Imagens das páginas
PDF
ePub

ELGINSHIRE.

This is not a very good county for the angler. None of its rivers are first-rate. The chief of them are the Findhorn, the Spey, and the Lossie.

The Findhorn rises in Inverness-shire, and runs through Elginshire near its western boundary. Great quantities of timber are floated down streams from the extensive forests in the interior of the county. A considerable number of salmon is caught in this river, but the fishery is not near so valuable as that of the Spey. When the Findhorn is in good trim, it is no uncommon achievement to kill ten or twelve dozen of good trout in a few hours. The best flies for this river are light wings and red and black bodies; but when the fish are taking, great nicety in this particular is not requisite.

The river Lossie arises from the confluence of many small streams in the heart of the county. A few salmon are found in it, and a fair proportion of trout. It is subject to great and devastating inundations.

When the angler crosses the Lossie, and enters into the rich plain of Murray, he will obtain a delightful glimpse of the mountains of Ross and Sutherlandshire, and the magnificent entrance into the bay of Cromarty. This is a captivating landscape.

The scenery a little below this locality is also very magnificent. In looking down the river, in the softness of a declining sun in July, we see above us on the left a high hill, with its rocky points and wooded recesses. The light flows, gleaming and touching the ground, and here and there setting on the leafage of the trees which hang over the water. The tints over the hill, assuming a more aerial form towards the summit, become more interesting and striking; and a church steeple, in a little secluded village, wrapped in sylvan retirement, lulls the fancy into a delicious reverie. The light and waving trees and shrubs, some with large, round, distinctly pencilled up-shootings, and others with pendant and taper leaves, seem to hold communion with the waters-to be invested with vitality and life, and to be the smiling, living witnesses of their play and beauty, and listeners of their soothing music.

CAITHNESS-SHIRE.

The trout and salmon angling in this county is excellent. The chief rivers are the Wick, the Thurso, the Rice, and the Berrindale. None of them are of very great extent; but they have that communication with the ocean which keeps them always full of fish. Among the piscatory statistics of the Thurso, it is recorded that in July 23rd, 1743, there were caught, at one haul, the enormous quantity of two thousand five hundred and sixty salmon!

Flies with light-coloured bodies and wings, and of a tolerable size, are the best for salmon and large trout in all the rivers in this district. There is no necessity to be fastidious in tackle here; for it is no uncommon thing to see a country boy pull out a large fish, with a fly and hazel rod, which would make an amateur London angler turn up his eye with amazement.

L

CYMBA;

WINNER OF THE OAKS, 1848.

ENGRAVED BY E, HACKER, FROM A PAINTING BY HARRY HALL.

A winner of the Derby, even in the full blaze of his grand victory, may still reckon on one certain check hereafter to his invincible career. He may train on another year, to win her most gracious Majesty's smile, and his most liberal Emperorship's Vase, or he may manage to outlast a cripple or two for the Port, or the great Four-year-old Stake, but he will be beat for the St. Leger as sure as he is a horse. The laurels may be revived hereafter, while the set of a September sun will prove they are anything but evergreens.

And if we can speak thus lightly of the winners of the Derby, what shall we say of the winners of the Oaks? Those coy, curious young ladies, whose laurels, according to recent example, never revive, but who seem to take their Epsom honours as the French Marshal did the Abbè's place at the play: A gallant Marshal!" pleaded the poor priest, "who took not this place in Africa, nor that place in Italy, but who took my box at the theatre, and never took anything else." So it is with the Oaks mares; look at your Poisons or Our Nells, your Miamis or Cymbas; they just manage to win the Oaks, and never win anything else-worth speaking of.

Cymba, said the stable-and if any stable had a right to say so, sure this was the one-Cymba will win the Oaks; and win the Oaks she did, according to the confident declaration with which the oracle of the party proclaimed it. She never did anything before being stripped for it, and by all appearances she will never do anything again; the charm, as was the case with Mendicant, seemed to have lost its strength directly she changed hands, leaving the worthy baronet to sin her praises, as we now do, on a single string-" This is the winner the Oaks."

The Ascot performance was middling enough, wut then there were extra weights and decent company, with which any man might make to himself a tolerable excuse. At Winchester and Salisbury, however, the detail is less inviting. Twenty to one on Cymba, who beats a twelve pounds' purchase by a head at even weights, furnishing of course a very nice calculation for the picker up of so close a second-if Cymba is worth so many hundreds, how many is Fallow Deer worth? At Salisbury the odds sink to three to one, and, still invincible, she beats a lot of unknown leather platers by a neck! The next day, and we see this succession of "near things" was not exactly all gammon, when that long hidden light, the Buscot Buck, runs clean away from her, and floors the hopes and the odds as cleverly as he did a week or so since at Bibury. We fancy we see the old squire of Buscot sitting in state, while his selftaught genius" John" narrates with sundry embellishments this further triumph, and tells how they took the conceit out of the Danebury stable and the Epsom flyer.

As vide particulars in the following chronicle:

[graphic][merged small][merged small][merged small][subsumed]

PEDIGREE.

Cymba, bred by Mr. H. S. Thompson, in 1845, is by Melbourne, out of Skiff, by Sheet Anchor, her dam Tertia, by Emilius, out of Miss Wentworth, by Cervantes.

Melbourne, bred by Mr. Robinson, in 1834, and got by Humphrey Clinker, out of a Cervantes mare, is also the sire of Sir Tatton Sykes, the winner of the St. Leger in 1846. A very good opening of great winners, considering this is only the third year his stock have been out.

Skiff, bred by Mr. Cookes, in 1838, never appeared but once on the turf, when she ran fourth and last for a Welter Stake at York Union Hunt. She was put to the stud the same year (1842), but produced nothing of any note previous to throwing the Oaks winner.

Cymba is a brown mare, standing fifteen hands three inches high. She has a long plain head, with the ears set on wide; a very clean though rather straight neck; excellent oblique shoulders, good arms, and fine depth of girth and brisket. She has a good back, but is a little tucked up in the back ribs; has meanish straight quarters, and runs very light in the bone-training down, in fact, to a very wiry, but not by any means a handsome animal. To this catalogue of contents, we may add that Cymba has a star on the forehead, continuing in a faint line to the nose, a very good quiet temper, and a very fair share of fortune's favours, if not of nature's gifts.

PERFORMANCES.

Cymba never appeared in public before her grand achievement at Epsom, when ridden by Templeman, and running in the name and colours of Mr. Pedley, though we believe the property of Mr. Harry Hill and Co. She won the Oaks Stakes, of 50 sovs. each, h. ft. (152 subs.), one mile and a half, over the New Derby Course, beating Mr. Quin's Attraction (2), Mr. Foljambe's Queen of the May (3), and the following not placed :-Mr. Bowes' Wiasma, Mr. Dixon's Do-it-again, Mr. Dixon's Hope, Mr. S. Conway's Lady Elizabeth, Mr. Bartley's Grist, Mr. S. Hawkes' Miss Harrison, Mr. Pedley's Lady Mary, Colonel Peel's Iodine, Colonel Peel's Lola Montez, Mr. Merry's Aspasia, Duke of Richmond's Reflection, Mr. Mostyn's f. by Lord Stafford out of Birdlime, Mr. Wrather's e. by Don John out of Miss Lydia, Lord Exeter's Tisiphone, Lord Exeter's sister to Pergularia, Mr. Cookson's Camphine, Baron Rothschild's sister to Satirist, Mr. E. Peel's colt by Colwick out of Ninny, Lord Eglinton's Astræa, Sir J. Hawley's Vexation, Sir R. W. Bulkeley's Miss Orbell, Mr. Bouverie's Prairie Bird, and Mr. Walker's Dimanche. 7 to 1 agst. Cymba, who won by a length.

In the interim between Epsom and Ascot, Cymba changed hands at, it is said, £800 the bargain, and appeared at the latter place under the purple flag of Sir I. B. Mill; when, ridden by Alfred Day, and carrying 7st. 8lb., she ran fourth and last for her Majesty's Vase, two miles, won by Lord Exeter's Gardenia, 3 yrs., 6st. 81b., Lord Clifden's Footstool, 5 yrs., 9st. 7lb., second, and Captain Harcourt's Ellerdale, 4 yrs., 8st. 7lb., third. 7 to 4 agst. Cymba.

At Winchester, ridden by Alfred Day, she won her Majesty's Plate of 100 guineas, heats, two miles, beating Mr. Burgess' Fallow Deer, 3 yrs.; 100 to 5 on Cymba, who won the first heat by a head, and walked over for the second.

« AnteriorContinuar »