the price of them, he may come to this conclusion-that without considerable luck, he will not get a good hack under about the three figures mentioned. And here be it remembered that a hack is not like a hunter; we can stand nothing that is not, or at least appears to us to be, A 1. Action: the knee up to the nose, and not too round with it; but the foot well out as it comes down, and as light as Indian rubber. Perrot should be the name. Mouth a child with a little finger should be able to stop him in a gallop. Form: round, but sinewy withal, and nervous. Temper the finest possible, but with indomitable courage. We cannot but be struck, as we lounge over the rails opposite Apsley House, that there is really a wonderful show of such animals, only considering the demand for them. I suppose the demand creates the supply. In many instances, however, we may premise that the principle pursued is much the same as in the hunting stud. One cannot have everything, so one takes what is indispensable. Action is the first requisite, and form the second; though they must go together to a certain extent. Some of those who have got the second, but not the first, would be surprised to know that there was nothing but a saddle and a pair of girths between them and eternity. When I was a boy, there might have been about a fourth of the number of equestrians in winter and summer, in London or the country. Influx of money, cheapness of provender, railroads, continental communication, &c., have introduced égalité, or a determination to ape one's betters, and this has put the beggars on horseback. Hunting we all know about at all events the readers of this magazine; but― "Non cuivis homini contingit adire Corinthum," There's scarcely a so the rest of the world rides its summer hack. clerk in a three-pair back, who does not think it necessary to ride round the park. The way in which they do it is quite another matter. An undisguisable snobbism sticks to them through thick and thin. There is a respectability about a cit's one-and-carry-four drag, which takes him and his to Kensall Green on a fine summer's evening, for we know the meaning of it but there is neither respectability nor fashion in that seedy-looking young lawyer's clerk, whose cat-legged screw is only paid for because there's no tick at Tatt's; and who would rather want meat to his dinner, and sugar to his tea, than lose the pleasure of swaggering at the saloon of some minor theatre about "my hack." Where they ride to, the studiers of proverbs are at no loss to discover ; only they don't happen to have got there in our day. As if to make up for the equestrian increase, the decrease in equipages, not so much in number as in quality, is painful in the extreme. Oh! ye lords and masters! can it be possible, that to gratify your own selfish ambition to be first over the brook, or to cut down your friends in a twenty-minute burst, or to carry down to Melton the best stud, you have denied your ladies the very natural gratification of a good turn-out? What can you possibly mean by poking that pretty face into that dowdy old third-year clarence, with a pair of job-horses from Dickenson's, merely because the dear little woman does not like riding, whilst you are flirting with that black-eyed Amazon, Lady Mary Doncaster, in Rotten-row? Do you suppose, my lord, that your mother, the late Dowager Marchioness of Hickleback, twenty years ago would have been seen in the back slums of the city in such a vile, dingy, economicallooking affair as that; only fit for the evening conveyance of a country apothecary? Do you think your own wife ever was seen (hidden) in such a Hyde-park gondola, until her own father lost all sense of metropolitan dignity, and started a Brougham? Where are the white wigs, and the flesh-coloured silk stockings, and those six-foot gold sticks, and teakettle Thomases behind? locked up to be let loose on a drawing-room day! and being preserved for your eldest boy, when he is forced into the county shrievalty! For shame for shame, my lord! It makes one feel quite miserable to see such a change. Have you no sense of decency too? Who introduced those deeds-of-darkness-looking traps, that have become now so nice, and cheap, and common? What a pretty line of respectability for the nobility and gentry of England to follow! Put your wives and your daughters again into handsome carriages, with horses and servants, becoming the beauty and innocence of English women, who are not afraid of being seen; and keep those funereal-looking broughams and clarences for what they were first intended -for young men of small fortune, who could not afford to keep two horses, and for women of misfortune who have no right to keep one. What a treat it was to a country gentleman, a field mouse, to refresh his weary eyes during June and July with a sight of his lovely countrywomen for when does a woman look more lovely than in a pretty bonnet? And are we to see them so no more? No! forsooth; unless we can caper up Rotten-row on a high-stepping horse in the dog-days, amidst a profusion of ringlets, dust, perspiration, and Spanish hats, that gives us no distinct idea of the beauty of one face from the ugliness of another. I fancy I hear a reader or two exclaim against the arrogance of this lecture upon horseflesh. I assure you it would have been much greater had it been on any thing else. I know plenty of writers, who, with less knowledge of horseflesh than I have of Hebrew, never write a novel without some astounding escapade by runaway horses, or some such nonsense. A fellow who hardly ever saw a horse, never a hound, chooses the cover-side for a proposal; or kills his hero in a run; or makes him drive a pair of untameable chesnuts or greys, and save the life of the daughter of the house. Now I never interfere with their line; I never sing of love, or war, or philosophy, or swimming; and I think they ought not to interfere with ours. At all events I should expect to be found out as a gross impostor if I managed matters as badly as they. Surely, Mr. Editor, if the imitators of Dickens and Co. would only pay attention to the pages of your magazine, they might manage to write less nonsense than they do, whenever they were imprudent enough to touch upon hounds and horses. I shall be compelled to write a novel myself some day. STATE OF THE ODDS, &c. SALES OF BLOOD STOCK, By Messrs. Tattersall, at Hyde Park Corner, on Monday, June 6th: (The property of Mr. Wauchope). CHESNUT COLT, 2 yrs., by John O'Gaunt out of Valentinia 66 30 Yearlings, the property of Mr. Newton : BROWN FILLY by Epirus out of Mammifer..... BAY FILLY by Epirus out of Ma Mie BROWN FILLY by Melbourne out of Retrospect Catharine Hayes was sold by private contract on Monday, June 13th. ... SIR J. HAWLEY'S YEARLINGS. A BAY ROAN FILLY by Cowl out of Miami (winner of the Oaks); engaged in the Great Yorkshire Stakes, 1855 A BAY FILLY by Cowl out of Cavatina ... A BAY FILLY by Cowl out of Temper (the dam of Tiff). A BAY FILLY by Cowl out of sister to Miami .... 21 GS. 150 140 .... 100 A CHESNUT COLT by Old England out of Vanity; engaged in the Great Yorkshire Stakes, 1855 DUCROW, 4 yrs., by Orlando out of Louise MAYFLOWER, 4 yrs., by St. Francis out of Balloon On Monday, June 20: A BROWN YEARLING FILLY by Lanercost out of Cowslip. 130 BAY COLT by Collingwood, dam (foaled in 1843) by Ellis out of Antler's dam .... ............ 56 50 BAY FILLY by Alarm out of Chadlington Maid.......... ..... MISS MARGRAVE (foaled in 1845), by Lanercost, with a colt foal by Kremlin or Foresail, and covered by lago BAY FILLY by Orlando out of Despatch The following horses go abroad: Illusion and Convict to France, and Ionic to the East Indies. Maria Bennett, the Steeple Chase mare, also leaves the country. Mr. Thompson has sold Coomberland Stathesmon, but he was not bought for Mr. Morris. Mr. Roberts has become the owner of Lamartine, and made a very successful debut with him at Bibury. We regret to see a very poor joke has been transplanted from Eglinton Park to Howth; the fun being for the riders in a race to wear women's bonnets instead of caps. Of course, they were "gentlemen riders." Some people may say that gentlemen jockeys are apt to make themselves ridiculous enough as it is, without descending to such mountebank work as this. Nothing looks neater than the proper costume of a well-appointed race-rider; and we had hoped, that the days of Cocked Hat, or, far worse, of Bonnet Stakes, had long since passed away. Don't degrade the "noble animal," more than you can help, gentlemen! D-m it, Jack! said a knowing Cockney, as he commented over his card on the way back from Hampton-" In that Richmond Plate, there, 66 Well," did'nt Sweetheart just stick to Sleeping Partner-eh?" grunted Jack, in reply half-asleep, and not over interested, "it's all correct as he should do-aint it? A Sweetheart ought to stick to his Sleeping Partner!" Two or three not very brilliant settling days-over Epsom, Ascot, and Hampton, have still done little to interfere with the spirit of speculation so strong in the hearts of " the people." Passing events, however, are found quite sufficient-and so we get on from one meeting to another without looking very far or very steadily into the future. The Goodwood Stakes, certainly, is just now coming prominently into notice; but we can force out no table from what has already been done. The effect of this, so far, is to give neighbouring stables a preference-Kent with Sextus, and John Day with Little Harry. The fairness of the Handicap is, in some measure, corroborated by the top weight-Teddington being considered to have no such very bad chance. For the St. Leger, the in-and-out running of his followers tends day after day to make the race look more like West Australian's own-and the Bibury deductions have brought him to evens. The horse has been backed for a good deal of the money during the month. Rataplan, Sittingbourne, and the Reiver have also their parties-the last-named, perhaps, the strongest just at present; while the Stockbridge "mistake" has sent Cineas' friends back for "time," and left the nag himself in a forlorn hope list, that scarcely ever read more forlorn. Autocrat closes the month something like an established first favourite for next year's Derby; though with some half-a-dozen or so within as many points of him-amongst them Ruby, about whom the world is beginning to get a little suspicious. "Ortalano" is the Verbena Colt of a few weeks since. THE GOODWOOD STAKES (Run July 27).—8 to 1 against Sextus, 3 yrs., 5st. 7lb.; 9 to 1 against Little Harry, 4 yrs., 7st. 11lb.; 12 to 1 against Gossip, 3 yrs., 5st. 13lb.; 14 to 1 against Teddington, 5 yrs., 9st. 6lb.; 16 to 1 against Hobby Horse, 3 yrs, 5st. 9lb,; 20 to 1 each against Trifle, 4 yrs., 7st. 4lb.; Sackbut, 4 yrs., 6st. 12lb.; and the Mayor of Hull, 3 yrs., 5st. 9lb.; 100 to 6 against Joe Miller, 4 yrs., 7st. 7lb. EMBELLISHMENTS. CATHERINE HAYES, WINNER OF THE OAKS, 1853, ENGRAVED BY E. HACKER, FROM A PAINTING BY HARRY HALL; AND ENGRAVED BY W. BACKSHELL, FROM A PAINTING BY A. COOPER, R.A. |