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customed to see them. There was a fair sprinkling of public money, and tolerable sport produced by the contests for it. Here and there, they held out a racing_moral, which it might serve turf theorists to take warning from. For the Grosvenor Stakes, Coranna was beaten cleverly by A-la-Mode. Coranna has done the state some service; other public servants will show the natural consequences of work ere the season be over: horses cannot run for ever. The three-year-old races were not remarkable for the character of their fields. The Chester St. Leger brought a baker's dozen, of the thirty-five nominations, to the post, and was won cleverly by The Libel, who was, therefore, started as a Derby candidate, upon popular grounds; how justly has been seen. Besides these varied minor attractions, there was also a cup for amateur jockeyism. How far that sort of exhibition harmonizes with a professional meeting-how far it is becoming, on the score of etiquette, I do not presume to decide. That it is not becoming to the performers is certain. There are, I believe-nay, I am almost sure-some gentlemen who ride with as much head as any public jock, but none who ride with so little body; and there's the secret of the failure in the mise en scene of a gentleman's race. big jockey, like a big book, is a great evil. Twelve stone in a racing saddle, like the same amount of human nature in one's arms in a polka, compels the instinctive prayer, "Oh! that this too, too solid flesh would melt," or rather that it had melted before, because-but a truce with reasons which, unlike Mrs. Malaprop's comparisons, might not be "odorous." And now "to our muttons," the Trades' Cup the muttons indeed more apropos of the backers of its favourites-like the sheep of poor Tom Hood, "the spooniest brutes in nature all to sticks." Every body knows how long and flourishing a career that event had at Tattersall's, and the various marts for betting all over the kingdom. Such a harvest for the legs was it, that we may look for a vast accession of labourers in that pleasant vineyard, in succeeding seasons. The Chester Cup has latterly assumed the privilege of licensing certain schemes, elsewhere not put on the carpet-that is, the turf. Some time since, a leading gentleman of the ring sold his nomination for it to a person who bought it for the purpose of fraud, with the reservation that certain of his (the seller's) friends should be exempted from the general plundering. This became known, but the gentleman's position in sporting society was none the worse for it. Now, if A. went to B. in the city, and said, "Sell me a ship, which I may send to sea with a cargo of nothing, insured for twenty thousand pounds, and scuttle as soon as she's out of sight of the Land's End?" and B. said, "Of course, only don't include such and such among the underwriters." I say, should B. do this, and be found out, he would not be considered good society even upon 'Change; and yet among those who are "all honourable men," and some of them right honourable, the like is done with impunity. For this I assert that the Chester Cup has its privileges. In the present season it did not allow these to lapse for want of exercise. The precedent for 1845 was the Zanoni case. An animal, said to be that which last year won the Derby as Running Rein, was named for the Trade Cup as aforesaid as Zanoni, and as such backed,

and, by the various contrivances of hedging and so forth, inextricably mixed up with its speculations. At the eleventh hour, somebody suggested that he was not the courser he was said to be, but some other, and a scrutiny was demanded. While the investigation was sub judice, the race was disposed of, and thereupon Zanoni was declared to be duly qualified, just when it didn't matter a Mississippi mag," whether he was or not. Lord George Bentinck started the lot of twenty in his usual artistical manner. Those that could not do as they were bid, had no business there at such a time, and were fined accordingly. The latest betting left Fitzallen first favourite, at 2 to 1 against him, 5 to 1 against Semiseria, 6 to 1 against Ould Ireland, 13 to 1 against Cataract, 14 to 1 against Sorella, and then the scabies averaging from 20 to 100 to 1. The manœuvring about Cataract was quite unaccountable; he was as lame as a tree, and yet his party invested thousands on him, at odds infinitely under the market price! Then there were old favourites that did not start, nobody knew why; in short, it was a great business fact. It rained, of course, like a shower bath when the flag fell for the start; Semiseria making the pace very good the first round, in which she disposed of her chance, and the running was taken up by Queen of the Tyne and the favourite, with a miscellaneous ruck in attendance on them. At the all-important Castle turn, Intrepid, "a cock tail"woe is Olympus!-having challenged Fitzallen some quarter of a mile before, showed an unmistakeable winner, going faster and fresher than any thing else, and finishing first by three lengths. There was some fouling between the favourite and St. Lawrence, but as to the winner nothing could be more fair than his management from first to last. After the race, Mr. Gully objected to the stakes being paid to Mr. Skerratt, on the ground that his horse was not as described in the nomination. The next day Mr. Gully withdrew his objection. With all submission, I think he should have stated the source whence he derived his authority for so protesting. The party who gave Mr. Gully the information might have done so from malice or mistake. Mr. Skeratt was entitled to an option whether he should kick the party or otherwise, and having resolved on the former alternative, after being satisfied that there were no grounds for doing as he had done, he could have withdrawn the kicking. Intrepid ran an honest fair nag in all his engagements last year, at high weights, and his six stone six pounds, for a four year old, ought not to have been lost sight of in the ring; but he was not in a fashionable stable. The pace was good all through; the winner, who was never heard of in town, had a few backers, on the day, at 40 to 1. He was sent to Chester, I believe, on the grace of a trial with Sweetmeat.

The Second Spring Meeting, at Newmarket, was one of the best occasions of the sort that has yet occurred. The handicap, of course, will do more for it by and bye, especially when the rail gets in full work. This handicap-the Suffolk Stakes-brought to the post a field of twelve, in which Alice Hawthorn was backed to win at 5 to 4 against her, and hardly sixpence hazarded about any other. She was beaten very early in the race, and was apparently not the invincible we have been accustomed to see her. Should she come out, how

ever, at Ascot-but the less one says in connection with Ascot and the old mare, perhaps, the better. The winner, Queen Mab, was very ably handled by that most useful of jockeys, Flatman. It has very rarely happened that a man has reached the head of his profession (as Nat undoubtedly has) capable of riding seven stone five pounds. The three days produced fifteen races, besides walks over. The Whip was not challenged for; it is singular how indisposed that trophy appears to be to change hands. The character of the running does not call for more details. The events were of themselves unimportant, save at the moment; the Rowly Mile Plate being, moreover, won by a horse not in the Derby. And this reminds me how cruelly the falling of that great issue cripples the interest of all matters relating to what befell the turf before it came off; and, consequently, that I bring these notices within the smallest span. For this cause, I pass Manchester with brief allusion. It is not a meeting of account with racing people; indeed, a few had it all to themselves. Of the fourteen races Mr. Meiklam won four, and Mr. Dawson three, taking one moiety between them.

Eglinton Park is all but exclusive as an amateur tryst. It was a bumper of good things, bright and brilliant as champagne, but as evanescent of flavour. There were other "races" during the month, at provincial places, as they call them, such as Shiffnal, for instance, where a Derby nomination of Mr. Hill's, called Salopian, ran a dead heat for the cup with Intrepid; a good performance. Last of the pleasure assemblages within compass of our publishing chronology was that at Gorhambury, a truly characteristic site for the first of our popular sports. The turf owes a heavy debt for patronage to Lord Verulam; its holiday frequenters, one of deep gratitude for the public spirit which induced him to throw open his noble park for their enjoyment. Remote from cities as are the shrines, race meetings at Heaton and Goodwood Parks sadly astonished their pena es; imagine what the Dryads of Gorhambury must think of the invasion of their sacred shades by grim hordes of Cockneys, the mingling of tobacco reek, and the smell of swipes, with the flowing incense of their altars. Gorhambury races commenced on Tuesday, the 20th ult., and lasted for two days. The weather was, what April used to be, showery and scarce genial enough for spring. The sport was very unimportant, save for temporary purposes. Tuesday was pretty well furnished with company; but on Wednesday it poured from noon to night, in a fashion fit for nothing to venture from beneath a roof that was not amphibious. The race for the Gorhambury Handicap proved how prodigiously out the party were in their trial and subsequent conclusions, touching Fitzallen for the Chester Cup. He was backed, on Tuesday, at 11 to 4, and never showed in front at all. During the meeting, it was said that Lord Verulam contemplated putting an end to it, after the present season. The racing reporter wrote thus-"With reference to the reported discontinuance of these races, owing to the diminution of the race fund, consequent on the prohibition against gambling booths, we can only repeat that such a step is in contemplation." If the anniversary of 1845 was, in reality, a last appearance, it should have taken "any form but that." Ima