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the leap to the spawn beds (nearly a mile and a half), is private property, and rented out by the landlords at either side as regularly as their fields or dairies, with the exceptions of Sir Hugh Massey and Francis Spaight, Esq. These gentlemen, I understand, never refuse a "stranger sportsman," if respectable, a day's amusement. The boatmen here, as indeed, generally speaking, on the entire river, are very civil, and use their best endeavours to give you sport; and although the Limerick men are all of them "temperance men now, or as the Doonas boys call them "temporary people," yet no one here will refuse the "dhrop" when they can get it, though I never found them take it to excess.

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And now a word or two as to the flies necessary for the Shannon. They must be invariably tied with silk bodies for salmon or peal, ribbed with gold tinsel (seldom with silver), and any fancy hackle you like over the body. In the spring of the year, from the height of the water, your fly must be very large, and your tackle consequently coarse; six links of strong salmon-gut twisted together is not considered a heavy link for the fly: I have seen nine. The golden pheasant's toppings are used very freely in wing and jib. This is a great favourite and very killing fly, used in the spring of the year by those who can afford to have it; it is an expensive fly, a very poor one costing a pound; it is called the "goldfinch," and is entirely composed of the golden pheasant's toppings. I have seen as many as a dozen feathers in the jib or tail, and from four to six dozen in the wing; it is generally tied on a black and orange-silk body, gold tinsel and olive or red hackle.

Half a dozen of flies is quite enough to be provided with, of the size necessary, for the day; and half that number for one who is certain he will not divide his property, leaving the fish the fly and casting-line, and keeping the remainder himself. The bodies may be black and orange, or plain orange, light green, or light blue. The best feathers next the pheasant is the red-and-orange macaw-shoulderfeather (that with the red tip is considered best); and the tassel of the wing plentifully filled with fancy-coloured feathers; this is necessary to float the fly, in consequence of the size and weight of the hook used

at that season.

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For the peal-fishing, in the months of May, June, and part of July, in the commencement, or, as it is called, "the first run" of the season for that merry fish, you need not be very particular; "he'll take anything," they say, "jist for the fun of it.' But after the first six weeks they begin to get "roguish," and then the sportsman's patience and ingenuity are tried; about this time, "when Massy Ryves meadow is cut," the Doonas fishermen say "the peal cut you;" and unless at 66 early morn or dewy eve," the fishermen do not care to go out.

I have found here, as well as in many other rivers I have fished, that experience and close observation alone can make the angler an adept; and by closely watching the natural flies that then swarm the rivers, you will form some pretty accurate idea of what they feed on at this "dogged" season. Coming home one evening rather late from

trout-fishing, I found my hat and clothes full of the large, natural "evening-fly," and on my entering the parlour they flew towards the candle, attracted by the light. It immediately occurred to me to catch a few and examine them next day with the microscope, which I did in the sun, when I saw the different colours of their body distinctly and beautifully; the consequence was that I tied on that day the following fly, which I have found beat every other at that season. Gold tinsel and grey-mallard jib, orange and green-jointed body, and on the green joint (next the wing) run a pair of wrenhackles (tail-feathers are the best); rib with gold twist, and put a small jay-hackle immediately under the wing, which is to be composed of grey mallard, brown turkey, and yellow-dyed guinea-hen, with a single sprig or two of blue-and-yellow macaw-tail-feather, and finish the head with black ostrich. At Doonas this fly will be recognised at once as "the dandy wren" by the fishermen there, as each newly-begotten fly, as well as new-born child, is at once christened by "Father Dinny Considine of that ilk."

Another fly I have found seldom fail, which I have tied from directions given me by the present Lord Doneraile, who is allowed to be the best sportsman that ever took rod or gun in hand in Ireland. The account his lordship gave me of his invention was this-"Coming home one evening without stirring a single fish, though I had unquestionably the best water there (Sir Hugh Massey's), and the peal were throwing themselves around me in dozens, I was struck with the beautiful gloss of purple on the wing-feather of a crow I picked up on the walk. I thought if I had a black fly tied with the pile of this feather for a wing, it would be something new. I gave directions to old Ned Brion, my fisherman,* to tie me a fly with blackostrich body, silver tinsel, red-cock's hackle, and a sprig of jay under the wing, which was to be composed exclusively of the glossy part of the feather I gave him; he brought it next morning, I tried it on that day and for the remainder of the season, and, when they would not look at any other fly, I invariably hooked and killed them with this." I can also recommend this sooty-looking fly to the angler on other rivers, as I have tried it on the Blackwater, in the county of Cork, and the Loune, in Kerry, with right-good effect; and I feel satisfied that one trial will satisfy the most sceptic that, in July and August, when all other flies fail, either of these two last mentioned will be eminently successful. My own opinion (since formed from observation) is, that this fly imitates the "clock or carogue," which in the hot season abound in the beds, under stones, of potato gardens, and which fly about in the evenings at this time of the year; great numbers of them fall into the river, and form the food of the salmon. Float your fly in the water along side of you, and you will at once see the resemblance to that insect.

One word more on peal-fishing in the Shannon. I always found, after the first run of the fish, that the less gaudy the fly is, the better; in that river the fishermen are too fond of yellows and reds. I have found by experience that they are often out; and with my plain grey * Since dead, but his son Ned is alive, and a worthy successor of his father.

wing and sombre body (brown-olive), I have doubled the number killed by the best hands in a day's fishing.

"I in my fishing-cot would be ;
Those rapid streams would solace me,
To whose harmonious bubbling noise
I with my angle would rejoice."

I have often, since then, enjoyed even better sport on this magnificent river, from Gabbett's wear to William's Town, and will in your next month's number (should you think this to be worthy a place in your truly sporting publication) give you, for the benefit of your readers who may wish to visit that country, some few useful hints as to the description of flies required (and they are but few) at the several seasons of the year, together with those necessary to lure "the gillaroe," a splendid species of trout which are to be had upon the upper Shannon.

THE NATIONAL STEEPLE-CHASE.

BY CRAVEN.

Hence

When this race was established, half a dozen years ago, it was most characteristically denominated and worthily carried out with reference to its design. No spot in Great Britain can be better situated than the course at Aintree for an olympic contest between the champions of the four divisions of the kingdom. Liverpool not only forms, as it were, the centre of the sporting districts of England, but it serves as the nucleus of land and water transit from them. it was that in its first years we had my Lord Suffield for England, my Lord Waterford for Ireland, my Lord Macdonald for Scotland, and Sir Thomas Mostyn for Wales, doing their devoirs in the National Steeple Chase. That it has retrograded from its high estate, there is no gainsaying; for the purpose of restoring it to its early honours, 1 take leave to preface this notice of the last anniversary with a few observations.

The system of handicapping has been, since its establishment, applied to this race across country, as well as most of the principal events of the sort in England. Whether the principle works fairly in reference to races over the flat is very questionable; in the steeplechase the chances are multiplied against it a hundred fold. Waving, however, that consideration, if the issue at Liverpool is to be treated as a national trial among the best hunters of the season, it undoubtedly ought to be weight for age, in fact a hunting Derby open to horses of all ages, because you cannot have a hunter fit for his operations at three years old. The utility of such a trial, in a national point of view, indeed I am by no means prepared to contend for. It is one in which the race-horse may be always pitted against the hunter; and they can never meet anywhere in a contest of speed upon equal terms. Both may be bred as clean as Eclipse, but the racer is educated from the milk for speed, and nothing else; while the hunter

as raw as

is called upon to exert two different actions. There was, for example, a horse in the last steeple-chase at Liverpool, called "Heslington," own brother to Charles XII., the property of William Scott; he was a Cockney in the matter of fencing, and was, no doubt, brought out with an eye to the handicaps of 1845. Well, he was beaten. Now the winner, Discount, subsequently ran at Bibury, and was beaten in a field that would not have seen the way Heslington went, had he been in it. Nevertheless, there will be steeple-chases: if that at Liverpool is to be par excellence the "grand national," away with handicap weights in future. I urged this point on the attention of the authorities there, during the past meeting, and I have reason to hope successfully. I am not very fond of steeple-chasing, but in whatever way a field of horses is brought together, I desire to see it one wherein the best may win. This, to be sure, don't suit the legs, but then I am not very fond of that particular class of society.

On the 27th of February I left town, and for the first fifty miles, between Euston Square and Birmingham, found the ice almost fit for the skater, and the frost progressing as favourably as the confectioners could desire; in fact, it looked like the commencement of an old-fashioned winter. As we drew nearer the north, the weather became milder; and at Liverpool, at ten at night, there was not the vestige of an icicle, though a few hours before the sporting gentlemen who had reached head-quarters, in despair of business on the morrow, laid 2 to 1 the race would not come off as it was set down. There is some betting over night generally at a room off Lucas's ride: I presume because such aristocratic doings are in London carried on in a stable lane. In Liverpool, if not for the sake of good taste, on the score of convenience, they might find a more suitable rendezvous. The open street in front of the Adelphi would be more commodious and sweet. The course has not been altered since the first year of these chases; and, as it has been so often described, need not now be recapitulated. The fences were pretty much the same, but less dangerous-a commendable alteration. The majority had been touched up for the nonce; but the additions, in shape of posts and rails, were not too stiff, and, moreover, inclined from the taking off, so as, in fact, to make the jump more "negotiable." The morning of the 28th was lovely, but, just as the horses were brought out, the rain came down in torrents, and so continued for an hour, to the discomfiting of the pageant, and the discomforting of the actors and lookers on. In the town the lot to start was pretty well ascertained, and, when the weighing was effected, amounted to sixteen; though, after the process had been gone through by William M'Donough, it was generally thought Scott would keep Heslington for the Hurdle Race, which, had he done, he could not have lost it. People for this abused Scott as a fool. I wish I had such a fool to manœuvre a racing stud for me.

The betting was, as it ever is in such cases, bizarre (what a capital term that is) beyond almost all precedent. They took 6 to 1 outright, at one time, that Wiverton won with 12st. 4lb. on him. The remainder of the speculation was in this wise-5 to 1 against Marengo; the same against Discount; 8 to 1 against Heslington; the same about Wiverton at the close; 13 to 1 Charity; 14 to 1 Nimrod;

15 to 1 The Returned; 20 to 1 Louis Philippe; and 25 to 1 against the Romp, the Irish mare. As I have said, on the appearance of the horses in the saddling paddock, it rained cats and dogs, and there they were kept for the best part of an hour, some with their clothes on and their jockeys stripped, others their jocks coated and shawl'd, and shivering in their own clipped and singed nakedness. It was three o'clock when the following field, marshalled by Lord Sefton, approached the post, and got off on good terms as the word for the start was given :

:

....

...

....Crickmere 1
.Scott 2
.Rockley 3
Barker 4

.Byrne 0

.Frisby 0 .Parker 0 ..Oliver 0

A HANDICAP SWEEPSTAKES of 20 sovs. each, 10 ft., and only 5 if declared, and
100 added; second to save his stake; 41 subs., 19 of whom declared.
Mr. Quatermaine's ch. h. Discount, by Sir Hercules, 10st. 12lb.
Mr. S. Crawford's ch. g. The Returned, aged, 12st...
Mr. Tilbury's bk. g. Tom Tug, by Defence, 10st. 7lb.
Lord Maidstone's br. h. Cæsar, aged, 11st. 10lb..
Mr. Lamplugh's ch. m. the Romp, aged, 10st. 7lb.
Mr. W. Ekins's gr. g. Peter Simple, aged, 12st. 12lb.
Mr. F. A. Milbank's br. h. Robinson, aged, 12st. 7lb.
Lord Maidstone's Wiverton, 6 yrs., 12st. 4lb.
Mr. Bradley ns. br. g. Heslington, 6 yrs., 12st.
Lord E. Russell's gr. h. Lather, aged, 11st. 2lb.
Sir J. Gerard ns. ch. g. Louis Philippe (half bred), 6 yrs., 11st.
Mr. Hollinshead's b. g. Little Peter (half bred), aged, 10st. 12lb.
Mr. Mare's b. g. Nimrod, aged, 10st. 10lb.
Mr. Bretherton's b. g. Marengo, aged, 10st. 10lb..
Mr. Kennedy's Tetotum, 6 yrs., 10st. 7lb.
Mr. Veger's b. g. Charity, aged, 10st. 71b...

....

.W. M'Donogh 0
...T. Ball 0
....J. Powell 0
. Owner
.A. M'Donogh 0

..Owner 0 .Sharkey O .. Powell 0

From the prevalence of dark colours, and the heavy rain that was calling, it was not easy to discover what was making the running. The first obviously in front, however, was Tom Tug, who held his lead for the next three miles-but the pace was not good. Next to him was the Romp, who did not win, because she could not, as it seemed to me; but according to her rider, because "be Jasus they'll let nothin' Irish win at Liverpool." The first done with it was Robinson, a magnificent animal, but clearly too full of flesh, who did not take a leap kindly, and stopped "for good" at the third. They say he's very fast-and to prove their opinion, have backed him for £300 against Cattonite, over the Maidstone course, at Goodwood, for the coming meeting. But all this time the steeple chasers are getting away from us. The ruck of horses continued together to the artificial brook opposite the Stand- —a fair hunting-flask of water 12 feet in the clear; the first over being Tom Tug, followed by all cleverly, the worst being the Romp, who was down "all but a toucher." Thus, with no material change, they approached the road for the last fence into the racing ground. Here several were tailed off; Tom Tugg, Marengo, The Returned, Lather, and Discount, were all that now could be said to be in the race-the latter waiting, as his orders were. At the turn for the run home, he went up, outpaced his horse every stride, and won by at least twenty lengths. "How silly to win by such a distance!" said the cognoscenti, "they'll stick it into his next handicap:" whereat Master Quartermaine laughed-not the first lot of knowing ones he's laughed at in his time. The second was the Returned-badly beaten-Tug close to him, and more fit to go on: had this latter not been the violent devil he is he would have been hard to beat. The field was the most sightly, perhaps,

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