in which Tam o'Shanter, who was bought at the Rawcliffe sale for 210 gs., figured fourth, and afterwards won a selling stake, where he was priced at 20 sovs.! The Tricolour was lowered on its own ground, after a capital struggle with Arsenal, in the Biennial, and made a dead heat with Hurdle (a purchase from Lord Exeter) in the Wilton Park Stakes. Sister to Spindle (a 330 gs. Royal sale purchase) was first in the betting and fourth in the running for the latter race; while Apathy (4lb. ex.) got up fifth after his journey from Warwick. Saucebox and Wells had a wretched field to beat for the Queen's Plate, and Tom Parr will no doubt strictly act up to his belief of last year, that the only way to keep him in form is to keep him at it the whole season. As Andover, Knight of St. George, and Wild Dayrell have all gone so early, it is pleasant to see a great Doncaster or Epsom winner able to hold his own at four years old.

The somewhat failing prestige of old Melbourne, whose subscription, like that of the patriarch Birdcatcher, has not even filled at half-price, received a fillip from Oak Ball at Coventry. This colt was a very early foal, as all Maid of Lyme's have been for some seasons past, and Dupe, the Nottingham winner, had to knock under to him. The meeting at Catterick opened well with nine starters for the Craven Handicap; but Hospodar was only a good third, and did not go in his old style. To give 21 lbs. to his coeval Gamekeeper, and 32 lbs. for his year to The Medway, was, nevertheless, no joke to a horse, who has had four young Voltigeurs, Fandango, and in fact a whole stable to school. "Job" and "Sim" met for the first time this season in the Easby Triennial, and made a dead heat of it for second place, "Tommy" (the veritable Tommy of Middleham now) winning half-a-length on Riseber. This son of Chanticleer is a very rough-looking gentleman, very much like Oxford Blue, and has only been at Gill's stable a fortnight; his owner has in fact had him at home at Middleham all the winter. El Hakim, by The Cure, whom Marson rode, is a very racing-like animal, and very fit. King of the Gipsies is a smart little Annandale, and took off both his handicaps very cleverly; and Ellermire beat Lady Tatton for the Easby Triennial, just as she did last year. Two Gameboys finished in the first places for the second year of it; but Gamester was only No. 2 this year, and while Alma rose from No. 4 to No. 1, the half-bred Knight of St. Patrick ran a steady fifth and last, as of yore. The Yorkshiremen were frantic to get on Skirmisher, who was backed at evens against the field, for the Oran Stakes. He is the first Voltigeur that was ever stripped, and immense curiosity was excited to see him perform, as he was unanimously voted during the saddling to be very like his sire, but more of a race-horse to the eye. Alas, for looks! as he was only fifth out of the six! He and Sharpshooter are both in the Derby; but the latter figures in the St. Leger as well, and has also been selected as the Champagne nominee, which looks as if they thought him the best of the two. It is somewhat singular that the same "fifth" fate attended the first of the Flying Dutchmen, that ever appeared. Matilda, the winner, is by Melbourne (whose capital likeness, after Harry Hall, now meets the eye in all the sporting print-sellers'), out of Burgundy's dam, and will do some more good to the Hambledon division this season. Augur's sister Augury is the picture of Maid of Masham, and as she was very big when she ran here, she too must be kept on the right side of every

book. Skycutter, wno separated her and the fallen crack, was bred by Mr. Jacques, and fetched 220 guineas at Doncaster.

The first day at Northampton introduced us to the first great handicap field of the year, which was appropriately bowled over by a 50 to 1 outsider, Siding, by The Ugly Buck. Winkfield ran well, but he is not built for this course, and Flatterer showed the white feather, and stopped as if he was shot when he got beyond a mile and a-half. A mile will always be his forte; and what on earth could have induced Rickaby to try such a notorious soft-un as Jack Sheppard over such a distance baffles us. After sundry Masters had fought for the body of Fordham, and he had elected by word of mouth to say Drewitt (his old master) first, "Howard" second, and "Anglesey" third, Chevalier d'Industrie -a 255 guinea purchase from Mr. Greville - overthrew Hurdle, Tricolour, and Amorous Boy, all of them winners this year. The poor three-year-olds, crushed to atoms by the unfair weights (which are, happily, to be altered 4lbs. next year), toiled hopelessly in the rear, as they generally do in the Two's and Threes. Saucebox took off The Guineas cleverly, and gave us no second edition of the splendid struggle of last year between Kingston and Rataplan. We shall be curious to see how this little horse fares, when the heavier metal of Fandango and Rifleman are brought to bear against him. Thursday was a much warmer day, and the sport, as it invariably is at Northampton, of a capital order. Stork made very short work of Queen's Head at a mile, although he did give her 9lbs. ; and we did not libel this mare when we wrote of her, this time last year, that she could not stay more than half a one. The ancient Alonzo and Wells won the finest race of the meeting, which looked almost like a deadheat between three; and Madame Clicquot amply compensated her stable for their disappointment at Warwick, which they attributed to Mr. Hibburd's great fault of starting his horses so far behind the post, and thus putting them out of their distance when they have to go along from end to end. Captain Christie brought out Nougat, the first of his terribly high-priced cattle, among these Althorp Park seventeen, and ran up second with her; so that his 410 guineas has produced no early fruit. Rohallion, a 230 guinea steed, was in high favour after the performance of his friend The Chevalier; and the party dropped not a little over him. Their Scythian, to whose Chester Cup chance and handicapping I pointed such especial attention to last month, sprang 20 points-viz., from 50 to 30 to 1-during the meeting, and will be far higher yet. The reports of the Derby horses are of the strangest kind, and really there seems a very great opening for an outsider. Verdant Green goes on well, and is said to be a magnificent animal, and deeply rooted in the affections of many Newmarketers. The "merrie lads" swear he is a roarer; but they say, as Lord Derby phrases it, "the thing which is not," and may repent their mistake in dust and ashes when he makes his long-expected maiden appearance at the Craven, or the First Spring. Fly-by-Night is well, but his shoulder is thick at the point; and he is still "the cob," though at the 2,000 gs. distance he will be very dangerous. We can never forget how he extinguished Manganese at York, when she was in her best form, and respect his speed accordingly. Yellow Jack is a mere humbug. Wentworth is, they tell

me, nearly sixteen-two, and "no legs" into the bargain, confirming me in my July remark, that they had not a good two-year-old in the Danebury stable. Porto Rico is, we still think, a miler; and there is a story that Vandermelin (who will no doubt be tried with him) is getting on towards seventeen hands, and will hardly be able to get into a low-pitched stable. Polmoodie's legs are also odd. West Langton's day is over; and although Artillery's friends are still sweet as ever, and the stable is in force, we don't think his form can be nearly good enough. There was no more Derby-looking horse than Bird-in-hand, but we fear that it is most doubtful whether his legs will ever admit of his being prepared; and hence, till his opponents" show cause against" his chance more satisfactorily than they do at present, we must continue to believe till next month, at least, in Ellington.

In the course of last month we took occasion to pay a visit en passant to our favourite Sweetmeat, whose ten-guinea subscription has been filled up these five weeks. One of the first things we were introduced to was a Bay Middleton mare with a Sweetmeat filly of two days old, in a loose box, and it was really glorious to see the way in which she kept running round it, and snorting her defiance at us for our unseemly intrusion. Sweetmeat, who is here for his second season, looked very well, but not very high in condition. He turned his sightless eyes (for he has seen nothing for these nine years) on us in the most placid, affectionate way; and, although he was a horse of hardly so much substance as I had expected, his symmetry is very fine, and no one can wonder that he was such a smart unflinching workman in his day, till he broke down just below the off-knee. We have been told that Mr. Eyke gave £500 for him, shortly before Mincemeat won the Oaks, and has since refused twice that sum. He is about fifteen two-and-a-half, and in look rather strains back to Voltaire. He was trained at Wadlow's, which is within a stone-throw of Mr. Eyke's, and poor Tasker was the first who ever got on his back. We see no smarter or speedier stock anywhere, and we should fancy that speed rather than staying is their forte; although he was equally good in both departments, as Inheritress found to her cost at York. When the straw had been carefully piled at his door to keep out the bitter wind, we went on to the mares and foals. The Model and a Sweetmeat foal were in one field. Then we came to Banshee and Sally, one of them in foal to Teddington and the other to Voltigeur, and both bound to Wild Dayrell, whose owner is very sweet on the Sweetmeat blood, and has sent three mares to him this year. It was so cold that they stood in long platoons under the hedges, with their back to the wind. First came Foinnualla, the dam of Mincepie and Kingstown, a very handsome mare, and just about to foal. The majestic Ellen Middleton stood almost side by side with her, but her little Sweetmeat is not due till April 12th. Then came two more of Mr. Popham's, who acted as handmaids-a species of Bilah and Zilpah, in fact-to the dam of the Derby winner: Ventrea-Terre (a regular jawcracking name for the groom to get through) followed; and higher up was a rather meanish sort of chesnut mare, whom we learnt to be the dam of Sugar Plum. Ellen has lost her leggy look, and is a very fine mare, with the single exception that she is a little straight in the hocks. The next paddock had ten mares and foals in it, of almost every blood we possess, and it was there that we saw one of the

first of the Mountain Deers, in the shape of a little foal at the foot of a mare of Lord Howth's, who is, like many of the Irish sportsmen, wonderfully fond of Sweetmeat. Fidget, the dam of the above foal, whose hair was absolutely as long and rough as a little goat's, is the dam of Termagant; and we fancy that Citron's dam and several of Lord Portsmouth and Lord Annesley's, &c., made up this interesting harem. We should have looked in on Teddington, if Old Time had not whispered "Nay;" but we hope to be in some more paddocks before the season is out. We must not forget to mention an odd incident which happened to us in this neighbourhood. We had seen the Warwickshire meet at Kenilworth Castle, but had to leave just before they found; and near Shiffnall, fifty miles away, and just about four o'clock that afternoon, we cspied the Albrighton breaking up their fox in the next field but one to the railway, with a goodly host of scarlets assisting at the ceremony. Thus we had seen the beginning of one hunt, the end of another, and nothing of the run in either.

The first announcement that Rataplan would be sold at the Didcot station was only a clumsy blind to the fact that his racing days had come to an end; and when this was whispered about, and received confirmation from his extra-lusty appearance at the hammer, the sale sadly slackened. Considering his marvellous combination of bone, blood, and bottom, he is a very cheap horse at 2,000 gs., and it is somewhat odd that his price should be just about half-way between his sire's and his elder brother Stockwell's. He ought to have fetched at least 500 gs. more; and we do wonder what Baron Rothschild, with his yearning to breed high-class hunters, could be about. It could have been wished that his last race had been something different to a heavy defeat by Bright Phoebus for the Leicestershire Handicap, but it was the fate of both Voltigeur and Teddington to be "smashed up" twice the last afternoons that they appeared. We cannot help fearing that he will spoil Newminster's season, and we have already heard of one mare who has jilted the latter in his favour. Neville is decidedly dear at 890 gs., as there was a soft stain in Napier, and the public will never be got to believe that his children or grandchildren can be depended on to stay. The admirers of British Yeoman in Cumberland have presented his picture to Mr. Moffatt, who stated in his speech of thanks, that he had refused £400 for the horse, from an Irish breeder. As a getter of hunting-stock he is bad to beat, and we observed a good many of his progeny in the late Bishop of Carlisle's sale catalogue, which included about 18 pigs, 240 sheep, 62 head of cattle plus a short-horned bull, and 25 horses-rather a good allowance of flocks and herds for a mitred farmer. The crozier would seem well nigh merged in the crook. The late noble prelate might have been appropriately painted as the learned Athenæum described Rosa Bonheur-leaning pencil in hand on the neck of a favourite heifer-one of those young bulls she loves so well to paint!"

PHENOMENON,

A CELEBRATED NORFOLK TROTTING STALLION, THE PROPERTY OF

R. H. WATSON, ESQ., OF DORSLEY, TOTNESS, DEVON.

ENGRAVED BY E. HACKER, FROM A PAINTING BY E. Corbet.

Phenomenon, bred near Horncastle in 1845, is by Old Phenomenon, out of a well-known trotting-mare (by a Norfolk stallion), the property of the Honourable Charles Dymoke, of Screelsby.

Old Phenomenon was by the celebrated "Bond's Norfolk Phenomenon," the best and fastest trotter ever shown in public-Bond's Phenomenon, by the Norfolk Cob, out of a Pretender mare, by Old Fireaway -and so on through a succession of the Fireaways to Pretender, the sire of the first so-called. Pretender himself was a chesnut horse foaled in 1771, by Marske, the sire of Eclipse, out of a mare by Bajazet, a son of the Godolphin Arabian. The dam of the Norfolk Cob, or, as he was afterwards called by Mr. Theobald, of Stockwell, the Norfolk Phenomenon, was by Old Marshland Shales.

Those who know anything of the annals of this once popular pastime, will see here combined in the pedigree of Phenomenon the names of nearly all the good trotters we have had, and certainly all the best blood -tracing back as it does to the same that is still esteemed so much for other purposes, Marske and the Godolphin Arabian. On the dam's side Phenomenon goes to Lincolnshire, a county now dividing with York the repute of possessing the best weight-carrying hacks. We saw there only last autumn some three or four such, perfectly wonderful for the immense power they combined with good quick light action. It was the aim attained, and, whether thanks to Norfolk or Lincoln, they had all much of the Phenomenon character.

Phenomenon in appearance does every credit to his high descent. He is a beautifully dappled bay horse, with four black legs, standing fifteen hands three inches high, though, from his perfect symmetry, looking at least two inches less. He has a long lean but good head, famous neck and crest, with strong oblique shoulders. He has a round barrel, very muscular back, deep back ribs, and really unexceptionable quarters. He has very powerful arms and thighs, with short legs and good sound feet. If we add to this a beautiful temper, fine action, and "up to any weight," we may well instance "the Dorsley Phenomenon" as a capital sample of a sort that is not now too often to be met with.

Phenomenon, now eleven years old, stands at Cholwell, near Totness, where he serves mares at two guineas each. He is in great favour, not only from his own personal recommendations, but the excellence of his stock also. In a district by no means "over-horsed" he ought to be made the most of. Though by no means so much in fashion as they once were, anything of Phenomenon's stamp is always sure of a market either in town or country, while the cross rarely fails to tell.