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dozen, had only four at the starting post. This, it may be assumed, was owing to a natural fear of the Maid of Masham, who was not " scratched" till half-past one of the clock on the day. The odds were 6 to 4 on Oxford Blue, 3 to 1 against Candlewick, 4 to 1 against Grief, and 7 to 1 against Chief Justice. The last in the ring was first past the chair, a winner by a length ; while the first in the ring was the last in the race. The Scarborough Stakes was won, in three heats, by The Calculator; and then came the Forest Stakes-three nominations, all ryuners, and 6 to 4 on Castellan. The ring on this occasion was again right, the favourite winning by half a length ; Snowdrift second. Her Majesty's Plate of 100 Guineas --for all ages, heats two miles-The Maid of Masham, with 6 to 1 on her the first heat, and any odds on her for the second, won, and thus the list was exhausted.

Stamford, it was generally admitted, was a shocking bad meeting. " Quem Deus vult perdere,” says the proverb ; and it might have been profitably adopted as the motto of the opening event of this auspicious occasion. The Barleythorpe Stakes, the issue alluded to, is a sweepstakes of 15 sovs. each, for all ages over two years old, five sovs. forfeit, gentlemen riders. There were three subscribers, and Mr. Rogers's Pulcherrima (Mr. Bevill) walked over. By the conditions of the race, the winner was compelled to subscribe to this stake next year. Thus it will be seen that the winner took up £10 and put down £15a proceeding, upon the threshold of a race meeting, which may be compared to asking a guest at a feast to “hob-nob" with you in a black-draught, by way of whetting his appetite. The list for the day in. cluded four other events, of which the Burghley handicap was the most interesting. Of the twenty-six nominations four ran, and Westow, 7st. 13lbs., won ; Strongbow, 8st. 71b., second, beaten in a canter by ten lengths. The nineteen pounds between Liverpool and Stamford perhaps had something to do with this difference. Not that weight appears to have been held in much account at the place under consideration, as in the race which followed -- a Handicap Plate, given by the Marquis of Exeter-one of the three runners, Egalité-lucus a non lucendo-carried eight pounds over weight.

Wednesday opened a little more promisingly than its predecessor : e.g., the first race was a Sweepstakes of 10 sovs. each, h. ft., to which 25 would have been added if three horses started ; three subseribers. Mr. G. Higgins's Theseus walked over. By this result he took £10, which, after paying costs, left him probably a few shillings better off than the winner of the Barleythorpe. The Two-year-old Stakes Mr. Payne's Freedom won in a field of five, beating France, the favourite, by half a length. A Gold Cup, value 100 sovs., brought out three-the odds 6 to 4 on Ninus. The estimate was a correct one, as he won eleverly by a length. Pulcherrina, with the odds on her, having won a chicken handicap, run a match, the meeting was “wound up' with a Match, in which Mr. Spriggs's filly, carrying 8st., beat Egalité, carrying Ist., “by nearly a distance." Pauore bête ! they load you by the ton. If Sterne had been there, he would have said a pitiful word for you, notwithstanding Mr. Thackeray's lectures.

Woolwich, Mansfield, Ilsley, Abingdon, and other rural races occurred in the same week with the meeting at Stamford, but they do not call for bills of particulars. Neither does any of the sport which fell at the close of the past month, save the first portion of Goodwool, which must be reserved for the review of the great Sussex Tryst in the vext number. A word in shape of postscript, or rather of summing up......

" Sic vos non vobis-nidificatis aves;

Sic vos non vobis-vellera fertis oves;
Sic vos non vobis - mellificatis apes ;
Sic vos non vobis-fertis aratra boves."

In this quatrain is the pith of the moral which our great national sport points in the middle of the nineteenth century. Is the English turf on a footing with the national progress ?---does it participate in those advantages which practical experience has developed for the service of social institutions generally? The lesson which time has always taught, and which it inculcates more earnestly the older it grows, is that we must either go forwards or backwards--we cannot remain where we are. The turf is a couple of centuries old : it is not premature, therefore, to inquire what steps it has taken, in company with the great popular movement.

Enterprise—the principle of turning resources to advantageous and legitimate account-elsewhere so active and full of industry, has kept aloof from its policy. After two hundred years of aristocratic association and wealthy countenance, how fares it in the matter of finance ? The actual capital of British horse-racing consists of thirty-five royal plates, whose united value is three thousand five hundred guineas. Save this annuity it is without a positive endowment of any kind, or any representative agency or conventional machinery for the collection and application of its rich revenues. Occasionally, indeed, some benevolent spirit declares in its behalf : the Emperor of Russia, at Ascotthe King of Holland, at Goodwood—the Cesarewitch, at Newmarketand the Sovereign of these realms is a liberal contributor. But this does not constitute property-it is only good fortune. In this year of especial grace-tbis millennium of the million-this “ modern instance of the Golden Age-- it is unconditionally dependent upon the contingent of private subscriptions, probable donations, and possible gratuitous aid. While the whole world, moral and material, is going a-head," the synonyme of speed is standing still. It is the great social paradox of the century!

There cannot be a better proof of this proposition, or a fairer criterion of the principle upon which its deduction is drawn-viz., the average in which the funds produced by public racing are applied to its maintenance-than that furnished by the receipts and disbursements of the principal metropolitan meetings, Epsom and Ascot. According to the statements which appeared in the newspapers, no doubt derived from the best authority, the sum received for admissions to the Grand Stand alone, at Ascot, in the present season, was “upwards of £3,000." This was independent of the rents of all the minor stands, ground let for the erection of booths and tents, charges for coming on the reserved portions of the heath, standings for carriages, and a hundred golden extras. Now can a more moderate balance be struck from all these items combined than £5,000? And is Epsom to be rated at a lower average? But of these gross amounts the money given for plates and additions to stakes was, after debiting the deductions for expenses and receipts for “ entrances," at Epsom £166, and at Ascot £777, net. Thus the income was ten thousand pounds ; and the portion of it which

went to the credit of the racing interest was £965. This analysis stops short of investigating the fate of the margin-nine thousand and thirtyfice pounds! It only goes to demonstrate that it did not find its way into the pockets of the producers. No accusation or imputation of unjust stewardship is intended. Hereditary race-courses are mementos of "the good old times,” and vested interests relios of “ those martyr'd saints, the fire per cents.But they have bequeathed posterity no debt of gratitude whose interest is to be provided for out of the dividends of racing stock. If the proprietors of that costly capital are not dividing five shillings in the pound of its net proceeds, then occasion is rife for organizing a plan that sball secure them a better return for their invest. ments. That the elementary principle of social economy-a practical reciprocity-is capable of application to the turf, there is no doubt. Why should not an attempt be made to appropriate its rich resources systematically, instead of their collection and distribution being matters of conventional sufferance ? The machinery of a race-course five-andtwenty years ago was a hundred per cent. more expensive than in the present day, when the advantages resulting from the progress of science in construction are multiplied by the application of new materials. It only needs a hearty movement in the right direction to put our great national sport on terms with the times. The course is indicated by the philosophy of Virgil's quatrain. The means this postscript has essayed to point out : to the credit of the suggestion our humble claim is here preferred. Had the author of my thesis taken a like precaution, he would have been spared the remonstrance

“Hos ego versiculos feci : tulit alter honores."

THE LAY OF THE HORSE-MARIN E.

(APTER THE MODEL OF COLERIDGE'S ANCIENT MARINER.)

BY THE DRUID.

"The London correspondent of the Journal des Débats has just informed his readers that an English sporting nobleman lately gave a sumptuous repast to his racing friends, and when the cloth was drawn enlightened them with the fact that they bad eaten the winner of the Derby, which be had killed and placed before them as an especial mark of honour to themselves as well as the horse."'_Vide Globe, June 17th,

Mr. Cockanbull meet. eth Alphonse, London correspondent of the Journal des Debats, and detaineth him.

It is young William Cockanbull,

And he stoppeth one of three ;
By their pantaloons and their beards I trow

That Gallic youths they be.
He holds him by his button-hole,

" There was a colt," quoth he, " The Davis laid against him,

And many a pound dropped he."

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