which horse was sent to France in a deuce of a hurry; but when Abjer came out so well three years afterwards, then they would gladly have given three times the value they had received for him to have got him back again: but "No, no," says Monsieur; "if the horse is worth to John Bull what you offer, from whom we are compelled to purchase, then he must be of more value to us, and we will e'en keep him." While mentioning Truffle, I am reminded of a circumstance which has taken place lately, and which is so far singular, inasmuch as being the first of the kind allowed. I allude to a mare having been sent expressly to France to be covered by Truffle, and having been brought back to this country again, it being at the same time a law strictly enforced by the French that no mare, after being imported into that kingdom, shall be permitted under any pretence to quit the same. Be that as it may, in this instance at least the old adage was verified, that" there is no rule without an exception;" for the mare (Rachael by Rubens, dam by Waxy) is now here, and her produce entered in the "Column Stake" for 1830, in Mr. Payne's name. People will naturally ask how this was managed. I can only say, that I understood it was effected through the agency of Mr. Richard Tattersall, by the interest of the Duke of Orleans; so that at all events there must have been a little smuggling in the case. It remains to be proved whether the produce will eventually turn out worth the trouble and expense which has been laid out on the matter: that it may do so "is a consummation devoutly to be wished," for the sake of the liberal owner of the mare (Mr. Payne, of Sulby), who has come upon the turf with so much spirit. And here I must again remark, I cannot see any circumstance that may lead us to imagine that the spirit of racing is on the wane, nor is there ever, I apprehend, much to be feared on that head: for if occasionally the cause does lose one of its supporters, the gap is soon filled up; and if racing, and bona fide racing only, be followed, there is not any one pleasure which on the average costs less. At the same time I am ready to admit there are usually so many allurements attendant upon the system, that it is difficult to avoid some of the snaresat Newmarket particularly, where there is by far too much time on hand. Those confounded little angular bony substances yclept Dice too often give employment to the elbows, when they should be exercised otherwise. However, without pain, we cannot know the value of pleasure; and if people in this way will now and then burn their fingers, they should recollect, as Lubin Log says, "it is quite hoptional:” it is a fungus which has sprung from the parent trunk, and I am afraid " grown with its growth;" and we can only say with Shakspeare, 'Tis true 'tis pity, and pity 'tis 'tis true. My Pegasus is (as I have before hinted) a little unmanageable at times, and truly, I think, your readers will exclaim, stands in need of a "hard and sharp;" for on looking back I find I have sadly deviated from the road on which I set out. I will therefore pull up and return. It will be remembered that the produce of Phantom, during the four years I have pointed out, have won the Derby twice and the Oaks once (and at this time, if bet ting was any criterion, bids fair to again run away with the Derby at least): : so that in point of merit as to crack winners, he stands conspicuous. But with all this, it cannot at the same time be denied that neither himself nor his progeny are eventually likely to retrieve the character of the Southern turf, for stoutness at least; for it is a fact which any one may be assured of who will take the trouble to turn to the Calendars-that with not more than three exceptions for the last seven years, have any of his get been winners after four years old, and the majority have stopped at three. Take for example only his two winners of the Derby, and one of the Oaks: two out of three never even started after three years old, being decidedly infirm; and the other (Cedric) only ran to his owner's cost, not having a chance to win. However I take it the owner of Phantom-Mr. Hervey-has found out the opinion of the public ere this; for" oh what a falling off is here"-not one of the mares in the Riddlesworth for 1830, and but one only in the new "Column Stake," was covered last year by Phantom. The price of covering last year (fifty guineas a mare) might be supposed to have had its weight; only it is to be recollected, at the same time, they made no scruple of covering with him "at ten guineas each time a mare was taken to Ranelagh street." It is an old saying, that every dog has his day: Phantom has had his; and the owner may thank his stars that two such lucky years as those in which Cedric and Middleton won the Derby fell to the lot of Phantom's Sons: for two more wretched lots of horses than in those respective years never came together for that VOL. XX. N. S.-No. 116. crack Stake. Take, for example, Osmond, who ran second to Cedric, and Rufus, who had the same place with Middleton: the first remained a maiden horse up to the period of his being taken out of training; and the latter has turned out anything but what he at first promised. We shall see whether the difference in price this season (twenty-five guineas only!) will make any alteration in our crack breeders' ideas this year; I doubt not. Mr. Hervey is, as every body knows, a little eccentric in his ideas; but, with all his oddities, is a clever man, and is at all times capable of giving an excellent lesson to most people as to the treatment of blood stock, and animals of all kinds. Certainly the very best practical illustration of what may be done by mild and fair usage, combined with that truly useful commodity, patience, has been given us in the manner in which he has ridden Vandyke Junior, Phantom, and others, some of which had been extremely vicious when they first got into his hands. With the former horse, indeed, (which when he first had him was a finished specimen of what horses can, and generally do, learn in a training stable, having been possessed of as many spiteful tricks as he well could be,) he wrought a wonderful alteration, having just before he parted with him got him so quiet that he could really do anything with him: to prove which, I think I need only say, that I have seen Mr. H., in Messrs. Tattersall's yard, absolutely swing by Vandyke's tail without the horse shewing any signs of uneasiness. Any other man would have tried to have knocked the temper out of him, as they call it; and by that, as is generally D the case, have made matters ten times worse. In fact, people have often said to Mr. Hervey, that, in their opinion, a good thrashing now and then did an animal good after all. "There," answers the latter, "I agree with you; a good thrashing may be of service occa sionally; but the devil of it is you give them so many bad thrashings:" so much for the advantage of kind over brutal feelings. But, though I am of Mr. Hervey's opi nion as to this matter, I cannot agree with him as to his idea of the transcendent superiority of his old horse Phantom, though, I be lieve, he imagines him to be the first nag in the world; and I am afraid he will find breeders' opinions coincide with mine, for the Stud Book gives him but a poor season last year. The incidental naming of the Stud Book above, leads me to speak of the third volume of that work, which, as your readers I dare say need not be told, has been just published. And first, I cannot help remarking on the very imper fect manner in which, I regret to say, the majority of the mares stand therein. The fact is, as "a general" volume of reference, and we may add as a national standard guide, it is lamentably deficient-not through the fault of the Editor, to whom the compilation of such scattered accounts (even as they stand in their present mutilated state) must have been a work of labour (and which, by the bye, may in some measure warrant the high price at which the book is published); but " from the extreme difficulty (as the preface remarks) of collecting the accounts of the produceofmares which are dispersed over the country in the possessiou of numerous individuals." Now, I really think every one must agree in saying, that it is astonishing that those people who are in the habit of breeding (on however small a scale), and to whom, therefore, a correct pedigree must be a material object-indeed the most material-will not trouble themselves (though evidently for their own benefit and interest) to keep an account of the various brood mares and produce which pass through their hands, and transmit them from time to time to the publishers of the Stud Book; for, if something of this kind was attended to, it would speedily put an end to the difficulties which at present stand in the way of obtaining a correct pedigree; and the object gained would repay the trouble laid out a hundred-fold to all parties. But it is not alone to individuals this stigma is confined; for I find that some of our first and most extensive breeders have been guilty of laxity, which in a stud of any magnitude is quite unpardonable. Look only at the immense "Second Alphabetical List," which the Editor states to "have been received too late for a connected publication with the first." It is to be hoped, therefore, considering the vast importance to which the exportation of thorough-bred horses has arisen in this country, taken only in a commercial point of view-and now that, by the lapse of years, the Stud Book has grown into a work of value, to enable us to trace back the pedigrees of our blood stock satisfactorily, for the last century at least-that on the next occasion of publishing an additional volume it may be found far more perfect than the last. But no editor can ever possibly have it in his power to make it so, unless he be seconded by every in dividual interested in either breeding or selling blood stock. We shall then possess one work which other nations must look upon with surprize, and which we ourselves may at least consider indigenous to our soil; the advantages of which must ever remain with us so long as the present system of racing is carried on with the same spirit which at present pervades it-the decline of which will be coeval with the downfal of our superiority in horses over other nations. This is a gloomy picture, but one which I trust, and would fain believe, we shall never have to look upon. What, indeed, may be the case when the reign of cant and sophistry shall have again been revived which NIMROD, in your last month's Number, seems to fear, and so eloquently deplores-is out of my power to imagine. That there is a spirit of false philosophy abroad, no one can doubt. I am, &c. &c. THE YOUNG FORESTER. March 16, 1827. Whizgig. beat Rufus, and won the Cup; and Rufus Deciding Course for the Cup.-Dart the Stakes. TUESDAY, JAN. 29, 1827. SUBSCRIPTION CUP of 10 sovs. each, five subscribers. Two sovs. each dog entrance-Second dog to receive Stakes. For the Cup.-Major Keating's Fly beat Colonel Bruen's Bluebell; Major beating's Dart beat Colonel Bruen's beat Captain Cosby's Speed; Sir C. Young Dart; Sir C. Coote's Countess Coote's Castinet beat Captain Cosby's Spot. TIE FOR THE CUP. Fly Dart Both winners of Cup and Stakes. of the dam of Archer, by Rolla (late Lord Rivers's), and Colonel Bruen's Rufus (also purchased at Lord Rivers's sale). ON THE FEEDING OF HOUNDS. SIR, I Am induced to send you the following lines, in consequence of reading two statements in your Magazine respecting the consump tion of oatmeal in fox-hunting establishments, and which appear to me to be so much at variance with each other as to allow of a little investigation. The first to which I allude will be found in the Number for June 1826, where Gardener, Mr. Osbaldeston's feeder, says that one hundred couples of fox-hounds consume annually about thirty tons. Here we have the authority of the practical man. The next will be found in the last February Number, in a letter quoted by NIMROD, and made by a Master of Fox-hounds (honored be the name!), and amounts to this, that his sixty couples consume sixty-six quarters in ten weeks, or three hundred and forty-four quarters in the year. Here we have the best authority in the world-the word of a gentleman. Having then obtained two correct statements, let us see how the consumption per dog in one kennel tallies with that in the other. In the first place, Gardener's statement amounts to this: thirty tons, or sixty-seven thousand two hundred pounds, will give each hound of the one hundred couples something short of one pound a day. With regard to the next account (having obtained the average price of oatmeal per ton, and the weight of it per quarter), I find it stands thus:-the sixty-six quarters will weigh about seven ton ten hundred weight; and, pursuing the statement, the whole will amount to thirty-nine tons per hound of the sixty couples rather annum, which will give to each more than two pounds per diem. Now, if my calculation turns out to be tolerably correct, (but not having a splash of the George Bidder blood in me, I speak with humility,) it follows that this Master of Fox-hounds, who we are told is in his quite a top-sawyer line," in differing from Colonel Cook's estimate, may possibly be wrong; and when he adds, that "although it might have been very well in his (the Colonel's) time, it will not do now," I beg to ask this simple question-Why? I know it is the fashion to hold the things and days that are gone by rather cheap, but we may go too far in this work of deterioration. If we look back a few years, we shall find that fox-hounds were attended by as many sportsmen as they are now-a-days, and there was not half the humbug. Hounds in Colonel Cook's time had at least as many laborious feats to perform as at the present period; they had more woodlands and rude country to run over; consequently, more liable to change foxes: and, taking the season through, each hound was out of his kennel more hours than they are in these days of refinement, when our first-rate performers cannot think of looking out of doors till the world is well aired for their reception. I take it for granted that this Master of Fox-hounds, is one of the "fliers" of the day, and of course a friend to light feeding. If he has ever condescended to look into the woodlands of Essex and Suffolk |