and was seen as busy as ever among the lot, with whom no change occurred until they came to the second fence after the enclosures, where Equinox fell and was disposod of. On their arrival at the fence by the farmhouse close to the starting field Kathleen fell, and it was evident that the contest lay entirely between Pullaway and Vengeance. Many imagined, for reasons which will at once suggest themselves to the reader, that the amateur would succumb to the professional, and the struggle created intense interest. The fiat of the judge created no small amusement to the non-betting part of the community, while the Prestbury division looked unutterable things. For some time to come I apprehend this race will not be forgotten at Cheltenham.

The Aristocratic Steeple Chase of 10 sovs. each, with a cup added by the Ladies of Cheltenham; to be ridden by Gentlemen, and to be the property of Gentlemen; 11st. 7lb. each; three miles; was won by Mr. Bedford's Lincoln, by Harry Siddons, beating Capt. Fraser's Kilkenny, late Black Ball (Mr. Davies), Sir J. Malcomb's The Jew, (Mr. Griffiths), Mr. Hunter's Anna (owner), Mr. Pearce's Jack (Mr. Davenport).

The winner, who was backed against the field, was ridden very steadily and with great judgment by Capt. Peel, and notwithstanding the display of a great deal of temper, was purchased the subsequent day by Mr. George Payne.

The Farmers' Race, which followed, afforded great sport, and was run in a shorter space of time than either of the preceding ones; but the interest it created being merely local, it will be sufficient to state that it was won by Mr. Taylor's Victoria, by Percy, and ridden by the owner. Seven others started.

The following day Lord Fitzhardinge's hounds met at Tudeley Castle; but the first fox they found being mobbed, and a soaking rain setting in, the field dispersed, not a little annoyed with the disappointment they had experienced.

On Friday we had three races, which were more remarkable for the casualties which occurred in them, than from the interest they created. The attendance was not so large as on the previous day, owing to the coldness of the weather, but still there was a fairish muster of sportsman.

The Free Handicap Steeple Chase of 10 sovs. each, h. ft., with 50 added; four miles (14 subscribers), was the first event decided, and came off in favour of Mr. Holman's Verax, 10st. 3lb. (Archer), beating Mr. Tollitt's Sauterue (Barker), Capt. Barnett's Marengo, 11st. 4lb. (Frisby), Mr, Moore's St. Ruth, 10st. 91b. (Hotham), Mr. King's Kathleen, 10st. 91b. (Stagg), Mr. Langham's Ballybar 10st. 7lb. (H. Bradley), Mr. Oliver's Frances, 10st. 71b. (C. Boyce), Sir John Malcolm's Dunlavon, 10st. 71b. (Jacobs), Mr. Theobald's Coverhack, 10st. 71b. (Lowe), Mr. Vever's Vengeance, 10st. 5lb. (Oliver). The last named horse was the favourite, and backed for more money than any other animal in the race; but he sadly disappointed his friends by falling twice, the last time hurting Oliver severely. Kathleen, Francis, Ballybar, Marengo, and St. Ruth, all had their chances put out by falls; and Verax, ridden with consummate skill by Archer, won in a canter.

The Selling Steeple Chase was won by Lincoln (Oliver), beating nine others; and the Hunters' Stakes, value 100 sovs., was carried off by Mr. King's The Farrier, by Mundig (owner), beating Capt. Barnett's

India Rubber (owner), Mr. Theobald's Dyspepsia (Mr. Evans), and three others. The winner is a remarkably fine shaped animal, and will be heard of again next season.

During the remainder of my séjour at the queen of watering places, men, horses, and hounds were daily occupied, and it was with feelings of no ordinary regret I quitted the pleasant associations I had formed within its precincts.

Belgravia, April 2, 1849.

AN ADVENTURE AMONG THE LEDGAVAN HILLS.

BY VENATOR.

"Glorious sport!" exclaimed one of my companions among the Ledgavan hills, as, a great and unprecedented fact for him, his third brace of grouse passed into the gillie's guardianship.

"Capital!" said Charlie Moore, reloading the gun which, through the day, had spoken but to kill. "The birds are so accommodating at this season, one might fancy they took an equal pleasure in the sport."

"Ha, ha, ha! but then we've the additional pleasure of eating them afterwards," laughed the first speaker.

"Amsinck was intended for a New Zealand warrior of the olden time," sighed Moore; "to devour the foe is his great triumph." "I'm wiser than Ponto, then," said Amsinck, "for he's a sorry dog, and hunts what he can't eat.'

"Ah, you're the wiser dog, I grant you," said Moore. "But come, Amsinck, none of your sorry jokes to-day, to damp our powder."

"There they go in magnificent style!" interrupted young Hingsly, as a large pack rose from the hill side, which the moment before had appeared inanimate.

They were a good way in advance, close to the turn of the hill, round which they speedily disappeared. After them was the universal movement, and all was hurry-skurry to catch a glimpse of the birds before they settled.

"There they are; I saw something move," gasped Amsinck, pointing exultingly to a level spot of higher ground.

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Where, where?" I demanded, already hurrying forward.

Up there, beside that black stone; there, they move again,” replied Amsinck, toiling on.

"He! tat? she'll no pe fintin' tat worth mickle o' her honor's poudre or shot," remarked old Murdoch, in a tone which made me pause and bend a keen glance on the spot.

"Thistles trembling in the breeze," I cried. But Amsinck heard or heeded not; and the next moment Moore, who had gained a rocky point of the hill, was seen waving his hat, and indicating a place far away down on the slope, where the birds lay undistinguishable from the dark heather among which they rested in fancied security. And then dogs, gillies, keepers, and sportsmen all scrambled on alike, oblivious of the thistle hunter, who was of the number that have infinitely more taste than talent for shooting.

The next half-hour was one of great activity and animation, though among the feathered bipeds the latter quality became somewhat less universal than we found it. Bang bang rose on every side, as our guns awoke the echoes of Ledgavan with their deadly voices, to be repeated from rock to rock, until one might have thought an army was in the field. No wonder the startled pack scarce knew which way to fly; down tumbled the birds, some dead, some dying, some to rise again and flutter onward, in the vain hope of evading destiny. Then the sharp bark of a dog in our line of fire, arrested execution for the moment. Away flew the grouse from the scene of action, on which stepped forth immediately a strange figure that seemed to have been crouching in the shelter of a low rock "till the skrimmage was over. It was that of a tall, gaunt women, clad in that style which is more picturesque on canvass than in reality. A brief and tattered petticoat, what had once been a soldier's red jacket, whose sleeves shrinking up her long thin arms, left her bony wrists exposed to view, and an old shepherd's plaid muffling head and throat formed her costume. An air of vacuity, or rather of cretin-like imbecility, heightened the repulsiveness of features scarcely human in appearance; and the face might have been thought idiotic, but for the sharp, wild, twinkling grey eyes, which never quiet, shot rapid, fiery glances in every direction, like sparks struck from an anvil. By her side limped a little ugly cur, one of whose fore feet hung as a useless appendage to the ungainly frame.

The first act of this wild-looking being was to walk up close to us, and throwing aside the plaid push back her coarse, grey hair from each side of her head, which she presented in turn to our sight. And a most unpleasant sight it was, for the unfortunate creature was devoid of ears, not the slightest trace of such an organ being visible on the mis-shapen head.

"It wad pe shust auld Mysie o' ta Hill, ta teaf and tumb wife, who wantet to spae our fortunes, was Murdoch's explanation, as we shrunk from the wretched object in disgust, while our high-bred dogs repelled the advances of her currish companion with all the undissembling frankness of canine hauteur.

"We'll all find out our fortunes soon enough without her help," said Hingsly, recoiling a step as the dumb prophetess evinced her desire to 66 spae his fortune first. But vain were all the signs of dissent current from Indus to the pole, for Mysie persisted, and scrawling a rude semblance of a ship on a fragment of slate which she produced, held it forth to him in her long skinny fingers. A derisive laugh burst from us all, for Hingsly was no sailor. But at our laughter she only pointed with more energy to the slate, accompanying the act by many rapid but incomprehensible gestures, at the same time stamping violently upon the ground. With her long grey hair streaming unkempt and uncared for on the wind, her small, bright, gleaming eyes, and wild movements, she formed a strange but repulsive spectacle; and not wishing to waste more time in such diablerie, we comforted our consciences by bestowing a trifle on one whose misfortunes rendered her an object equally of pity and aversion, and went our way. Mysie snatched the money eagerly with a frightful grin of pleasure; and I observed that as Murdoch passed her also, he half emptied his spleauchan and silver-mounted mull into the dumb wife's receptacles for tobacco and "sneeshin."

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"She's no shust canny," said the old Highlander, shaking his head mysteriously; "put it's waur to hae her pan ten her plessing, ye wad ken."

"The old witch has put no ban upon our sport to-day," cried Hingsly, gaily, as we flushed a splendid pack in twenty minutes.

Away they fly northward towards the glancing waters of Loch Rusque; now they turn eastward; after them, Donald, to mark their setting. Off he scampers with the sharpest eye and lightest foot ever followed grouse over that solitude. But all unneeded those gifts; the birds are already at rest, low on the hill-side there, when nearly lost to view we caught the flapping of their wings just before they alighted on their favourite heather. They are safe for the present. Not quite so safe, though; for there they are up again before we have gone twenty yards, and away they go towards the lake; how much swifter are wings than feet. And now they wheel about; and now they fly back along the hill-side which we have so lately trod. Surely, there must be some old experienced birds among them, whispering tales of last year's adventures, and feather-breadth escapes, that they are thus wild and easily frightened so early in the season; that golden period of the year to bunglers in the business, like Amsinck, who usually contrived to do some little execution among the novice-birds during the first weeks of legal slaughter, ere the salutary dread of man and dog and gunpowder had been shot into their hearts, though he would afterwards often walk the moors for days without bagging as many brace.

But now that we have thought of him, where is Amsinck all this time? Not lost, never fear; nor has he lost us; for too many triggers have been pulled to let him doubt our neighbourhood. If he had any wit now, he could turn those birds so beautifully.

"The more fools they to let him," said Hingsly. "If they'd only pass him in goose-file, not a feather would he hit."

"There he goes at something, or nothing!" said Moore, as the report of a gun rung high up among the rocks before us.

He had been a better marksman than we took him for. But there was little time to think of him, for we were soon firing away right and left, and one's best friend might be forgotten in the excitement of such a moment. The first intimation of Amsinck's presence was a charge poured in amongst us just as the birds were flying out of range.

"Hang it, man! that's a new way of shooting on a Moore!" cried Charlie, as after passing scarce a yard from him the shot rattled on a stunted alder near at hand.

"Come, there's no harm done," replied Amsinck, who had scrambled down the hill in breathless haste to join the melée. "But I've done a capital job up there," pointing to a rocky gap where moss and many coloured lichens, and here and there a straggling pine, covered the precipice on either side. "I've shot a doe; Donald will find it down at the bottom of that crevice, and we'll have venison as well as moorfowl for dinner. It was the other side of the chasm; I saw it jump among the stones, so fired, and down it tumbled a little brown thing, no bigger than Mona there," looking at my favourite setter, which lay quietly at my feet, while the other dogs were away hunting; for, if the truth must be told, though obedient and gentle, and the most unspoilable of fourfooted favorites, Mona was as tenacious of her sporting character and dignity as any crack sportsman on the moors; and a little while ago,

when marking her game, Ponto had stepped before her-an affront which never failed to send her to her master's side for the remainder of the day, so long as the offending dog remained in company. No temptation could lure Mona in quest of game; and I liked her too well, with all her whims, perhaps for those very whims liking her so much the better, to utter the stern word of command which would have sent her to her duty. But we often, quadrupeds as well as bipeds, pay dearly for our faults, and my setter's petulance that day had nearly cost her dear enough.

Amsinck had scarcely finished speaking, when, "Why, what's here?" cried Hingsly as he came up to us. "My weird wife, by all that's magical; and if she's not been raising a storm, something has put her into one."

We all turned to look, and there, sure enough, was Mysie o' the Hill rushing down the rugged slope, her grey locks flying out behind, and her plaid trailing on the ground, while one arm was waving wildly in the air, and she came on at the pace which must have suggested the idea of seven-league boots.

Within a minute she was among us, and casting a demoniac glance around on every face, laid gently on the heather the attendant of her roving steps, whose glassy eyes, and struggling, though already stiffening limbs, with the life-blood welling out over the dusky brown coat, told that the little cur had limped its last among the mountains.

"Was this the capital job you did up there?" asked Moore of Amsinck. The latter leant on his gun without replying; he began to feel it was.

Striking her uplifted hands together in a wild gesture of despair, and shrieking forth a shrill and horribly discordant yell, Mysie dashed herself upon the earth, and hugged the dying animal in her arms with an intensity and abandonment of anguish which might have touched the hardest heart. Unhappy outcast of humanity! it was the only thing that loved her, or that she loved; and it was now to be torn from her. In a few minutes all was over; when springing to her feet, her face and form convulsed with frenzied passion, Mysie stamped furiously upon the ground, throwing about her arms, and pointing ever and anon at Amsinck in a manner denoting him the principal object of her hatred and unutterable reproaches. How horribly her features worked in the vain struggle to give expression to the passions which seemed rending her asunder, while from the foam-covered lips issued nothing save those frightful yells which bade Mona shrink closer to my feet. For dumb she was, but not voiceless, if the word voice might be applied to that unearthly sound.

In vain, summoning Murdoch to our assistance, we strove to convince the unfortunate being of her dog's having been killed by accident, or to assure her of our regret and sympathy. All the old Highlander's efforts were signal failures; and when, with every tokeu of sorrow for what he unwittingly had done, Amsinck tendered her a sum which might have purchased her twenty dogs, the dumb woman flung back the offering hand, scattering the money on the earth; then darting on him a glance of fire, she caught up the lifeless body in her arms, and fled as fast as feet could carry her up the hill, whose grey rocks and tangled shrubs soon hid her from our view.

I have no time to tell how fortune favoured our after-sport; enough,