deer to a field of about fifty. At a good hunting pace, ran him through the strong clay lands near Hatchett Lane and St. Leonard's Hill, almost to the Cavalry Barracks, where he headed back; and, after an hour and a half's run (during which he hung much in covert), we took at New Lodge. This was by no means a satisfactory affair for the Londoners, but just the thing for the home division.

Monday, 14th.-The fixture Salt Hill, whither the railroad brought a very strong party, including H.R.H. Prince George of Cambridge, Prince Nicholas Esterhazy, and a German prince, now in this country, whose name I may be excused for forgetting, as I was not educated upon the Feinaglian system. The deer called "Rob Roy" was our quarry upon this occasion, and showed a good run, but still short of the style of thing we had reckoned upon, from the character of his former exploits. The line of country over which he took us was to East Burnham, Dropmore, Hall Barns, Penn, over Wycombe Heath, and we took him at the end of an hour and a half, between Amersham and Wycombe. Although I have spoken disparagingly of this run, yet, if our course were traced upon the map, it would hardly be called bad work.

Wednesday, 16th.-From Maidenhead we had a good run; the scent was bad to begin with, but it afterwards improved; and having made a circuit towards Marlow, and crossed the Thames at Cookham, we secured our deer near Beaconsfield, in an hour and a half.

Saturday, 19th.-Stoke Common; a miserable, stormy day, with bad scent, a bad deer, a bad country, and, as a matter of course, a bad run, the deer having kept the coverts the whole time.

Monday, 21st. - The meet was at the Woking Station, South Western Railway; the field, with the exception of Lord Sheffield, boasted no bright, particular, aristocratic star. The deer, after perambulating the country for a couple of hours, from Ottershaw to Esher, and thence to Moulsey, and, after a dip in the Thames, to Walton, was finally taken at Littleton, near Staines.

Wednesday, 23rd.-The meet at Iver Heath was certainly the largest of the season, consisting of between 300 and 400 horsemen; turned out at Ickenham; with the scent breast high, over a country terribly deep and distressing, our deer set his head straight for the top of Harrow Hill. This pumped the wind out of the best of the nags, and the hounds had it all their own way, having beaten the élite of the field out of sight for miles. From Harrow he raced to Willesden, by Kilburn, over Primrose Hill, and into the Regent's Park, where he passed the entrance of the Zoological Gardens, and was taken in an area of a house close to the Colosseum. For pace and severity of country, from all I can learn, this run has rarely been surpassed; it occupied an hour and three quarters. Prince George of Cambridge, Prince Edward of Saxe Weimar, Lords Rosslyn, Clanricarde, Sheffield, St. Maur, and many others of note for blood, bottom, and bone, were at the drawing up of the curtain as well as at the falling of the same; where they were during the performance is a question not so easily decided. Should people say, however, "Who did go best?"--the answer is, Mr. Bailey, who, up to Harrow, had a clear lead of the whole field; from that point no one went, "good, bad, or indifferent." Nothing but a balloon or a railway train could have enabled a man to have seen the way the

hounds went. With this splendid affair, I close my notice of the sport with the Royal Hounds for the past month, leaving the record of the Easter Monday Hunt to be written in the annals of the dogsmeatians.

The fields, of which I have been speaking in hundreds, will, probably, have prepared the reader to expect a catalogue of distinguished performers, very different from the subjoined brief list. But let him meet any pack of hounds in England, from the Quorn to the Epping once-a-year hunters, and out of every five score in scarlet, how many will he find that start and finish well when hounds go straight for half an hour, with a holding scent? Having taken this to his heart, he will be the better able to form his opinion, and to understand why, of the many who frequent the Royal Hounds, so few are named in this place.

I have no personal knowledge whatever of Capt. Richard Vyse, and it will hardly, therefore, be attributed to favour or affection that I place him at the head of the cream of the Royal Hunt. Those, indeed, who have had experience of his style of riding to hounds will need no such assurance; those who have not, if they have a right relish for the science, have a treat to come. He is a light weight, quick, graceful, and determined, with the skill that gives more power than mere physical strength can to a horseman. He was, by nature, intended for a stag-hunter, being as fond of water as a red deer. For him a bridge is " a work of supererogation," and the proper entrance to the field, over the top rail of the gate.

The Messrs. Cox, three brothers, each riding about twelve stone, are first-rate men across a country. Without any dash, or an atom of jealousy in the field, they are steady, decisive, quick, and all over true sportsmen.

Mr. Wanklyn is one of the most constant of the attendants on the Queen's hounds. He is somewhat short-sighted, but a very determined horseman, his style being that known as the "cramming." No man in England is better mounted,-always there when it is fast, and one of the last at it when a run is long and harrassing.

Probably the most brilliant, however, of the front rank is Captain Bailey. Nothing can be more finished than his manner of carrying a horse over a country; his seat is full of elegance, his hand perfect, and his nerve not to be denied.

Mr. James, of Cowley, is a rider of the steady school. If you do not always see him in the van, you never miss him when hounds are really running, and the more resolute the work, the better you will see him placed.

Mr. Makepiece, of Bracknell, a fifteen stone man, is one of those who are not to be beaten. He is always "getting along," would force a horse through a stone wall, if he could not jump him over it, and much resembles " Johnny Bush" (will he pardon what Liston was wont to call the "famimiliarity ?") in his form of going to hounds.

Captain Bulkeley, who has a pack of harriers at Clewer, is also among the good ones. There is nothing like pretension in his style, but much that is excellent. He is a very popular man with the Queen's.

Mr. Worley, of Drominagh, a friend of Mr. Wanklyn's, is also, like that gentleman, one of the regular royal party. He is, perhaps, not a first flighter, but one that you cannot avoid noticing in the field.

Captain Gardner, of racing celebrity, is very good with hounds, and a Mr. Lucas, belonging to one of the regiments of Horse Guards, I believe, distinguished himself greatly in one or two runs during the season. Mr. Alfred Dyson, who has hunted staghounds for some years, is a very superior horseman, and difficult to beat. His best day this season was about a month ago, when the deer was turned out at Fakenham Marsh, and the take was at Hampstead.

James Mason and Allan M'Donough, the well-known steeplechase riders, are, probably, the best of their class in the hunting field. They are frequently to be seen with her Majesty's hounds, and, if well mounted, always in the front rank.

With this limited catalogue ends my notice of the cream of the Royal Hunt. I have said nothing of the great names that embellish the newspaper accounts of the sport with the Royal Hounds. My object is to enumerate those who, in the greatest number of instances, are to be found in the best places. If I have erred in judgment, at all events I have not 66 set down aught in malice."

MONTHLY MEMORABILIA.

THE TURF. In the "Racing Calendar" of the 8th ult., it was announced that "A General Meeting of the Members of the Jockey Club will be held at the New Rooms, Newmarket, on Tuesday in the Craven Meeting, upon special and urgent business." The object of that meeting is very generally spoken of, but, as a matter of courtesy, we deem it fit to await the issue before we more pointedly allude to it.

STEEPLE-CHASING. In 1839, Lottery won the Grand National Steeple-chase; in 1840, it was won by Lottery's confederate, Jerry; in 1841, by Charity; in 1842, by Gaylad. Now we will assume that the "Grand National," at Liverpool, is the Derby of the Steeplechase. Well, Cheltenham Steeple-chase for this year of grace puts forth its handicap to the following melody:-Lottery, 15 st.7 lb.; Charity, 12 st.; Gaylad, 15 st. 7 lb., being, in round numbers, half a hundredweight in difference between the winner of the criterion Steeple-chase in 1841 and 1842. This is going the perfect porker, and, if the principle be followed out, and every handicapper "do as he likes with his own," the office will presently be sold by auction, or let by private treaty to the best bidder. In the meanwhile, trading steeple-chasers had better shut up shop-their "occupation's gone"--they have had their turn; so long as business was to be attended to, it must be admitted that " very well they did it at the price."

The Grand National Steeple-chase, for the present year, brought out a field of fifteen, over the course on which this event has been decided since its establishment. Gaylad, the favourite at 7 to 2 on the preceding evening, fell back on the morning of the race to 7 to 1, Lottery, first favourite, being backed at 5 to 1, so that Mr. Elmore

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might have had money for the asking; a tolerably pleasant position for a man to find himself in, now that pigs have ceased to run about ready roasted, and offer themselves with knives and forks to such as might desire to feed. Gaylad won, Seventy-four (second), having cut it, as his custom is, the instant he was caught. Mr. Elmore had three in the race, which was going to work as became so great a capitalist in horseflesh. Lord Chesterfield's Claude Duval, admirably ridden by Mr. Augustus Villiers, won The Prince of Wales's Cup, and Mr. Pearce's Defence the Champion Hurdle Stakes.

At the Aylesbury Steeple-chase, on the 28th of February, Baron Rothschild's Oliver Twist, ridden by Oldaker, beat a field of ten, after a host of moving accidents, because some of them didn't jump where they ought to have jumped, and others could not jump, however well inclined. The Brocklesby Hunt Chase was won, after a good race, by Mr. Loft's Creeper, ridden by the owner. For the Oxfordshire Grand Steeple-chase (handicap), a dozen came to the post, Gaylad, 13 st. 3lb., the winner by a head. Roderick Random second. The Pembrokeshire was won by Mr. John James's Helen: at Rugby, the winner of the first race was The Actor; at both these latter places there were other races of a similar description, but of a minor character.

On the 14th, the Worcester was run for, the spirit of sport in the neighbourhood having produced two good races-the Royal Birthday Stakes and the Worcestershire Hunt Stakes. The former was won by Roderick Random (A. M'Donough), beating Gaylad, and a field of seven others, by three lengths; the second by an animal upon which had been inflicted the name of "Ten-pound-note-no-object." Leamington Grand Steeple-chase was celebrated on the 17th, and a finer race has rarely been seen or won, Mr. A. Villiers, with his fine riding, beating a good field of ten on Gipsy.

On the 7th ult., Lord Fitzhardinge's hounds, at Berkeley Castle, had killed 118 foxes.

"Kennel lameness," that plague of fox-hunting, has been very prevalent during the season. Mr. Drax's clever pack suffered greatly from it. The puppies that have come up from walk to Charborough, are a very capital lot. Notwithstanding the drawback from lameness, Mr. Drax has had some excellent sport.

It is stated in the papers that Mr. Long will continue at the head of the Hambledon Hunt. We hope so, but the country was a-begging at the beginning of last month.

The Pytchley hounds, it is said, by the same authorities, will be managed in the coursing season by the Duke of Montrose, Earl Cardigan, Earl Cassilis, and Mr. George Payne.

[We have always pleasure in making public communications like the following:-]

To the Editor of the Sporting Review.

SIR,-I forward you some particulars of a pack of foxhounds, which, I think, deserve a place in the pages of your REVIEW. It is the

property of a country gentleman of the sterling stamp, Edward Archer, Esq., of Trelaske, Cornwall, and, from what a friend tells me of the establishment, and the devotion of its worthy owner to the noble science, they must, together, form quite the Quorn and Osbaldeston of that part of Her Majesty's dominions, the kennel containing, I am given to understand, nearly forty couples of hunting hounds, and Mr. Archer himself being never happy but when listening to their music. The country which they have to contend with is, in many parts, an extremely difficult one, though, like a good many others, rather short of foxes. Their huntsman, Abraham Quick, not only rides well to them across it, but is considered a most obliging and experienced man. So far as riding goes, indeed, it would be a task of difficulty to pound either him or Edward G. Cann, Esq., of Hardwicke House, of whom some rather dangerous and extraordinary feats of horsemanship are recorded. The fixture to which this notice more particularly refers, was Tregear Lodge, and, after drawing several coverts, they found a fine old dog-fox, in a splendid nursery for foxes, at St. Stephen's, belonging to T. Phillips, Esq. of Landen, one of the best sportsmen of his day, and they went over Werrington and Boyton, close at his brush, to Tamerton, thence to Week St. Mary, through the Witstone Woods, to Maramchurch, leaving the Hogbear covers a little on the right; thence through the thick covert, called Swanacott Wood, and turning to the right between Bennetts and the seat of S. Bray, Esq., from thence to St. Guinea's, over the cliffs, where the pace was terrific. From this point he went straight for Salthouse, when he found his pursuers so close upon him, that he turned back under the cliffs, where they ran from scent into view, and killed him within 300 or 400 yards of one of the strongest earths in the country, called Melluke, after a run of three hours, without a single check. Great merit is due to the hounds for killing their fox, as they had not the least assistance during the whole of the run, the only horsemen seen with them, during the greater part of it, being the huntsman and Mr. Edward G. Cann, on his old favourite horse, Charley. A RAMBLER IN SCARLET.

THE HIPPODROME.--This establishment has closed its career, and with it the golden hopes of "the richest stake ever run for in England." The Hippodrome Produce Stakes for 1843, "over the Hippodrome Course," if run for, would have to be decided in a neighbourhood about as intricate as that of Seven Dials. What will become of the guarantee given by a noble lord of £1,000 to be added, and the "produce" raised upon the promises it held out?

Lord Southampton has purchased the celebrated "Osbaldeston" pack of Sir Harvey Coombe, with the intention of hunting the Duke of Grafton's country, his Grace having disposed of his hounds to Mr. Assheton Smith, as we stated in our last number.

A REGULAR "DOWN EAST" SAMPLE OF THE Lex talionis.-Among the earliest settlers in the wilds of Salmon river, was a Vermontese, of the name of Dobson-a large, resolute man. Returning, one evening, from a fruitless hunt after his vagrant cows, which, according to the