near Paris. Two events occurred, at these meetings, which may be interesting to our readers: the first was connected with no less important personage than the veteran Blucher. "Grim-visaged War," having "smoothed his wrinkled front," the heroes of it, "instead of mounting barbed steeds, To fright the souls of fearful adversaries," employed their chivalry in more peaceful pursuits. The gallant hero entered completely into the spirit of all English sports, especially that of horse-racing, and became so excited and interested in one race,— a match between my old friend St. John's b. m. Gipsy, and my gr. m. Meg, like Tam O'Shanter's, a better never lifted leg," owners on,— that Blucher did not perceive the ropes had been put across the course, after we had passed the distance-post. He attempted to follow us in, was caught by the rope, and horse and rider "bit the dust." Nothing could exceed the consternation of all present; the races were suspended; but, fortunately, on inquiry, nothing but a severe shake had been the result of the fall. The second event was that of an English horse-dealer, who, having made himself most odious and obnoxious to the community at large, by his interference and wrangling, received notice to quit the course; to which he objected, bearding the authorities, and declaring his right, as a free-born Briton, to remain. Military law was about to be exercised, when the licensed dealer, thinking discretion to be the better part of valour, sounded a retreat, and began to retire, like the well-bred dog in the often-quoted instance, when he saw every preparation being made for the ceremony of kicking him out. But the leaven of impertinence remained in him; and, as he made his exit from within ropes, he uttered curses, not loud, but deep, sending us to a place which," oh! no, we never mention it," at least, "to ears polite." A yell and groan followed his remarks; and a cry of "duck him!" was echoed through the field. Away scampered the luckless horse-dealer, followed by a legion of dare-devil sportsmen. Dick Turpin, when he rode for his life, could not have gone faster than did the cowardly runaway; for, like all braggadocios, he was a cur at heart. "Have at him!" cried one; ho!" shouted another; "Stole away!" holloaed a third. 66 Tally We had got nearly to the verge of the plain, and, having driven our enemy from it, were sounding a retreat, and calling in our advance forces, when an event occurred, which all that were present must to this day lament. The shouting and holloaing had attracted the attention of a vigilant sentry of the brave Black Brunswickers, forming one of an out-post guard, at the extremity of one of the avenues leading from the plains to Paris. Seeing, as he supposed, a body of cavalry approaching, for the clouds of dust rendered it impossible to distinguish friend from foe, he gave the word, "Wache, heraus!" (Guard, turn out!) In an instant the men were formed; a mere handful; but prepared to sell their lives dearly, against what must have appeared to them an overwhelming force: the words, "Prepare to receive a charge of cavalry"-" Port arms"-" Charge bayonets!" were scarcely uttered, when the front rank kneeled down, and received the unfortunate dealer's horse on the points of their bayonets. Happily, the rear-rank reserved their fire; or many a gallant and noble sportsman, that had escaped the carnage of the battle of Waterloo, might have fallen a victim to a friendly force. Little were we prepared for the tragical end of this adventure: the object was to give the intruder a good ducking, not to sacrifice the life of a noble animal. (To be continued.) NEWMARKET JULY MEETING. BY THE EDITOR. "My coursers are fed with the lightning, SHELLEY'S PROMETHEUS UNBOUND. THE pompous balderdash of the first person plural is fast departing from the fashion of modern literature; a step in the progress of composition that promises speedily to rid the march of letters of the stilts whereupon it has too long toiled after a lame and impotent conclusion. The imperial purple, the regal ermine, had bestowed upon the wearer the conventional privilege of announcing himself as "two single gentlemen rolled into one;" and, lo! the imitatores, servum pecus, "in foolscap liveries, turned up with ink," forthwith demanded, "shall it not be wE, then?" The incognito purported to be preserved by this most silly affectation, is not only a notorious fallacy, but, did it accomplish the end it appears to seek, the result would have an opposite effect to that contemplated. The fact is, we derive a direct satisfaction from associating, as it were, with those who introduce themselves to us by broad and pleasant pages, instead of through the intercession of three square inches of pasteboard. There is a pleasure in the gratification of all curiosity; and people like to know how those who write "for their learning" move their pieces in the game of life" that royal game of goose" in which all mankind alike are "merely players." Glorious Apollo! be thy name exalted above the highest blue, for that we are fallen upon days when such knowledge may be more gracefully imparted than whilom when the muses occupied four-pair-backs in Seven-dials, and feasted upon cowheel and gin-twist; when the "Paradise Lost" realized a sum about equivalent to the average price given by Mr. Warren for puffs for his blacking. Having thus paved the way for what Lady Morgan calls " egoism," I will take leave to narrate the circumstances under which my accustomed account of the July Meeting, at Newmarket, assumed its present complexion. 66 Where the air is the freshest, and the sunshine the brightest, in the vicinity of the great metropolis, chance made my temporary home, immediately succeeding the meeting to which this notice relates. A crystal summer-day, closing with the hue and fragrance of the rose, had drawn the sporting Editor to a casement that opened upon a tranquil, sylvan prospect, and the volume, upon which he was bent intently, harmonized well with the hour and scene. It was the page of a wondrous, though erratic genius, and to its fascination had yielded all memories of the material world. Tattersall's was as a place having no local habitation :-Lords, Legs, Levanters confused-fused, amalgamed —had evaporated, and "left not a wreck behind." In such mood, abandoned to the inspiration of the poet, transported into an ideality, pregnant with all glorious thoughts, feelings, and images-rare and lovely as the spirit of the magician who had called them into existence,-the verse prefixed to this article caught my regard. Straightway were the reins given to imagination (that, at least, is a professional figure), and, fancy-borne, I was away to the land, where "The coursers are fed with the lightning." And whither did thy crotchet lead thee by the nose? haply asketh one "of the earth-earthy," whose soul, in lieu of pinions, laggeth on leaden plummets. If he hath ears to hear, let him hear. . . . . The red morning is brightening the verdant velvet of the Warren-hill. Why tarrieth the sluggish groom-boy? Ah! he is here, and with him as clever fourteen hands of horseflesh as ever rejoiced in the name of hackney. Time, my good sir, time is space-'tis but a span to the first mile-stone on the Bury road. Lo! we are there; and, albeit, the day is yet in its infancy, a goodly company occupies the upland that swells gracefully to the right. Is it not a scene full of as many appliances of material pleasure as may combine, in one spot, to interest, delight, and invigorate? The fairest of Fashion's daughters; men, the first in the land by birth, station, talents, fortune, may here be met, on many a fresh, sunlit dawn, entering, with national pride and energy, into the economy of our noblest sport. See the steeds with which the elastic turf is quickened! The field-flower springs unscathed from their tread; grace is in all their steps; their speed is the flight of heaven's bolt; their eyes are load-stars. ..." Surely it was on the Warren-hill," I mentally argued, as I wrote from the "Prometheus" my motto, and addressed me to my present task,-" surely it was on the Warren-hill that Shelley caught the idea of 'Coursers, fed with the lightning, That drink of the whirlwind's stream; The machinery of life is put and preserved in motion by two principles-business and pleasure: the rule by which the whole is regulated, of course, applies to a part; and, consequently, the visitors here are influenced by a desire to profit by passing events, or merely to be amused by them. Of the former, the July Meeting is only interesting to the professional. The first appearances of a strong muster of twoyear-olds, is attended by a certain degree of prepossession-unfounded, and, therefore, often the more powerful, the sure harvest of those who "bet round." It is no unusual thing for the attentive to pick up, in a field of a dozen-some eight or nine, backed by their parties at from four to six to one-snug investments for a few hundred pounds. Both in reference to business and amusement, however, this trystring is a temporary interest. The racing is generally good of its kind; but, without (save in rare instances, as last year,) any of the vaticination whereby coming events cast their shadows before." Just now, seas of ink are being poured out daily and weekly in the journals, de cunctis rebus et quebusdem aliis connected with racing. First come paragraphs in the potential mood, and then details in the indicative. Until the existing laws of the Turf are changed (if, indeed, it be possible to alter them, so as to affect the principle at issue, which I doubt), such speculations, if not mischievous, are little worth. I have already made known the reply of the stewards of the Jockey Club to the question I addressed on an occasion which brought me into personal communication with them. "The public have no claims upon the proprietors of horses which they have chosen to back: they may start them, or not, as it may suit their pleasure or convenience." With this après against them, my public would go to the wall, though the priestess of Cumaa were to present them with a set of the "Racing Calendar," having the winners in posse inserted from the present hour to the crash of doom. Turn we from all this theory to the fact bearing on our purpose --somewhat akin to the relation between " Fat Jack's" bread and sack. On the 7th ult. Newmarket was glad in as distinguished an attendance as generally honours the middle meeting; and the running was of a flattering average: the weather quite the contrary. The sport opened with a Handicap Sweepstakes, having no feature that deserves mention, save that the highest odds against any one of the four that started were three to one, so that it needed only to lay against all, to insure a prize proportioned to the "pot" put on. The July Stakes, the crack event of the week, was a very middling affair. There was but little pace at the beginning; and when the speed became tolerable, all but the three placed were beaten most unbecomingly. Cornet, who had been backed with some spirit, as first favourite, was drawn at the eleventh hour, and people grumbled, as if they were to help themselves to chestnuts out of the charcoal, without ever burning their fingers. Wednesday was rescued from its ordinary monotony, by the occurrence of two dead heats for a Two-year-old Sweepstakes-an event which assisted my experience to a wrinkle. To be sure, the performers were no stars; but as two negatives make an affimative, so did two bad nags produce a good race. Thursday, a dies non, save in reference to the Chesterfield Stakes, was marked with a white stone for those whose legs are described as of the antagonist colour, the favourite being never named; and a good stroke of business done about almost all the others. Now this was odd, seeing that, among a lot of no extraordinary pretension, it might have been calculated that a daughter of Taurus, and granddaughter of Velocipede, would not be without a chance over the last half of the Banbury mile. It was no race; the winner cutting down the field in something very like a canter; her running, and that of her half-brother Assassin, placing the progeny of Taurus as second to no stock of the season in the first property of the modern racer-speed. With a noble sunshine, and a shabby Sweepstakes, the meeting closed in a general route, by the finish of the Round Course, as precipitate as if a plague had broken out in Newmarket, or the hindmost was the heir-loom of the gentleman in black. 120 BLAINE'S ENCYCLOPEDIA OF RURAL SPORTS. WHEN the first Number of this work appeared, we announced our intention of giving a general notice of it on its completion. No similar attempt had been heretofore made- no publication professing to treat of all the varieties of British Sports was in existence. However desirable the undertaking, no man had been found with courage enough for the enterprise; and we expressed our doubts that any was capable of accomplishing it. This mistrust was in no way influenced by our knowledge of the gentleman who had ventured on the essay. It was not a question whether this person or that was qualified for such a task; but whether it were within the capability of any one individual completely and satisfactorily to perform it. Many causes led to the belief that such was not the case. While, upon some branches of Rural Sporting, very ample resources were at the disposal of the compiler;-in others, he was left almost without guide or authority. For the industry with which he has sought, and the skill and tact with which he has used his materials, Mr. Blaine deserves every credit. A Herculean labour was before him, and he set about it in a spirit worthy of all, praise. If, in some instances, we cannot agree with his conclusions; if, in others, we find him wanting in accuracy of detail, we cheerfully accord him our congratulation for having achieved, with no mean success, that which remained unattempted till he had the resolution to set about it. We will now let him speak for himself. At page 382, in alluding to the origin of fox-hunting, there is the following passage, which we do not quote as against Mr. Blaine, but merely to correct a misconception that has very generally obtained. "Fox-hunting, as a venatorial sport, is certainly held distinct from all other beast chasings. At what period did the separation occur? From a pen, easily detected, by reason of its power, we have the following notice :- Neither the holy prioress of St. Albans Dame Juliana Berners, Markham, nor any of the very old writers on such subjects, are able to satisfy us on this point; but, on the authority of the Rev. William Chafin, in his "Anecdotes respecting Cranboure Chase," the first real steady pack of foxhounds established in the western part of England, was by Thomas Fownes, Esq., of Stapleton, in Dorsetshire, about the year 1730. They were,' says the author, who wrote in 1818, 'as handsome, and fully as complete, in every respect, as the most celebrated packs of the present day. The owner, meeting with some worldly disappointments, was obliged to dispose of them; and they were sold to Mr. Bowes, in Yorkshire, the father of the late Lady Strathmore, at an immense price for those days.' This is an extract from an article of Nimrod's; and, good authority as he is on all matters connected with fox-hunting, he is not right in assigning the origin of that sport, as it at present exists, to Mr. Fownes; or, rather, Mr. Chafin was in error, from whom he quotes. In the records of the Brocklesby Hunt (Lord Yarborough's), there exists a memorandum to this effect, dated April 20th, 1713: "It is agreed, between Sir John Tyrwhitt, of Stonfield, Robert Viner, Esq., and Charles Pelham, Esq., that the foxhounds now kept by Sir John Tyrwhitt, and the hounds now kept |