Switzerland are subservient," we secured accommodations just a shade more eligible than Tony Lumpkin's much extolled three chairs and a bolster, by the kitchen fire. Like the dogs in Scripture, who fed off the crumbs that fell from the rich man's table, did we banquet on the fragments and hermaphroditish dishes (half hot, and half cold) that had escaped the voracity of a jovial nest of revellers, who gazed on us with amazement not unmingled with compassion, as we satiated the cravings of hunger on, certainly, neither the fat nor the good things of the land. The evening was delicious, and tempted us to stroll to the race course, which communicates immediately with the town by an avenue of tall poplars. The arena destined for the sports of the morrow, was a meadow, square in form, but with sharp and awkward turnings. A stand, erected for the members of the society, commanded an admirable view of the entire circuit of the course, which was marked out with stakes and ropes, and measured about a mile. Some enterprising worthies were rattling their chars at a splitting pace round the course, to the prodigious delight of the bumpkins clustered around the tents, some five or six of which waved their canvas folds in different parts of the meadow, revelling in barrels of wine, flasks of Alchermes and eau-de-vie, and other generous stimulants of joviality. Rambled through Payerne, which, small and unimportant as a town, derives many advantages from the centrality of its position on the high roads to Basle, Berne, Geneva, Lausanne, and Vevay, and hence the size and excellence of its hotels. At the Bear, the members of the Jockey Club still sat enthroned at the banquet, and the festivities were at their height. Was introduced to Monsieur Rossier, the tip-top sawyer and leading artist of the Club. He is, indeed, a thorough-bred sportsman; has been more than once in England,- -was on Epsom Downs when Moses won the Derby, and, of course, Moses the Racer is as much his ideal of all perfection, as was Moses the Deliverer to the Israelites in the Desert. A keen Nimrod, also, is Monsieur Rossier, and passionately fond of the turf and chase. All his energies are now devoted to the amelioration of the breed of horses in Switzerland, and his object has been materially facilitated by the institution of the Racing Society at Payerne, under his auspices, and the importation of two stallions from England, whose rising stock promise great things. May 26th.-Sleep was last night a stranger to mine eyelids. My bed stood in an alcove overhanging the street, where groups of Bacchanalians solemnized their infernal orgies from the setting of the sun unto the arising again thereof. An hour after the grey light of morn struggled through the window-shutters, Payerne was in an uproar! for the lowing of oxen, bleating of sheep, melange of voices, trampling of feet, carol of maidens pouring into the market, combined with the rumbling of cart-wheels over the pavement, united in a dissonant and deafening chorus in which all sounds save that of melody were blended; and the confusion on the tower of Babel, when our rebellious forefathers roared one at the other in strange and unknown tongues, were but as soft whisperings, contrasted with the tumultuous shouts and discordant cries of their Payernian descendants. Human patience sank beneath such an accumulation of trials. I swore and blasphemed more awfully than a heretic, and fervently wished the revellers, the market-girls, horses, the races, and Payerne, all engulfed together, with Pharaoh and his host, in the depths of the Red Sea. I leapt out of bed with an aching brow and burning eyes, and aroused my compagnons de voyage, who, by-the-by, required no arousing, being, poor devils, "will I, nil I," as broad awake as I was. We dressed, breakfasted, and descended into the High Street, which, thronged with booths and sheds, pigs and bullocks, bumpkins and peasant girls, arrayed in the picturesque costumes of a dozen different cantons, presented a bright and gladsome coup-d'œil. The Olympian games commenced at eight o'clock, and even at that early hour Payerne and the neighbouring towns had poured forth their multitudes; and amidst the clusters of peasants and farmers, of sportsmen and idlers, sparkled, here and there, bright bodices of many colours, or glittered the fantastic head-dresses of maidens fair, exceedingly and superlatively alluring withal, in their singular costumes, in the tight fitting robe which revealed the fulness of the voluptuous bust, and the short, scant petticoat which, scarcely falling to the knees, sanctioned the display of legs and ankles so symmetrical and exquisite, as to arouse the soul of every sensitive voluptuary to feverish anticipations of The Ideal! The Grand Stand, also, was radiant in a blaze of beauty, and held sacred for the kinsfolk and acquaintance of the Payernian Turfites, among whom were we accounted worthy to mingle, and welcomed with hospitable kindness. We now, however, followed the stream of life, or, rather, the rush of the human torrent, to the centre of the meadow, where an extensive space was subdivided, by strong oak railings, into three straight avenues. In the first was enacting L'Epreuve de Force; in the second were congregated together the members of the Jockey Club; and in the third were exhibited the prizes destined for the victors in the approaching contests. The prize for the conqueror in L'Epreuve de Force, was a purse of 150 francs, and a complete suit of horse-clothing; and for the second horse, 120 francs, and a suit of horse-clothing. For L'Epreuve de Vitesse the prizes were the same; and a variety of saddles, bridles, whips, and other articles of inferior value, were for such of the defeated as might be deemed worthy of reward. For L'Epreuve de Force thirty-seven horses came to the post. A dray of unusual length, laden with sacks of wheat, weighing ninety-six hundred pounds, Swiss weight,* rested on smooth boards at the extremity of a road covered with a layer of sand, which increased in the proportion of an inch in depth to every three feet in length. Each horse was harnessed singly to this immense wain, but the whip, or the goad, or even shouts or other devices, for stimulating the animals to over-forced exertions, were strictly prohibited. Left to the freedom of their own inclinations, but few staggered with the enormous draught more than a few yards through the deep and deepening layer of sand; for the proportionate ascent at each and every step in advance, of course, augmented terrifically the severity of the test to which the powers and gameness of each animal were subjected. After the *The Swiss pound weight is one-eighth more than the English. indifferent performances of some ten or twelve horses, a magnificent black mare came forth. She was sixteen hands high, short limbed, with extraordinary depth of chest and girth, undeniable hocks and quarters, and of the strength and substance of any of Reid's dray horses. Her eyes full and prominent, and head beautifully put on, confessed English blood, and she proved to be out of a Swiss mare by Sultan, a Yorkshire stallion, covering in the canton of Fribourg. The mare was harnessed to the wain,-started off, at the first effort, with the tremendous load,-gamely struggled through the increasing depth of sand,—and, although fearfully distressed, actually staggered past the Judge's Stand, which was considered the ultimatum of any animal's powers. I have seldom seen, even in England, a nobler creature than this fine mare, who so eminently combined perfection and symmetry of form with prodigious strength and indomitable courage. More than twenty horses appeared afterwards at the post, but none of their owners had the temerity to hope they might take the shine out of the Sultan mare, to whom the first prize was unanimously awarded. "Sunt quos curriculo pulverem Olympicum Terrarum dominos evehit ad deos," saith old Horace, and I certainly ascended the Grand Stand in anticipation of seeing the Swiss youth bewitch the world with feats of wondrous driving; but, eheu, alas! alas! the Horatian age of charioteers and demi-gods hath passed away, and ignoble, degenerate, and wearisome were the chariot races at Payerne. A single steed harnessed to a peasant's ricketty char, swept in solitary grandeur over the course at a trot, and each individual performance was timed to a second, and the victory adjudged to the Jehu who achieved the feat in the briefest time. Fifty-three aspirants were aroused to the contest, whether by aspirations for immortal honours, or by a thirsting for lucre, I know not; but strongly suspect that visions of the latter revelled in their imaginations. However, be that as it may, they all came to the post, and not a second was lost between the heats-for as one charioteer rolled past the goal, another bounded forth on his headlong course, or else they might be perambulating the meadows of Payerne even unto this hour. From curiosity, I timed twenty performances in succession, which varied from four to six minutes; and the victor, the triumphant Jehu, swept over the arena of his glories in three minutes and thirty-eight seconds. The stupidity of this chariot driving was only exceeded by the tediousness of its duration, from nine in the morning until three hours after noon. Then, then was a general rush from the Campus Martius to the mighty city of Payerne, where every board groaned, and every table smoked with savoury viands, or worthy of Lucullus the voluptuary, or but meet for Belisarius the mendicant; for all and each, the Dives and the Lazarus, dined each in his own way, although the style of the feasting was somewhat different. We, with souls ardent for the sports, and eager for the fray, disdained to dine, but hastily discussed a plat or two, and hurried back to the scene of action. The Judges divided the twelve horses which were entered, into four sections, and decreed that the four winners should finally contend, in a fifth race, for the triumphal honours. Catch weights. Once round the course. Gentlemen, snobs, or jockeys, to ride ad libitum. The horses rushed forth! (oh, shades of Chifney and Buckle! had your manes been invoked, as was Samuel by the wise woman of Endor, in days of yore, ye would have preferred all the bitterest terrors of purgatory to witnessing an exhibition so pitiable and ludicrous). The horses rushed forth! Such brutes, half starved, and half broken. The jockeys are mounted, all without saddles, and many without castors or coats. Off, off, and away they go, jostling and bearing down upon one another, like frigates in a tempest. Now one chew-bacon is over the ropes! Now the grey has broken out of a trot! Now they are all hard at work, and must turn round again, for any rapidity of pace approaching to a gallop is strictly avoided, to prevent the possibility of accidents, and wise was the regulation, for all must have been spilt at a canter. Bravo! go it ye yokels!-here they all sweep, thundering in together, at Derby pace, spurring and flogging their sorry steeds, and administering the whip-cord and persuaders with such unqualified liberality, as to convey the conviction that each and every jock must have learnt by heart, and cherished in his heart, to boot, the recipe for enhancing the estimable qualities of womankind, the canine race, and the walnut among trees. At last, the race was adjudged not unto the hare, but unto the tortoise. An old file, on a brown cart-horse, started at a slow, steady trot, from which his nag never attempted to break; and although at the commencement the odds were Lake Geneva to a wash-tub that he was distanced, he was not to be gammoned out of his unvarying pace; and as each and every competitor, at one period or another of the race, spilt his rider, or bolted over the ropes, or broke into a gallop, the old file had it his own way, and fairly trotted the first past the winning-post by many lengths. The amusements terminated in a foot-race between twenty bumpkins, for a purse given by the visitors. Altogether, we were much diverted by the sports of the day, and exceedingly gratified at the attentions of the members of this excellent institution, who welcomed us to the Grand Stand, admitted us behind the scenes, and were overprodigal of kindness and civility, as if a freemasonry existed in sporting, and made all sportsmen brethren. The course was admirably kept by a company of the local militia, and the races went off without confusion or a minute's delay, as smoothly as if organized by mechanism. Every one present, from the rich man to the pauper, entered into the spirit of this national meeting with laudable enthusiasm, and there were no attempts, as is too often the case at our country meetings, to break through the ropes, or to trespass on the course-but all, all respected the limits prescribed by the liberal promoters of the sports, and facilitated in every way their arrangements and regulations. The ordinary at the Bear was attended by the members of the society and ourselves, forming a party of between thirty and forty in number. In the course of the evening several toasts were proposed, and as enthusiastically drunk. "Monsieur Martin, the President!" "The Society!!" "Monsieur Rossier!!!" "Success to the breed of horses in Switzerland!!!!" and "The English strangers!!!!!” MONTHLY MEMORABILIA. THE Hon. G. Anson is the new Steward of the Jockey Club, Lord Chesterfield's three years of service having expired. A novel precedent for masters of foxhounds-a sample of the march of sporting in the nineteenth century : GAME. (From the "Morning Post.")-"Sportsmen will be glad to hear that most favourable reports of the breeding season are received from all parts of the country. The southern counties have escaped the effects of the cold weather, which has been injurious to the northern. In the extensive preserves of Colonel George Wyndham, at Petworth, late the seat of the Earl of Egremont, game of all sorts abounds in an unusual degree, as the Colonel has destroyed the foxes, which, being preserved by the late owner, were very numerous and destructive." A rather pleasant paragraph that, as it regards the lovers of the chase in West Sussex. The proper interpretation of the matter is this: Lord Egremont, having rigorously enjoined the preservation of foxes during his lifetime, for the use of his son, General Wyndham (who kept foxhounds), is no sooner dead, and succeeded in a portion of his vast estates by his eldest son, Colonel Wyndham, than that gallant officer (himself a master of foxhounds) orders a general crusade against Reynard, as a proof of his brotherly love particularly, and his regard for the pleasures and enjoyments of his neighbours generally. Old Sam Spring, the well-known ex-book-keeper of Drury, and, in his later years, the most greedy of the Mammonites that infested the betting ring, has, at length, been called to a settlement of his long account.-Let us hope that his book may be found all square. RACING. On the 27th of June some races took place, for the first time, at Bishop's Waltham (Hants). A course has been formed on Waltham Chase (a large track of land near the town, and formerly part of the domain attached to Waltham Abbey, many years ago the residence of the Bishop of Winchester), and, considering the idea of establishing races there had not been started above a month before they took place, the course was in much better order than could have been expected, and some tolerably good sport was shewn. Notwithstanding the weather was not of the most propitious kind, the company was numerous, including several of the first families in the county; and, under the stewardship of Sir Francis Collier, and John King, Esq. (master of the Hambledon hounds), the day passed off well. A spirited subscription has taken place for next year, and some good stakes will be offered. John Henry Campbell, Esq., and Captain Halket (master of the Hampshire staghounds) are appointed stewards. The turf is considered very good, and neither pains nor expense will be spared to get it in the best possible order. 10th July, 1839. The prospects of the approaching grouse season are very flattering. Upon the moors in Ayrshire, Argyleshire, and Dumbartonshire, the birds have had the most favourable weather, particularly during last month, the critical period, and there have been, consequently, few |