"On Thursday we had a peep at Zoe and Zingara, at their residence at South Yarra; they both had coats on them like a looking-glass, and appeared to be as lively as kittens. Not a ghost of Zoe's shy leg was to be seen in her box, and her owner (whose interest it would be rather to encourage the report of her lameness) and trainer denied that she had ever gone amiss since her arrival in Victoria. As a proof of Mr. Tait's confidence in her, he has backed her for seven hundred."

Lastly, he adds:

"We hear favourable accounts of Tomboy, but he has not yet commenced quick work; he takes his breathings at Caulfield, the soft turf of which district suits him all to pieces. No other circumstance, with reference to the Champion Sweepstakes, worthy of comment, has reached our ears this week." This is unfortunate, as we like this nice familiar way of dealing with cracks.

Nothing can exceed the ardour with which a staff of correspondents, of whom "Voltigeur" seems to be the Emperor, furnish biographies of the different heroes. Tomboy's is more than unusually elaborate. He made his first appearance in public, says the historian.

"As a two-year-old at the Kyneton races of 1853, a fortnight after he had been broken in, and bolted, the lad who rode him being unable to hold him; and I may here remark that the memorable Black Thursday, on which occasion all his owner's hay, oats, and grass were burned, militated greatly against the early growth of this equine celebrity."

Of course, as in England, the craft keeps a sharp look out on each other. "Breeder" certainly patronises " Voltigeur," when he says, “I must give him great praise for the amount of information about the candidates for the forthcoming sweeps; indeed, he must be a complete Ruff to our Australian Turf." "Melvile's" language towards Breeder" is, however, anything but parliamentary.

"Breeder,'" he observes, "has unfortunately chosen this week a subject in which he appears to be at variance with history and dates; in vulgar parlance, he has got hold of the dirty end of the cane. The first part of 'Breeder's' letter is rather pitching it too strong; to wit, I showed, etc., etc.' I am at all times most happy to be instructed, but knowing personally from whence this gassy part of the epistle emanates, and his true want of knowledge upon all subjects intimately blended with horseflesh, slightly induces feelings of indignation at the presumptuous 'I showed.' When I feel in want of real knowledge upon this subject, I shall certainly not solicit 'Breeder's' advice."

And so from the horses, we get on to the course arrangements; and there we confront " Old Valentine," though we are glad to say that the editor puts him promptly down with three lines between those fatal brackets at the end of his letter. To us such a complaint as this seems incredible, and "gassy" to a degree.

"Dear Bell,-I hear it is the intention of the stewards of the Champion Sweepstakes to allow the horses for that race to have a gallop over the course previous to the day. I trust the stewards will do nothing of the kind, departing from the usual rule, and doing a great injustice to the horses trained in the country, and that do not intend coming to Melbourne until the day of the race."

The merits of the jockeys are made the subject of a series of very elaborate articles by "Surcingle" Of Sam Holmes, he observes with alarming candour

"Never physically, if constitutionally strong, his little excesses (now, happily for himself, given over entirely during the last few years) have considerably detracted from the buoyancy and elasticity of the nervous system, so thoroughly essential to the complete making of a jockey."

Still he cannot forget how he rode that, "at the time, most unfit and oxlike looking" (a tremendous periphrasis, by-the-way, for "bullock") "three miles in '48; and having been compelled to fairly carry his horse stride-forstride between his knees and arms, added another well-deserved quarter to his already highly-emblazoned shield." Steve Mahon "nailing Snell" with Yankee on the post is another of his loved ones; and "Billy Simpson winning both Metropolitan Handicaps on Blink Bonny" has an honourable mention. Billy, by-the-bye, seems a favourite with the editor; and that functionary has accordingly touched up "Surcingle," in a foot-note to his first paper, for holding him too cheap.

The editor himself seems to have no light time of it, as correspondents at the Antipodes are quite as discursive as they are here, and ask as many questions about us and our doings as they do about themselves. Take a specimen

"W. R. N.-It is less than five years since Mr. Nicholson attempted to form a ministry.

Nemo. In sporting phraseology, the result of the second chase was a set-up. In stag-hunting, set-up is equivalent to run-into in fox-hunting. Maryboro.-Was there ever a child born in a balloon when ascended in the air? Perhaps some of our readers could answer this important question. C. C., Castlemaine. We decline answering your question; write to Mr. John Drew, at the Princess Theatre.

D. R.-Bunyip was by the Duke of Argyle. Perhaps some of our corres pondents could give his pedigree, and that of Sir Charles, the grandsire of Scratch.

J. F., Wangarata.-Michael Gibbs has been Lord Mayor of London. Your second is a scientific question.

F. R.-Yes; Tom Spring had a turn-up with Phil Sampson on Epsom race. course, but never with that worthy in the P.R., or for a stake.

Of course the Ring finds favour; and Tom Sayers's picture in fighting costume, to judge from a frame-maker's advertisement, was received with reverential awe. "The above celebrated character will," he says, "form a pleasing addition to any collection of sporting-prints in the colony." The remainder of the Cribbeze dialect seems to coincide with our own. Charley Brock simply complains that Putney Bill's challenge is vaguely worded; and Fred Smith, in reply to Billy Herbert, of Tasmania, who seems wishful" to fight any man in the colonies who might fancy himself at 9st. 6lbs., " accepts it for £100 aside, and offers to pay the expenses of it coming off in Port Philip.

The coursing is a much more mysterious matter, and we do not exactly know what the match-dogs are going to run after, except it be kangaroos. The editor simply writes, under this head

"We have received the following challenge from John James, of the Moun tain Hut: 'I, John James, will run my iron-grey kangaroo dog Tiger against any dog or bitch that can be produced on the Mountain Hut diggings, to kill and show the best two out of three, for the sum of ten pounds (£10 ster ling.) I also agree to run the aforesaid dog Tiger for a further sum of ten pounds against any dog or bitch that can be produced from the Amphitheatre or Back Creek, the first three kills in five to decide the match. I would prefer to run against Mr. John Smith's Blewe, as there is a dispute between us regarding our last match.""

The hunting is, we believe, principally confined to stags, or dingoes alias wild dogs, and the following is the style of the

HUNTING APPOINTMENTS.

MELBOURNE HUNT.-The Melbourne hounds will meet

This (Saturday) morning, the 10th instant, at Oakleigh Steeple, at half-past seven o'clock.

On Saturday morning, the 17th instant, near to the Hunter's Rest, Cheltenham Road, punctually at seven o'clock. This will be the last public meet during the present season. GEO. WATSON, Master. "A fine stag with spreading antlers" was the chosen quarry for the day

"When a special train was provided for the occasion, and half-an-hour sufficed to effect the transit of the merry party, and the good steeds that were to bear them in the chase, to the ordinarily quiet and prettily situated station on the Werribee. Twenty couple of the Melbourne hounds had been conveyed by the same means to the trysting spot, and there the whole party were shortly greeted by Mr. Chirnside, who put in a most aristocratic appearance with a four-in-hand team of splendid greys. The meet' was about two miles from the station, and thither the cavalcade proceeded, all animated with the joyous anticipation of a 'good thing.""

Mr. Chirnside seems to have been quite the hero of the hunt, and the hounds, according to the report, "were whipped off, and the stag saved, thanks to the opportune appearance of Mr. C., who had gone well across country in a comfortably-cushioned phaeton, and a wellfurnished commissariat van in his wake.”

"Burton" (a hunting correspondent) does not seem to approve altogether of this outing, and a week or two after it comes out in his letter, that several of the best hounds got lamed. The day about which he writes was hot and hopeless, and he therefore simply observes:

"On the road home, however, we indulged in a little amateur steeplechasing. Most of the horses jumped well, particularly 'old Isaacs,' who was sent over some rasping fences by his owner, 'Major Dudley, one of the most reckless and daring riders of the hunt.'"

The boating correspondent has some very tender recollections forced on to him, of the Ravensworth built by the Claspers

"So yonder four, that scarcely shows its line

Above the gentle ripple of the tide,

Reminds us of the Claspers of the Tyne,

The water's champions from the Thames to Clyde"—

and Dr. Ford's speech at a cricket meeting, conveys a sad tale of how he and Captain Hall were lugged in to be stewards at the dinner to the Eleven, who won the Grand National Match at Sydney, which scarcely any members attended, and left him and the Captain £50 short, with a summons to the County Court into the bargain. "Quoits (communicated)", is an account of 37 lines of the great match at the deep cutting, near Sunbury Flat, between "Newcastle Jack," and "Lincoln Ginger, the well-known top-barrow runner in the gullet," which the latter, who had his stakes made by "Yorky Bill," won by three. The Melbourne Rat Pit is also a great arena, and on September 17, "Tippoo was matched there, the first time that a dog has faced 100 rats at one time in the colony." "The imported ferret Nip" ("weight 17 ounces"), can, it seems, only face eight successfully at once, and has no pretensions therefore for the Champion Gold Collar, which commences at thirty rats for every 30lb. animal, one rat allowed for every pound under that

we ight down to 12lbs. Two native cats also seem to have afforded much amus ement, and one of them, with its back in a corner, defied everything. "That extraordinary canine artiste, the dog Jonathan, from the Sydney Theatres," does nothing so low, as fight cats, but is "performing in the Ovens district, and will shortly visit the lower diggings, with those popular veritable artistes Mr. and Mrs. Osborne. We cannot say that we feel a very sympathetic chord struck either by the rats or the ferret, but they serve to show that wherever Englishmen settle, they never shed one particle of the sporting part of their nature.

RALLY WOOD.

(LATE THE PROPERTY OF HIS GRACE THE DUKE OF RUTLAND.) ENGRAVED BY J. B. HUNT, FROM A PAINTING BY FERNELEY, SEN., OF MELTON MOWBRAY.

Strolling on a fine winter morning, last year, into Mr. Ferneley's Melton studio, where the veteran was working with an enthusiasm which would put scores of men half his age to shame, we espied this celebrated son of Sutton's Basilisk and Yarborough Rosebud on the easel, and were seized with "an uncontrollable impulse" to have it engraved. It was a commission from poor Will Goodall, who was nothing loath to give his consent, and added that "it could'nt be beat as a likeness." We must, however, let him have his own say about his pet, as he gave it to the author of "Silk and Scarlet," pp. 373-4 :—

"Yarborough Rallywood, who has virtually made the Belvoir kennel what it now is, never ran to head, but always got to the end of great runs. He was very long and low; the exact image of the Ringwood that Stubbs painted for Brocklesby, and with somewhat round quarters, which made him rather the harrier, and, although good twenty-three, he was mean to those who like a big hound. In fact, he was quite a multum in parvo; and Will thus summed up his merits in the last sentence of the last letter he ever wrote to us: He was the lowest dog I ever saw in my life, with the largest fore-rib combined with a beautiful neck and shoulders, and a pleasing, intelligent countenance.' Old Will Smith wanted the Belvoir Grappler, and said, I'll give you anything in the kennel for him'; and Will selected Rallywood, in spite of his broken thigh. This exchange was never made, owing to Smith's untimely death, and Grappler died at Belvoir; but the negotiations were renewed with young Will Smith, and he sent Rallywood, by whom he had at one time about fourteen couple of working hounds, and got Trouncer in exchange, and then Raglan by Rustic, whom he liked no better. Will was so fond of his prize, when he at last got hold of it, that fifty-three couple of his puppies, from ten couple of the the very best stuff" in the kennel were sent out in the second season. He came to Belvoir in 1851, at nine years old, and was worked a whole season; and when he died, in 1853, he found a fitting necropolis in the centre of a flowerpot in Will's garden, and a red currant-tree now blooms over his re. mains."

The Rallywoods of the third generation were entered by Cooper this

season.