JULY, 1846. EMBELLISHMENTS. LEATHERLUNGs the "leg.”—by the editor M. W. First Quar., 1 day, at 23 min. past 9 afternoon. OCCURRENCES. Sun rises and sets. [REGATTA. h. m. Moon's Moon HIGH WATER rises & London Bridge. sets. morn. | aftern. d. h. m. h. m. h. m. 811a24 6 37 6 59 2 24 0 4 0 33 1W WINCHST. R. Last D. of THAMESr 3 49 2 T Cricket at Eton-M. C. C. v. Etns. s 8 17 911 49 7 21 7 46 3 F Dog Days begin. [son at Erith. r 3 50 10 morn. 8 15 8 49 4 SR.T.Y.Č.-last Match of the sea-s 8 1611 0 17 9 21 9 53 5 Fourth Sunday after Trinity.r 3 5212 0 51 10 2511 0 6M Old Mids. D. Game Certif. ends. s 8 1513 1 3311 34 7T NEWM. J. MEET. I. OF MAN REG.r 3 54 14 8 W Fire Ins. due. OSTENDRE. [at Ld'ss 8 14 F 9 T Under Graduates Camb. v. M.C.C.r 3 5616 10 F MORTLAKE SUR. REG. York F.'s 8 13 17 11 S Oxford Trinity Term ends. 12 5 Fifth Sunday after Trinity. 13 M MANSFIELD RACES. rises 8 17 0 59 1 27 1 50 2 14 8 53 2 40 3 5 r3 58 18 9 25 3 30 3 53 s 8 1219 9 53 4 16 4 38 r 4 02010 19 5 4 5 28 14 T Wintringham Fair. MALLOW R. 8 24 F ODIHAM RACES. 7 33 8 3 8 30 98 625 0 21 9 42 10 17 626 1 210 5311 30 427 1 48 0 4 928 2 40 0 34 1 0 Is 8 229 3 35 1 23 1 45 25 S St. James. ELECTION REG. ATT 4 14 2 16 Ennis .................. 25 ...... 20 | Good wood .................................... 28 Ashton-under-Lyne ...... 20 Wenlock ................. 28 7 | Southampton ............ 21 7 | Stamford .............................. 21 4 6 REGATTAS IN JULY. .... Mortlake Regatta 10 Royal Harwich Regatta. 17 & 18 Boat Race on the Trent.... Royal Mersey Y.C. Challenge Isle of Man Regatta.... 7 & 8 ! Cup ..... 18 Cutter Match at Putney .. 7 Yarmouth Regatta.... 21 & 22 Ostend Regatta...... 8, 8, & 210 : Election Regatta at Eton .. 25 Preston ....... 9 Balliveran ................ 30 Greenwich Regatta........ 27 THE HAND-BOOK OF THE CHASE. BY THE EDITOR. "Lead on: I'll follow thee." SHAKSPEARE. Some years ago, I gave, in the pages of one of the sporting periodicals, a series of sketches, entitled, "Chronicles of the British Chase," the object of which was to record the origin, progress, and position of the leading hunting establishments in this country. My present purpose is to treat of those establishments with a different view. Whatever people -who look at everything as if they had bought for their particular use Moses Primrose's gross of green spectacles-may say about the decline and fall of British fox-hunting, depend upon it the taste for the field will continue a national characteristic so long as "the sons of Old England are men." To be sure, it is not the serious affair that the old writers lead us to suppose it was-it is not conducted as if it was one of the learned professions, or with as strict regard to discipline as a military parade. A man is not consigned to Coventry now, (or a worse place), by the anathemas of the master, if, with his blood as fierce as steam, and his horse as furious as a steam-engine, it should so fall out that he "Rode o'er the hounds, it may be, now and then, Hunting is not the solemn priggish business it seems to have been, or was destined to have been, had the philosophy of woodcraft, as set forth by its professors, found obedient disciples. To kill the fox is not the sole object of your hunter now. In these latter days it has been discovered that it is not absolutely necessary that hounds should be constantly blooded to keep their courage and perseverance up to the mark. The chase is now a sport in a more appropriate application than it was wont, and more fully in keeping with the opinion the best English writer upon it gave in the best days of his experience of its operation and influence. "Independent of the pleasure arising from the chase," he observes, "I have always considered a cover's side, with hounds that are well attended, to be one of the most lively scenes in nature; and I have no hesitation in adding, that the best introduction for a young man of fashion and fortune, in the present day, is to be found at Billesdon Coplow or Oadby toll-bar." Being of a like mind, I have, for some time past, thought it would serve the good cause were some modern notice of the crack countries published in a convenient form for reference. Hunting gained many and many a proselyte by the appearance of "Nimrod's Tours." They stirred the embryo sportsman's heart like the blast of a trumpet, and are, of their kind, the most characteristic essays ever written. As Hamlet said of Yorick, Apperly was "a fellow of infinite wit" in the management of a sporting subject. He not only took you with him into the field, but he showed you the best line across country, counselled you as to the best method of making your point good: and if there was a devil of a bullfinch right in the track, he told you there was nothing to do but to "throw your heart over, and to follow it." His essays on the chase are the most amusing productions in the world; and as I could not hope to contribute to the Noble Science anything half so clever or so practical, I bethought me I might do the state some service in a humbler line. While Nimrod shows "how fields were won," I might " lead the way;" point out where the most agreeable and the most negotiable fields are to be met with; request the company of the right sort, at certain elysiums, of which I shall come to speak anon; throw his heart into such slices of paradise as are to be found in certain sly corners of Buckinghamshire, for instance, (ah! you never heard of Bucks as the best fox-hunting county in the world?), and, barring he be the counterfeit presentiment of a sportsman, carved in alabaster," by the soul of Acteon "he'll follow it. This idea occurred to me long ago, and, a few months since, I alluded to my design of carrying it out. For reasons it is not necessary to refer to, it may be convenient here to repeat the substance of what I then said with regard to my views...... Were any enterprising bookseller to enter upon the undertaking, he would find "" A Hand-book of the Hunting Countries of Great Britain a very popular work. Such a guide is greatly wanted. Why should not a man be told where to go for a good pack of hounds, and a good country to follow them over, as well as where he may find the most perfect picturesque, or rely on the most correct cuisine? When, a few years ago, a series of hunting maps was in progress through two of the sporting periodicals, it was said that some masters of hounds objected against them, on the ground that they afforded strangers facilities for visiting their districts. The idea of making the chase an exclusive sport is about the most mischievous that could enter into the contemplation of any one having a hunting establishment. It is a rural amusement, wholly dependant on popular countenance. No gentleman, in any land, could hunt through a single season without the leave and support of his neighbours. He may buy a manor, and shoot it, or fish it, or perhaps course it, in all the sublimity of seclusion; but he can only hunt on particular sufferance, be he who he may. It is my purpose to compile a Hand-book of the description above alluded to. The man who adopts the chase professedly stands in need, perhaps, of no such guide: he has his stud at some popular rendezvous, or some point locally or socially suited to him, and thither he repairs when in the vein, or there he pitches his tent during the season. These fortunati nimium, however, form rather the exception to, than the rule of, woodcraft. The habitués of a pack rarely constitute a tithe of the field. Hundreds of good sportsmen and true are fain to content themselves with a run, or the chance of one, when fortune vouchsafes to allow them the possibility. Some good angel assists them to beg, borrow, or steal a holiday, and the question that instinctively suggests itself |