possess the commanding appearance of Surplice or The Flying Dutch man. If betting is the criterion by which the condition of racing is estimated, it certainly never before attained its present pre-eminence. The sum of money won by the Teddington party is calculated at £200,000, and this from the ring and the ever-confiding public, very few of whom found the right horse. Prime Minister maintained the premiership in the betting for a considerable time, after the defeat at Newmarket of Mountain Deer, and was backed heavily by the sporting members of the immediate neighbourhood in which he was trained. They all entertain a just and confidential opinion of Wadlow, the worthy trainer of this horse; but until he removes to a place better suited to working racehorses upon than that he now occupies, I much fear their sanguine hopes of hailing him the winner of a Derby will be a long time ere they are realized. Throughout the counties of Wilts, Hants, Somerset, and Gloucester, the Marlborough Buck engrossed the warmest affections, and those who placed their faith in him were not much mistaken; he was all-but, though not quite good enough—some consolation for the judgment, though none for the pocket. So much for a cocktail-in other words, a horse descended from a mare not quite thorough-bred. We have now had the occurrence repeated twice of half-bred ones running second for the Derbys of the respective years, namely, Hotspur and Marlborough Buck. How much of the leaven of plebeian blood circulates in the veins of either it is difficult to say, and every future generation from the same stock will essentially become more pure. What constitutes the legitimate title of thorough-bred as relates to the horse is a problem which cannot be defined. Conventionally it is one whose genealogy can be traced in the Stud Book, or whose sire or dam is an accredited Arabian or horse of eastern origin, represented as being of the pure blood of the country from whence he was imported: the union of one of these horses or mares, with one of the opposite sex having the distinction of a place in the Stud Book, is denominated thorough-bred. But what guarantee have we that such importations are of pure blood? With respect to the English thorough-bred horse, on reference to the early pages of the Stud Book some mares will be found without any pedigree at all, and several whose identity is doubtful. All this resolves itself into one context, and it is this, that thorough-bred horses are descended from those which were by consent originally so denominated, and that on some occasions in consequence of their superiority over other horses of their respective days. Twenty years ago the idea of a horse not thorough-bred staying the distance with thorough-bred ones, over the Derby course, would have been entertained as an impossibility; and so it was with the class of horse prevalent at that time; but three or four additional infusions of acknowledged pure blood has brought the cocktail of 1851 to an equality with the most highly bred of his compeers. This The Derby is a contest which is singularly fortunate to the aristocracy, for it has generally been won by a titled member of the turf. makes the seventy-second stake that has been run for, and forty-two of those have been won by titled personages, although the horses which have started belonging to Esquires and commoners of lower degree have been in far greater proportion. 66 That it would be expedient to legalize the recovery of money won by betting is an opinion which holds favour with many persons, especially with those who, having won, cannot bring their creditors to a settlement. I doubt much the policy of such an alteration in our code of laws. It would evidently have the effect of still increasing the amount so speculated with, but it would not benefit any one. You cannot expect blood from a stone" is a very old maxim, and few, if any, would be doterred, any more than they now are, from betting beyond their means of paying; the tradesman is not restrained from speculating in unprofitable ventures, far beyond the limits which prudence assigns to his capital. There are laws enough in conscience connected with commercial engagements, but they do not prevent such disasters. All ΑΠ men who run great risks to gain money do it under the impression that they will be favoured by the blind Goddess; it is not in the power of legislation to control that hope, or inculcate in their minds what speculations will be most advantageous. A well-matured rcvision of the rules of racing would be far more beneficial in its effect than any laws which the Senate can propose; and so it was decided when the question was brought before a committee of the House of Commons a few years since. Upon the existing system of listbetting the public are the best legislators. If a man is silly enough to invest his bonâ fide capital upon the mere faith he reposes in another's word, he deserves the consequences which experience will teach him. He who backs a horse at long odds has equally, if not more, reason to require a guarantee from the layer of the odds whose word is passed for the larger sum, as the latter has of desiring a deposit; and if the precaution is omitted, wherefore does the victim deserve commiseration? In ordinary betting it is a different affair. One man passes his word to another for the payment of a given sum on the result of a certain event; in list-betting the taker of the odds deposits his hard cash upon the unsatisfactory contingency of the recipient's intentions. A more melancholy catastrophe than the unhappy suicide of Mr. Bristow has seldom occurred within the circle of the racing community. Ardently attached to the turf, and devotedly fond of breeding, his great object was to run the produce of his own mares, with the not unreasonable hope of winning in his turn; but his hopes were defeated by the change which has progressively taken place during the last fifteen years in the customs of racing, or rather the conditions of stakes. Those who knew him-poor fellow!-knew that his honourable bearing would not permit him to condescend to the common expedient of starting his horses without an intention of winning, consequently the great handicaps were far beyond his reach. Of late years, therefore, he sold the stock which he had bred; and they, in the hands of others less scrupulous than himself, on many occasions turned out to be lucrative investments. His mortification may be conceived, and sorely is it to be lamented that the career of so worthy a man should have come to such an unhappy end. The enormous increase of Selling Stakes during the last three years is a subject demanding notice. That such conditions to a modified extent should be admitted into the prospectuses of race-meetings may be all very well; but what inducement is there for country gentlemen to train racc-horses, if all the prizes for which they can engage them are either handicaps or Selling Stakes. Having bred or purchased an useful favourite horse, a man must either run him for handicaps which he has no chance of winning, or enter him in Selling Stakes, which, in order to be entitled to the allowance of weight, and thereby have a chance of winning, he must offer the horse for sale at a paltry price, insufficient, with the stake, to defray the expenses of training. This is a subject for the consideration of race committees, and they will do wisely if they will bear in mind the probable results before they publish the conditions of their stakes. A FEW LINES FROM THE CRAVEN COUNTRY. BY RABY. I little thought, when I sent you an account of the proceedings of the Craven hounds, in April last, that it would so soon be my painful lot to chronicle the death of the late worthy and much-to-be-lamented owner of that excellent pack-Mr. Frederick Villebois. I well knew, as I then stated, that he was suffering from very severe illness; but I did not think that Death was hovering so close around his bed. It was only at the end of last season that he stated his intention of resigning the Craven country, on account of his bad health; but, by the persuasion of the members of the hunt, he was prevailed upon to hold it for another season. Alas! his kind intentions were not allowed to be carried into effect, for on the 10th of June he was seized with a sudden and very severe attack of his old complaint, and died on the 12th. A sorrowful day, indeed, was this for all at Benham and its neighbourhood, where he was endeared to many by acts of kindness and generosity; and the many who had partaken of his bounty and hospitality were struck to the heart with feelings that can be felt but not described, when they heard the bell booming in the distance, and slowly tolling forth his knell : "Hark! from yon tower the death-bell's sudden note, Strange and mysterious, bursts upon the ear! It is the knell of some departed soul, Herald of grief and harbinger of fear." Mr. Villebois had been master of the Craven hounds for eighteen years; by his thorough knowledge of breeding hounds he has left a very superior pack, which he has by will given to the Craven country, together with the horses of the establishment; at the same time appointing Mr. Wroughton of Woolley Park, 'Mr. Bacon of Elcot, and Mr. Sherwood of Chaddleworth, as a committee to manage the affairs of the hunt, should no gentleman come forward to take the country. The hounds will this next season be kept at Benham, as Mrs. Villebois has kindly given the use of the kennels and stables to the hunt. Nor has the late good squire forgotten his favourite huntsman, Ben Foote; he has left him a handsome annuity for his life. Foote has therefore declined to continue the office of huntsman any longer, affirming that he should not like to hunt the hounds under another master, having served his late one for so long a period-sixteen years. L There is a picture at Benham Park of the late Squire, with Ben Foote and some favourite hounds. I sincerely hope the country will (with the permission of Mrs. Villebois) have it placed in the hands of some eminent engraver, as I feel certain that the many admirers of the late Mr. Villebois, and all connected with the noble science in these parts, would like to have a copy of this portrait, especially after the handsome present he has made to the country. It would also serve to call to mind the pleasures one has partaken of, when he cheered on his favourites, when perchance on some future day we may have returned from a fine day's sport with those very hounds of which he was so proud. I really hope this will be taken in hand at once, for I think it will be some time "ere we look upon his like again;" ere we see a man contending against all the difficulties of a very cold, cheerless scenting country, and other trying circumstances incidental to a master of foxhounds-ere one can be found who will go through all this, and retain that position for the long period of eighteen years! In thinking of this fine old English gentleman and squire, and ou looking at his picture at Benham, which I have mentioned above, the beautiful lines of Warburton rush into the mind "Should the time-honoured race of our fox-hunters end, They were loved in their lives- they were wept in their grave." REQUIESCAT IN PACE. STAG HUNTING IN DEVON AND SOMERSET. We have received a letter addressed by the Treasurer of the Devon and Somerset Staghounds, whose exertions on behalf of the noble sport of stag-hunting deserves our best commendation. It was entirely owing to Mr. Collyns' exertions that this sport was revived some years after the late Sir Thomas Acland gave up the hounds; and greatly owing to his perseverance, aided by a few other gentlemen, that it has been continued for the last fourteen or fifteen years; and it behoves all those who have ever joined in the chase to lend their aid in supporting the hunt, and especially in that essential particular relating to the remuneration of the small farmers for injury done by the deer to their crops, without which, Mr. Collyns rightly assures us, the deer cannot be preserved, or, in fact, retained in the country, owing partly to the deficiency in our game laws, and greatly to the wandering propensity of the deer in their wild state. Twenty miles is nothing for them to travel to and fro, to feed on a favourite turnip field during the night; and if the small farmers are not reim bursed, and a few watchers kept near the favourite kennels of the deer, all the expensive preservation of Lord Carnarvon, Mr. Knight, Sir Thomas Acland, and others in their districts, will not avail to save them from the bullet of a dis-ati-fied farmer or is men. The north of Devon and Somerset is the only district in England where this noble animal is regularly hunted in its wild state; and, therefore, every one interested in the sport is likewise interested in preserving this right-royal animal. The following is a copy of Mr. Collyns' letter to the supporters of the hunt : "SIR,-You are no doubt aware, that in the year 1849, Mr. Theoboald, at the request of many of the gentlemen of Devon and Somerset, brought his pack of hounds into this country for the purpose of hunting the wild deer, and gave much satisfaction to the members of the Hunt. It was hoped that his success would have induced some influential gentleman in one of the counties to come forward, and, with the assistance of lovers of the sport, establish A PACK OF STAGHOUNDS. That hope, though not abandoned, has not for the present been realized; in the meantime the deer are, in many parts of the country, being shot and otherwise destroyed, under the impression that hunting them is at an end; and it is felt that, unless they are hunted this season, this cruel sacrifice of the noble animal will be continued, and the ancient and once royal sport of stag-hunting (now only to be met with and enjoyed in its pristine state in the West of England) annihilated. "I have, at the request of gentlemen interested in the continuanes of the sport, applied to Capt. West, the master of the Bath Stag-hounds, who has purchased the best of the hounds with which Mr. Theoboald hunted the country, and has the same huntsman, to hunt the country this season from the 12th of August to the 8th of October. In order to defray the expense of the pack, and to raise a fund for indemnifying the farmers for damage done (by which means alone we can hope to prevent the deer from being shot), I have been requested to undertake the task of applying for subscriptions and donations; and I trust that, in aid of a sport belonging peculiarly to the counties of Devon and Somerset, I shall not make an appeal to you for your kind assistance in vain. "I have little doubt, knowing that the Bath Stag-hounds had some severe runs daring the winter, coupled with the huntsman now knowing our country, that every prospect of good sport exists, provided funds can be procured. Trusting you will favour me with an early reply, "Believe ine to remain, sir, yours truly, "Dulverton, Somerset, 1st July, 1851.” "CHARLES P. COLLYNS. LITERATURE. THE CRICKET FIELD; OR, THE HISTORY AND CRICKET. Longman. SCIENCE OF "Cricket," says Mr. Punch, "is essentially the game of Englishmen." We are proud, ourselves, to support so high an authority. Our foreign friends may try hard to imitate or vie with us in many of our field sports, but, as with the national game of "box," they cannot enter into the spirit of cricket. With English horses to run, English jockeys to ride, and English grooms to train, monsieur gets bodily into the excitement of the turf; the more sedate German pursues the same sport in much the same fashion, and in either country you may occasionally hear a challenge from the English fox-hound. There is an attraction, to however great a disadvantage they themselves may appear, in the practice of these sports; but none but a born and bred Briton can stand up to face a cricket ball. There is a combination of coolness, |