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America to the élite of our pleasure marine, has subsided into something very like symptoms of a screw-mania. The Enchantress-so they say-is to be stuffed with cylinders; and if other enterprising spirits should be affected with the epidemic, yachts will lay in their autumncoals as our ancestral homes were wont to make ready for their Christmas-fires. I hate a railroad as much as I am capable of abhorring anything now; but I think the sight of the America, belching smoke like Coalbrook Dale, would fit me at once for Bedlam. Is it in the black roll of fate that "to this complexion" the fashion of our sport on the glad waters shall come at last?

Shooting is not making the noise it did some few years ago. If gentlemen battue, they keep it to themselves; and why should they not? A pheasant for the gun costs a guinea-the same fowl, ready for the spit, three shillings and sixpence. Lord Byron, singing more soothly than did Anacreon-apropos of glasses sparkling on the boardobserves:

An English autumn, though it hath no vines
Blushing in Bacchant coronals along
The path o'er which the red festoon entwines
The ripe grape in the sunny land of song,
Hath still a purchased choice of choicest wines;
The Claret weak, and the Madeira strong.
If England mourn her bleakness, let me tell her,
The very best of vineyards is the cellar.

So I venture to suggest, for the service of all whom it may concern

Though Cockneys envy squires who shoot the pheasant,
That eating it, when cooked, is not unpleasant.

Coursing-first-born of sylvan pastimes-still preserves its antique character; at least as relates to its principle. Still the best greyhound is that which runs the fastest to its hare; but the object is no longer the speed which wins the quarry, but the flight of foot that carries off the sweepstakes. Long-tail racing is treading fast upon the kibes of its type-the turf: Diana forefend to follow the bad example of its original. There's not a report of a leash meeting in which I am not prepared to read, "At length we're to have handicap stakes for the long dogs." I see you are going to impute the moral of Peter Pindar's "Ostler and the Oats" to this anticipation-" a generation of vipers." ...Falconry is not-save only in the courtly appointment of Hereditary Grand Falconer-to nobody who hawks. Fishing, of every kind, from angling for salmons in Norway" fiords," to "mud-larking" for shrimps on Margate sands-greatly prevails. I have all my life sympathised with Byron's opinion as to the justice that ought to have overtaken Izaak Walton-so that I have, for conscience-sake, and the love of a sound gullet, eschewed "the gentle art." My knowledge of its position and prospects is confined to the announcements in the journals-apparently stereotyped of works upon "fly" and "bottom fishing," "sniggling, "varieties of maggots," and other elegant extracts from title-pages. To these, and their consequences, I refer the reader. If he has a weakness for the finny family in the shape of food-let me entreat him to avoid fish dinners" down the river."...

It is past six P.M.-accompanied by symptoms of a present gastric: and

that allusion to the festive hour calls up visions of Julienne, red mullets, Lilliputian rump-steaks, a squeeze of Chablis, and a few glasses of that particular port-not unlike those hypothetical" spirits from the vasty deep"-and of a power which can "make them come." Our theme is as a well-spent day, it sets out the best recipe for Macbeth's hospitable "ab ovo grace-" May good digestion wait on appetite." Follow it, usque ad malum." Then shall you read aright......

"THE FASHION OF OUR SPORT."

EXTRACTS FROM RABY'S NOTE-BOOK.

THE MEDITERRANEAN, CORFU, ALBANIA.

(Continued.)

All this time woodcocks have been rising, as we were crashing through the covert. No notice is as yet taken of them, except, perhaps, a solitary shot from some one who has charged his second barrel with No. 6. However, a little later in the day more attention is paid to these birds, and a vast quantity of powder and shot is expended upon them: the coverts being very large and very thick, more than a proportionate number of shots are fired to the game bagged; and often when a bird has been seen to fall almost to an inch, so thick is the underwood that it is a difficult matter to find it; so that many birds that are killed and ought to be bagged are never found; consequently, a good retriever, that will face the thorns, and is not afraid of hard work, is a valuable addition to the shooting party.

After all this downright hard work, the half hour allowed for luncheon comes very acceptable to men and dogs. After this meal has been discussed, and the morning sport talked over, another shot is made; each person being determined either to add to his share of the slain, or to make up for his bad shooting in the early part of the day. Coverts are now beaten that are sure to hold woodcocks. Mark, mark!" is again heard. "Bang, bang," resounds on all sides. Every one is in good humour; several couple of woodcocks are brought to bay; and thus the day's sport ends only when the sun warns us to make the best of our way to the boats.

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"Majoresque cadunt altis de montibus umbræ."

As we return we look forward to a good dinner after our fatigue on board the Yacht, or at Corfu. My party always dined on board the "Favorita," on our passage back to Corfu: and an excellent dinner Salvo, the captain of the yacht, prepared for us. On our way to the yacht, or boat, as the case might be, we presently met two or three Albanians, who always placed their caps on the ground, and standing at a distance (on account of quarantine), cried out " Baruti, baruti !" that is, Powder, give us some powder. The Albanians value powder very much, and fancy we throw it away when shooting woodcock and snipe: they are always thank

ful for a small quantity of it; and also for a glass bottle, which when empty we always placed in some conspicuous place, for the good of the first passer-by, who if he happened to be a shepherd or goatherd prized it much to carry milk in. It is as well to be friendly with these people, as they are sometimes annoyed by a dog getting amongst their sheep or goats (large flocks and herds of which you meet in your excursions over this wild country); which injury they perhaps might feel less inclined to resent, if they have had a few presents of powder, &c.,

made them.

Just before I went into Albania, one of the officers had shot an Albanian dog, which flew at him; the consequence was that there was immediately a row, as the Albanians value their dogs quite as much as their children: indeed if a dog is good he must be invaluable in driving the large flocks of sheep and herds of goats in such a wild country where there are no boundaries. The affair was settled by the officer paying a good sum in dollars. I have had some of the dogs rush up to me, barking and looking very savage; but I always found that on taking up a stone, and throwing it at them, they would always turn tail and run off. Although fierce in appearance, I believe the Albanian dogs in general to be cowards at heart. Thus then terminates a day's sport in Albania; than which a more exciting and soul-stirring sport-foxhunting excepted-does not exist. I delight in hunting, and hope I may long be able to partake of the pleasures of the chase; it is a noble sport, and one that I have loved from my youth; but I shall always remember with pleasure the sport I have seen with my gun in Albania; and hope others who may be induced to follow my example, and spend a few weeks in that rough country, may derive the same pleasure that I did. The wildness of the country, the grandeur of the mountains, and the unbounded territory over which a sportsman can range, all add to the pleasing picture; and you have no chance here of one of the velvet-coated gentry coming up to you, and telling that you are trespassing on Squire So-and-So's turnip field, or wood; though I believe I can safely say I never wilfully or knowingly trespassed in my life. To partake of the sport in Albania, a man must be a sportsman and no mistake; a squeamish fellow, who is afraid of a thorn, and goes round a bush or bunch of brambles rather than beat his way through such impediments, must expect to have a light bag. Success here depends upon the keenness and the pluck of the man; he must go to work determined to do his best, keep a good temper, and take his sport as he finds it; and as many of his shots will be snap ones, he must remember that "sharp" must be the word.

It is a singular circumstance that when a dog is taken ill at Corfu he seldom recovers; the complaint has, as yet, defied all human aid; and it is no uncommon thing to hear of many valuable dogs having died in the course of the year. The dog is usually attacked with a swelling in the throat, which continues to swell till the poor animal dies. If the swelling is lanced it is also fatal to the dog. The best way of keeping dogs in health at Corfu is to feed them entirely on bread, with a little soup, and not to allow them any meat. I knew one officer who had paid upwards of forty pounds for dogs during three years, and at the end of that time he had only one spaniel left.

89

"WINTER LEAVES."

BY GREYBEARD.

66

HOW TO SET A BEGGAR ON HORSEBACK.

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"Who saw him?" vociferates the huntsman, pulling his game brown horse hard on to his haunches, and appealing eagerly if not angrily to a posse of open-mouthed clods, breathless with their burst over yon holding fallow. "Aye, but who saw him?" he repeats, in answer to the confused mass of contradictory evidence delivered by these good fellows in their broadest dialect. Many a run spoilt-many a fox unaccounted for, has taught him to put but little faith in such assurances as The finest fox I ever see! he come by hard as he could split, right across them turmits-not gone two minutes-sure-ly!" So again in rising wrath he shouts, "Who saw him?" "Well, the gentleman on the bay horse, he saw him too!" and mollified on the instant, our inquirer's tone is completely altered, as he addresses a short and pithy interrogative to the "gentleman on the bay horse." "Thank you, Sir! how long has he been gone?" The hounds answer him for their own part, as, streaming up the hedgerow they settle to their work; and the bay horse cleverly bending himself as he swings over a high strong rail, with a ditch from him, resumes that place in the front to which he seems as well accustomed as his rider. Let us follow this quiet performer as he cuts out the work like a master of his craft, and watch how much of head, hand, and skill-to say nothing of decision and judgment, which is after all but the essence of common sense-must be possessed by one ambitious to excel even in the simple pastime of following a pack of hounds, over a good scenting country. Taking our Pegasus hard by the head, we will ride his line yard for yard and fence for fence, devoutly trusting we may never be obliged to go half so straight in perilous reality.

Watch how he lands in that deep ploughed field, which takes the bay horse up to his knees in its holding soil, and would bring many a worse-shouldered one on his head. The rider's seat remains firm and unchanged; his body is well back, his hands slightly elevated, with a length of rein that gives his horse the greatest amount of support compatible with freedom, his head up, and his eye forward; for well he knows that the first object, after getting satisfactorily into a field, is how to get out at the further end; so, catching the stride of his horse with a pliancy of seat that seems as though he were indeed "incorpsed and demi-natured with the brave beast," he guides him gradually into the wettest furrow, and regardless that the hounds are stealing away from him, and two or three of his dearest friends thundering on his flanks, pulls him into a trot, with a vivid anticipation of the catching pace such timely pull will enable him to command, in the large sound grass-field he spies through that bullfinch ahead of him. The fence is forbidding enough; the only likely-looking place is rendered unnego

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tiable by the trunk of a tree which has been lately cut close to the ground, and the wet, slippery surface of which ensures a certain fall; but there is a blind, ragged bramble-bush to the left, and perhaps it may do. Ha! he disappears, and we were right after all-there is a second ditch, and very cleverly concealed, too, or it would hardly have deceived so practised a hunter. Good horses, however, have a knack of falling far less unpleasantly than bad ones; and as our pilot never lets his reins go, he is up and at it again, having lost but little more time than it would take to open an ordinary hand-gate. Pegasus does it in a fly, as it is but natural to suppose he should, and we are again in a position to watch our friend making running down a large grass-field, with the furrows all lying the right way. How quietly he steals along! no bumping and hustling, and squaring of elbows-no sudden increase of pace, and as sudden pulling together again, than which nothing more speedily and more surely upsets a horse-no spurring, and lifting, and theatrical imitation of a jockey finishing a race. On the contrary, whether standing in his stirrups, or sitting well down upon his saddle, each muscle of his body adapts itself to every motion of his horse-each change of pace or position is effected in the easiest, most gradual, and least alarming manner to the animal. It is all plain-sailing now; the hounds are streaming away, as hounds will over wet old pastures; the bullocks, wedged into a corner, are whisking their tails, and presenting an astonished front to the enemy; the crowd, that much-abused body, of which, like the public, no man will allow himself to be an unit, have been long since shaken off, and there is plenty of room for us all. If ever man meant riding, now is the time to ride; if ever horse meant jumping, he will have an opportunity of displaying his prowess over that large "oxer "which separates this magnificent pasture from just such another "prairie" over which the hounds are even now fleeting like birds on the wing. It is a rasper! Let us see how the bay horse and his rider can get over such obstacles in their stride. The gentleman in whose career we take such an interest has long since edged away to the soundest ridge, down which he is now going at a rattling pace; he is about to face by no means the smallest or weakest part of the fence; but the first consideration is to have good ground to take off from. Again he pulls almost into a trot; but quickening his stride when within a few yards of his fence, he assumes that air of resolution so conspicuous in those with whom no hunter ever dare refuse," and taking the bay horse well by the head, he urges him to the effort. The generous animal exerts his powers to the utmost, and extending his frame when high in air to clear the unlooked-for rail, which is grinning to receive him some five feet from the fence, he lands in safety, having covered a distance from hoof-mark to hoof-mark that would make some of the tape-and-measurement gentlemen lift up their hands in astonishment. Again his rider takes a timely pull, for such efforts require no common exertion; but he is now nearly alongside the hounds, and can afford it. Pegasus is a good every-day sort of nag, but totally incapable of flights such as these, so we ride him quietly round by the gate, from which we catch another glimpse of our quondam leader making his way straight and fast for certain willows which, like the date-trees in the desert, betoken the presence of a cooling stream. We should like to see him well over, for he is indeed a trump; but as

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