other fourteen-stone-gentlemen's plate; which plates are to continue for seven years."

We pass over the reigns of James II., Mary and William III., and come to Queen Anne, merely to lay before our readers an interesting race that took place, though unconnected with gentlemen riding, at York in 1714, three days before her Majesty's death, which led to a remark that the Queen had won a race after her demise; "Friday, the 30th of July, a plate of £40, for aged horses; eleven stone each; four mile heats:

Three horses were distanced in the first heat; Merlin was lame before starting; and when we consider that the winner ran sixteen miles for forty pounds, and two others the same distance for honour and glory, we feel disposed to exclaim, with the Scottish Dominie, "Prodigious!"

In America we find gentleman-riding established, as the following account, from the United States "Turf Register," will prove: "The two longest races ever run in the United States were won by Medley and a descendant of Clockfast. One race was forty-four miles, heats twenty-two miles each; and the other thirty-two miles, one heat seventeen, and the next fifteen miles. In both cases they were ridden by gentlemen." If, in the above races, a horse had won each heat, the distance in the first-mentioned contest would have been sixty-six miles, and in the last forty-seven, which is what our Transatlantic friends would call a "smartish gallop."

But to the present day. Some caustic writer has described gentleman-riding in the following terms. Probably the cynic had lost his money by some amateur jockey: "The display is, with very few exceptions, sprawling and disgraceful to the last possible degree. You see nothing but waving arms and yellow leather breeches in convulsions. The exertion at the commencement is strong and terrific; the finish is will without power, like children playing at soldiers."

Now, though we are bound to admit that we have seen the above account, which is not very complimentary to the aspirants of the cap and jacket, occasionally realized, we have in many instances witnessed riding that would have done credit to the best Newmarket jockeys. At some provincial meetings, when "gentlemen are up," the old style of riding, with arms waving like a railway telegraph, legs moving like those of a pasteboard figure pulled by strings, and the jockeys, even in a greater hurry than their steeds to get home, literally bringing their horses to the Grand Stand-still, is still fol lowed. At the best race-courses, however, downright good riding is displayed; and to prove our assertion we have merely to mention the names of Coventry, Crawshaw, Wombwell, Edwards, Barker, Bevill, Colonel and Captain Knox; while, within our time, we are reminded of Wilton, White, Waterford, two Berkeleys, Peyton, Bouverie,

Queensberry, Pellat, Gardner, J. Mills, Osbaldeston, and Delmé Radcliffe.

In days gone by, the gentlemen-riding meetings of Bibury and Maddington flourished, as the following list of patrons will show: H.R.H. the Prince of Wales, the Duke of St. Albans, Lords Sackville, Jersey, Frederick Bentinck, Charles Somerset, Lowther, Sirs H. Lippincott, Godfrey Webster, Henry Peyton, Messrs. Lindo, Douglas, Mellish, and Delmé Radcliffe. So exclusive were these meetings that, up to the year 1814, jockeys were excluded from riding at either of the above. Latterly, the Bibury Club has been remodelled, and is still carried on at Stockbridge.

For many years Stapleton, Lambton, and Heaton Park Races "bore off the bell." The former commenced in 1822, and were carried on with great spirit, in that year and the following, in the park of the late honourable Edward Petre, than whom a more liberal and straightforward supporter of the Turf never existed. In 1823 a fatal accident occurred, which threw a great damp upon the meeting -namely, the death of the Honourable Charles Trevor, who was killed when riding M'Ready for the gold cup given by the publicspirited proprietor. The unfortunate gentleman came in contact with a post, and was so severely injured that he only survived a week. In 1824 the meeting was removed to Pontefract, and carried on there until 1825. In 1824 Mr. White, whom we have already alluded to, distinguished himself by winning five races out of six. Lambton Park enjoyed an uninterrupted course of sport for five years, commencing in 1821, the noble and magnificent owner doing all in his power to promote sport. Heaton Park commenced in 1827, and only terminated in 1838. Thanks to the exertions of that Crichton of sport, the Earl of Wilton, it was incontestably the best private meeting in England.

At many of the spring meetings, at Aldershot, Brighton, and other arenas for summer sport, gentlemen-riding races are still patronised; but the only private meeting that can vie with the glories of bygone days is the one at Donnington Park, where, through the unbounded hospitality of the Marquis of Hastings, the finest gathering in England takes place annually.

Before we conclude our remarks on gentlemen-riders, it may not be uninteresting to give the following extract from the "Annual Register" of 1776: "A most excellent and impressive sermon was preached at a church in the City, and during the discourse the clergyman read from a newspaper the following paragraph: 'On Sunday last two ponies ran, on the Uxbridge-road, twenty miles, for two hundred guineas, which was won by half-a-head; both ponies ridden by their owners;' also another paragraph of the like kind, of a race upon the Romford-road, also upon a Sunday. The clergyman then dwelt upon the heinous sin of Sabbath-breaking, and what a scandal it was that such acts as these could be practised in a Christian country, and by men of property, who ought to set a good example to the lower class of people."

Within the last five-and-twenty years, thanks to the energy and public spirit of the French Jockey Club, races have assumed in France a more important feature than they have done for centuries. The

success of "Beggarman," the property of the late Duke of Orleans, who won the Goodwood Cup in 1840, was hailed with pleasure in England, and since that period every true sportsman has held out the hand of good-fellowship to our continental racing neighbours. The late Duke of Orleans was a most liberal and zealous supporter of the turf, and was the second of that name who figured in the racing annals of England, the first being his Royal Highness's grandfather, more familiarly known by the name of Egalité. Without giving our pages up to the private or political history of this Prince, we cannot refrain from laying before our readers the Duke's exploits on the turf. In 1789 his Royal Highness made his début as an owner of race-horses, and in the following year sought the "Fountain Head," Newmarket, where he was generally unsuccessful. At the Craven Meeting his Royal Highness's Boxer was beaten by Mr. Vernon's Scrub: 30gs. In April the Duke's Lambenos yielded the victory to Mr. Fox's Shovel and Lord Clermont's Tally-ho. At the same meeting his Royal Highness was again unfortunate, his horse Hocks having been beaten by Lord Barrymore's Fop and by Lord Falkland's Sir Charles. In the first Spring Meeting the Duke's Fortitude beat Lord Derby's Director: 100gs. But his luck was transient, for on the same day his Royal Highness's horse Jericho was defeated in a sweepstakes of 200gs., and had to pay 100gs, forfeit to the Duke of Bedford's Skyscraper. Two days afterwards, at the Second Spring Meeting, he paid 100gs. forfeit for Lambinos to Lord Grosvenor's Asparagus, and within eight-andforty hours beat a field of ten for 50gs. In the First Spring, the following year, the Duke's horse Fortitude could not stand up against the Prince of Wales's Serpent, or General Wyndham's Osprey, and in theso two events his Royal Highness resigned himself to the loss of 200gs. ; Jericho, too, was beat by the Duke of Bedford's Dragon for 200gs. A ray of sunshine now appeared to the royal sportsman; for in the First Spring Meeting his horse Conqueror beat the Duke of Queensberry's Dash; six miles; 300gs. In the Second Spring Meeting the cloud again lowered over the House of Orleans, for Conqueror was beat by Butler for the Jockey Club Plate, and again at Epsom by Tickler, and Jericho was beat by Sir Charles Bunbury's Smack for 200gs., as was The Colonel by Wyndham's Pecker for 100gs. Whether his Royal Highness anticipated taking leave of the turf, and wishing his sporting friends "Good morning," I know not; but a two-year-old colt, named "Good Morning," is the last left to record. This flyer happened to win a trial stakes of 50gs., beating six others with the odds of 6 to 1 against him, and was immediately named for the Oatlands, 40 subscribers, 100 guineas each; but upon being beat in a match over the old Course, by Mr. Bullock's Contractor, his Royal Highness paid forfeit, and never again owned a race-horse.

To resume: The death of Egalité's grandson, the late Duke of Orleans, was a sad blow to the French turf. Had his Royal Highness lived we have little doubt but that he would have annually presented a cup to be run for at the arena of his racing triumph-Goodwood. As it is, the Orleans Vase, won by the Duke of Richmond's horse Mus in 1841, leaves a lasting memorial to the prince's liberality and love of the

turf.

From the Orleans family we turn to the present French dynasty,

under whose auspices art and science flourish. The Emperor himself is a great patron of every species of manly sport, and under his reign racing, hunting, shooting, and cricket are carried on in a manner hitherto unknown in France. Let us give an extract from a journal of the day, describing the Prince Imperial at Compiegne. "At one o'clock the Prince cantered into the ring, and made a bow to the assembled swells, which did honour to his tutor. It was quite the salute of the son of a M.F.H. when he is going to take his father's duty for the day. He was riding a very clever Arab pony, a present from a Sheikh, and was attended by his constant companion, young Conneau, and his tutor. The Prince is much grown, and seems to me much stronger, and, if I may use the expression, jollier, than he was. Coming home from hunting we came suddenly on him in a bye-road. It had grown very cold, so the two boys had got out of the carriage, and were running races, singing, dancing, and cracking their infantile huntingwhips with a noise and evident delight which must be proper for Princes as for other juveniles. The Prince, too, I should tell you, rides like a man.' 'Just his father's seat, you see,' was observed to me yesterday;" and I believe he will go as well; and I myself saw Prince Louis Napoleon stop a spring-field' with the Queen's twice in one day. I must add, the Prince wore the uniform of the hunt, which is even prettier for children than for men. It is a cross between the highwayman of the last century and Edgar of Ravenswood, before he goes into mourning, and the sulla tomba' business of the last act of Lucia a green velvet frock, buckskins, Hessian boots, heavy spurs, a couteau de chasse, and the whole surmounted by a three-cornered Frederic the Great hat! Imagine about a hundred of these gorgeous costumes galloping about the finest woodland scenery, to the cry of a pack of foxhounds, and the perhaps excessive music of the echoing horn; at every turn a carriage full of fair women and brave men,' or a bevy of beauties on horseback, looking even more beautiful for their exercise; and you will have an idea, though only a faint one, of the picturesque side of a day in the forests of France."

Within a few years wood-pigeon shooting has come into fashion, and it is a most legitimate amusement, as it requires a good eye and a steady hand to fill a bag. A few remarks on this bird may not be here out of place.

The wood-pigeon builds its nest on the top branch of some lofty tree; the flat, forked surface of the branch of a fir or pine affording a favourite support for the nest; and more than one nest is frequently found in the same tree. The nest is an irregular loose stack of twigs and small branches, very flat, scarcely round in form, and the materials so thinly placed that the eggs may be seen through the bottom of it from the foot of the tree. As soon as the nest is completed, the female deposits her two white eggs thereon, and in eighteen days the young are produced, after the male and female birds have jointly sat on them by regular turns; it being a curious fact that the male bird sits on the eggs regularly from nine or ten in the morning until three or four in the afternoon. Stillingfleet remarks, that "in a state of domestication their increase is prodigious, and though they never lay more than two eggs at a time, yet, allowing them to breed nine times in the year, the produce of a single pair, at the expiration of four years, may amount

to the enormous number of 14,762." The adult wood-pigeon measures 17 inches in length from the tip of the beak to the extremity of the tail. The female resembles the male in colour.

The wood-pigeon is found very generally distributed over Europe and Asia, does not appear higher north than the Arctic Circle, but extends beyond the southern boundaries of Europe, spreading over the northern coast of Africa. In the northern parts of Europe and Asia the woodpigeon is a migratory bird, and large flocks of them arrive from thence to this country in the autumn, most of which remain with us until milder weather induces them to return to their native countries. The chosen locality of the wood-pigeon is a well-wooded country, and by preference where fir-trees abound, as they are particularly fond of the seed of the fir-cones: acorns and beech-nuts also form a considerable portion of their food; and as soon as the corn is cut and carried, the wood-pigeons may be found in great numbers in the stubble-fields, as also in ripe clover, peas, and bean fields, where they seek their support.

It appears to be immaterial to the wood-pigeon whether the locality is hilly or flat, provided there are lofty trees at hand, and that they are found in large groups, or surrounded by thick underwood. During the greater part of the day this bird perches on the upper branches of lofty trees, amongst the thickest foliage, pluming itself or resting. When on the wing it flies with great swiftness, and generally at a considerable height in the air, unless the wind is very strong. Its roosting place is also on the branch of a lofty tree, but is usually so much hidden by the foliage that it is rarely to be discovered, unless it is started on the wing.

The wood-pigeon runs about on the ground with an easy and graceful gait, nodding its head at every step; its body then takes a horizontal direction, and its tail is kept clear of the ground without any effort for that purpose on the part of the bird. On the slightest appearance of danger, or on the approach of mankind, the wood-pigeon stretches out its neck, and takes wing. When this bird flies without being afraid, its flight is rather slow, and almost heavy; but under other circumstances it shoots through the air with wonderful velocity, by means of very regular and rapid strokes of the wings.

Early in the spring the male bird may be heard at sunrise, sitting perched on some favourite branch, generally beside its mate, when both having plumed themselves, they shortly afterwards commence their flight to a distance in search of food; several pairs that have roosted together in the same wood, and frequently in the same large tree, being seen to follow each other at short distances, and flying in such a manner as to make it appear as if they required greater space to extend their wings than other birds.

If the habits of the wood-pigeon are accurately observed, it will be seen that it leads a very regular life, and that it divides the day after the following manner: From six till nine in the morning, the time is occupied in searching for food; about ten o'clock the whole party return home, and may be heard calling their hoo, hoo, coo, coo, coo. At eleven the calling ceases, and the party is again off in search of drink, and probably also to bathe, as they particularly delight in the latter exercise, From twelve till two is again set apart for a season of rest