(distress, therefore, does not seem peculiar to our time, as Nimrod laments over its existence quite as loudly as the greatest croaker of modern times)" is it wise or politic," he asks, " at this period of distress, when we are about to expatriate some of our poor from want of employment, and to half-starve those who are kept at home--is it politic, I say, to be perpetually granting patents to diminish labour, and thereby to take bread from thousands-ay, tens of thousands-of those who earn it so dearly? I allude to coachmen and horsekeepers, and to a long list of other persons who live by working for proprietors of coaches drawn by horses on the various public roads, and who would lose their situations if steam-carriages are to be employed."

Nevertheless, in spite of Nimrod's anathemas, we have seen the accomplishment of all these things, and a great deal more than he expected; and I should like to know the actual result in the matter of manual labour, whether railways have increased or diminished the consumption? At first glance one would think the demand would be diminished, there used to be so many people required about coaching concerns; but then, on the other hand, what an astonishing number of hands a railway employs! To be sure, railway" attachés" are generally a better description of men-horse-keepers for the most part being ruffish out-of-place grooms; while I read in the papers the other day, that on the Great Western, I think, there are five solicitors and three members of the Royal College of Physicians acting as policemen or subordinates on the line.

But the supposition that because a man has been a horse-keeper, cad, or hanger-on of a coach, he is, therefore, unfit for any other employment, is erroneous. Horse-keeping was never reckoned among the regularly established liberal professions, but was merely a sort of refuge for the destitute, for those whose misconduct had deprived them of regular place, and the generality of horse-keepers, coach-washers, et id genus omne, were just stray birds picked up anywhere; men, who were as ready to leave as they were to come, when the chance of anything better offered itself; one-eyed, crooked-legged, misshapen, bandy-legged, brandy-nosed fellows, whom few would take into regular service unless they got them for half nothing.

In that able and popular work "The Horse," published by the "Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge," in 1831, it is stated that it was calculated that, including short stages, 1,400 coaches set out from London every day; a tremendous number, considering the great distances many of them travelled, and the enormous establishments they would require to work them. Short stages have now almost all degenerated into 'busses-those unsightly Day and Martindamaging, but withal cheap and convenient, affairs. Short stages used to be considered as infra dig. among the regular knights of the whip (as Nimrod called them), as a fresh-water sailor is by a seaman; and the observation of the four-horse gentleman in passing the short stage, that he would " rather be hung off a long stage than die a natural death off a short 'un," was strongly expressive of their feeling. Private carriages or coaches were not used until the time of Elizabeth; when, we are told, in Stowe's Survey of London and Westminster,

"Divers great ladies made them coaches, and rode in them up and down the countries, to the great admiration of all the beholders." The fashion soon spread, and he adds, what is often true in the present day, "The world runs on wheels with many whose parents were glad to go on foot." These coaches were heavy and unwieldy, and probably bore some rough resemblance to the state coaches now used occasionally in court processions. The clumsiness of these carriages, and the infamous state of the roads, even towards the close of the last century, however, laid the foundation of many magnificent stories of the baronial splendour of former times, of which four long-tailed coach-horses always form a most prominent feature. Now, I take it, nine-tenths of these four-horse stories originated in pure necessity; and that the animals themselves were merely ploughing along waggon track roads with a lumbering vehicle at their tails, instead of up and down the field with the more congenial instrument-the plough or harrow. The occasions, too, were of rare occurrence; and this possibly impressed the circumstance more keenly on the recolCertain it is within the period of my recollection of the beholders. lection that, when complaining of the state of the roads, I have been told by that uncontradictable old gentleman, "the oldest inhabitant," or old Squire so and so, driving that he remembered old Lady along it with their coach and four, when it was far worse;" and I make no doubt such was the case, for if they had not tackled four horses to the old caravan, they would never have got it through. Travelling was travelling in those days, and railways have absolutely lengthened life by adding the days that were formerly consumed on the road.

(To be continued.)

HOW TO FORM AN OPINION RESPECTING A

RACER.

BY Q. E. D.

Some notice of the method of judging of the capabilities of a race-horse, uncertain though it at all times must be, may not prove unacceptable to those who are uninitiated in the mysteries of the

course.

Of those people who take a general interest in racing matters, and more particularly in those large stakes for which many young horses are brought to the post, and whose running at the commencement of their career may determine the degree of future favour in which they are to stand with the sporting public, there are few who adopt any certain mode of obtaining the length of a racer, as it is commonly termed, in other words, of ascertaining his speed and endurance by his public performances; the majority very generally suffering their opinions to be led astray by fancy, frequently unfounded on any just and promising grounds by common report, or by the outlay of a tolerable sum of money on any particular horse, by some one gene

or,

rally reputed to be pretty well up to what he is about; a fact that is subsequently made painfully manifest to those who allow their better judgment to be biased by the schemes and machinations of such men as are not over scrupulous as to the means they employ to attain a certain end. Numerous as are the points to be considered before the just estimate of the powers of a racer can be formed with tolerable safety, and great as is the requisite degree of discrimination for becoming a first-rate judge of matters connected with the turf, there are yet some particulars, to which I shall briefly advert, without a tolerable knowledge of which any man who indulges his fancy for betting, chooses not only the most certain method of getting rid of his superfluous cash in an incredibly short space of time, but likewise speedily discovers that he is himself going at racing speed on the royal road to beggary; a reckless species of gambling that has converted many a simpleton who has lost his fortune on the turf, into a black-leg of the deepest dye, ready to take all those advantages of the just-fledged novice by which he has himself learned a lesson of dear-bought experience, at the expense first of property, and lastly of character.

A very general plan of forming an opinion of any horse by those who have not had the advantage of seeing him race, is the following:-Let us suppose two horses, A and B, to be considered before they run as of nearly equal goodness. Subsequently, A races against C and D, and beats them both. These horses are likewise beaten by B in another race, and consequently, A and B have each their admirers, and no absolute proof may yet have been obtained of their relative degrees of merit. But A beats E, and E afterwards beats B. A and B never having met, A is therefore considered the better of the two, from having beaten the successful opponent of the latter. In judging of the goodness of two horses by the above method, we must further suppose them to have carried equal weights, and to have run their races over the same course; otherwise the different circumstances under which they have severally raced must be taken into the account, and receive due consideration from their backers; and it is this very power of nicely weighing the various differences occurring in the several races in which horses annually make their début all over the kingdom, and of drawing a just inference therefrom, that constitutes the quintessence of racing knowledge.

Every man who lays out money on a race, be he the best judge of horses that ever lived, must run his chance of the various ills to which these animals, and more particularly those whose career is on the turf, are constantly subject; and hence, the best formed expectations may on many occasions be frustrated by the merest accident which may prevent the same horse from running a certain distance, with a certain weight on his back, at different periods within the same space of time, even should the difference in his speed amount only to a single stride. But, since all are on a par in this particular, and what may be one man's loss to-day, may be his gain to-morrow, it is useless to advert more particularly to this fact, which is only touched upon to show how uncertain are all events depending upon the reiterated exertions of any living animal, be his goodness what it may. Nevertheless, in spite of the numerous chances which may beget a

dissimilarity of power at different times in the same horse, it would be absurd to imagine that for that reason the result of a race must always be a purely fortuitous event, and that sound judgment in the choice of a racer is therefore unnecessary. On the contrary, there are few matters that demand so many and so careful considerations as those on which a rational opinion of the powers of a race-horse should be based; to prove which, I shall briefly advert to some of those circumstances attending the performances of different horses that require deep attention before a well-grounded judgment of the probable superiority of any one of them can fairly be formed.

Setting aside the public performances of race-horses under precisely similar circumstances, which, unless they run together, is a criterion of their respective merits that is seldom afforded, the following considerations are ever carefully to be borne in mind, ere a decided opinion of the probable result of any race can be safely entertained.

The form and action of a racer are two principal points to be attended to, and in some respects possess different degrees of merit, according to the species of course to run over. Thus, a lengthy, striding horse, moderately long on the leg, and covering a good deal of ground, may be likely enough to win over the two-year-old course at Newmarket, but be totally unfit to last through a race over the Derby course of a mile-and-a-half, with a tolerable hill into the bargain. This fact is proved almost every year: those horses that signalize themselves at short distances over the flat, being frequently found wanting in stamina on Epsom Downs, and the first to cry "peccavimus soon after getting round Tattenham corner. Over a long, a hilly, or a deep course, a horse of more trussy mould, short in the back, and well let down behind, with muscular thighs and good loins, if he have any pretensions at all to public favour as a racer, even although known to be less speedy for a mile than his more lengthy opponent, will be the more likely of the two to run in a winner.

Should both horses be dark on the day of running, the pedigree of each is also to be maturely considered; the stock of many stallionsas Sultan, The Colonel, and Bay Middleton-being more renowned for speed than endurance, while the latter quality has been frequently possessed by the descendants of some others, combined in many instances with considerable speed into the bargain. Thus, Taurus, Defence, Voltaire, Emilius, and Liverpool, have all at various periods begotten horses noted as both swift and stout; while many inheriting the blood of Physician and Dr. Syntax have been more famed for the latter than the former quality. Those deriving their origin from Velocipede, and many others, seldom have fore-legs that last in training more than a year or two, and the progeny of Colwick, Acteon, Jereed and Clearwell, cum plurimis aliis, are generally found as soft as butter in a long race, and perhaps not likely to run so freely fulgente Phobo.

The most material points in the form of a racer that denote superiority have been so frequently discussed, that to repeat them would be but to tire the patience of the reader. With respect to his action, I shall only remark that the horse that fights much with his fore legs may be strong, but is rarely gifted with extraordinary speed;

that if the hind legs be not thrown well under the belly, he will seldom be of an enduring nature; and that if he turn his toes in or out, it is a fault that will generally be found to interfere materially both with his swiftness and lasting qualities.

The temper of a horse is likewise a point that is not lightly to be passed over, as many a fiery, impatient animal may be half-beaten by three or four false starts before he actually run his race, and cannot frequently be pulled up until he have raced a considerable distance, to the utter annihilation of the little strength such horses generally possess, consequently a hot-headed racer should be backed with caution, as he is generally an uncertain prop to lean upon.

Of condition, it is superfluous to say that it should be first rate to ensure a chance of success; but as most people back horses prior to the day they are to run, and very frequently never have an opportunity of seeing them until they are stripped for their race, they must rely in this particular upon the trainer; not, however, forgetting that some of these men have the reputation of generally bringing their horses to the post in better order than others, and are known to put the racers committed to their charge into such hard work, that they must be stout to stand it; and likewise that some few of the most renowned trainers of the day, from the great number of horses entrusted to them-many of which consist of those bred by noblemen or gentlemen who keep up large breeding establishments-have opportunities of obtaining a flyer, which those who have fewer horses in training are not likely to possess. Hence the policy of backing the lot or stable of such

men.

The next points for consideration prior to backing any horse for a race are, what weight he has already carried if he have appeared in public, or may be capable of carrying if he have not yet raced. The first will of course be ascertained by his performances on the turf (or in private, if the report of his trials may be relied on); and the last may be judged of by his form and growth. In addition to these important particulars, the backer must remember that for some races, certain horses may be entitled to claim an allowance of weight; that there is a little more hazard in backing a filly than a colt, at certain periods of the year, as she may be very considerably reduced in condition from natural causes; that a racer trained on the course on which he is subsequently to run, thereby obtains a great advantage over other horses, both from his knowledge of the ground, his being accustomed to finish his race at a particular point, on nearing which he is in the habit of putting forth his greatest powers, his not having to travel any distance to reach the scene of action, and being consequently always kept in the same stable, acclimated to the spot, and not subjected to change of air and water. Nor should the jockey by whom a favourite horse is to be mounted be altogether overlooked. There are some few of these men, the shining stars of their calling, whose style of riding is vastly superior to that of the common herd; whose judgment is more to be relied on; whose knowlege of pace (a matter of great importance) is extremely correct; whose ability to keep their place in, and at the proper moment to get clear of, a throng is conspicuous; and whose quiet and steady seat will eventually enable them to get more out of an inferior horse, than all the rolling,