mare for the Oaks. Had her form been at Epsom what it was here, Refraction could no more have beaten her than eaten her at a mouthful. The character of the pace might be judged of from the state of the field at the finish: it was very severe. It was said Lord George won a very large stake.

Red Deer beat The Shadow for the Queen's plate, or rather her owner did, for, with fair play, the head she was beaten by would have been the other way. The Steward's cup sent one-and-twenty to the post, and the course being the T. Y. C., we had a glorious charge for the finish. Up from the distance they came, a dozen or more in front, and desperate was the strife and most doubtful the result. At the stand we discovered that Psalmsinger had the front of the race by a short length, and then with Physalis thundering at his heels, the noble steward winning his own prize, as much to his own astonishment as that of the ring, wherein he had been betted against at twenty to one. Subduer won the City Members' Plate in four heats of great severity. I only allude to this because he is a son of Slane, and so is Sting: his blood can stay-a great fact in the genealogy of a Derby horse.

Thursday-the Cup day-dawned fair and fresh, and kept the promise at its prime; it was a delicious anniversary of one of the greatest racing fêtes in England. Still, it was indebted for its company chiefly to the supplies of the neighbourhood, for the South Western Rail at all events brought down very few. I think it will bring down less in future, should there not be a rail from Fareham to Chichester, of which there is a prospect. If it be worth the directors' while to send a special train to Goodwood, it ought to be worth their attention to provide safe and suitable conveyance for its passengers to the course. This, I am bound to say, they did not. Their chairman, Mr. Chaplin, once himself on the road, knows what coaching is as well as any man in existence: he would have done well to have ordered some one, if he considered it infra dig. for himself so to do, to throw an eye over the men, horses, and drags, which were given free carriages to Fareham, for the purpose of carrying the railway "especials" to Goodwood. I am indifferent tough of nerve, and withal used to road work from my childhood, but I confess the descent from the course on this the cup-day, on a coach carrying twice as many outside as the seats could accommodate, and rolling like a skater along the outside edge, more than once sent my heart into my mouth. A well known master of hounds who sat behind me I was on the box-said, "This is awful work; you and I know well the danger, though these people are not aware of it." "Their ignorance is bliss, indeed," I replied; and at the moment, "she gave a roll which all descriptive power transcends." We were not one of the stage-coach crews wrecked upon that evening; it must have been "the sweet little cherub" that watched over our safety.

With a sporting catalogue as long and alluring as one of George Robins, it was well the business began as soon as it did, or there would never have been an end. First we had a 200 sovs. sweepstakes, all the money, for two-year-old fillies, won by Princess Alice by a neck, and the able riding of her jockey; and then the same

description of sweepstakes for colts of a like age, which Lord Chesterfield's Arkwright won very cleverly: this is another sure Derby aspirant, and in a stable having prestige. By another I intend to say he comes proximus seb intervallo to Sting, who also followed him in this his essay by winning-that is Sting-the Molecomb, a two-year-old stake, having twenty-nine nominations, whereof nine shewed at the post. For this he carried nine stone, or half a stone more than his weight, all to for his great three-year-old essay, should he live and be well to make it. The racing stakes old John Day won on Worthless for Mr. Wreford. Pam's running not being good enough for a Derby winner; but they said he was still suffering from his Epsom fall.

We now come to the Cup, for which a field of the smallest reputation mustered that we have seen come out for that Olympian trophy for many seasons. All speculation upon it ceased from the closing of Tattersall's, on the last public day preceding Goodwood races, till after the race for the Goodwood stakes on Wednesday. Then they made Miss Elis as good a favourite as Valerian at four to one, took three to one about John Day's lot, and backed a few others at outside prices. A dozen ran for it, including the favourite for the Derby, who was done at twenty to one, it being the opinion Winchester was to represent the stable. No description is necessary of the race, beyond stating that Discord made all the first of the running for Miss Elis, who, however, rushed to the front at the turn of the hill, led down it at a killing speed, and finally won by a couple of lengths; Weatherbit second, after a most severe struggle at the distance to reach the mare, which he could never accomplish. For a three-year-old filly, two such victories-at the lengths-as Miss Elis achieved in two successive days, have not often been written in the annals of the turf.

The Duke of Richmond's smart two-year-old filly Cuckoo won the Sussex stakes. Mr. Mostyn's Dean Swift won the Duke of Richmond's plate in a field of twelve; and Mr. Wreford's Wilderness, another two-year-old stakes, which, with the Anglesey stakes for gentleman jockeys, made up the day's operations-a long day in good earnest.

Friday gave us but little save amateur racing. In the morning the King of the Netherlands, who was the great fact of the cup dayand who has promised Goodwood a five hundred guinea cup out of his favour and liberality for horse-racing, for the next meeting-another great fact-took his departure for London. It was a fine day, and after a match we had the Chesterfield cup, which Ægis, so much fancied for the stakes, won in a mortal great field, and after a mortal great struggle, by a head. We then had the gentlemen up, who made good sport, and a gallant finish to a gallant meeting.

NOTITIA VENATICA.

BY R. T. VYNER, ESQ.

The condition of hounds, although a subject continually discussed, is not much understood by the common run of sportsmen. How frequently we hear high encomiums passed on a pack of hounds for their fine condition, when, in fact, they are a mere army of phantoms and skeletons, without one atom of muscle! Some men think that a pack of hounds must be drawn as fine as hurdles, to run; and, as long as their ribs and points are all visible, they are considered in splendid going condition. There is no other animal which will endure reducing and raising again in condition in so short a period as the game-cock and the dog will; nevertheless, the latter, with all his natural propensities to improve most rapidly, in being prepared for hard work must be allowed a certain time necessary to get him fit to perform such extraordinary labour as the foxhound is called upon to endure. Not only from mine own experience, but also relying on the opinion of those whose judgment I could depend upon, should say that a dog, whether hound, greyhound, or any other dog used in the chase, was at the greatest perfection of condition when raised again to a certain pitch, after he had been reduced below that pitch, than if he had been merely reduced from a lusty state of body down to that certain standard of condition. The flesh which is then on him is all muscular and healthy, whereas, in the case of his being merely reduced down to his condition, he is more frequently than not as loose and flabby as a Smithfield bullock. Perhaps some of my readers may ask, "Why then begin with hounds in cub-hunting in high condition, as they generally become lower after?" I answer, that they have been prepared for three or four months, or ought to have been; moreover, they generally sink a little after a week or ten days' work, and then go up again, after the first feverish excitement of cub-hunting is got through, before the regular season begins. A hound, to be well and really fit to go, should not only look clear and bright in his coat, with the muscles on his shoulders, loins, and thighs well developed, but he should also be firm to the touch, and be able to travel on the road at a jog-trot, with his mouth shut, and his stern up over his back. His eyes should be clear and free from any mucous secretion; when much of which is seen in a morning in the inner corners of his eyes, you may be well assured that he is feverish, usually the result of hard work, without a due and proper preparation beforehand. He should also not only empty himself with freedom, his evacuation being firm and free from a bilious or slimy mix

ture, but he should also stale without difficulty, and rather frequently than otherwise, or he should have administered to him in his feed a small quantity of cream of tartar for about two days, which will set matters all right on that point. Take a handful of the skin of a hound on his back, and pull it up; and, if it flies back to its place like India-rubber, with a nervous shiver, he is all right; but, if it remain in an unsightly ridge, clammy and sluggish, as it returns to its natural position, depend upon it that his condition is far from being what it ought to be--in fact, he is not fit to be put to hard work without further preparation.

Dressing the hounds will affect many of them equally as if they had had a strong dose of physic; some of them will be more or less swelled in their limbs and testicles, particularly if the turpentine or spirit of tar is rather stronger than usual. During the time they are confined to the kennel from the effects of the above discipline, which will be about four days, the whole of the court-yards and the floors of the lodging rooms should be carefully covered with straw, particularly in the doorways, to prevent them from slipping and breaking their thighs, which I have known to occur, the grease from their coats rendering the ground as slippery as ice. Sometimes I have seen a portion of mercury added to the dressing, but, unless the mange has shown itself, it had better be omitted, as, from the heat and fever occasioned by the ointment, the hounds will be continually lying on the open floors, and when under the influence of that powerful mineral, animals are more likely to take cold than at any other time. By the first of August the whole of their physic requisite to prepare them for their approaching labours should have been administered, consisting of two more doses of salts and sulphur, as before directed; and after the old ones have been walked two or three times into a deer park and amongst hares, particularly the two and threeyear-olds having had a few extra bouts by themselves, the new entry may be taken out with them, and regularly exercised until cub-hunting commences, going every day, if possible, into that country where the covers are situated in which they are about to hunt. The exercise of hounds during the summer should be slow and protracted rather than quick, particularly in the early part of that season. The keeping them out with slow walking exercise does their constitutions as well as their legs infinitely more good than "long trots" or "brushing gallops." The period for the commencement of cubhunting varies exceedingly: in some countries, where the limits of the hunt are not extensive, and the foxes rather scarce, the covers cannot be broken until the middle of September; but in many others it is the usual custom to begin the first week in August, or at any rate as soon as the corn is sufficiently cut to allow of it. By a book published some years since, entitled "The Operations of the Belvoir Hounds," it appears that, in the year 1808, his grace the Duke of Rutland commenced as early as the fourth of July; and Mr. Meynel began during some seasons on or about the fourth of June.

In the north the harvest is always, of course, much later than in

the midland and more southern districts, even when the season may be genial; but the close of the year 1839 and the commencement of 1840 presented scenes which few of the oldest of our cotemporaries can, I suppose, remember. In December, and also in the January ensuing, it constantly occurred in the Holderness country, while hunting, to pass through fields of beans and oats, in which the farmers were employed in leading or carrying them.

Even supposing the corn to be cut, few packs could begin so early as that, as the necessary destruction of young foxes would be far greater than most countries could afford. But when the number of the litters in the Belvoir country which were returned averaged about sixty-five or seventy, and during some seasons the number of foxes which were killed amounted to nearly seventy brace, two or three brace having been murdered in a morning in the early part of the season, we cannot wonder at there being some impatience to commence operations. In the Earl of Yarborough's country-which is far too extensive for any one pack of hounds to hunt regularly and impartially the foxes are so numerous that the whippers-in and earthstoppers are frequently employed, during the frost and snow, in digging and destroying them in places which are ill calculated for sport. How different is the system in other hunts, which it is needless to mention, where there is scarcely a litter of cubs which is not put down in the summer, and which have not found their way either from Mr. Herring's menagerie in the New-road, or from Mr. Baker's celebrated shop in Leadenhall-market, to the cost and detriment of other hunting countries. Fox-dealers may lie and humbug as much as they like about only selling foreign and Welsh foxes, but it is a wellknown fact that all are fish which come to their nets.

The sooner you can begin after the corn is cut the better, as it gives hounds so much an advantage when the foxes are not come to their full strength; a good beginning is half the battle, and that is one reason why it is generally recommended to wait for a shower of rain to cool the covers and improve the scent. Work of the right sort, added to blood, is what is required; one without the other is of little avail, and where good luck forsakes you, cubs scarce, and the great desideratum cannot be obtained by fair means, others must be resorted to, let them be what they will, to gain the point; however, anything in the world is better than turning out a bagman, the scent of which is as different from the natural smell of a wild fox as a red herring is from a fresh mackerel. The ill effects which the custom of indulging hounds with this spurious kind of blood produces will soon discover itself, if frequently put in practice; hares, cur-dogs, &c., will be all alike to them, and their hurry and wildness in drawing will be no less manifest than their unsteadiness in chase. Even foxhounds which have before been steady, after too much rest frequently become wild and ungovernable. Some years ago, when Lord Middleton hunted Warwickshire, and whose celebrated pack stood as high in the estimation of fox-hunters as any in the world, a most unfortunate occurrence took place, and which is a convincing proof that