favourites for the great races have had this season: the non-fanciers of Idas, Lancashire Witch, Foig-a-Ballagh, Winesour, et hoc genus omne! We will say nothing of the après from "makings safe:" certain "pulls" while betting is suffered to go on as it does; but what would be the odds against Pegasus (I do not mean my worthy friend, who, under that pseudonyme, favours the world with his opinions in the columns of a sporting paper, but the winged quadruped so called) in a field of thirty over the Derby course, unless he literally flew, keeping well clear of the jockeys' heads? Ask any one who has seen the cannon game played by the ruck as it rounds Tattenham Corner? The Cup race brought out seventeen at Liverpool-too many by half-a-score for the room, as they tumbled against each other like ninepins. Lothario was the favourite at starting, I admit ; but wherefore, I cannot tell, for his trial had put his party anything but up in the stirrups touching his prospects. The fact is, Lothario is one of the many horses that run infinitely better in public than in private a singular property, by the way, but one the existence of which every racing man is aware of. Lothario won, with Rowena next to him: some say, but for the strong use made of her to get her to the front after she had been "cannon'd" by Trueboy, at the upper turn, she would have been first, or too near it to be pleasant. In a field awfully crowded Sweetmeat won the Derby Handicap, carrying 7st. 4lbs. had this clipping three-year-old been named for the Goodwood Cup, I do not see how he was to lose it. Still it was good speed, in both senses of the phrase, which enabled him to pull through. There were all sorts of fouling in the fleet; and had he been situated as Lady Wildair and some others were, his chance would have been somewhat more than jeopardied.

The chief attraction of Friday was the St. Leger. Eight went for it; and in a fine race Mentor won. It was done at a first-rate pace, and gave us a fair spice of the quality of every animal engaged in it. This there can be no doubt of: the winner was the best of the lot, and unless there are better nags than I know of likely to show at Doncaster for the Stakes of this same ilk, Mentor is ill to stand against. He may not win; but he'll be a rattling "pot," if brought to the post as he ought to be. I make no mention of Newton, for though a sporting meeting, its interest is local, and its results of no prospective account. Here, then, we bid adieu to the turf, and turn towards the glad waters: "the blue below, and the blue above;" vehemently declaring that this allusion to hue has no reference whatever to the actors in the scenes described.

Aquatics were greatly in the ascendant last month: pre-eminent in their annals will be the Royal review of the experimental squadron at Spithead. The pleasure-navy of the Thames and the Mersey, and eke of many another of our rivers, was on the alert. Though sailed for on the last day of June, the match for the Fitzhardinge Cup must claim a place here, seeing that it was something unique of its kind. It was presented by the sporting peer whose name it had the honour of bearing, to be raced for by vessels of the R.T.Y.C., handled exclusively by members of the club. Foolish people at first said that the queen of rivers could not furnish a supply of amateur

mariners qualified for the task; but the event, as Goldsmith sings, "shewed the rogues they lied." Every craft had her full complement of able seamen aboard; and if one were ill-natured, one might say that the volunteers in some cases exceeded the demand. At all events, it is good to have a title to public consideration; and if there be one nook of the universe where public consideration waits on that same more than another," it is here! it is here!" We are naturally sportsmen; and perhaps that is the reason we are such mighty tufthunters...

Four yachts went for this Cup, which the Belvidere, Lord Alfred Paget's new iron boat, won in a gallant style. Some said her trim was better than when she first appeared; others, that the air nimbly recommended itself unto her peculiar properties: at all events, she sailed far more lively than when first she came out of the fire! Lord! what would Tom Pipes think of a vessel going through a fiery furnace before she was launched!

To make our ground good as we go on, we will dispose of the Thames Regattas in the first place. On Thursday, the 10th, there was a gathering of the lovers of the oar at the pretty village of Erith. All the crack river crews were there, and business was the order of the day. Malhereusement for the lovers of the trencher, the "hotel" had shut up shop a few days before. Nothing could have been more admirable than the laying down and preserving the course, and, indeed, all the details as regarded the parties engaged in the contests; but truth obliges me to say that those assembled to witness them were sorely puzzled to know what was going forward. Everybody rowed as well as the wager men; and the old puppet-show story of" which is Buonaparte and which is Willington?-Whichever you please, my pretty darling," is about the best illustration of the visitors' edification that I have at hand. The principal race-the Amateurs' Four Oars -was won after a magnificent set-to for the deciding heat, by the Leanders beating the St. Georges by half-a-boat's length. The Watermens Four Oars was a much more easy affair, being won by Coombes's crew-the Unity-in a canter. There was also some spirited scratch matches; and altogether the thing went off with some éclat. A party of west-end polkamaniacs were in a steamer moored abreast of the committee-barge, and saw about as much of the sport as if they had been driving their trade at Almacks, and cared probably less about it than the soles of their boots and shoes.... But is not anything a justifiable plea for flirting-or rather, indeed, why does it require any excuse at all?

The last R.T.Y.C. match for the season was sailed on Wednesday the 16th, for the Stewards' Cup, and another prize given by the Club. It was run over the usual course-from Greenwich to Coal House Point-of which it may be remarked that the sooner it is changed for another the better. Why not make it from Erith Bay round the Nore Light and back?

"Go patter to lubbers and swabs, d'ye see,

About custom and use and the like:

In a prime clipping barky, good sea room for me,
Whoever may sail in a dyke."

The day was the opprobrium of yacht sailing-windless, and consequently cheerless. After, therefore, a horrid long bout of drifting, the Sea Nymph did the distance first, winning the Second Class Prize, and the Victorine came in second, winning the first class prize -the Stewards' Cup. In this matter the company had all the best of it, for while the wager crews were sitting still whistling for a wind, the visitors were all on the fantastic toe to the music of the club-band. Thus closed the fresh-water season of the R.T.Y.C.: may the glories of 1844 attend its achievement on the brine, what time its ensigns woo the breezes of the Solent!

Bristol Channel Regatta occurred early in July, and inspite of bad weather for the arrival of yachts, went off with distinguished success. The Weston-super-Mare Cup-the crack prize of the meeting-was carried off by the Champion; her opponent, the Lily of Devon, having carried away her mast, standing rigging, and a good slice of her bulwarks. The British Channel Cup was won, after a dashing race, by the Swansey, and the Kingstone Cup by the Victoria. Of the Kingston Regatta (Ireland) we cannot speak as having authority, because we were not there to see; and therefore proceed to detail the events which marked propitiously the marine rendezvous in the Isle of Man.

There cannot be a harbour more characteristic of the land it belongs to than Douglas Bay. It is wild, picturesque, and of very limited dimensions. The Isle of Man has no yacht club of its own; but, if not a yachter itself, it is the cause of yachting in others. This season it gave £156 to be sailed and rowed for, which, everything considered, was very handsome; moreover the ports of the island are now open to yachts without (charge. The first day of its Regatta was Tuesday the 15th, on which occasion there was a fine spanking breeze stirring up a sea as deeply azure as the Mediterranean. The quaint little town-of which the cockney will form an idea by imagining all its streets to resemble Cranbourne Alley and Great Turnstile-was early astir, and by noon the pier was a brilliant promenade, while from the opposite side of the harbour a military band rang merrily in the grounds of the high-bailiff. I could not, if I would, give a ship-shape return of the startings of the various classes, because I was partly puzzled by a fleet of strange craft, and partly because I was engaged in an occupation which I have already suggested does not require an excuse; therefore I offer no apology. The course was six-and-twenty miles, and though the wind was uncommon fresh, the voyages were necessarily long. The match for yachts under 30 tons brought five to the post, the winner being the Wave, R.N.Y.C., belonging to M. Perston Esq., and the great prize-a claret jug-for yachts of from 30 to 45, was first come in for by the Guerilla, H. S. Burton, Esq., R.M.Y.C.; but an objection was taken to her tonnage by Mr. Moss, owner of the Phoebe, R.M.Y.C., that ran second. On Wednesday, the Guerilla was measured, and being pronounced over 45 tons, the jug was given to the Phoebe, and the sack to Mr. Burton. That gentleman has good cause for dissatisfaction with the builder of his vessel, who must, I conclude, have put her off as under the specified tonnage; how was she registered? There was lots of

other fun during the Wednesday, which was wound up by a right gallant ball, where the girls-regular island Venuses-were to the boys as a tithe to the whole. Let any gentleman in want of Philandering ship himself at once for Douglas.

PLATE I

THE NORFOLK CO B.

A CELEBRATED TROTTING HORSE.

ENGRAVED BY E. HACKER, FROM A PAINTING BY PAWLEY.

If one of the simple paces of the horse, the mere gallop, is found of itself to contain matter sufficient for the establishment of about the leading national amusement of the age, the trot may most assuredly put in a claim for something of the same sort, although confined to far more humble efforts and fewer opportunities. The difference, indeed, between the practice of the two sports, when we for a moment attempt to make any comparison, will be seen much too great to require a moment's farther consideration; the trot, in fact, having suffered, in the words of Goldsmith's philosophical vagabond, "that cruellest mortification, neglect." This is the real state of the case the great secret regarding a diversion, or rather, perhaps, a business-agent in every-day life, that has made less progress up or down, within the last half century, than any other art or science we have had the good fortune to become acquainted with. In making this assertion, we readily submit that it has always enjoyed the support of some warm advocates, but, at the same time, has had to contend against the hostility of many equally determined opponents. The former of these, the "ayes" of the house, from being almost invariably of what society terms the Lower Classes, have lacked the power to push their favourite recreation prominently into notice; and the "noes," consequently, have not condescended to give any marked expression, or make any decided attempt, at enforcing their opinions upon the subject. Hence we trace the origin of that cruel neglect which, if not absolutely fatal, has always hitherto acted as a damper on the ardour of any man who (like the Squire) has, for the nonce, made a dash into it, and also smothered up the wonderful performances of the high-stepping stars; while steeple-chasing, and other modern compound innovations, have been coaxed on, trumpeted abroad far and wide, and, in a very few years, given the go-by to friend Jonathan's own game, the out-and-out genuine article, and no mistake. Considering ourselves, in the present instance, as specially retained by the plaintiff, the celebrated Norfolk Cob, whose character we can say, with the greatest confidence, is utterly unimpeachable, we may naturally show to the