establishment was commenced; and notwithstanding the immense increase in the breeding of horses within that period, as well as the almost total annihilation of posting by the formation of railroads, Mr. Tattersall assured me the other day, that horses possessing the same qualities as those of 1799 will now sell for double the price. Reader! Would you see Tattersall's, the great Turf Exchange, in all its glory, visit it on the settling day for the Derby, when you will behold the speculative genius of man in full play-a sight once seen, never to be forgotten. THE STEEPLE CHASE. PLATE V.-" NOBODY NAMES THE WINNER!" ENGRAVED BY E. HACKER, FROM A PAINTING BY J. F. HERRING, SEN. At it they come! all much of a muchness still, and going “in and out clever," like old hunters or young water-rats! A horse should never see a brook till he is over it; or suppose we say, to suit our present subject, till he is in it. For the steeple-chase this rule applies well enough, however often it may be broken through at other times. A man who comes up to the water in a velvet jacket, just to see how himself or his horse likes it, and then goes back again for an impetus to help him in getting a taste of it, can scarcely be said to be in his element, whether he does manage for an immersion or not. Yea or nay, too, his fate has little effect, by way of example, on his followers: if anything, it is rather an exhilarating sight to see one opponent so fairly disposed of; and so at it they come, with more heart than warning from the incident. A brook is a thing that cannot be trifled with, if you are running at all for fences; and unlike the majority of fences, the first that has the offer of it almost invariably has it at the most advantage. A very formidable affair, with the top rail on, assumes a very different ap pearance with that top rail off; and it is just about " even odds" that the rusher in front takes it away with him. How accommodating, again, becomes the "stake-and-bound," with the binder broken! and was there ever an unshorn bull-fincher yet that didn't show where the leading man went through it? The rear rank ought to get a pull out of all these; but it is very different for them at the brook. The first come and best served just shaves it with a loss of about a foot of the bank he landed on; number two makes it a little more exciting, and of course a little less inviting for number three, who, with a wider jump and a worse hold, comes well into it; and then "the interest of the scene" commences, for it is astonishing, with one horse in the water, how ready others are to come on him. "The brook" has always been the great attraction of the line for a steeple-chase, the rallying point for the fun of the populace, and the most important consideration for the attention of the performers. At first, when the grand desideratum seemed to be to furnish a return, like that of a decisive battle, with an appalling list of killed and wounded to give importance to the engagement, the brook was made the chief means for such an end. If it was a good fair trial for a horse as it offered, they used to extend it by digging it out with a sharp, sliding bank on either side. A most ingenious contrivance for a broken back it was, too, with nothing to soften a fall, as there would have been in its natural state, but a fearful brick-and-mortar sort of embankment, that looked like being made to order for mischief. Again, if that was not available, or considered enough if acted on, the next thing was to run up a good stiff post-and-rail, or a pro tempore wall on one side, and catch the unhappy exhibitors in that way. Not unfrequently, though, the country was found to contain something bad enough ready-made, as they were lucky to have it at Newport two or three years since, when the floods were out, and no one could hope to say where the course of the stream ran. That was fine, to be sure, as horse after horse blundered in and came out again, some time or other, and one side or other, with a good deal the look, if not the relish, of a duck in a thunder-storm! The committee-men and managers, in short, used to fancy that they could not have their fences big enough, and so spoilt the character of their sport by trying to make it too extraordinary. To give the mob their due, they were always ready and willing to do their part in carrying out the intentions of the gentlemen in office. A few hours before starting, a few hundred of them would proceed to "the place" in the brook the Field was expected to take it at, and, having nothing else to do, proceed on to mischief naturally. On one occasion the Northampton snobs, in thousands perhaps, rather than hundreds, agreed for a fight-one side of the water against the other tearing up the banks for missiles in the dire energy of their civil war, and making the ground in a most terrible state long before the chase came off. If they do not always get as far as this, their flattering presence and attention are generally demonstrated in something the same inconvenient fashion. Possibly they may take a turn at brook-jumping themselves; and their getting in and out, with the effect it has on the landing and take-off, is "too evident to require further comment here." Or young Farmer Brown, riding up on his "nag horse," in all the dandyism of a bacon-face and a satin tye, and a tight black dress-coat and white cord breeches, is earnestly intreated to let his "little horse" have a shy at it. And the farmer, after having been considerably besought, bullied, and ridiculed, has the shy accordingly, and goes bang into it as certainly to the extreme gratification of his admiring friends, who lug him out amidst roars of laughter, and the most urgent inquiries as to "how he could be such a fool?" The "little nag," in the meanwhile, most likely having had his bridle pulled off his head, is going with the stream, despite the hundred different plans advised for getting him out of it. Just suppose, now, that at such a time Captain M'Intosh, making strong running on "The Scottish Chief," should set his horse's head for the brook. Do you think the Roughs could be got out of the way for him? Not they, indeed! We once saw them with just such an other "object of interest" as the fallen farmer, block up every approach; and it was not until one man had put his horse at it standing, and been hurrahed into it, that the mob got their attention back to the legitimate game, and allowed the others a passage. Our brook scene is in all character one of the most exciting of the series. If not attended with many of the disadvantages we have alluded to, and that, we are happy to add, are going more or less out of fashion, it has still incident enough for all proper interest. Without the rail-and this is one evidently not purposely put upthe water would have been nothing; with it, coming near home, and horses pretty well pumped out, it is awkward enough. Our friend the Captain has met with a mishap at last-when so provokingly well-placed, too-and, despite the pink ribbons, Lady Jane has lost all her colour now her hero has lost his lead. The other of the "oi swelloi," as poor Lord Kintore used to call them, is in for it also, as deep as he well can be; and the bay horse looks as much like jumping short as anything we have seen for many a long day. As for the groom, having allowed himself to be sent through the rails instead of carried over them, he is now doing all in his power to complete the catastrophe, by pulling his horse upon him. The race he is out of, beyond a doubt; for once across the water, and they are within three fields of home, and with three left in yet to make a race of it. Supposing, then, the bay don't jump it quite clean, we might talk about naming the winner even now, and reckoning on the Captain repeating the Jem Robinson trick of winning his race and his wife all in the week. Her ladyship heard the remark, you see; for her colour has come back with a blush as red as a rose, and a look as sweet as hope, and as full of it. The Captain for ever! and "bar none." SKETCHES FROM THE "HEYTHROP COUNTRY." A celebrated writer avowed his passion for a particular name; and doubtless all men have a like predilection for some well or ill defined object, vision, or thing, whether fanciful, utopian, or otherwise; and, as is too frequently the case, without the entire, or even partial concurrence of the majority of their fellow citizens. But in these degenerate times of reckless innovation and folly, a novelty creates very little wonder "When every day and hour brings forth a new one." And it would be a desirable consummation, if most of the modern fashions and foibles, so repugnant to good sense, and the simple wants, manners, and customs of our ancestors, and which, like the bubbles children blow into the air, disappear not in their formation, or as they glitter and temporarily float before the giddy mind, could assume one hydra-headed form, to afford a better mark for receiving its quietus from the artillery of truth and common sense. Truly we have a passion likewise, the foundation and aim of which is sure, perfect, and indefeasible, and according to the immutable laws of truth and nature; a love and veneration for the sports, pastimes, customs, traditions, and privileges handed down to us by our forefathers-invaluable bequests, acquired by their wisdom and foresight, and for the preservation of which they deemed no sacrifice too great; and the same, to the poor extent of our ability and judgment, like true and faithful legatees, we— "With more than with a common pain, 'Gainst all the world will rightfully maintain ;" believing that whoever wields well the pen in combating for the maintenance and support of all, or any of them, does as much to serve his country as the genuine patriotism of the senate or the camp; by exposing the weak ideas and nonsense of the times, amongst fashion's votaries in the country, but especially amidst the vanity, strife, and bustle of concentrated and centralized civilization; by endeavouring to turn the minds of the present and rising generation from modern follies and kickshaws to a better, wiser mode of thinking and acting; and by teaching them to look back with admiration and not contempt, with enthusiasm and not with apathy, to the manly recreations and generous customs adopted by our ancestors, which have made this island what it is 66 * * * Great, glorious, and free; all that has tended to its genuine greatness and power, all that has led to the muscular and moral energies of its people, and for which its brightest ornaments in bygone days wisely wrote, and nobly fought and bled. And if by an unwise feeling and desire of change amongst us, their descendants, these inestimable gifts are destroyed, it must eventually lose its ancient character, all that ennobles and adorns it; and in the place of its best and hitherto most cherished institutions and privileges, let in a tide of absurd, selfish, speculative doctrines, calculated to root out from amongst us all care or humane feeling for the peasant, and all veneration or respect for the peer, without proof of their utility, without principle or a pursuit beyond the novelty of their being new ; and, worst of all, raising up the god of Mammon for their worship, and in blind adoration to sacrifice everything at its shrine. "Ill fares the land to hastening ills a prey, So sung one of the best of our national bards, who evidently foresaw, even in his day, the increasing tendency of the age unwisely to remodel the natural features of old habits, and deck them out in all the tinsel and tawdry finery of the new dress-a transition from the sturdy manliness, valour, and common sense of old times, to the effeminate manners and maudlin sentimentality of the present-and in that butterfly transformation seeking every change and flying from flower to flower, instead of adhering to the simplicity, hospitality, and good-fellowship so redundant in the days long spent. And therefore, to prop up all that is beneficial from the experience of the past, without entirely rejecting what is essential to the present, if we prove one feeble buttress, one unpolished pillar to the rare structure upraised to our view, the great good cause before-mentioned, and for which we feel a sincere admiration and devotion, our end and aim is answered, and we shall not have written in vain. But we do not lack defenders, abler pens than ours to combat growing prejudices, and to throw the shield of protective cloquence and truth around the cherished and glorious pastimes of our native land, two of which deserve honourable mention; the one upon which these breathing thoughts are indelibly inscribed, and the other with the symbolic eye seeing all things-both faithful servants of the public, having long catered for our amusement, and renowned for their fearless and successful advocacy of sport and fair play. We have a partiality for the latter; when oftentimes, in boyhood's days, seated by a venerable grandfather, with spectacles on nose, the sight of its old escutcheon, and the perusal of its contents by stalwart uncles, we recollect as vividly as a thing of yesterday, with the accompaniments of comment, laugh, and bet at the result of the last "mill," or the chances of the next in those old milling days, ere the breath of slander or prejudice fell like a dark cloud, to deaden all its pristine splendour, and to wither a once deep-seated fondness existing amongst us for that truly manly and national "science." Ah! they were noble pupils from the good old school; men of stamina and strength to " give and to receive a blow;" redolent of fun and frolic; now, alas! distributed Heaven knows whither. And having touched a string whereon some of the heart's best and fondest feelings vibrate, if we grow a little sentimental, kindly bear with us, gentle reader; and anon the merry laugh shall come, and the din of sylvan war shall ring upon thine ear, and the music of horn and hound shall gladden the heart, as ye scour through the woodlands, over the hills, and down amidst the streams and pastures of the valleys. Accustomed from earliest boyhood to the charms and seclusion of a country life, when we diligently sought to acquire a knowledge of the first rudiments of sport-the mimic chace of fox or hare, in the pursuit of the polecat, the weasel, or the rabbit, the use of dog and gun, the rod and line, fishing nets, bird-traps and bird-lime, and the many other contrivances to while away the time in "flood and field," in which branches of learning we were progressing most satisfactorily to ourselves-albeit not to those whom we love to regard as our guardian spirits upon earth, and tutelary saints in heaven, who wisely deemed other kinds of knowledge more beneficial for the battle of life; of which we soon had a "small taste," to our sorrow, in the despotism of a school, with the birch hanging over us in terrorum. Then life's first troubles and disappointments began, followed in rapid succession by others, as we launched forth upon the weary pilgrimage of the world. In the reminiscences of those past days we frequently and naturally turn to what was once in fact, but now ours only in fancy," the old farm-house at home;" and often in memory's eye, yea, even now, we see that vision of a once-fond reality, clear, palpable, perfect, and defined on the brow of the little hill rising from the valley, with its clean white |
