death, all the others being alive, with the exception of Mr. Bullock, who was drowned. The eminent jockeys of the present day are Lord Wilton, Messrs. White, Osbaldiston, Bouverie, Peyton, Kent, Molony, two Berkeleys, Platel, Burton, Griffiths, Becher, and others whose names do not this moment occur to us. But looking at the value of the prizes at Heaton Park, for example, (where gentlemen alone are allowed to ride,) Bath, Croxton Park, and several other places, we marvel not at the proficiency of these patrician jockeys; and during certain parts of the racing season, such performers as Lord Wilton, Messrs. White, Peyton, Kent, and one or two more of the best of them, are in nearly as much request as the regular hired jockeys, and are obliged to prepare themselves accordingly. Wishing them well, we have but one word to offer them. For the credit of the turf, let them bear in mind what the term gentleman-jockey implies, and not, as in one or two instances has been the case, admit within their circle persons little, if anywise, above the jockey by profession. This has been severely commented upon as having led to disreputable practices, with which the name-the sacred name of gentleman-should never have been mixed up. With this proviso, and considering what might be likely to take place of the Laconic boot,' were it abandoned, we feel no great hesitation about saying, go, • Win the plate, Where once your nobler fathers won a crown.' A new system of racing has lately sprung up in England, which however characteristic of the daring spirit of our countrymen, we know not how to commend. We allude to the frequent steepleraces that have taken place in the last few years, and of which, it appears, some are to be periodically repeated. If those whose land is thus trespassed upon are contented, or if recompense be made to such as are not, we have nothing further to say on that score; but we should be sorry that the too frequent repetition of such practices should put the farmers out of temper, and thus prove hurtful to fox-hunting. We may also take the liberty to remark, that one human life has already been the penalty of this rather unreasonable pastime; and that from the pace the horses must travel at, considerable danger to life and limb is always close at hand. In the last race of this description that came under our observation, we found there were no less than seven falls, at fences, in the space of three miles! * *We recommend the uninitiated, who wish to have some notion of a steeple-chase, to study an admirable set of prints on that subject lately published, after drawings by the Hogarth of the chase, Mr. Alken. After After the example of England, racing is making considerable progress in various parts of the world. In the East Indies, there are regular meetings in the three different Presidencies, and there is also the Bengal Jockey Club. In the United States, breeding and running horses are advancing with rapid strides; and the grand match at New York, between Henry and Eclipse, afforded a specimen of the immense interest attached to similar events.* In Germany we find three regular places of sport, viz., Gustrow, Dobboran, and New Brandenburg; and the Duke of Holstein Augustenburg has established a very promising one in his country. His Serene Highness, and his brother, Prince Frederick, have each a large stud of horses, from blood imported from England; and amongst the conspicuous German sportsmen, who have regular racing establishments, under the care of English training grooms, are, Counts Hahn, Plessen, Bassewitz, (two,) Moltke, and Voss; Barons de Biel, Hertefeldt, and Hamerstein. The Duke of Lucca has a large stud; and the stables at Marlia have been rebuilt in a style of grandeur equal to the ducal palace. At Naples, racing has been established, and is flourishing. Eleven thorough-bred horses were lately shipped at Dover, on their road to that capital, and which were to be eighty days on their journey, after landing at Calais. Prince Butera's breeding-stud, on the southern coast of Sicily, is the largest in these parts: it was founded by a son of Haphazard, from a few English mares, and his highness is one of the chief supporters of Neapolitan horseracing. In Sweden is some of our best blood; and Count Woronzow and others have taken some good blood-stock to Russia. In Austria, four noblemen subscribe to our Racing Calendar; in Hungary, eight; in Prussia, two. France makes very little progress in racing; it does not suit the taste of that people. But, of all wonders, who would look for racing in good form in Van Diemen's Land? There, however, it is: we perceive several well-bred English horses in the lists of the cattle at Hobart's Town, where they have three days' racing for plates, matches, and sweepstakes, (one of fifty sovereigns each,) with ordinaries, and balls, and six thousand spectators on the course! This little colony is progressing in many odd ways: it turns out, inter alia, as pretty an Annual, whether we look to the poetry or the engraving, as any one could have expected from a place of three times its standing-though the engraving, to be sure, may be accounted for! The great and leading qualification of a horse bred for the turf is the immaculate purity of his blood. It is then little less than a misnomer to call a half-bred horse a race-horse; it is like the *There are two Sporting Magazines now published in America, and one at Stockholm. royal royal stamp impressed upon base metal. Besides what are called stakes for horses not thorough-bred have been the cause of much villany on the turf, by reason of the owners of full-bred horses producing false pedigrees with them, to enable them to start, when of course they are sure to win. Perhaps the most successful, and at the same time the most impudent case occurred in 1825, when a Mr. W. took about the country a horse which he called Tom Paine, by Prime Minister, not thorough-bred,' and won several large stakes with him, whereas this said Tom Paine was proved to be Tybalt, by Thunderbolt, and out of Lord Grosvenor's Meteora, by Meteor, the best mare in England of her day! But, besides all this, we doubt a good result, as regards the horse and his uses, from these stakes. In the first place, a really half-bred horse will rarely endure severe training,—and if he does, his constitution and temper are all but sure to be ruined by it. Secondly, however good he may be as a half-bred racer, he cannot transmit his base blood to posterity. Again-regular trainers dislike having to do with half-bred horses, and seldom give them fair play, i. e. seldom trouble themselves to go out of the usual course with them in their work, which must be done to bring them well to the post. Finally, these stakes are also the very hotbed of wrangles; and the system lately adopted of produce stakes for half-bred horses opens a still wider door for villany and fraud. We wish we could see the turf confined to pure blood. But we must not conclude this article without a word or two to the Young Gentleman just starting into the world, who may have imbibed the ambition of shining on the English turf. Let every such person remember that he presents a broad mark-that there are hundreds on the watch for him-and that he stakes what is certain against not only all other chances, but the rife chance of fraud! Let him, before he plunges into the stream, consider a little how it runs, and whither it may lead him! In these days, indeed, gambling is not confined to the turf, the hazard-room, the boxing-ring, or the cock-pit; but is, unfortunately, mixed up with too many of the ordinary occupations of life. Commerce itself,' said Mr. Coke of Norfolk in one of his public harangues, is become speculation; the objects of a whole life of industry and integrity among our forefathers, are now attempted to be obtained in as many weeks or months, as it formerly required years to effect.' The fatal passion has, indeed, taken fast hold on a great body of the people, and what is called a levanter is perhaps a less rare occurrence from the corn-market, the hop-market, or 'the alley,' than from the betting-ring or Tattersall's. But we are told that betting Though no science, fairly worth the seven,' is the life of racing, and that without it the turf would soon fall Will knit and break religions; bless the accurs'd; And give them title, knee, and approbation, With senators on the bench!' But we may be told racing—or rather betting on racing, supposed to be essential to its existence-cannot go on without what are called the Legs,' (described by an old writer on sporting subjects as the most unprincipled and abandoned set of thieves and harpies that ever disgraced civilized society,') and that pecuniary obligations are commonly discharged by them with as much integrity and despatch as by the most respectable persons in the commercial world. Undoubtedly they are; for if they fail to be so, the adventurer is driven from the ground on which he hopes to fatten. I would give 50,000l. for a bit of character' (said the old sinner Charteris) for if I had that, I think I could make a plum of it; and the rogues of our day, though not so witty, are quite as knowing as the venerable Colonel. Woe befall the day when Englishmen look lightly on such desperate inroads upon public morals as have lately passed under their eyes on race-courses! Do they lose sight of the fact, that whoever commits a fraud is guilty, not only of the particular injury injury to him whom he deceives, but of the diminution of that confidence which constitutes the very existence of society? Can this familiarity with robbing and robbers be without its influence on a rising generation? We say it cannot; and if suffered to go on for twenty years more, we venture to pronounce the most mischievous effects to all classes of society. Talk of jockey-club regulations! As well might Madame Vestris sit in judgment on short petticoats, or Lord Grey on the sin of nepotism, as a jockey club attempt then to pass censure on offences which they must have suffered to grow before their faces,-if indeed they should have been so fortunate as all along to steer quite clear of them themselves. But let us look a little into these practices. In the first place, what is it that guides the leading men in their betting? Is it a knowledge of the horse they back either to win or to lose? and is it his public running that directs their operations? We fear not; three parts of them know no more of a horse than a horse knows of them, but it is from private information, purchased at a high price at a price which ordinary virtue cannot withstand—that their books are made up. Again; how do the second class of bettors act? We reply they bet upon men and not upon horses, for so soon as they can positively ascertain that certain persons stand heavy against any one horse, that horse has no chance to win, unless, as it sometimes happens, he is too strong for his jockey, or the nauseating ball has not had the desired effect. He runs in front it is true, for he can run to win; but what is his fate? Why, like the hindmost wheel of the chariot, he is • Curs'd Still to be near, but ne'er to reach the first.' Unfortunately for speculators on the turf, the present enormous amount of a few of our principal sweepstakes renders it impossible to restrict the owners of race-horses from starting more than one animal in the same race. The nominations for the Derby, Oaks, &c., take place when the colts are but one year old, consequently many of them die before the day of running, or, what is worse, prove good for nothing on trial. Thus, the aspirant to the honour of winning them, enters several horses for the same stakes, and perhaps two of the number come to the post, as was the case with Mameluke and Glenartney for the Derby of 1827-an occasion when the race was not to the swift, but to the horse which stood best in the book; the losing horse, it is not disputed, could have won, had he been permitted to do so. By the laws of racing this practice is allowable, but it gives great cause for complaint, and opens a door for fraud. One of the heaviest bettors of the present day, who had backed Mameluke |