with beneficial measures for his ungrateful country. What a cover that is! meet is West Haddon-dear, clean little village, with an inn the very picture of a sportsman's quarters. We never waste more than twenty minutes in it; and accordingly, on the 1st, we trotted off for the find. Everybody has a chance as we ride to the cover. How the light weights, full of beer, exhibit over the turf on the road-side! how the exhilarating influence of balmy-breathing morn extends itself to the real sportsmen, as they take a gentle spurt over the intervening fields! and how cheerful are the little coteries formed on the hill side preparatory to throwing the hounds into the spinney! I know that I told my last year's correspondent all about this cover; but you know nothing about it, so I must just run over the localities for a second time in my life.

The

Vanderplank's Cover is on the side of a hill, and a steep one too; jibbers in the pony carriages are very awkward customers here. It is desirable that bold reynard should not be interfered with in his chance of getting away; so the higher up the hill the better. You stand for a few

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moments, if your horse will allow you; and then, "He's away at the lower end !" sends your heart into your mouth, if you have one-not a mouth, but a heart. His usual line is for Buckby Folly; but this time he's a bold one, and takes a new course. Now for the brook, my boys!" and as we ride for the gate, Mr. Knightley alone looks at the yawning ditch and fence before him. It has the appearance of a run, and he never turns his back on a good chance. "Hold hard; let the

hounds come." And now for a few words of advice.

There are very few really good things to be met with, but certainly one of them is "a start" in a fast thing; riding through anything quick without it, is very like living in Paris without money. You do exist, and you do go through the run; but as to any real enjoyment in the business, you're worse than nowhere. Everybody seems quite aware of this fact; for by the unwillingness with which the field is persuaded to get a little higher up the hill, one would imagine an army of bailiffs at the top of it waiting to receive us. Vanderplank's Cover is on a very undeniable slope, as I told you. The fox breaks either at the top, or the bottom, or on the other side; in which latter case, away you go to catch him; but should he break at the bottom, as he did on the 1st of December, 1847, the whole field views him, and the mischief begins. "Hold hard," says Mr. Thompson, or Mr. Johnson, or some one else equally anxious to get a start themselves-and who can blame them? But as example is better than precept, if they pulled up while they gave their advice, instead of sidling down hill at a most unequivocal trot, perhaps they might be attended to. On the morning in question, no sooner was the fox gone, than away went everybody along the road to the gate, and, turning short round, jumped the fence into the field through which runs the brook; and it was not until Captain M'Blatherwick had been down, and Captain M'Squash on the top of him, that the hounds were allowed to have a voice in the matter. Now was the time for pace; for at the very next gate the crowd was so great as to prevent its being opened for a minute or two, delaying hounds, huntsmen, and everything. The fact is, that the hounds were so over-ridden, and always are when the fox is viewed by the field, that the only wonder is they run at all. When it came to riding, I must do the Pytchley men the justice to say that I never saw more men go at the water with greater pleasure; the only thing being that this very circumstance increases Mr. Payne's difficulty. "Now, sir, to the right," says Mr. Heygate, "and you'll have the brook at an easy place, and all to yourself;" which proved true, but unnecessary, for the fox turned again and ran straight for the West Haddon Road. Here Mr. Payne, Mr. Villiers, and a few more got into a corner with no exit, having to gallop up the side to a gate; an impracticable double-post and rails, with a ditch between, stands for the improved style of farming. Mr. Crawford and myself, more fortunate, got more to the left, and out at another corner-across the road at the back of West Haddon, on to Mr. Lovell's house and garden. to this point we had really been going; but here was a stopper, for the field having caught us, they were for hunting the fox themselves. We then got to slow hunting, excepting a gentle simmer along the fields before entering East Haddon parish. A dirty coat or two showed that the fences were not so small as they might have been, and we were soon after compelled to give up as good a fox as a man need ride after. got as far as Holywell by Guilsboro' with him; but the mischief had

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