a dark terrier just emerging from a holt, and perhaps tainted with the scent of the otter; the colour deceives them, and the mischief is done in an instant: they should be small and short in the leg in order to fulfil their functions cleverly, as the underground gutters or drains, above the cover-stones of which the animal finds a dry and quiet refuge, are often partly choked, generally half-filled with water, and always difficult of passage. If they are wiry, especially about the muzzle, they do not suffer quite so much from the cruelly sharp teeth of the otter, and they must have thorough pluck and good tempers. It is necessary, too, that they be staunch from rats and rabbits, which otherwise would often cause bitter disappointment to the expectant field. On no account let a terrier be entered at otter before he is a twelve-month oid at least. His confidence should be somewhat established ere he be brought to face so formidable a foe, or the chances are that his first punishment produces a sulky fit which will defy all encouragement for the future to make him serviceable. I make a point of buying, not breeding terriers, when I know their character to be good and undeniable, and by so doing am convinced I save myself much disappointment.

As a general rule, it is a bad plan to allow more than one terrier to go to ground at the same time. They are a jealous race, and in close quarters will fight desperately with each other ere they get to their common foe. Young terriers are frequently ruined in this way.

No sportsman crops a terrier's ears, or points his tail: for the former he knows shields the delicate recesses of the auditory passage from the loose earth or gravel that is always crumbling about his head when at work, and the latter is useful in handling or catching at him when at ground and barely within reach. Town-terriers, bull-terriers, and curs of low degree" are cropped; it is a fancy they have for mutilating nature without a purpose, and being just as serviceable to their owners in this form as any other, e'en let them indulge in it.

One word more as to their management at home. Let your terriers be "trencher dogs," that is to say, let them have the run of your kitchen and chimney corner, or have access to the boiling house, where a fire should always be lighted against they return from hunting. Rheumatism, deafness, and incapacity will come upon them prematurely, if, after their chilly and wet-gutter vocation, artificial heat be denied to them. Let it be understood, however, that I hold all petted terriers as utterly valueless for the purposes of all wild sporting, and have seen many a good one, like Hannibal's soldiers at Capua, spoiled by luxury and indulgence. Turkey and Kidderminster have the same tendency to enervate the brute, depend upon it but once dried and thoroughly warmed, they may be "turned up" "for the night in their own lodging house. The advantage of heat to the tired dog is very evident work, for instance, a team of strong spaniels every day for a week in a rough cocking country, and each night let them enjoy the comforts of a good fire ere they go to kennel; and work the same team on the same terms, barring the fire, you will find that in the former case they will continue fresh and ready for work up to the last day, while in the latter they will be found dull and slack, and usually off their feed

before the end of the fourth day. If I am asked to assign a cause for the beneficial effect I ascribe to heat, I answer, "that long and continued friction of the bones exhausts the sinovial fluid that lubricates the joints, the absence of which fluid induces pain and fatigue, and that artificial heat disposes it to flow again more readily, whereby the tired animal acquires rest and relief."

Having entered into a somewhat prosy description of the wild beast, with the style of hound and terrier necessary to its pursuit, I will conclude by hoping that all friends who are interested in this true British sport will be punctual at the meet on the 1st of next month, when an old dog otter will most assuredly be unlodged, and an unparalleled day's sport is confidently expected. For the present, then, adieu. G.

SPORTING SCRAPS AND SKETCHES.

BY LORD WILLIAM Lennox.

Bows and arrows, introduced by William I., 1066, were in use so late as 1640. In 1483 yew-trees wer ordered to be planted in church-yards, for the making of bows used in archery.

Coaches were first used in England in 1576, and began to ply for hire in the streets of London in 1626. Fifty hackney-coaches allowed therein. In 1770 the number was increased to 2,000.

Bear-baiting formed one of the amusements of the romantic age of Queen Elizabeth. It was introduced among the princely pastimes of Kenilworth in 1575. The original bear-garden in London stood on the bank-side, Southwark. "Herein," says Stowe, "were kept beares, bulls, and other beasts, to be bayted; as also mastives in several kenels, nourished to bayt them. These beares and other beasts are there kept in plots of ground scaffolded about for the beholders to stand safe."

GAME LAWS.

The first acts for the preservation of game were passed in 1496, 1753, and 1785. The game-laws are peculiar to the northern parts of Europe; they were never thought of by the Greeks and Romans. Their origin may be attributed to falconry, and therefore the heron, which is the noblest bird that the falcon can fly at, is deemed game. In the time of Charles the First, "shooting flying" was looked upon as out of the question; birds at roost or hares sitting was the sport of the day.

A CURIOUS SPECTACLE At Berlin.

"Early in August," writes a spectator, "we were witnesses of a

spectacle, of which there is no example-a swimming masquerade. This fête was given by the pupils of the Royal Swimming School of Berlin, in honour of the twenty-eighth anniversary of the establishment, which has formed 23,360 good swimmers. At five o'clock, 1,200 swimmers-for the most part belonging to the army-assembled in the barrack-yard of the infantry of the guard, and proceeded to tents erected on the banks of the river, where they put on their costumes. At eight o'clock the following procession was seen to swim forward, and pass before the view of more than forty thousand spectators :- First came a large, flat boat, metamorphosed into an arbour, in which were four bands, who executed pieces of military music; then a car in the shape of a shell, in which was seated Neptune, with his hair and beard of reeds, and armed with his trident. This car was drawn by six dolphins, and surrounded by a band of nereides and tritons, the latter playing the trumpet and clashing cymbals-a numerous troop of Indian musicians, bearing on their heads brilliant plumes, adorned with collars and bracelets of coral, and bearing clubs-Scotchmen, Norwegians, Spaniards, Italians, and Russians, in their national costumes-Bacchus, seated on a gigantic cask, crowned with vine-leaves and ivy, brandishing in the air his. thyrsus, with which he directed the grotesque evolutions of a hundred bacchants, who sported round his throne the king of the frogs, represented by a gigantic frog, seated on a car of reeds, and followed by a train of others of the same species, though less in bulk-and, last of all, two hundred sailors, singing national songs. The immense crowd who were drawn together by this strange spectacle moved about on the banks of the river in carriages, on horseback or on foot, or sailed about in small boats, adorned with garlands of flowers." Need we add that the affair went off swimmingly?

CURLING.

This game, which may be justly regarded as one of the national games of Scotland, and which has some resemblance to bowls and billiards, is played upon the ice, and consists in sliding stones along its glassy surface to a particular mark. The stones are made from blocks of granite or whinstone; the under-surface is highly polished, while a handle of iron is inserted into the upper-surface. The stones weigh from 30 to 60lbs. avoirdupois weight, according to the strength of the player. The rink is the portion of the ice upon which the game is played, and, in selecting it, great care must be taken that it is smooth and level. The length varies from thirty to fifty yards, and is usually about twelve feet in breadth. At each end of the rink a small hole is made, called a tee, round which two circles of different diameters are drawn; these circles are called the broughs. A score is then drawn across the rink, at each end, about a sixth part of its length, which is called the hogscore, and those stones which do not pass it are put hors de combat. The game may be played with almost any number of couples, each having one or more stones, as agreed upon. Each curler is provided with a broom, in order that he may sweep away any snow or dirt that may impede the progress of the stone. At the commencement the game is remarkably simple.

The lead, as he who commences the game is called, and which is usually arranged by lot, endeavours to lay his stone as near the tee as possible, while the object of his opponent is to do the same, for, if he attempts to strike away the stone of his antagonist, and misses his aim, his stone will fly by the tee, and become useless. The object of the next players is to guard the stones of their partners, if they are near the tee, and to "move on" those of their adversaries, if they are equally well placed. As the game advances it becomes more intricate. Sometimes the stone which is nearest the tee is so guarded that there is no possibility of getting at it. It then becomes necessary to make what in billiards is termed a cannon off another stone; and this is one of the nicest points of the game. If the cannon is impracticable, the only chance left is to drive the stone with such force that it may clear the former ones away. When the number of stones assigned to each curler have been played, the one nearest the tee counts one; and if the second, third, &c., belong to the same side, they all count so many shots. Thirty-one is the number usually played for.

From many concurring testimonies, there is every reason to believe that the game of curling was introduced into Scotland by the Flemings, at the end of the fifteenth or beginning of the sixteenth century. It is well known that, in the reigns of Henry V. and VI. of England, and James I. of Scotland, many of them went over to the

"Land of brown heath and shaggy wood

Land of the mountain and the flood"

and settled there as mechanics and manufacturers in those towns and villages which had been so much depopulated during the destructive wars between the two kingdoms. Pennant, in his tour in Scotland in 1792, thus describes the game:-"Of all the sports of these parts, that of curling is a favourite, and one unknown in England. It is an amusement of the winter, and played on the ice, by sliding from one mark to another great stones of 40 to 70lbs. weight, of an hemispherical form, with an iron or wooden handle at top. The object of the player is to lay his stone as near the mark as possible, to guard that of his partner, which had been well laid before, or to strike off that of his antagonist." In conclusion, there are few amusements which create more interest than the game of curling, especially as it is carried on at a time when the "noble science" of hunting is put an end to. It brings neighbours together in social intercourse, and enlivens a winter's day by a healthful and manly game.

THE FOXHUNTER OF THE OLD SCHOOL.

His ordinary hunting costume consisted of a coat which was made like a double-breasted groom's coat of the present day; it came well over the knees, and was encircled by a broad leather girdle round the waist; his waistcoat, made of an otter-skin, trimmed with gold lace; while his breeches, made of buff leather, were joined at the knee by a pair of mahogany top-boots, well greased over with neat's-foot oil, and which were strapped round the thigh by a small leather strap; add to these a pair of huge spurs, a black velvet hunting cap, a heavy whip, and a pair of worsted gloves, and you have the sporting squire

of by-gone days. Instead of riding a hack to cover, the plan was to be at the rabbit-warren, or other spot where the fox was expected to feed, by break of day, and to trail up to the cover, so that it was often necessary to be on horseback by five in the morning; and, as the hunting was usually slow, it was often night before the sportsman got off his hunter.

The costume of the sportsman of the present day, as well as his habits, are, to use a homely phrase, "as different as chalk is to cheese." A neat, well-made red coat, the whitest leather breeches, waterproof top or jack boots, shining in all the " brilliancy of Day"and Martin, too. Instead of rising with the lark, the modern Nimrod takes his breakfast at 10 o'clock, lights his cigar, and rides his hack to cover

"When, with hack and Havannah, each danger defying,

To cover he rattles in hopes of a run;"

has a day's racing with the hounds; and, by seven o'clock is seated at a dinner, which Heliogabalus, in days of yore, would have thought a worthy repast for his pampered appetite. The conversation after dinner turns not upon the merits of the hounds, but upon how each man "cut down" his neighbour. In these days (although we freely admit that there are exceptions to every rule), one of the main objects of a hunting man is to race from one cover to another, regardless of anything but getting a good start and keeping it. How many men are there, who, if they by any accident fail to be in the first flight, will go home; their horses having, as they say, "thrown a shoe," or making some other excuse for their absence from the field?

MODERN TRAVELLING.

Could our ancestors have risen again, some twenty years ago, there are few things that would have surprised them more than the superior conveyances upon the road, compared with vehicles of former times. Let us picture to ourselves the virgin Queen Elizabeth riding behind her Lord Chancellor to the House of Lords, and contrast it with the "pride, pomp, and circumstance" of our present gracious Monarch, "the love of millions," going to Parliament in the state carriage, drawn by the cream-coloured horses, with the attendant equipages, and the regiments of Blues and Life Guards forming the escort, guard of honour, and doing the street duty. Let us also compare the "heavy York" of fifty years ago, with the light Brighton "Age" or "Times" of our days; but if we really wanted to create a surprise to our revered fathers, it would be to show them the modern rail, by which a man can be transported as far in twelve hours, as he formerly was in so many weeks.

TRICKS OF THE CHAUNTERS; OR, A FEW HINTS TO PURCHASERS OF HORSES.

As some of our inexperienced readers may occasionally fall into the hands of the "chaunting" fraternity, who advertise studs of hunters in the columns of the daily papers, we venture to lay before them a few of the "dodges" most in vogue; and which we give verbatim