Gratwicke's The Squaw sixth ; 2 to 1 against Iris, who finished a bad third.

At Epsom, ridden by Butler, she won the Oaks of 50 sov. cach, &c., a mile and a half, beating Lord J. Scott's Miserrima (2), Mr. Gratwicke's Jlesse Homburg (3), Mr. Ford's Payment (4), and the following not placed :—Sir J. Hawley's Breba, Sir J. Hawley's Merry-peal, Mr. Ford's Fortuna, Mr. Hayter's Terpsichore, Mr. Payne's Catalpa, Mr. Howard's Prestige, Mr. Humphries' Laura Middleton, Lord Waterford's Perdita filly, Mr. Jones's Ianthe, Mr. Gratwicke's Anspach, and Mr. Lillie ns. Mamsel Otz filly : 4 to 1 against Iris, who won by threequarters of a length.

At Liverpool, ridden by Flatman, she walked over for a Produce Stake of 200 sov. each, &c., Lord Clifden's Harpsichord withdrawing his stake.

SUMMARY OF IRIS's PERFORMANCES. In 1851 she has started four times, and won threeA Produce Stakes, at Newmarket Craven Meeting, value clear 175 The Oaks Stakes at Epsom ........

.......... 3,370 A Produce Stakes at Liverpool .......

.... 600

£4,145 Iris's engagements for the year are in the Gratwicke and Richmond Stakes at Goodwood, the Yorkshire Oaks and Great Yorkshire Stakes at York, the Foal Stakes at Duncaster, and in a Produce Stakes at Newmarket Second October Meeting. In some of these the Oaks running may bave further “ proof.”

There are few names stand higher in the records of the Turf than that of Lord Derby, and none who will do the title more honour than the present holder of it, the noble owner of Iris. Few men, we beliere, really enjoy a race more, or afford more legitimate patronage to that sport which the family has so long and so becomingly supported. From one Lord Derby, the breeder of Sir Peter Teazle, the great Derby race took its name, as did its companion the Oaks from his seat in Surrey: The last Lord Derby was not so keen a turfite; for though horses for some years ran in his name, they were almost altogether under the control of the present Earl. Notwithstanding this being the first of the “great races" Lord Stanley has yet succeeding in winning, some very good horses have still occasionally served under the black-andwhite livery: amongst others, Verbena, Parolles, Amurath, Charlatan, Velocity, Rhodanthe, Ithuriel, Archery, Uriel, Legerdemain, Strongbow, and that rare mare Canezou.

John Scott does the string every justice, as far as the trainer's care and ability can provide, and Frank Butler has done his duty in every way as worthily as my Lord's jockey. Perhaps the very finest piece of riding of the season was Butler's riding Iris for the Oaks : the wonderful judgment, patience, and nicety with which he handled “the whistler,” and landed her at last, timed and placed to a moment. The Oaks, however, has always been a favourite race of Butler's; he won it last year with Rhedycina, another bigh blower, after almost as fine a display of jockeyship; the season before that with Lady Evelyn ; in 1844 on Princess ; and in 1843 on the outsider, Poison.

122

PASSAGES IN THE LIFE OF TILBURY NOGO, ESQ. ;

THE ADVENTURES OF AN UNSUCCESSFUL MAN.

BY FOXGLOVE.

Chap. XII.

“And they will learn you by rote where service were done-who came off bravely, who was shot, who disfigured-and this they can perfectly in the phrase of war; but you must learu to know such slanders of the age, or else you may be marvellously mistook."

HENRY V.

“Now Lord be thanked for my good amends."

TANING OF THE SHREW.

People may talk of the blessings of health, and doubtless without health there can be but little enjoyment in any pleasure which life can bestow ; but of all delightful sensations, commend me to those of what medical men call “convalescence,” when every hour brings fresh proof of returning strength, and every function of nature is alone busied in the one great object of “getting well.” The sturdy labourer, whose frame and appearance are the very types of “rude health," might have envied the soundness of my sleep and the keenness of my appetite during the fortnight or three weeks which restored to me the use of the arm I had myself so provokingly injured. In an airy and cheerful lodging, in a quiet street not very far from the park, with all the new novels to read, with all my acquaintances delighted to while away an idle hour in my society, with the most agreeable of doctors, who persisted in looking upon me as a hero, who after several exchanges of shots had at length been taken unwillingly off the ground with an injury that nothing but his own skill could have healed, I found the coufinement to one room and the regimen required of a patient anything but tedious or disagreeable.

Jack Raffleton, who had been kindness itself after the accident, and who perseveringly cursed his own stupidity in ever trusting “ such a muff as Nogo with hair-triggers," had arranged my " affair " with Cotherstone with a tact peculiarly his own. Pay I certainly did, but not to any very large amount, and as the musical sharper was compelled to leave England on business of his own, at very short notice-in fact, was in that pleasant predicament which the Yankees call “ a fix,' having made Tattersall's too hot to hold him, and got into some stock-jobbing scrape into the bargain--a compromise was effected, by which in consideration of certain " value received,” nothing more was to be said on either side, as to his ingenious method of playing écarté, or my nonappearance at our matutinal trysting-place.

The worst of it was the manner in which those infernal Sunday papers got hold, as usual, of the wrong end of the story; and as each had its own absurd version, of course from the very best authority, my leisure was amused with paragraphs such as the following :

"A hostile meeting is stated to have taken place, between a well-known sport. ing character and a young and fasbionable millionaire (!). The parties met on Tamble-down Common, and we regret to say that both were severely wounded. Two military gentlemen officiated as seconds. Of course until a judicial investi. gation has taken place, more especially as one of the combatants is in immediate danger, it would be premature to give the names of these offenders against the

" We hare to record a rencontre of a hostile nature which has taken place between Mr. T.1-b-f-y N-g-o, and J. C th-st-ne, Esq. The causa teterrima belli is said to have been the attentions paid by the former gentleman to the fascinating and beautiful daughter of the latter. Mr. N-g-0 was attended on the ground by the Hon. Capt. R-ff-t-n, and the well-known Major ('-C-vos-ly officiated for Mr. C-th-st-ne. Both gentlemen fired in the air !"

"The duello again! Another of these unmanly and un-English performances has again taken place, in the vicinity of Ascot, on the very ground immortalized by the game and never-to-be-forgotten struggle between The British Buster' and Turner's Black.' Our readers need liardly be reminded that exhausted nature gave way, and the 'Buster' ceased to breathe after fighting the unpre. celenter number of 157 rounds! And now two assassins have desecrated this hallowed spot, and instead of settling their differences by peeling' and 'to it like men,' have had recourse to the cowardly pistol as an arbiter of their quarrel. England! indeed thy glory hath departed; and our upper classes have themselves to thank for hastening thy decay."

Such were a few of the versions furnished by these caterers for the amusement of the public. “ The Illuminated Gazette" presented its readers with an exceedingly well-composed tableau, in which were portraits of the two belligerents, their seconds, and Kate Cotherstone in the distance. The great daily organ of public opinion itself found room to insert a couple of lines, in which the whole business was disposed of upder the heading “ Determined Suicide by a Gentleman;" and as far as my unfortunate accident was concerned, this was perhaps nearer the truth than any of them. But the “ Morning Muffineer," that chronicle of the fashionable world, was more mysterious, and yet more diffuse, than all the rest of its contemporaries put together. First of all it had heard of “ a rumoured fracas in the higher circles, involving unpleasant disclosures, and ending in a personal collision." Then, “it was whispered that the elopement of a young lady in the vicinity of Windsor had led to a hostile encounter between the gay Lothario and offended parent, in which the latter was severely wounded." After this, “it was informed that the late affair 'between two well-known sporting gentlemen, had its origin in certain play transactions to a large amount : the younger belligerent lies dangerously wounded at his house in town.” Lastly, it stated boldly that it “was happy to hear Mr. Nogo was rapidly recovering from the effects of his wound, and that amputation was fortunately unnecessary. Mr., Mrs., and Miss Cotherstone, have taken their departure for the continent."

With all these paragraphs, and with all the different stories told by my different friends, each knowing his own version “ for a fact," I was quite a hero during the nine days that elapsed, before some fresher "wonder " called off the attention of the gossiping and the idle. I began to think at last that I was in truth the champion they took me for, and although I could not quite persuade myself that I had actually received Cotherstone's fire, I took all the credit of having screwed my