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the exterior of the ring; he pointed out to us the direction of our seats, the number and description of which was notified on the cards. How shall I describe the sensation that I felt when I found myself actually within a Spanish bull-ring, about to witness a sight which I had so often read, described both in poetry and prose, by far abler pens than mine? I, however, leave the reader to judge, when he has finished this plain and unvarnished tale, whether former writers have overdrawn such scenes, and whether my admiration of the Spanish character was increased or diminished by the spectacle witnessed; leaving him, moreover, to form his own ideas as to the cruelty of it. Although I found afterwards, from other travellers, that the ring at Malaga was small when compared with those of Madrid and Seville, yet the coup d'œil which met my English eyes had a very exciting and novel appearance. Fancy from 10,000 to 12,000 people, all wrought up to the highest pitch of excitement, dressed in all the colours of the rainbow, shouting and screaming with all their might; the din not diminished by a full brass, military band, thundering out at intervals the various national airs of Spain.

The form and arrangement of a bull-ring has been so often described that I shall now, at once, proceed to the fight itself. First there came the various actors who were to perform in the approaching strife, marching two and two round the ring; the rear brought up by the picadors or mounted combatants: these certainly were on horseback, but that is all that can be said for them. What very different animals from what we had been led to expect from the poetry of Byron-the many pictures we had seen, or even the accounts of sober prose writers! These horses certainly would have been dear to purchase at any price, and were not even allowed the free use of their faculties to ward off the infuriated attacks of their adversaries, for a handkerchief was carefully bound over their eyes so as entirely to obscure everything that was passing around them. The head matador, Montes, now advanced, bowing to the governor of the town, who sat in a state box, not only to witness but give his sanction to the fight, requesting the key of the dens, in which the bulls had been incarcerated separately the night before. The ring was now cleared of every one; the large door leading to the dens on one side of the ring, under the governor's seat, was opened, and a cow, trained for the purpose, walked in, making her way slowly to the den on the opposite side, which was thrown open to receive her; soon after, a tremendous rushing and bellowing was heard, and in tore, headlong, the eight bulls doomed to be slaughtered. They continued to gallop round and round the ring for some time, till, their attention being attracted before, by the cow, who was endeavouring to entice them to follow her through the open door, and by men making all sorts of noises in their rear, who I conclude were used to the fun, for they escaped most wonderfully without being thrown down or hurt, they eventually evacuated the ring. This showing off of the bulls is like the warren at Epsom, for the purpose of allowing the Spanish bettingmen a sight of their favourites, in order that they might, each of them, sport his money on his peculiar fancy. Every animal was marked by a small dart fixed in his shoulder, to which was appended

a long narrow strip of coloured ribbon; these colours, announcing his breed and owner, answer to the description of the bull printed in a paper distributed among the spectators, sold and hawked about like Darling's correct cards of the names and colours, not, however, of the riders, but of the animals themselves. A black bull attracted my attention by his peculiar look of disdain and anger, and, if I had been a Spanish don, I, doubtless, should have well lined my pockets with dollars, as he behaved most nobly. About five minutes after the bulls had disappeared, a trumpet sounded, and, amidst a dead silence, in rushed bull number one, roaring loudly and lashing his tawney sides with his black and bushy tail. Then the fun (query) began: five or six chulos, each dressed differently and most showily, in blue, red, and green, and bearing a kind of cloak or square of silk in colour similar to his dress, dashed their cloaks before the eyes of the bewildered animal, who, fixing his eyes on one, gave chase, digging his horns into the wood-work of the ring with great violence; the man, however, cleverly making his escape behind one of the screens fixed at various places in the ring for the purpose. This was repeated for some minutes, when the chulos gave way to the picadors: of these, three generally make their appearance in the ring at the same time, armed with stout lances, the points of which are only two inches long, on purpose to torture but not kill the bull. One of these men, by taunting and riding up to him, succeeded in attracting the poor beast's attention; the bull charged, but was adroitly caught on the shoulder by the spear of the picador, and turned on one side. This picador then retired, and another moved forward; and his poor horse little suspected what was to happen to him. The bull, now smarting from his wound, rushing forward with tremendous violence, was not to be turned aside this time, but, catching the poor horse underneath, succeeded in tearing him open; and, in an instant, man and horse, after performing a complete summerset, came headlong senseless to the ground, amidst the greatest applause from the crowd, the ladies by no means excepted. The chulos coming to the rescue, the man was carried out; and the horse, stripped of his trapping, which were taken out to adorn another victim, was left to expire at his leisure. The third picador was likewise upset a few seconds afterwards: he, however, escaped unhurt; and the horse, after galloping about for some minutes with his entrails trailing after him, was caught and led away. What rendered this sight more horrible was the colour of the horse, which originally was milk-white; I leave it to the reader's imagination to picture his colour before he was finally carried off.

By this time the populace were tired at the sight of the same bull, who was also now rather fatigued; on a signal given by sound of trumpet, therefore, the bandilleros approached, each armed with two darts, to which were appended crackers; to fix these in the bull's shoulders was certainly a matter requiring great skill and nimbleness of foot, and was very well done by the three men, who each succeeded in plunging their darts into the poor brute, who, furious before, was now rendered ten times more so by the continual explosion of these crackers, which no exertions of his could succeed in extricating himself from. On the trumpet again sending forth its clang, the graceful Montes, prince of mata

dors, stepped into the arena to kill the almost, but not yet quite exhausted bull; this part of the exhibition certainly requires great skill, and is attended with imminent danger. Montes, armed with a long, straight sword and a small flag of vermilion cloth, walked boldly, but quietly up to the bull; the sight of the flaring red flag, placed exactly before his eyes, seemed to rise all the remaining anger of the beast, and he appeared determined to make one strenuous effort more for life and liberty; shutting his eyes, therefore, he rushed headlong at the matador, who nimbly and quietly jumping on one side, avoided his horns, Montes, not thinking his aim sufficiently sure, leting him pass by untouched. After three or four similar attacks, the animal again passed by, but this time we perceived the sword buried up to the hilt in the bull's breast; the poor brute, lolling out his tongue, staggered a few yards, and then, rolling over, lay a large carcass in the dust. A young man now, jumping over the palisade, hastened to pierce the spinal marrow with a knife: but the first blow had been too sure; before he could reach the animal it was dead. Four richly harnessed mules, fastened abreast to a short pole, to which a large hook was fixed, now galloped in, and the bull being secured by the hook and ropes to the pole, was dragged out of one of the large doors, to be cut up and sold to the poor for a trifle per pound; before the bull disappeared, however, Montes, drawing out his sword reeking with gore, cut off a tuft of the hair, which he threw up into the air as a token that the governor had presented the animal to him as an acknowledgment of his great skill.

The dust being raked together, and sawdust plentifully sprinkled over the scenes of slaughter, the trumpet again sounded; the door opened, another victim rushed in, and for the space of half an hour the same process as before was carried on, varied only by the courage or the lack of it displayed by the animal. Here, however, I must bear witness to the gallantry displayed by the black bull before mentioned; three picadors were in the ring waiting the door being opened, in rushed my favourite, and, in a shorter time than it will take to write this, all the three men were biting the dust, two of the horses on the ground expiring, and the third racing round the ring mortally wounded. Several fresh horses appeared, but these only came to share their comrades' fate; and at last, when this gallant brute was doomed to die, he fell covered with glory beside the bodies of three of the poor horses, who had been left dead in the ring, not having had time to remove them. The eight poor brutes of bulls were first tortured, and then slain; fourteen horses were said to have been killed or mortally wounded; several more were taken out of the ring to be doctored up for another day, after having received many and various wounds from the bull-horns. Such is a Spanish bull-fight; exciting, I allow, to see, but very disgusting to look back upon. Can anything be expected of the Spaniards but anarchy and bloodshed, when their youth, from its earliest period, is habituated to such scenes of carnage as I have attempted to describe, and these, too, taking place three or four times annually in every town in Spain of any importance? o

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cruelty of bull-baiting as practised, or used to be, in this country; but here, at least, the animal has only brute force to contend with: in Spain, with comparatively little danger, twelve or fourteen men torment the bull for half an hour or so before they suffer him to be killed; independently of leading numbers of unsuspecting horses, without any means of defence, to be slaughtered in cold blood. I only wish that a Mr. Martin, backed by many men of influence, would rise up in Spain to eradicate the bull-rings; then, and not till then, will the true Spanish character shine forth, and make the Spanish don and signora worthy of the finest country certainly in Europe, if not in the world.

THE CHESTER CUP RACE.

BY CRAVEN.

"Fœcundi Calices quem non fecere disertum."

HORAT.

The popular meeting which takes place on the banks of the Dee, though now reduced to four days, according to the calendar, is restricted to one, in point of interest. There is a two-year-old stake, indeed, run for on the Tuesday that may possess some attraction of a local character; and the Dee Stakes, that occasionally bring out a Derby or Oaks nomination, throw a sort of importance into Thursday's list; but to all intents and purposes of account, Wednesday, now the Cup day, is the essence of the meeting. It was so in the last year, and the present, and thus it will probably continue till either the gambling committee give it coup de grace, or people refuse to Juggernaut themselves upon the Roodce. I speak of the great Chester Handicap with reference only to its two last anniversaries, for to those is confined the position it now occupies in turf chronology. We will pass without more allusion, however, the bad eminence to which it attained in 1843, and confine our notice of it to two tenses, the last past and future. It is odd enough, that the most sedate and properlooking collection of bricks and mortar in Great Britain should be selected as the scene of some of the most spicy samples of keen practice exhibited in the kingdom, but such is the fact. I'll back ancient Cestria against any city, town, borough, hamlet, or village, from Scilly to Shetland, for decorum of aspect and devilment of doing in the item of horse-racing. I am not going to uphold the honour or honesty of Epsom or Doncaster, or such like places-nothing of the sort, only I commend the custom of not compelling a man to look on while his pocket is being picked. That such was lately the case on

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the banks of the Dee may be imagined by those who read this treatise on the race for the Chester Cup.

As an exception to the rule, the race week set in fine-too fine indeed, for five weeks' drought had left the course as hard as bricks. Well, the sun shone gloriously and the sky was beautifully blue on Wednesday, in commemoration of May-day, and the festival of this our history. The quaint old rows reliquiae of Mosaic architecture-flotsum of the Flood looked, at noon, when filled with belles and beaux in holiday raiment, as the pyramids of Egypt might be supposed to do if their tenantry should burst their cerements and join in a gallopade. Such an attendance had never been known; and as a field of thirty horses was counted on for the great handicap, sport was booked as hopefully as the bets upon its issue. We suppose you have taken your way through one of these rows (that hight of Watergate) which leads to the Roodee-you have threaded Watergate Street Row, as we have said, a long vista of silks, satins, flowers, feathers, ottos and essences; and, reaching the course, present yourself at the entrance to the grand stand. There they inform you the fee for the day's admission is ONE GUINEA; and if that's not doing business, then do I know nothing of ways and means. If you enter after that intimation, you do more than the writer did, who took his way elsewhere, first intimating to the door-keeper the path he heartily desired the stand committee might pursue at no distant date. Some running of no account having been disposed of, at length, after an awful delay, under a sun that broiled your brains (if you had any), four p. m. was passed, and the note of preparation sounded. The number of the horses weighed out was twenty-six, which we discovered by means of a microscope, the figures being made of a size that none but anybody on the Grand Stand could possibly (without a magnifying glass, as aforesaid), make out. Then came another mortal half hour, suffered in a temperature never before endured, except by salamanders and devil'd turkey, during which the miserable quadrupeds were led about for a fiery ordeal, while the sutlers disposed of their swipes (from the Icelandish "swigt," to swig), and picked up a trifle towards the rent for the committee. Being etymological at the moment, we cannot pass without notice the extreme fitness of this word. A committee-man is "one who perpetrates anything." God forgive all commitees their perpetrations; it's more than we can do. The field being now nearly finished, that it might be properly done, an artist of great celebrity prepared to give it the finishing turn. Lord George Bentinck, with a great orange-coloured ensign in his hand, thus proceeded to compound his materials: On the bottom of the frying-pan, having first carefully disposed of Merry Andrew, Ermengardis, Miss Miggs, Alice Hawthorn, Hooton, Broken Down, General Pollock, Red Deer, Best Bower, Freedom, Roscius, Rowland, and Celeste, on the top of these he placed Greenfinch, Pagan, Cattonite, Everton, Pharaoh, Bramble, Martyr, Xanthus, Vakeel, Jamie Forest, Birdeen, Nutwith, and Arnagill. In racing vernacular, having made two divisions, so as to fit the course, the first lot was stationed last, and the last first, as shown above. Then, at the following market price for a most pleasant handicap, the Goodwood stable said (or ought to have said) with

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