The NORTHAMPTONSHIRE STAKES.-7 to 1 against John Davis, 4 yrs., 7st. llb. THE CITY SUBURBAN HANDICAP. -10 to 1 against Mostissima filly, 3 yrs., 6st. 6lb.; and 25 to 1 each against Lampoon, 4 yrs., Gst. 3lb., Agatha, 4 yrs., 6st. 7lb., and Lady of Coverdale, 3 yrs., 6st. Glb. Printed by Rogerson and Tuxford, 246, Strand, Lendon. EMBELLISHMENTS. EMPEROR, WINNER OF THE GRAND NATIONAL HUNT STEEPLE CHASE, AT WETHERBY, 1865. ENGRAVED BY E. HACKER, FROM A PAINTING BY E. CORBET. WAY BILL.-The Past Season with Her Majesty's Staghounds-Hunting PAGE. 341 355 363 . 369 "HERE'S SPORT INDEED!"-BY LORD WILLIAM LENNOX. . 398 "OXFORD WINS!". . 408 THE RIVER AND THE SEA; OR, DAYS AND NIGHTS WITH THE TURF REGISTER.-Pembroke Steeplechases-Cootehill (Co. Cavan) Steeplechases-Doncaster Spring-Birmingham Steeplechases-Chertsey Spring Moreton-in Marsh Steeplechases Scarborough Steeplechases Warwick BB Spring-Grand Military and Rugby Hunt Steeplechases. 7 Third Sunday after Easter. Sun rises and sets. Moon HIGH WATER rises & London Bridge sets. morn. aftern. h. m. d. h. m. h. m. h. m. SETS. 4 33 6 5 53 6 18 s 7 23 712 51 6 44 7 11 r 4 29 8 1 21 7 42 8 16 s 7 27 9 1 46 8 53 9 29 910 310 38 13 11 43 12 9 r 4 2610 2 s 7 3011 2 31 11 r 4 22 12 2 53 8 M Cricket: Knickerbockers, at Lord's. s 7 33 13 3 16 12 9 T Chester Races. 10 W Chester Cup Day. r 4 19 14 3 41 8 7 36 FRISES. afternoon. 11 T Sale of Dean's Hill yrlngs., Chester. r 4 16 16 8 24 12 F s 7 39 17 9 21 r 4 1318 10 13 13 S East Lothian Steeple Chases. 17 W Sale of Fairfield yearlings, York. 19 F 20 S Prince of Wales Y.C., Erith. 21 S Rogation Sunday. s 7 42 19 10 59 4 2 1020 11 40 4 40 7 4521 Morning. 5 20 5 40 4 21 4 59 r 4 722 12 14 6 3 6 30 r 4 s 7 48 23 12 44 6 57 7 27 424 1 12 8 2 8 41 s 7 51 25 1 40 9 20 9 56 r 4 126 2 810 3311 8 22 M Cricket: Oval, M.C.C, v. Surrey.s 7 5427 23 T Bath Races. 24 W Somersetshire Stakes Day. 25 T Ascension Day. 26 F R. Mersey Y.C. Opening Trip. 27 S R.T.Y.C. Opening Trip. 28 Sunday after Ascension. r3-59 28 r3 57 1 s 7 59 8 29 1 34 2 17 29 26 2 40 3 5 29 M Cricket: Lord's, M.C.C. v. Surrey. r 3 53 5 12 6 20 6 45 "There he sat, and, as I thought, expounding the law and the prophets, until on drawing a little nearer, I found he was only expatiating on the merits of a brown horse."-BRACEBRIDGE HALL. WAY BILL:- -The Past Season with Her Majesty's Staghounds-Hunting Mems-Picture Gossip-Trotting Rivals-The Tattersall Banquet-Racing of the Month-The City and Suburban Day-The University Boat-race. SCOT progresses. We don't allude to The Fancy having arrived there, to the bewilderment of the worthy station-master (who is not up in that wondrous lore, whereby "Rawlings hearing that The Stiffun is not satisfied," signifies that "he is ready, &c."), and having a merry little mill at the top of the Swinley course; but to the gigantic strides made by the Grand Stand. As a member once said in the House, it "takes its stand on progress." A long shed has been put up in the saddling paddock for the horses, in case of rain, and a jockeys' and trainers' stand has been built there, with a refreshmentroom below. A number of new ten-guinea boxes have been built, extending towards the distance, and were all taken almost before they were contracted for. The hotel has been very fairly frequented, and a small church is now built close to it. The Heath looked dull enough when we crossed it last week, as only three of Ben Land's steeplechase string, which has numbered nearly twenty during the winter, were out at exercise. Vegetation had come on wondrously fast during the last ten days, and the sun, which had killed the scent for Mr. Davis, had suited his neighbour Mr. Standish to a nicety. What was once a barren heath near the kennels is gradually becoming one great nursery garden, and pineries, strawberry-houses, and vineries, to sapply the London market, are rising all over it. We never saw Mr. Davis, who completed his seventy-seventh year in January, looking better. Advancing years have told on him in one way-that he cannot face heat, or long rides home, as he once did. He therefore takes his hounds to the meet, lays them on, and enjoys twenty minutes or half-an-hour; and then, if the deer is pointing away from home, he leaves them to Harry King, his trusty pupil of thirty seasons. It has been a very good season on the whole, and they have been stopped only four days by frost, and have made it up by bye-days. The field have been very large, and so full of bold riders, that with a ticklish scent they have made a huntsman's task difficult enough. Mr. Davis and his men have never been better mounted. The former only rode Sepoy once, and the flints in the Chalfont country lamed him, and he was never able to come out again. Cotswold, the grey, has carried him twice a-week ever since, and done it well. Harry King has riddenhis brown horse Pantaloon by Hobbie Noble, and his bay mare Antelope, and splendidly they have carried him. Morris Hills (who hurt his arm against a tree, and rode in a sling for a few days) has had a clever little chesnut, Goldfinch, and another; and Edrupt has been on Snowball and Canary. The bay in the rug, attended by a lad, and taking a bite of new grass near the gate, proved to be Comus, who is still Mr. Davis's hack, and has a treat occasionally with the foxhounds; and we also found a Hanoverian cream mare in the stable. Ever since George IV. ascended the throne, the State cream horses have been bred at Hampton Court, instead of being imported from Hanover, and this was a mare of seventeen hands, which, after being put to the horse for three or four seasons, had refused to breed. In a procession they step so proudly that they hardly seem to move a mile an hour; but she slipped over the twenty miles to Stonor Park in the dog cart, with Mr. Davis, cleverly in two. In this breed, both legs, tail, and mane are at least two shades darker than the rest of the body; and they clip so white, that a friend might well say to Mr. Davis, "You've taken the cream off, and only left the skim milk." The hard ground and flints have been very severe on the hounds, and, owing to their bruised feet, which has been the case with all the packs about, it was hard to pick fifteen sound couples to finish the geason. There have been forty couple in work, and they never did better-the bitches, as usual, taking the Friday, and the dogs the outlying country on Tuesday. In the bitch pack, little Dimity, of the Yarborough, and their own Caroline, both first-season ones, have been leading whenever they had a breast high scent; and their own Tell Tale and Triumph, have been decidedly guides in the dog-pack. The entry was a very good one of thirteen couple; but the distemper has been very severe, and so productive of fits, that four couple are dead, and, worse than all, two couple of them were from Mr Davis's favourite Wildfire. They have all been walked as usual on the Irish estates of the noble master, who has been very constant with the hounds whenever he has been in England. One of the bitches this year had three very curious puppies. All of them were without fore-legs, and open in the middle, and with a band of muscle round the shoulders. Nature was most niggardly, for, as the feeder added, "Those that had lungs had'nt livers, and those that had livers had'nt lungs." There have been about eighteen deer in work, fifteen of them haviers, and the Woburn Stag, and the two hinds-Lily and Miss Gilbert. Two crackers of last year, William Penn and Tip Top, have quite trained off, and they will be used to blood the hounds in the Forest this autumn. Miss Gilbert has only been hunted once. She is so stout, that Mr. Davis never dares to hunt her without a first-rate scent, and, on one or two occasions, when she has been prepared, it has not served at all, and the Woburn Stag has been her proxy. However, on Dec. 9, she gave them a clinker, from Maidenhead Thicket, for 3 hours, by Munday Dane, Marlow, and Stoken Church. Old Lake, a second season stag (so called after his preserver, near Clewer Green, when Mr. Davis and Harry had got wrong), was the hero of a remarkable run, The meet was at Mr. Coleman's of Stoke Park, who gave quite the lunch of the season. The day thus began well and ended well, and Mr. Davis persevered and saw the take after 1 hours at Benfield. |