over from his party by the Duke, not to indulge too freely in his Grace's generous port, as, in an unguarded moment, he might make a promise that he would hereafter repent of, as, of all despicable men, a turncoat was the worst; how he was prevailed on to stay week after week at the Castle; the quiet rides with the Duke over his farm; the doweraging drives with her Grace, and the happy walks with Lady Sarah. Our hero was not a very enterprizing young gentleman, nor could he be compelled to rush headlong into the speculations of Cupid. His early adherence to commercial pursuits had deadened this fine perception of sentiment. In vain Lady Sarah quoted Byron: he only thought she had read a great deal. In vain she sighed he only presumed her maid had faced her corset too tight. Affairs seemed in a deplorable state; Lady Sarah could not very well, according to our established rules of decorum, ask our hero point blank to marry her; and the Duke thought it would be very awkward to offer his daughter to Treacle, as he would a horse or a gun, when the Duchess conceived the happy idea of a picnic. A picnic! what a pleasant little affair! You partake of a bad inn dinner, which, while you are admiring the scenery, and the servants are unpacking the knives and forks, the snail and worm continue their zigzag course. Your table is a bare stone; your seat the wet grass; your canopy the trees, on whose verdant leaves the last shower has left some of its drops, which they eject about every minute, either between your cravat and your neck, or on the summer bonnet of your fair companion; and, most likely, just as you are pouring the frothy champagne into her glass, down comes the beating rains and heaven's artillery thunders in the sky, and the fun (?) comes to a rather premature and unpleasant termination by a rush to the carriages.

The Duchess gave one of these picnics to see a neighbouring waterfall, at which of course our hero and Lady Sarah were to play the prominent parts. Treacle had imbibed rather too much of that liquor, which an Etonian in a copy of Alcais, punning, called Falsi doloris; so the repast being over, and the company breaking into couples to explore the surrounding beauties, Treacle found himself attached to Lady Sarah, with not very clear notions what she said and did. They walked onwards to a beautiful part of the grove, and here our hero uttered, or, more properly speaking, muttered something, what it was he never could exactly remember: the cataract came roaring down, and all he heard was " Ye'es" so softly lisped. YES: that horrid word!-how it haunted him all the way home. How most of the party stared at him just as if he had "Yes" branded on his forehead! It troubled him in bed; he dreamed of yes; and when he awoke, how he puzzled to discover to what Lady Sarah Donkeythorne had acquiesced. What that "yes" meant he was rather unpleasantly made acquainted with the next morning, as he descended to the breakfast room, by everhearing the Marquis say—

"Well, so you have succeeded. I am off to-morrow to Scotland. What an idiot my sister is! Poor thing! she little knows what is in store for her."

"Ah! ah!" answered the Duke, rubbing his hands; "did I not tell you I would succeed? Ah! ah! he may be a dolt, or little better

than a block; but it is easier to drag a piece of wood along the road, than drive a donkey. He will be a Tory before a year."

In every novel that has lately been written, we verily believe it concludes with a marriage which the author (more especially should the writer be one of the fair sex) is almost certain to describe most minutely.

"Bis dat qui cito dat,"

is an old Roman saying, which might very well be translated for the country gentleman thus

We shall not, therefore, bore our readers with plagiarisms, but merely state there were the bridemaids, the trousseau, the usual presents, and the déjeuné. There was a little dispute between Lady Sarah and the Duchess, as to who was to tie the golden knot, which was decided by the Duchess inviting the Bishop of X-over, and requesting Mr. Gowl Thunderer to take himself and his lucubrations elsewhere on that day. The church was tastefully decorated with flowers, large concourses of people came, bands struck up" See the conquering hero comes," and reiterated huzzas greeted them as they stepped into their carriage. Grantham, Eaton, London, Tunbridge, are quickly passed; Dover is attained, whence the happy pair embarked, to taste the genial clime of Italy.

(To be continued.)

A FRAGMENT FROM A CREEL LEDGER.

With a fair stock of health and a reasonable competence it is a man's own fault if the storms of life assail him too rudely; with these he can defy the shocks of nature, and though the winds blow and "crack their cheeks," still, like a vigorous sapling, when the blast has passed over, he rises erect and unscathed, from the danger that has blackened around him. To define competence would be as difficult as to answer that philosophical question of the ancients"What is truth?" Every man entertains an opinion on the subject distinct from that of his neighbour, and were "tenders" for the purchase required from all, the discrepancy of the estimates would render it well nigh impossible to fix the standard amount of competence. "The Man of Ross" possessed "neither poverty nor riches," but had what Pope held to be a sufficiency, £500 a year; the village preacher on the other hand was "passing rich on

K

forty pounds a year;" each, however, is represented as having the werewithal to make life's road run smoothly, and each may be fairly said to have had his competence.

By the death of a dear old aunt I became possessed of a competence that rendered me independent of the world; for having evinced an "out-of-door" disposition and a love of rambling, she concluded with judgment that my star of literature was not in the ascendant, and, consequently, that professions and myself would be paradoxical; her liberality has enabled me to become a citizen of the world, and I live to enjoy life in every form and variety: my season has no cessation, I hunt, shoot, fish, yacht, and take all "the good the gods provide" the year round; "hodiè vivamus" is my motto, and by doing my duty in that state of life unto which I have been called, both cheerfully and contentedly, I humbly aspire to an accomplishment of the second great commandmant-"To do unto others as I would be done by." I hereby warn and recommend no brother of the craft to throw a line upon the river Otter: if any be found guilty of doing so after this warning, his fate will be as follows:-If he be privileged by a card to catch fish, he will hammer the stream the livelong day, and catch none; he will meet, however, many brethren. in the like predicament, who will talk of doing wonders on these streams; but talking and doing he well knows are not synonymous: if on the other hand he be unprivilged, he will soon discover that he is fishing in troubled waters, for ten to one he's hooked himself by a cut-throat keeper, who takes him before the nearest justicea justice Slender; and he being delicately alive to the virtues of Lady Dribble's French cook, imposes a penalty for wilful trespass -so much for the river Otter. Whilst on a fishing excursion in that country, I became acquainted with a gentleman who was formerly master of a sharp pack of fox-hounds, and proprietor of a noble demesne. Conversing with him one day on the subject of poaching, he favoured me with the following anecdote, the facts of which came under his own notice.

"There is a spirit of adventure attached to poaching," said he, "which renders it to some men the most exciting of all pursuits. In the year 1830 Capt. A., of the Regiment, came into this county, and being well equipped with a brace of good dogs, a dogcart, and the et ceteras required for shooting, it was his particular delight to make unexpected calls upon the preserves of the county gentlemen, and being an extraordinary good fag, he was never so well pleased as when pursued by half-a-dozen keepers, and in the utmost jeopardy of being taken by them. Certain covers hard by the Otter, that held a good head of game, received his frequent attentions; and my Lord Dribble one day actually pounced upon his dog-cart, as it awaited his arrival on a high road adjoining his lordship's covers. John Flunky was too wide awake, however, to give his master's name; his master could do that his-self if he'd got a mind,' and shoving his horse into a long trot, he looked over his shoulder, and told his lordship to inquire at the Horse Guards for Col. Clearall, and that pr'aps he might hear of him there.' Lord Dribble would have given the best steed in his stable to have secured

the man that was so well known and so much dreaded by himself and keepers. It remained, however, for me," said my friend, "to make a convert of this gallant captain. After thinning my lord's covers to his heart's content, he took lodgings at the small town of Ch, purposely for the shooting that he expected to get in my covers, which you know are tolerably well stocked and about four miles distant from that place. Fortunately I was apprised of his intentions and performances on the evening after his first day's sport, which he enjoyed on the outskirts without interruption; and knowing his history, I planned a mode of attack against him which proved eminently successful: I wrote him a letter in the following terms :

"Dear Sir,-Having been informed that you paid a visit to my covers yesterday during the absence of myself and keepers, I very much fear that you met with indifferent sport, being unacquainted with the particular spots that the game frequent. If you will do me the favour to let me know on what days you would next like to shoot, I will take care that my keeper shall be in attendance, and that he shall have orders to shew you the best sport of which my covers will admit.

666

"I have the honour to be your obedient servant,
"GEORGE

"Capt. A.," said my friend, "did not write an answer, but coming over himself and shaking my hand, said energetically, Beat by heaven.'

"Capt. A. was a gentleman, and could not resist courtesy; the charm of his adventure was broken, he renounced the contraband trade, hunted with me for many years, and thus commenced a friendship between us that I trust will only end with the grave."

Not very far to the eastward of the Otter lies a river famous for its trout, called the Axe: thither let the fisherman hie, and, if the weather permit, he may rest assured his labours will meet with success. Should he visit that stream during the season of the fern, web, or small-chafer, he will kill the finest fish in the river by having recourse to its use in the natural state; with a long rod, a short line, and two fern-webs on his hook, tail to tail, he may fill his creel in no time. In fishing with the fern-web too he has another advantage. Sunshine has not the effect of foiling him, and he may drop his fly into holes and on dead water, where he could not venture to throw his artificial fly. I believe the renowned coch-a-bonddu of the Welshman to be made in imitation of the fern-web: the word itself, I am given to understand, implies a red-fly with a black butt, which is exactly descriptive of the fern-web. The Welsh, however, use the coch-a-bonddu at all times of the fishing season, and I am ready to confess that at all times it is a good standard fly. The true coch-abonddu hackles are very difficult to be procured: I have known as much as half-a-guinea given for a cock of the colour for the sole purpose of its feathers. The hackle is of a deep red at the extremities, with a black list running down through the middle from the point to the end thereof. Feathers are dyed to imitate this fly, and in this

form they may be procured at Chevalier's, Bond's, or at any of the great" tackle shops."

I hold a man, however, to be but half entered at the craft who cannot make his own flies; to do this neatly is not only a very amusing accomplishment, but it enables the fisherman, by comparing the colour of his feathers with the natural fly on the river, to tie an artificial one that may suit on any emergency.

THE ASCOT MEETING,

WITH SOME HISTORICAL RECORDS OF EARLY RACING.

BY SARON.

We

If any one had prophesied five-and-twenty years ago, that in the year 1845 thousands and tens of thousands of the liege subjects of the sovereign of Great Britain would have been transported from the metropolis to Slough and Woking in less than half-an-hour by railway, such a prophet would have been looked upon as an impostor, and would scarcely have escaped a berth for life in Bedlam; and yet such has been the case, and we doubt not that in the course of a few years Epsom and Ascot will be brought within an hour's "steam" from London. Goodwood, too, when the line to Chichester is completed, will be accessible to the cockney sportsman, enabling him to run down for the day's racing between breakfast and supper. own that this to our ideas is not "a consummation to be wished for," and in this opinion we shall be borne out by those who witnessed the crush and rush at the Paddington and Slough stations, on the last Cup day at Ascot. Those who, like ourselves, took the rail at the Nine Elms station, and proceeded by the South-Western train as far as Woking, had no cause for complaint; but in another year we have no doubt that the crowd will be equally great on both the lines. In former days half the fun of the race was the going and returning. It was delightful to quit the sweltering metropolis upon a bright sunny morning in June, and in a well appointed barouche and four, or neatly turned out "drag," to be whirled away at the rate of twelve miles an hour, through a picturesque country, realizing one of those exquisite descriptions of the poet Wordsworth:

These hedge-rows, hardly hedge-rows, little lines
Of sportive wood run wild; these pastoral farms
Green to the very door."

Now one is boxed up in a close carriage, for it is necessary to keep the windows shut, to prevent the sparks and dust intruding-and are shot forth like an arrow from a cross-bow, at an awful rate, amidst a hissing, whizzing, ear-piercing, shrill, sharp noise, something between