EMBELLISHMENTS. SURPLICE AND CANEZOU --THE SET-TO FOR THE ST. LEGER, 1848. SURPLICE AND CANEZOU.-BY CASTOR . TWO YEARS IN THE FAR WEST.-BY THE AUTHOR OF “ STORIES CAPTAIN PIGSKIN'S VISIT TO THE BATH AND BRISTOL STEEPLE CHASES; TOGETHER WITH SOME DETAILS OF THE NEIGH- BOURING SPORTING QUARTERS.—BY LINTON . SKETCHES FROM THE CAPE OF GOOD HOPE.--BY THE AUTHOR . SPORTING INCIDENTS AT HOME AND ABROAD (FROM THE MS. LIFE OF THE HON. PERCY HAMILTON.-COMMUNICATED TO AND EDITED BY LORD WILLIAM LENNOX FOX-HUNTING IN THE SOUTH OF FRANCE NOTES OF THE CHASE-THE SOUTH BERKSHIRE, THE H. H., . " THE MOON FOR MISCHIEF.”—BY OXONIAN SKETCHES FROM A SPORTSMAN'S PORTFOLIO— NO. 1.--BY PERCY B. ST. JOAN, ESQ. PUBLIC AMUSEMENTS OF THE METROPOLIS First Quar., 2 day, at 38 min. past 7 afternoon. Morning afternoon. Sun Moon High WATER D. D. OCCURRENCES. rises and rises & London Bridge. í sets. sets. | morn. I aftern. h. m. d. h. m. h. m. h. m. IM Circumcision. Daventry Fair. r8 9711a48 6 10 6 35 2 T s 4. 08 SETS. 6 58 7 25 3 W LAMBOURNE COURSING MEET. Ir 8 8 9' 1 1 7 55 8 25 4T EPSOM COURSING MEETING. s 4 310 2 18 9 2 9 36 5 F Sedgefield Fair. r 8 811 3 35 10 15 10 54 68 Epiphany. Twelfth Day. s 4 512 4 5011 30 midnight. 75 First Sunday after Epiphany r 8 713 6 I no tide 0 32 8 M Warwick Fair. s 4 8 F RISES) 1 0 1 30 9T r 8 615 5 23 1 55 2 20 10 W Shrewsbury Fair. g 4 1116 6 36 2 45 3 10 11 T Hilary Term begins. r 8 517 7 49 3 35 3 55 12 F s 4 1318 8 59 4 17 4 40 13 S Cambridge Term begins. ľ 8 319 107 14 5 Second Sunday after Epiph. s 4 16 2011 15 5 15 M Oxford Term begins. r 8 221 Xorning 6 20 6 45 16 T HARPENDEN STEEPLE CHASE s 4 2022 0 20 57 25 17 W r 8 0 23 1 23 7 501 8 20 18 T s 4 23 24 2 25 8 55 9 30 19 F Aylesbury Fair. r 7 58 25 3 2610 510 40 20 S 8 4 26 26 4 2311 1511 50 21 S Third Sunday after Epiphany r 7 5627 5 18 notide 0 20 22 M Melton Mowbray Fair. 5 4 30 28 6 9 0 44 1 7 23 T Howden Fair. r 7 53 29 6 63 1 28 1 50 24 W STOURTON (CuesHIRE) S. C. 4 33 N SETS. 2 10 25 T Bingley (Yorkshire) Fair. r 7 51 1 6 5 2 45 3 5 26 F Launceston Fair. s 4 36 2 7 14 3 20 3 40 27 S r7 48 3 8 25 3 28 5 Fourth Sunday after Epiph, s 4 40 4 9 38 4 35 29 M EVERLEIGH COURSING MEET. 1 7 45 510 511 5 1015 30 30 T ABERYSTWITH STEEPLE CHASE 8 4 44 6 ori 5 501 6 10 31 W Hilary Term ends. 117 42 7 0 5 6 35 7 0 voerer HA CON 20 afternoon. COURSING MEETINGS IN JANUARY. Brampton (a Match) ................ .......... 3 & 4 4 & 5 11 & 12 11 & 25 Broughton (Open)... .............24 & 25 Everleigh..... ...... ....... . .. . ...... ....... 29 &C. Newcastle and Tunstall not fixed. TIIE NEW YE A R. BY CRAVEN. “ En avant!" Hark! 'tis December's latest chime, The season's passing bell ; A moral in its knell. To die and make no sign- Thy lore in 'Forty-nine. And odour-breathing May, Their mellow lives away. To shower succeedeth shine : Will rise on 'Forty-nine. And chafes the waters wide; Are nestled side by side. Shall bring forth oil and wine : The bloom of 'Forty-nine. The sun-beam will set free, Its flowery liberty- Moves order's stated line : To rays in 'Forty-nine. Obeys the natural laws ; Are with the Great First Cause. And will not love divine With smiles in 'Forty-nine ? The year that has just ended was the annus mirabilis of the nineteenth century. 'Forty-five beat it in the frenzy of finance ; but in wonders, political, social, and theological-in anomalies, moral and immoral, imperial and tag-rag-and-bob-tail—there has not probably been such a season since the sun was set in the firmament. In sporting, also, there were a few novelties, of which we shall speak, not in the vein of animadversion, but for the sake of profit from the reversion. “ We take no note of time but by its loss," says one, whose philosophy was for all time and all occasions. As it is with the hour, so it is with all that appertains to it. It was customary to assign nine days as the mortal career of a wonder; but as marvels became more general, the term of their existence was curtailed. Who can forget the noise that “ gun-cotton" made a little while ago, and the social revolutions it was asserted the discovery would bring about? But does any one hear such reports now ?...... Nevertheless, apathetic as the world has grown, the rule has its exceptions. People shrug their shoulders when mention is made of alchemy and “ the powder of projection,” yet they gorge the hook baited with a project as visionary by the fishers of men in their own times. The philosopher's stone left behind it a family, some member of which has always made a figure in its generation. The occult science, founded, as the scholiasts assert, by Shem, the contemporary of Ham and Japhet, assumed many characters : now revelling in philosophic mysteries—as among the Sibyls, the disciples of Deiphobe—and anon turning its hand-as in the fourteenth century-to operative chemistry, whose especial professor was the sage Paracelsus. Among the varieties of mystic lore which from antediluvian days to the present ha ve frighted the world from its propriety, none have borne such close relationship, such family affinity, as the transmutation of metals and “ Derby Sweeps.” Fontinelle, speaking of alchemy, says-“ Nothing but the blindness induced by avidity could procure belief that a man who possessed the power of making gold must receive gold from another before he can exhibit his art. How can such a person stand in need of money ?” The promoters of Sweeps announced their anxiety to bestow upon their patrons “ a splendid fortune for five shillings !” Why did not they keep the independence to themselves, and retire from business? Here's a passage, which, by altering names and dates, will apply to either of those delusions—“The philosopher's stone was a creation of the fourteenth century, and much accredited among the scientific men of that day. Raymond Lully, Nicholas Flamel, Armand de Villeneuve, and several others, were initiated in the secret. Nicholas Flamel was a celebrated alchymist, and having acquired an immense fortune, it was attributed to the philosopher's stone, which of course stimulated the cupidity of the proselytes of alchemy. Eager was their pursuit of a study which was to endow them with boundless wealth ; and these lunatics found coadjutors in persons of weak mind, while wiser men diverted themselves by sustaining their hopes, and affecting conviction of their success !..... Most of those who attempted the pursuit were brought to want and wretchedness; and one of them observed in his last moments that he could not imagine a bitterer curse to bequeath than the love of alchemy!” I fancy it would not be difficult to find a modern Nicholas Flamel, neither to discover those who would pronounce “ Sweeps” as bitter a curse as the search for the philosopher's stone. The annihilation of those bitter nuisances will rank foremost in the catalogue of sporting promise for the season of 1849. It is difficult to reconcile the judicial crusade now waging against turf lotteries with the conventional impunity so long conceded to them. Sidney Smith prophesied that the lieges would continue to be subjected to close imprisonment in railway carriages until the immolation of a bishop should propitiate the punishment-and lo! “ Exeter" became the half-burnt offering. Was it necessary that a rehearsal of the Camberwell tragedy -a second appearance of a real George Barnwell—should precede the prohibition of a system that as surely must burn the fingers of those who meddle with it as the coke of the Great Western Railway the “ terminus” of any one who may sit upon it; or were sweeps and lotteries especially ordained that the scripture might be fulfilled, which declareth the human heart to be deceitful above all things ? Two lawyers-bred in one school-fed on one philosophy—bent body and soul on one purpose-differ as doth night from day in the interpretation of an Act of Parliament.“ By the forty-second of Geo. III.,” says Mr. Bodkin, “ it is enacted that all persons keeping an office or place for a lottery not authorized by Act of Parliament shall be dealt with as rogues and vagabonds ; now racing Sweeps are precisely the kind of lottery against which this act was intended to provide.” “My opinion,” rejoined Mr. Clarkson, who was retained for an opposite reading of the statute, “ is precisely different." The Attorney-General had selected the former of these learned gentlemen to represent the Crown upon the showing of a high authority. That distinguished individual was absent on other matters of deep account; but should a crying evil be permitted to exist for that reason? Though he could not act, should the whole social family suffer from “ the law's delay" " When he himself might its quietus make With a bare-Bodkin ?" Never! and so one Mr. Casey was made the scape-goat-taken uphad before the “ beak”—found to be a rogue and vagabond within the meaning of the Act, and-held to bail! Mr. Casey belonged to the Lambeth Water Works, so his word was taken for £80, and he had two friends who lent him their respectabilities to the amount of £40 each, and he went about his business. Had it been Casey the costermonger that was—but now of the Lambeth Workhouse—whose word isn't worth eightpence, and who hasn't a friend in the world that would vouch for four-pence to save his soul from Satan, he would have gone to jail. Episodes like this to the contrary notwithstanding, long life to the bold barons who wrung Magna Charta out of King John-the wonder is that such a dirty fellow should have had anything so valuable at his disposition. An outcry has been made by a few of those friends from whom the proverb wishes the object of their favour a good deliverance, about the injustice of selecting the keepers of public houses as the first to be prohibited from dabbling in lotteries not authorized by act of Parliament, and being consequently dealt with as rogues and vagabonds. Now, if any set of persons coming within such a category deserved a point in the odds, it certainly could not be those with whom the unlawful practice originated. Ginnums had a cruel pull of Fitz-fleece. The latter poor devil hasn't had his hand in the public pocket six calendar months before the police pounce upon him, and “The charge is prepared; the lawyers are met.” To be sure he promises to die game. If lotteries be against the statute, he will try “ Betting Lists,” “ Betting Offices," “ Racing Banks,” “ Racing Information gratis,” and any other keen contrivance his wits may suggest—and thus for a season this new order of industrie will drag its slow length along. On public grounds such gambling will not be a source of anxiety. There always were—and most probably |
