at a Hyde Park canter, the two ladies leading the way, and regulating our pace, I suddenly took a narrow ditch, and endeavoured to get a sight of the hounds by reaching the van. In a moment there was a general cry, calling on me to diminish my speed, and take up my unenviable post in the rear. I confess I was so much astonished at this sudden clamour, and strange demand, that I pulled up, and reassumed my former station, determined to find Jimmins, and make him explain the apparently mysterious conduct of his confreres of the chase. He was prancing along about the middle of the string. On beckoning to him he fell back, and, to my surprise, thus solved the ænigma. By the rules of the hunt, my dear fellow," said he, "the members of the first class, who pay most, and who wear, as you may recollect, a red coat and a brass horn, are entitled to ride first. No subscriber of the second class may pass these potentates. They may follow immediately after them; but dare not ride up to them. For this, however, they are compensated by seeing number three behind them, followed again by number four. The whole cortege is closed by a host of non-subscribers, and a few peasants on foot." "In the heat of the chase, may not these rules be transgressed?" "By no means. You have just seen an enforcement of them in your own case." "Yes, my dear Jimmins, but we are not running." "Not running! Why we are going faster than we have done the whole season. The Miss Thompsons are dashing riders, and are leading us at a severe pace-Nancy, too, is remarkably cheerful." 66 Nancy, I presume is the name of the doe." "Just so; she is an excellent creature. But, hark! the "mort" is sounding. Poor thing! she is soon tired. But she is, I believe, in kid, so it's not surprising," and away trotted my sporting cicerone. When I came out I could not help laughing aloud. Nancy was romping with the hounds, or rather, I should call it, coquetting with them. All she seemed to want was, to lie down. Her late pursuers, however, kept skipping and barking round her, preventing her fulfilling her desire to take rest. Presently the chasseurs came up, and whipped off the hounds, who wished for nothing better, while the whole field, i. e., of the first and third degree, kept making the welkin ring with discordant notes from their brazen trumpets. I trotted home, laughing at the farce. Poor Nancy, I afterwards heard, dropped her kid on her way home, and the members of the hunt declared to their friends that they had enjoyed a superb run. A mustachioed gentleman, with jack boots and a racing cap, wearing a pair of spectacles, and hair down his back, gravely demanded if we had any such sport in England? I assured him we had not, and I verily think I spoke the truth. THE NEWMARKET HOUGHTON MEETING, 1842. BY RIDDLESWORTH. THE Newmarket "Hay and Straw Meeting" just past, was a most appropriate close to a most brilliant season;-and the year of Racing, 1842, from its opening to its end, must be classed as having been fruitful of superior sport. In spite of bad weather-and bad weather at Newmarket is "bad" indeed there was a plentiful attendance of company, whose speculative propensities, apparently in no wise chilled by the inclemency of the weather, seemed to be directed to the acquisition of a winter store, on which, like the dormouse, they might luxuriate in idleness, until the returning spring might warm them into action once again. The first event of the first day of the meeting, was the winning of a Handicap by Corunna, 3 yrs old, 6st. 9lb., beating Discord, 6 yrs old, 9st. 7lb.; The Shadow, 6 yrs old, 8st. 13lb.; Bosphorus, 6 yrs old, 7st. 2lb.; and Archy, 3 yrs old, 7st. The Hymen stock have shown forward in these October meetings. For the Criterion Stakes, booked as a certainty to Mr. Bowes's Derby colt Cotherstone, the following eight came to the post, viz. Lord G. Bentinck's b. c. Gaper, by Bay Middleton.. Rogers Mr Watt's c. Pine Apple, by Yaxley, dam by Blacklock-Muta ..Chifney Mr I. Sadler's b. f. Testy, by Venison, out of Temper (2lb. extra)..J. Day Lord Exeter's br. f. by Jerry, out of Macremma Lord Orford's b. f. by Emilius, out of Fidelity Colonel Peel's c. Canton, by Cain, out of the Dey of Algiers's dam, (2lb. extra)........ .... ....Mann Bartholomew Mr Bowes's b. c. Cotherstone, by Touchstone, out of Mundig's .Nat .. Holmes Mr Goodman's bk. c. Bother-'em, by Voltaire (21b. extra).... E. Edwards Gaper, a colt known only from his running very badly in a two-yearold stake at Goodwood, took the lead, kept it from end to end, and won very cleverly. Lord George thought Farintosh a crack, and Gaper Are "judges" always to be trusted. a brute. The Cambridgeshire Stakes, the great handicap race of the meeting; and by the way, there are now almost as many handicaps as other races at Newmarket-verified public opinion by placing the first and second favourites first and second. Eighteen started, viz. .......... Lord Albemarle's Ralph, by Dr. Syntax, 4 yrs old, 8st. 71b. .... W. Day Nat ...... Sir W. Stanley's Forester, by Verulam, 4 yrs old, 7st. 7lb.........Stagg 7 st. 5lb..... Whitehouse Duke of Rutland's The Genius, by Falcon, 5 yrs old, 7st. 5lb... Wakefield Lord Eglinton's br. c. Melior, by Velocipede, 3 yrs old, 6st. 12lb..... Lye Lord Orford's c. by Jerry, out of Petulance, 3 yrs old, 6st. 12lb..... Pettit Colonel Peel's I-am-not-aware, by Tranby, aged, 6st. 12lb....... Ballinger Mr Dixon's ch. g. Hawk, by (Irish) Birdcatcher, 3 yrs old, 6st. 7lb.... ...Arthur, jun. Duke of Portland's f. The Gleaner, by Doctor Syntax, 3 yrs, 6st. 4lb. Abdale Mr Isaac Day's m. by Nimrod, out of Busk, 5 yrs old, 6st. S. Darling, jun. The race was run to suit Ralph; each and all of the others cutting one another's throats, and gradually falling back to the position where he was waiting, until Florence alone remained, when Robinsou called on his horse, came up, passed her, and went in an easy winner by a length; Adela was third, Garry Owen fourth, Bellissima next, then Knight of the Whistle, and after him Cabrera, Hawk, the Busk mare, and the ruck. A batch of matches made up the day's list, Camelino and Marquise running a dead heat, and Moneda and Devil-among-the-Tailors beating Buffalo and Johnny. The loser in each case being the favourite. Tuesday brought an unaccustomed sight in Sam Chifney in a winning jacket on St. Francis, beating Una, Bellissima, Arcanus, Roscius, Fama, Snowdrop, and Tamburini, for a Hundred Pound Handicap Plate. Rapture filled Mr. Payne's heart, though not his pocket, with a sweepstakes, beating King of the Peak and eight others. Ajax "floored" a field of eight for Fifty Pounds-many" mickles" running to catch a very small" muckle ;" and matches three made up the day's delights-John o'Gaunt giving two pounds, and a two-stone beating to Dr. Caius-Pompey giving five pounds, and a ten-pound beating (ungallant fellow !) to Lord Orford's Barmaid; and the Wild-duck colt, running away, with 2 to 1 on him, from Captain Ives's colt, by Onus, out of Mopsy. Wednesday, a clear but bitterly cold day, brought out Palladium a winner of fifty pound's worth of his winter's food, beating Portrait, Ghuznee, Knight of the Whistle, and Billingham Lass. Another Fifty Pound Plate got into the hands of Jeremy Diddler, a field of six running after him. Another large field started for a Sweepstakes, carried out of their reach by Hawk, and two matches wound up the third day, Minaret, 8st. 7lb., beating Solomon, 8st. 2lb.; and Buffalo, 8st. 10lb., beating Augury, 7st. The Thursday's events were meagre alike in quantity and quality, and the only races of interest on the Friday were for the Nursery Stakes, which, by the way, were spoiled by being divided into two classes. The first of these was a dead heat between Cotherstone and Mr. Payne's filly by Muley Moloch, out of Bessy Bedlam, the other starters being the Duke of Rutland's f. by Bizarre, out of Minx's dam, 7st. 10lb.; Mr. Sadler's Testy, by Venison, 8st. 8lb.; Col. Peel's Rook's-nest, by Rockingham, 7st. 13lb.; Lord Exeter's c. by Velocipede, out of Galata, 7st. 11lb.; Lord Stradbroke's Nylghau, by Bizarre, 7st. 7lb. ; and Mr. Goodman's Bother'em, by Voltaire, 7st. 6lb. After the dead heat, Mr. Payne and Mr. Bowes divided the stakes and Cotherstone walked over. The second class of the Nursery Stakes produced a flying" cocktail" in Mr. W. Sadler's Sister to Combat, who, with Rogers and 8st. 4lb. on her back, beat easily Mr. Bradford's f. by Emilius, out of Fidelity, 7st. 5lb.; Mr. Ongley's Queen of the Gipsies, by Camel, 8st. 10lb.: Lord Exeter's f. by Beiram, or Sultan, out of Fanny Davies, 7st. 11lb.; Mr. Bird's ch. c. by Redshank, dam by Amadis, 7st. 11lb.; Mr. Osbaldeston's f, by The Saddler, dam (foaled in 1834) by Partisan, out of Pomona, 7st 6lb. ; and Col. Anson's Marquise, by Bay Middleton, 7st. It is all very well to call these " cocktails," but I believe that many "cocktails" are better bred than half the thorough-bred ones. Several minor stakes, and matches of little interest save to the immediate parties concerned, carried this meeting to the completion of a sixth day; and thus the night closed on the racing season, 1842, with present satisfaction, heightened by the promise of a brilliant future. STATISTICAL TABLE OF FIFTY-FIVE OF THE PRINCIPAL RACE MEETINGS IN THE SEASON, 1842. MASTERS OF HOUNDS. BY NIMROD. MR. HODGSON. ANOTHER master of the Quorn! Alas, the thirteenth since I first hunted in the noted shire of Leicester, and a fourteenth now appointed. Shade of Meynell! Well is it that the substance is where the ear has lost its hearing, and the eye its sight. Were I asked who was the most zealous sportsman at this moment amongst all our masters of hounds? I should be unable to answer the question; but at the time of my being in Holderness, on my Yorkshire Tour, say fourteen years back, I should have had no hesitation in saying Mr. Hodgson, then master of the Holderness, was the man. His having been promoted to what, despite its present humiliating position, must be admitted to be the first of our hunting countries in general estimation of the sporting world, although called the second by a few, at once places him in the front rank of masters, and his having sold his hounds for two thousand two hundred guineas to Lord Ducie -twenty couples of bitches fetching a thousand-likewise shows that "zeal like his will not be denied." Mr. Hodgson commenced hunting the Holderness country in 1824; quitted it in 1839, and for the two last seasons, as almost all your readers must know, succeeded Lord Suffield in the Quorn country. What name he left behind him in Holderness, is best testified by the fact of my having accompanied him at the end of the last season but one, as far as Mr. Foljambe's, on his road to the town of Driffield, where at a dinner given to him, he was to be presented with a service of plate, by the farmers of Holderness, who had hunted with him, and witnessed his gentlemanlike and sportsmanlike conduct during fifteen years of his being master of the Holderness hounds. Mr. Hodgson once hunted the Badsworth country, previously to Mr. Petre taking it, but for how long, I am unable to say; but this I know that Mr. Petre resided at Stapleton Park, formerly the property of Mr. Hodgson's father. When in Holderness, his kennel was for several years in the town of Beverley, but was afterwards removed to Bishop Burton, a village two miles distant, in which is the residence of that good sportsman on the turf, Mr. Watt. On his (Mr. Hodgson's) quitting the country, it was taken by Mr. Vyner, who had hunted part of Warwickshire for two seasons, but who for want of support, gave it up at the end of the season before the last, and then the work of destruction commenced-not only amongst the foxes, but the covers, some of which-that noble one, Owstwick Whin amongst them-have been cut up. I fear, we may now place Holderness among the fox |