Returning from this digression to the two-year-old performances of the Flying Dutchman. There is no public two-year-old to whom one can point as the certain finger-post to the Derby goal for the ensuing merry month of May; no juvenile who during the first year of his racing career has exhibited feats at all to compare with those of the victorious Dutchman in 1848, who, as a youngster, was out on five different occasions without being approachable at the ending post.

The ins and outs" of the candidates for Derby honours in 1850 are far from few; hence the field is to a great extent open. Your Italians, Mildews, Conquering Williams, Knights of Avenel, Niggers, Bolingbrokes, Swedes, Sweethearts, &c., in themselves form an important phalanx of winners as well as beaten horses, to which must be added the "dark division" yet to be brought to light. Rare sport this in perspective for the ring-bettors, book-makers, and list-men, who will cast their eyes with more than ordinary satisfaction on their Derby-books, saying to themselves "The public will back all these public horses, independent of the darkies; now if I should but succeed through the advent of an outsider in skinning the lamb' what a golden fleece that would be, requiring the combined biddings of many tanners to effect its purchase." It is quite clear the round bettors on the Derby of 1850 will have an excellent opportunity of making large profits; there is no bugbear of a crushing first favourite to mar their efforts; and sure am I they will seize upon the fortunate chance, and turn it to a good account, if the backers of horses but show the slightest disposition to nibble at the bait. Oh! leviathan Davis, what an opportunity is yours! your ingenuity, untiring industry, and ceaseless energy will find ample scope for employment in the coming season. Look out, too, ye Hills, Ives, Greens, Stebbings, Grays, Pedleys, Pettijeans; rejoice, too, ye smaller fry; see what a Californian prospect is before you. I know ye will never let a chance slip of saying, "Done, I'll lay it you." Then come your Metropolitan and Chester Monstre Handicaps, as piquant entrès to employ the intervening time in the sporting banquet, affording "pretty pastime for pence and pencils," reminding one of the gambling days of old, when the cry of the gentlemen who twisted round the wheel of (mis) fortune ever was, "Down with it; twenty can play as well as one, and one as well as twenty."

Among the winning jockeys, Nat and Frank Butler as usual figure conspicuous, nor is this to be wondered at, having as they invariably do the choicest pick of the best stables. The former has during the past season bestrode no less than ninety-three winners; the illustrious Frank being close in his wake as the victorious rider in sixty-five different events; whilst Charles Marlow as the private jockey of Lord Eglinton claims the palm of the double event, Derby and St. Leger, and many other "good things" which he has scored to his noble master's account. Having now touched upon some few of the principal features of the past season, and given a glimpse of what may be expected from the forthcoming one, I must " draw the curtain," for a change comes o'er the spirit of the sport. Racing-delightful, legitimate racing is cast aside for a time, to make way for hedge and ditch steeple-chasing; pity 'tis that sportsmen "should leave that fertile field to batten on the barren moor;" but man is "a gambling animal," and here again we have a proof of it, for the merry music of the hounds seems to have

lost its charm; the fox may enjoy his covert in security, as long as hunting made dangerous is to be obtained or witnessed in the form of a steeple-chase, a comparatively modern innovation on the sports of the field. I confess I do not much admire steeple-chasing; to me the gladsome cry of the hounds is half the battle; still less do I admire the clever "dodgeries" of those who are the getters up and chief actors in the equestrian spectacles, who not content with sticking at nothing in the field, carry out the same principles in the betting-ring, rendering the ancient caution of "Man-traps set here" highly necessary: how much longer such flagrant doings will be countenanced it is impossible for me to say; but this I will affirm, black as have been the misdeeds of legitimate and illegitimate turfites, the steeple-chasers have beaten them hollow in the art and mystery of "legging:" follow the sport if you like it, and will it so; but let us have it a little on the square, for at present the steeple-chase course and the path of life bear a strong similarity, for both" are full of crosses and disappointments.'

Apart from badinage, this hybrid sport and its followers require the strong voice of public opinion to call them to order, for both last season and this (already even) they have been " doing such deeds before high heaven" as to make all honest sporting men blush for and disown them.

GOLDFINCH.

"A CASE OF REAL DISTRESS."

ENGRAVED BY J. SCOTT, FROM A PAINTING BY R. B. DAVIES.

Our case of real distress may bear elucidation in two different ways, either, we have no doubt, showing cause amply sufficient for that humane gentleman who is going to put down hunting by act of parliament. To facilitate so praiseworthy an attempt, we will jot down the different heads for his Brief, leaving to him the choice of whether of the two he may think most likely to tell with a jury.

In the one instance the Clipper, the Chieftain, or the Dinton Deer, having had as fair allowance of law as his best friends could wish him, finds, after a few miles' scurry, that he is having all the fun to himself. Thanks to the wind, the country, or himself, they have not been able to "make it out" as cleverly as usual; and so, after a few moments' close attention, the emancipated begins to commune with himself in this wise:-If I go on at this pace much longer, I shall beat them clean off, and that admitted, what then?-If I beat them clean off, I shall most probably have the street-door key for the night, andwhat then? With some little experience in the way of the world, "the antlered monarch" (by courtesy if you please) pictures to himself the crowd of boys and clod-poles who will hang on to him as long as there be a ray of light left, and then fill up this agreeable sketch with a vision of the Radical farmer waiting behind the bean-rick to have a crack at his dun side. The alternative is not inviting, and having gradually broken into a long trot, his majesty at length comes

to a dead halt under the next well-sheltered spot, to more calmly deliberate on the matter. Repose does not do much to hasten his decision; and, in fact, he is in fancy straying back to his dearly beloved and well remembered retreat at Stow-when hark! by the powers! there is his old enemy, Hannibal, in full swing on the line! Crafty and Dominic backing him like the Bank, and all three over the fence before the Laird is in his stride again. It's a race now if you like; but the "old-un's waited a little too long," as the legs say, and so the odds is "all agen him ;" and with no choice left, he'll go home again in his own carriage, and sleep again in his own bed, far more comfortably and cosily than those who know nothing about him might be led to imagine.

In the other case, he is what the old song calls "fairly run down," or if not actually so, struggles on, with the hounds too much beaten to pull him down, as he himself to get again away from them. This is "a case of real distress," for which water is generally the first and most effectual remedy. That great and ancient authority on staghunting, the renowned Mr. Taplin, puts this point in the run so strongly that we make no "bones" for borrowing his version of it :"This final burst of a chase is most dreadfully severe, particularly if the last mile or two is run in view; when which is the case, the deer exerts all his utmost and remaining power to take soil, if water is within his reach: this he sometimes does with the hounds so close to his haunches that it is impossible to prevent their plunging with him into the stream. In such a predicament, if it is found impracticable to draw off the body of the hounds, to insure his safety the yeoman prickers and others are frequently seen above their middle in water (uncertain of its depth) to preserve the life of the deer at the hazard of their own. This may be considered by the recluse and callous cynic a degree of valour beyond discretion; but the debt of humanity, like the Hibernian Major's word in the comedy, is a debt of honour, and must be paid!"

Barring only the Yeomen Prickers, we have no fresh reading to offer; only, if after this "the Humanity Monger" should press on to trial, we will take "the Knife Grinder" against him.

LITERATURE.

MR. FORES' "HUNTING DIARY" AND "GUIDE TO THE HOUNDS OF ENGLAND." By Gêlert.

At no period of the world has the inventive genius of man been more conspicuous than during the present century; discoveries in every department of science proclaim it verily to be an age of progression. The strides of civilization are seven-leagued, and our social advancements such as to afford abundant room for congratulation, and but little for desire.

The hunting community is not left behind in the race. Mr. Fores