In Carradale is a hill, called Sroin-na-h-eanachair, in which it is said an old creature resides from generation to generation, who makes a great noise before the death of individuals of a certain clan. An old man, with whom I conversed on the subject, declared that he had heard the cries himself, which made the whole glen tremble.

A little dwarf, called the "Caointeach," or weeper, is said to weep before the death of some persons. Some people thought this supernatural creature very friendly. An old woman affirmed that she saw the little creature-about the size of a new-born infant-weep with the voice of a young child, and shortly after got notice of the death of a friend. Others affirm that they heard the trampling of people outside of the house at night, and shortly after a funeral left the house. Many stories are told about apparitions in the hearing of the young, making an impression which continues all their days. I have seen those who would not turn on their heel to save their life on the battle-field, who would tremble at the thought of passing alone a place said to be frequented by a spirit.

It would be ridiculous to speak of the charms, omens, gestures, dreams, &c. God has disposed of every event, but superstition fancies that events are disposed of in other ways. At present superstition has greatly decreased in Kintyre, the means of education being more ample, which, if continued, will soon bring superstition into ridicule."

(To be continued.)

A PROVINCIAL PACK.

ENGRAVED BY E. HACKER, FROM A PAINTING BY THE LATE J. BATEMAN.

Everything about it tells of the Provincial, from the cut of the Squire's coat to the cover itself-a great holding wild woodland, where there will be a deal of hunting, although very little plain-sailing. If we could only catch it, we should hear some very quaint dog language -all coming from the heart though, and that the rather under-sized hounds appreciate well enough. "Loo! at him, Trusty, old boy!" and old Trusty works gamely on, where many a finer-bred gentleman might turn it up in disgust. But these Provincials often show a deal of honest good sport, whether it be with the Sinnington in Yorkshire, the Llangibby in Monmouthshire, the Wheatland in Shropshire, or any other rough-and-ready establishment you choose to name, where they don't turn out with three whippers-in and half-a-dozen second horsemen. It is rather invidious, however, to pick them out in this way; although, if the worthy on the short-tailed old grey will only give us the line, we will promise to send down a "Special Commissioner" forthwith, about the highest compliment you can now pay a kennel or a stable, if some people don't seem quite to appreciate the honour.

THE EQUINE RESOURCES OF RUSSIA.

The introduction of English thorough-bred horses into Russia by private individuals, and through the medium of commerce, does not date farther back than 1780; but from that period it soon received a considerable extension. Like England, Russia owes to her nobility the establishment of the first breeding-studs for the improvement of the native race of horses, for the breeding of race-horses, and for the institution of annual traces. But it is a very erroneous, though general, notion in this country that the introduction of the English thoroughbred horse into Russia has been productive of results of that commutable, permanent character, which was anticipated from it, and assiduously striven to realize by reiterated and patient trials.

From this, nevertheless, it must not be inferred by a too ready disposition to under-rate the indigenous equine races of Russia, that they must therefore be so bad that they are not susceptible of improvement, even by means considered so unexceptionably good. The disposition shown by English writers, so recently even as the Crimean war, to speak with contempt and ridicule of the horses of the Don and of the southern steppes of Russia, might have led but too readily to such an inference. But it will suffice to say, such estimates were less the result of a near acquaintance with those races, than of a superficial and inapt comparison of their semi-wild aspect with that of the improved type of form in our English cavalry horses. Like all judgments based upon externals only, in which the fitness of the two things for their respective uses and service required of them are either lost sight of or confounded, these were also formed at hap-hazard, and, as too frequently the case, the partialities or prejudices of the writers misled the general reader.

Lest this apparent transition of subject from race-horses to cavalry horses may appear somewhat erratic, we will endeavour to show that, digressive for the moment as it may seem, it is nevertheless quite pertinent to the subject, and may contribute to the rectification of some crude popular notions which have obtained of late years in this country, and which are frequently catered to somewhat unworthily by those from whom more truthful teachings might have been expected.

In England a great majority of people have been thus prompted to believe that from all time we have possessed a race of horses superior to every country on the Continent. Yet, long, long years before the breeding of horses for racing purposes, or the institution of annual races were dreamed of in this country, there were exigencies and purposes for the utilization of the equine race which here, as well as in every other land in Europe, took precedence not only of the purposes of agriculture (for which oxen were used preferentially everywhere), but of transport and locomotion from place to place, and those, save the mark, were the exigencies and purposes of war.

With us, as with other people, it has been a matter of time to arrive where we are; and though in some few things not dependent on our genius for the arts we made progress somewhat earlier than our neighbours, yet in many others we effected it later. Thus, in fact and

truth, was it also for centuries with the now pretended ever inherent horsey propensity with which the English people in the present day are attributed, by those who, pandering to the national self-love, gloss over the popular frenzy for gambling, as the evidence of the all-surpassing hippic propensities of the people as the most equestrian race upon the earth.

To contribute our aid to pluck the feather from the cap of Pretension that is thus set up for us on our heads, is but a duty to save us from its ridicule, and show how fully justified we are to repudiate it and deny its accordance with fact and truth. This we will endeavour to do concisely and faithfully as our space will permit; and we have that reliance on the good-sense of the readers of the Sporting Magazine that encourages us to believe they will approve more than condemn our endeavours to dissipate another of the shams of the present day.

To them also, for the most part, it will be known that it was only at the beginning of the last, or 18th century, that the improvement of our breed of horses was gradually effected by crossing with the pure Arab blood. Hence about 150 years at the utmost comprises the period from which we can date the results obtained up to the present day; and those results we owe to what?-to the admirable perseverance with which in the first instance, and chiefly also up to a recent date, English noblemen devoted their attention and wealth to effect an object which, wholly unbiassed by motives of a mercenary or prospective commercial gain, comprised at once a pleasurable personal amusement and an eventual service to the nation at large, by the gradual diffusion of a better blood, form, and power of endurance throughout the various breeds of the land.

The racing amusements thus instituted by those patrician improvers of the English horse being public, became eventually more and more popular as a pleasurable spectacle; but to ascribe that popularity in the present day to the inherent hippic propensities of the English people from olden time as a nation essentially equestrian in their habits of life, and as such always passionately devoted to the breeding and rearing of horses for racing and hunting purposes, is about as absurd as to assert that every Englishman is born a sailor! because if bred to it there is no better as there is no better Newmarket jockey, upon the same conditions.

If there is one folly more ridiculous and pernicious at the same time than another, it is that of the spurious patriotism which indiscriminately arrogates precedence in everything over all other peoples.

We hear and read frequent reprehensions of the tall talk" of the Americans; yet in the altitude of that faculty, both of speech and writing, to use the language of the stud, the consanguinity of the breed on both sides of the Atlantic grows daily more conspicuous on this side in that similitude of form; and, though it is frequently said that many persons are apt to depreciate the things of the present in comparison with those of the past, yet is it equally true that a much greater number in the present day, whether from real or feigned ignorance and a strong venal interest in some of the forms of the present, display great ingenuity in giving to the folly or vice of the day the dignity of a reputable ancient national attribute.

If this is one of the evidences of our modern progress, it is one of