the year, and at a greater distance from the sea, when the keen eyed savage has become more cautious and knowing in the forms and hues of the insect world that he has met with in his travels. These facts prove the necessity of an angler's being able to improvise at willand to strike off at once the imitation of the flies that frequent the waters which he has visited in his pursuit.

This is indeed a digression, and it is fit that I should wind up the yarn, and thread my way back to Slapton.

With six dozen of roach and dace, and double the number of perch, I thought it high time to reel up my line, unsplice my rod, and visit our trimmers. To find them was not so easy a task, for a strong westerly wind which freshened as the day grew older, had wafted them from most of the spots where they had been set.

The first we espied had the white side uppermost—a good augury— and as the boat approached, the fresh-water shark, awakened from his sulks by the stroke of the oar, made a dash towards the rushes, dragging after him the cork faster than we could follow it. "Now it has got among the lilies, from whose leaves, as it turns them up, it is scarcely distinguishable.-See how they wave with an uneasy motion as the cord has got entangled among their long fibrous stems. The flowers in full bloom shake tremulously, as the pike, feeling the resistance, rushes madly onward. Where is the float now-lost for a time like a diver-it reappears some twenty yards a head. He must be a monster-just dip your oar, so as not to alarm him-now I have the trimmers the line is all unwound-draw it in gently, following the direction of the fish. He is off again-give him the rein-but keep him in hand the meanwhile. His struggles grow momentarily weaker and weaker; I see his brindled sides-now net him. He weighs at least 12lbs. Monarch of the lake! no, not the monarch, for there are many of his fellows here of twenty-five or thirty.

Then the eels-we took some more like congers (with which this coast particularly abounds) than fresh water eels. They seemed to me on examination to have been crossed with the marine race, which admits of probability, from the circumstance of the Mere having fifty years since been overflowed by an incursion of the sea, which destroyed all the other fish. We took one of 6lbs., yellow as gold, and were told that many there exceeded 10lbs.

Of our twenty men of war we only succeeded in finding sixteen, the others had been carried into the rushes, or were lost in the fields of water lilies, where the fish attached to them must have perished; but of these sixteen there was none without a run. We took four pike, each weighing more than 6lbs. The baits of the remaining trimmers had been disgorged, mostly by eels, as the entanglement of the cord and the twisting of the wire showed.

I was advised by our fisherman-host to visit this lake again in March, when the weeds are rotten, and I doubt not that the trolling must at at that season be surpassingly good. He assured me that he had known Mr. C., with whom he was well acquainted, take upwards of 50lbs. weight in one day, which I can easily conceive possible. But I was little inclined, nor did it ever cross my mind, to pay a second visit to Slapton, though another innducement might have tempted me so to do-duck shooting. Never have I seen congregated together such multitudes of wild fowl of all kinds as are bred in the wilderness of rushes that cover the lower part of the lake; and in the winter these numbers, great as they are, must be infinitely increased. Of all favourable places for a decoy, none struck me as so favourable for that purpose as Slapton.

A word or two as to my day's sport-sport it can hardly be calledit was downright murder; nor would I have whetted line there a second time to have taken the largest fish in the lea-nay, more, I would not have wantonly wasted the lives of so many enjoyable beings, had I known, as I soon learnt, that they were held in no esteem for the table-that even the poorest beggar, where Lea fish is so abundant, would not have accepted them; and hence that so many pounds of excellent food were doomed to be thrown away.

The angling at Slapton reminded me of a battue as compared with killing your game to your own dogs, and proved to me that sporting loses half its charm in the absence of uncertainty.

I have derived more pleasure from a moderate day's shooting in a bad country, and taking one fine fish in a free river, than in firing till my barrels were bot in an over-stocked preserve, or striking trout at every throw in a carefully protected stream.

I know not, brother sportsman, whether shot or angler, if you share these opinions, if you do,

"his utere mecum."

THE CHESHIRE HUNT.

John White, Esq. of Pack Hall, Derbyshire, and of Sale in the county of Chester, has accepted the mastership of the Cheshire Foxhounds; an appointment which, it is to be hoped, will tend through the permanent footing of the negociations to prevent those changes which have so frequently occurred in the mastership, since the retirement of the veteran Sir Harry Mainwaring, Bart.

IN

THE AMERICAN TURF-FASHION AND BOSTON

DEAR BOY,

THE FASTEST RACE ON RECORD.

To the Editor of the N. S. M.

your number for March last, I gave a detail of the conditions of this great race for 20,000 dollars (5000 guineas) a-side, together with a concise account of the pedigrees, appearance, and performances of these two great "cracks of the west;" and I concluded that article with the following words: "A match of this description, must, of course, depend upon many minor circumstances, which can hardly be foreseen; but from my own experience of the climate of New York, and its effects on constitution, more especially in training, I should be inclined to take 'THE MARE FOR CHOICE.'

"In any case this trial of the South versus the North,' will be one of most engrossing interest, and the winner of this race will fairly earn the title of THE CHAMPION OF THE AMERICAN TURF."

The event has fully realised my expectations. Fashion has been declared the winner in the "fastest race ever run in America," and is now indeed " THE CHAMPION OF THE AMERICAN TURF."

The four-mile heats were run, with half an hour's interval, in 7m. 32 sec., and 7 min. 45 sec.; and it will be remembered, that this, of course, is the time of the beaten horse, since to win was all that Fashion wanted.

The course on which this race was run is situated on Long Island, about nine miles from New York. It is a hard dusty track, an exact mile, and of oval form, entirely enclosed with palisades, in which are various gates, at which the public pay stipulated prices for their admittance. The longer sides of the oval are termed the "stretches,”"back," and "home;" the shorter ones the "quarter stretches ;" and that portion of the course which we should call "within the ropes," is here enclosed with gates, which are shut between the heats, in order to prevent the crowd from pressing on the horses, but open during the running of the race." The only persons admitted on this privileged portion of the course, between the heats, are the jockies, owners, or trainers, and the members of the Jockey Club.

Both the jockies in this instance were, contrary to the general custom, white men; Fashion being ridden by Joe Laird, the son of her trainer; and Boston, by Gil Patrick, generally esteemed to be the best jockey in the United States.

I have penned these few remarks, in order that your readers may the more readily understand any local allusions in the following account of

the race, which I have abbreviated, and in some respects altered, for the convenience of your cisatlantic readers, from that crack chronicle, the New York Spirit of the Times. Thine ever,

WILDRAKE.

June, 1842. "The great match for 20,000 dollars a side, four mile heats, between the North and South, came off on Tuesday, the 10th May, on the Union Course, Long Island. Since the memorable contest between Eclipse and Henry, on the 27th of May, 1823, no race had excited so much interest and enthusiasm. It attracted hundreds of individuals from the remotest sections of the Union, and for months has been the theme of remark and speculation, not only in the sporting circles of this country, but in England, where the success of the Northern Champion was predicted.

"Upon reaching the course, such a tableau was presented as we never saw before. The field inside of the course was thronged with carriages and equestrians, while the fences, booths, and trees were densely covered, so much so that several accidents occurred from their breaking down. It is stated, that there were no less than eight thousand persons in the Stands, and yet there were nearly as many more who could obtain but a partial view of the race, while many could not see it at all. The number of spectators in attendance is variously estimated at from fifty to seventy thousand. At one o'clock, owing to the want of an efficient police, and the inability to see the race, more than a thousand climbed over the pickets, from the field into the enclosed space, while a mob on the outside tore down a length of fence, stove through a door in the stand, and swarmed into the cleared space. For a time it seemed impossible for the match to take place at all. A crowd made a rush up the stairs leading to the club stand, but they were summarily ejected. At length, Yankee Sullivan, Jeroloman, Rynas, and several other distinguished members of the fancy, undertook to clear the course, which they did in an incredibly short time, by organizing a party of their friends, who formed in line, with clasped hands, quite across the space, and marched from one end to the other, thereby driving outside of the gate every person without a badge.".

"The race commenced about two o'clock. The course itself, owing to the rain of Sunday night, was not deemed quite so well adapted for speed as upon some other occasions; still it was in fine order. The day was warm and pleasant, but with scarce a glimpse of the sun." "The betting was a shade in Boston's favour. Before the race came off, however, his friends were obliged, in order to get on their money, to lay 100 to 60, and in some cases 2 to 1. We never saw so little money betted on a race here of any importance."

"Both stripped well. Boston was drawn unusually fine to our eye, but his coat looked and felt like satin. Fashion's curb, though quite

prominent, did not seem to affect her a jot. She was admirably trained by Mr. Laird, and splendidly jockied by his son Joseph-a chip of the old block-Mr. L. having formerly been a conspicuous jockey. Boston, of course, was managed by Col. Johnson, and ridden by Gil Patrick in his usual superb style; Arthur Taylor brought him to the post in unusually fine order. Gil Patrick rode the first heat without a spur."

"First Heat: Boston, on the inside, went away with the lead at a ratling pace, the mare laying up within two lengths of him down the straight run on the backstretch; the half mile was run in 55 seconds. The same position was maintained to the end of the third mile, but the pace improved. Soon after commencing the fourth mile Joe Laird shook his whip and gave Fashion a touch with the spur, and she collared and passed him in half a dozen strokes at a flight of speed we never saw equalled, except in the desperate rush beween Grey Medoc and Altorf in their dead heat. When Fashion responded to the call upon her and took the lead in such splendid style, the cheers sent up from the "rude throats" of thousands, might have been heard for miles. Boston, however, like a trump, as he is, did not give back an inch, and though it was manifest the Northern Phenomenon had the foot of him, he gave her no respite, but gradually closed the gap round the turn to within a few feet. At this moment the excited multitude broke through all restraint in their anxiety to witness the termination of the heat, and the course was nearly blocked up. On coming out through a narrow gauntlet of thousands of spectators excited to the highest pitch, both horses very naturally faltered at the tremendous shouts which made the welkin ring. Inside of the 66 it gate was a hollow thing," though Boston nearly closed the gap at the distance stand. Gil fairly caught Joe by surprise, but the latter, shaking his whip over her head, gave Fashion the spur, and she instantly recovered her stride, coming through about a length ahead, with apparently something in hand to spare, closing the heat in 7:32-the fastest, by all odds, ever run in America."

"Both horses cooled well. Bostonal ways blows tremendously, even after a gallop, but he seemed little distressed. Neither was Fashion; her action is superb, and as she came through on the fourth mile, it was remarked that she was playing her ears as if taking her exercise. She recovered sooner than Boston, and though her friends now offered large odds on her, Boston's were no less confident; the seventh mile they thought would "fetch her." After the heat was over, the crowd rushed into the enclosed space en masse; an endeavour was made to clear a portion of the track of the multitude who had now taken possession of it, and after great exertions, a lane was formed, through which the horses came up for the second heat."