kitchen, including comers and goers, 11,312; loaves of bread consumed, 3333; of meat, 22,963 lbs.*

As to the rabbits, these out number the hares, by hundreds to one. In many instances, they are stewed down in gentleman's houses to make gravy. Then there are innumerable quantities of wild ducks, and other aquatic birds, which breed there; besides, the woodcock, snipes, land rails, wheat ears, and other migrating birds.

The Duke of Rutland, has another fine estate in the neighbouring county of Derby. Haddon Hall, which came to his family by marriage, and is thus finely described in the following Sonnett:

ON HADDON HALL.

"Rock-based, tree-girdled, silent, smokeless, still,
There stands a mansion of the olden time:
To that strong postern gateway let us climb,
Portcullised once; but how that massive sill.
Is worn by constant feet! or what good will,
Of feudal spirits this brave spot hath won!
There stood the yeoman in their coats of green;
There the bold huntsman blew his clarion shrill.
There at the massive table Vernon sate;
There lay his dogs: there his retainers stood,
While in that gallery dames of gentle blood

Walked forth in beauty's conscious charms elate,

When the rich arras, now worn through and through,

Shone fresh; and the quaint fire dogs glitter'd bright and new."

HOLLAND.

HORSE RACING.

"At Corinth the bit was first added to the rein.”* DIGBY.

FITZ STEPHEN, in his account of London in the twelfth century, gives a minute account of horse-racing. King John was a sportsman, (1190;) Edward II., (1307;) Edward III., (1327;) Henry VIII., 1509, imported horses from the east.

On St. George's day, 1512, there was horse racing at the city of Chester, which has been continued down to the present

* History of Belvoir Castle.

†The trade of a lorimer, or bridle bit maker, was then of some consequence, and no doubt profitable. I have seen a treasury warrant, dated 1821, to John Shakspeare, bit maker to his majesty's stable, for £302 11s. 8d; some of them were guilte and graven with the arms of the King of Denmark, for presents; but watering bits were charged 12s. 6d. per piece; watering snaffles 2s. 4d. per piece; bits, with guilt bosses, as high as 30s. each.

time. The last year of the reign of James I., a bell was run for of the value of eight or ten pounds. At that period race courses were called bell courses.

The improvement in the breed of horses may be traced, like some other good things, down to the Crusades; those wonderous battles having been fought in the country of the Arabian. Richard Coeur-de-Lion had two horses, which he purchased at Cypress. An old metrical ballad thus describes them:

"In this worlde they had no pere,1
Dromedary nor destrere,2
Stede, Rabyte,3 ne cammel

Goethe none so swifte without fayle;
For a thousand pounds of gold,

No one should the one be solde."*

But horse racing was not much practised till the reign of Elizabeth; during the reign of James I. it was regularly followed, and the training, physicking, and carrying weights, much as it is now. These sports were held at Croydon, in Surry; at Gatesley, in Yorkshire; at Theobald's, near Enfield Chase, in Essex; as well as at Newmarket, in Cambridgeshire. Oliver Cromwell, during his protectorate, much patronized horse racing and the breeding of horses.

It was classed with hawking and hunting as a liberal pastime, and pursued for the purpose of exercise or pleasure; hence, the moral satirists of the age, the Puritans, wisely recommended it as a substitute for cards and dice; but gambling, unfortunately, soon crept in.

"These sports greatly improved the breed of horses; consequently their mettle was not spared, and furious riding and driving were added to John Bull's other characteristics."+ According to Echard, the English horse was much prized in foreign countries.

But what a horrid thing it is to find, from Evelyn's Diary, that this noble animal was then, for mere sport, baited by dogs. He describes one of those events under the pretence of a horse having killed a man; the horse beat off every assailant, and, at last, was stabbed to death with swords. The same cruel thing was perpetrated in the fourteenth century. What will not cruel, greedy man, do for money?

After Charles the II., the bell prizes were converted into cups or bowls, or other pieces of plate, usually valued at 100 guineas, with the pedigrees and performances of the successful horses engraved upon them.

"The Postboy," dated 1711, has the following advertisement:

* 1 Pere, equal: 2 destrere, a war horse: 3 Rabyte, an Arabian. † Somers' Tracts.

"On the ninth of October, will be run for, on Coleshill heath, in Warwickshire, a plate of six guineas value; three heats, by any horse, mare, or gelding, that hath not won above the value of five pounds; the winner to be sold for ten pounds; to carry ten stone, if fourteen hands high; if above or under, to carry, or be allowed weight for inches, and to be entered on Friday the fifth, at the Swan, in Coleshill, by six in the evening. Also a plate of less value, to be run for by two asses.

The donkey racing always afforded most fun to the multitude at large, even though it was always accompanied with some cruelty; there was terrible whipping and spurring; the spur often, according to the jocose Hudibras,

"Convey'd a sympathetic speed

From heel of knight, to heel of steed."

They had not learned the difference between persuasion and force, as the writer once saw practically enforced at a village wake; two donkey sportsmen made a bet, when one got a bunch of carrots, placed it on a long stick, and held it about a foot farther than the animal's nose, which induced him to exert himself to his utmost speed to get; and this was found more persuasive than the coarse whipping and goading of his antagonist, who actually rebelled, kicked, and threw his rider.

George the I., instead of kings' plates of 100 guineas, gave a purse of that value in specie. The kings' plates are now, in general, a gold cup worth (£105,) they were instituted to stop gambling, supposing that a prize of that value, would be a sum sufficient to induce breeders of horses to undertake so desirable an object for their improvement; but, as regards gambling, it is found to be of little avail.

The Godolphin Arabian, appeared in the reign of George the II. In the fourth year of the reign of George IV. (1764) was foaled Eclipse. But the fastest horse ever known, is Harkaway, an Irish horse now living. I believe the best trotting horse of his day, was from this Union, Tom Thumb. On the second of February 1829, he trotted 100 miles in ten hours and seven minutes.*

"The amusements of the turf, are supposed to have been introduced into this continent by Governor Samuel Ogle, of Maryland, from 1732 to 1745." Annals of Annapolis.

66

George Washington devoted himself to the turf, between 1759 and

1774."

"The red fox was imported from England into Maryland, 1780," "Fox hunting, as well as horse racing, was introduced into Canada, a few years past. A pack of dogs is kept at Montreal, having been brought by an English butcher." Spirit of the Times, N. Y, 1841.

"A firm

Virgil has left us a good description of a horse. neck, a tapering head, a short compact body, loins full and round, and a high spirit manifested in every muscle."

The reign of Henry VIII. produced the earliest treatise on agriculture, and the management of horses and cattle, by Sir A. Fitzherbert, judge of the common pleas: he says a horse has fifty-four properties, viz. : two of a man, two of a badger, four of a lion, nine of an ox, nine of a hare, nine of a fox, nine of an ass, and ten of a woman. This description has been somewhat altered, but perhaps not improved upon, viz.: three qualities of a woman, a broad breast, round hips, and a long mane; three of a lion, countenance, courage, and fire; three of a bullock, the eye, the nostrils, and joints; three of a sheep, the nose, gentleness, and patience; three of a mule, strength, constancy, and good feet; three of a deer, head, legs, and short hair; three of a wolf, throat, neck, and hearing; three of a fox, ear, tail, and throat; three of a serpent, memory, sight, and cunning; and three of a hare or cat, cunning, walking, and suppleness.

FALCONRY.

"Dost thou love hawking? Thou hast hawks will soar above the morning lark." SHAKSPEARE.

THE gun has superseded this delightful sport, in which there was great state, great skill, and much diversion.

"To grace this honoured day, the queen proclaims,
By herald, hawkers' high heroick games;

She summons all her sons: an endless band

Pours forth, and leaves unpeopled all the land." POPE.

It was still followed, for the last act upon this subject was passed in the reign of James, which merely limited the time of hawking at pheasants and partridges. A very necessary act it was, for without these periods are strictly observed, all will soon be destroyed. These laws, as regards the time of killing game, are now rigidly enforced; for instance, in the month of June, and some other months,

"No one wears a scarlet suit,

And no one wings a bird."

The following Latin aphorism shows the ancients had pro

English race horses were introduced into Canada as early as 1738. I believe Janus, a stud horse, was the first; his sire was the Godolphin Arabian.

per ideas on preserving game: "Boni venatorius est plures feras capere non omnes.

Game was always plentiful in England, but difficult to be obtained, until the art of shooting flying, with the gun, was brought into practice. In the chapter on Provisions and Labour, vol i., page 16, it will be observed that the prices of game were much higher, in proportion to other food, than the relative prices of the present day.

Hawking is not likely to be revived; the numerous enclosures are a great impediment to it, except upon Salisbury plains, the South downs, or the Welch or Northern moors.

It has been attempted by the present Duke of St. Albans, who is hereditary grand falconer of England.

In the reign of James I., Sir Thomas Monson gave £1000 for a cast (two) of hawks.

SHOOTING This century is remarkable as closing with archering, and falconry, and the commencement of the gun. The arquebus was first used for fowling, in 1535, the barrel was the same length as now, twenty-seven inches long; it had a large bore, and discharged hail shot. In 1548, an act was passed to regulate shooting with the hand gun, and hail shot. Shooting flying is

mentioned in the British Apollo, 1708. Pegge says, William Tunstall was the first person who

shot flying, in Derbyshire. He was pay master general, and a quarter master in the rebel army; was made prisoner at the battle of Preston, 1716. He died, 1728.

It is painful to notice the constantly recurring accidents by fire-arms, all of which might easily be avoided, if persons, taking them up, were always to handle them as though they were charged, and never present the muzzle toward any object that has life, except it is meant to take it away. Reader, let me beseech you to imprint this short admonition on your mind, with the same care as you preserve the apple of your eye," it may prevent you from maiming, or destroying, your most honored friend. Perhaps this advice would be worth framing in all the schools of the Union, as was the case with good maxims in former times.

แ

* It is the business of a good sportsman to kill much game, but not all.