the cover, that is to say, after dismounting from the four-in-hand and mounting our hunters, the gallant master observed, carelessly, "You'll find your horse pull you, but not disagreeably: he's very free at his fences." Well, we found as aforesaid, and went pretty fast as aforesaid also, and during the cream of the burst I had about the best of itsharing the lead with an imp, hight Bill Cox, one of the whips, who stuck to me like the Old Man of the Mountain to Sinbad the Sailor. I can't remember the country we ran through-literally-but long after things had become very select, a turn let in a few of the field, including the General. The pace was still very earnest, and the master in glorious spirits was sailing away on Red Rover like a trump. "Uncommon fast thing," I cried to him, wiping my forehead with the sleeve of my coat, for there was no time for manners, or pocket-handkerchiefs-" By Jove, it's immortal-never was better carried. Booked for blood, General : they must have him, and they ought. What a stride this nag has-I don't find him at all too free at his fences"-and so saying I sent him as hard as he could split at a stiff-splashed hedge with a handsome ditch on the landing side, and by way of comment stuck the needles into his ribs with a hearty emphasis. The animal cleared it bravely, but gave a piteous grunt as he came upon his legs. "Oh, you don't complain about his pulling" said the general: "how extraordinary! I never saw his flanks out of the mud that you hadn't the spurs in them: I never saw you put him at a jump that you were not holding on by your heels: how singular that you don't find him pull you." It's one thing to row in a barge, another to scull in a funny: the former is hunting in Sussex-the latter hunting anywhere else.

But if indifferent as to the operations of deep ground upon your horse or yourself, or to the sport being of the crack order, then this is a place whereat you may meet much to interest you. The downs, certainly to Newhaven, probably to Beachy Head, if it concerns you, are the beau ideal of an arrangement for taking the air-and the hare. After the Hastings line has done its worst, they are a noble sweep of upland-those velvet South Downs, where nothing exceeds the peerlessness of the prospect, but the magnificence of the mutton. With the native hounds three times a week you may pursue puss, for the small charge of two and six-pence a-head, cap money; while the Brookside harriers afford two other days of such sport as would show a flattering substitute for foxhunting in many a district I could name, only it might seem invidious. The very act of going to visit them is like a pilgrimage to the shrine of Hygeia. Be it where it may-the Devil's Dyke, Patcham or the Race-course, Newmarket hill or Telescombe Tye, every step you take is fauned by a "sweet little cherub that sits up aloft," with cheeks like roses and breath like violets. Depend upon it, if there be health to be found in the world "it is here, it is here"-that is to say at one of those fixtures of the Brighton or Brookside harriers. Remember, our theme is Holiday Hunting-a subject in which it is meet to mingle the wholesome with the gleesome; and if ever there was bile so atrabilarious, or fiend so super-cœrulean, that the breeze of the cliff's or the sunlight of the eyes which illumine them could not dispel-then, indeed, past all human hope was that case. I have sought to show how these good things may be partaken of. Are you disposed to try? It's not too

late. Don't they kill a March hare now and then in Sussex? At all events, you're sure of the foxes.

Brighton is so metropolitan in its arrangements that a vade mecum of them would be a voluminous list. There "accommodation for man and horse," stares you in the face at every turn. There are scores of palaces under the title of hotels-where Sardanapalus would have found everything to his heart's content. If the reader be not quite so fastidious (or well furnished in exchequer) as the monarch of Nineveh, the boarding-houses are many of them-quite suitable for the temporary abodes of gentlemen-and livery stables are legion; they are scattered all over the town; but I should advise the selection of one a little distant from the cliff. Sea-air is not the most favourable in the world for a horse's looks, whatever it may do for his rider's. But while these stables afford fair forage for the nags committed to their care, let no one dream of finding horses within them for use-though there are enough, and more too, for hire. I think it was Foote who said he never could imagine what the English beggars did with their cast-off clothes, till he saw their Irish brethren. If you want to know what becomes of the cavalry which is unsaleable in Smithfield, you must visit the stud of a Brighton riding-master. Talk about " screws," quotha! Archimedes never conceived anything in curvature like the palfreys limbs on which troops of young ladies are daily twisted between Brunswick-terrace and Kemp-town. Life is full as a bumper of anomalies; yet one is scarce prepared for the fact and fact it is that as soon as a horse becomes positively dangerous-too bad for anything in a private stable-he is purchased by some professor of equitation, who straightway perches upon his back a youth or maiden with as little idea of riding as of alchymy. You wonder not "how the devil they got there," but how they contrive to remain where they are.

It would be difficult to imagine a more forcible emblem of the triumph of faith than the descent from the downs into the town, of a girl of ten. der age, mounted for an airing-an airing indeed!-by one of the fashionable masters with her reins hanging down about her courser's knees, and his knees oscillating between his hoofs and the highway. Such being the rule as regards the steeds to be had for hire at Brighton, for hackney work, the reader may suppose what sort of a quadruped he would have a chance of for the field. You don't require a clipper of a high class for Sussex, but you want something that has "foot," as the profession call it. Also, should you be prone to the promenade à cheval, as I have already said, take your own hack down with you. A fall on the road is never pleasant, but it's awful at a place where a tumble may land you in Dieppe or Havre de Grace.

(To be continued.)

GOODWOOD AS A SPORTING RESIDENCE;

WITH A BRIEF ACCOUNT OF THE HOUSE, KENNEL, RACING STABLES AND COURSE, WITH A DAY WITH THE HAMBLEDON.

BY LORD WILLIAM LENNOX.

The monster meeting at Goodwood, as it has been felicitously named by the talented writer of the sporting articles in the "Sunday Times," has attained so great a pre-eminence in the racing world, that it may not be uninteresting to our readers to give a slight sketch of the house and domain of the noble duke, under whose auspices a tenth-rate country meeting has been transformed to the first place of sport in the land. The domain of the Duke of Richmond includes the three contiguous estates of Goodwood, Halnaker, and Westhampnett. The former was purchased by the first duke, the son of the "Merry Monarch," about the year 1720, from the family of Compton. Halnaker did not come into the family until 1765, when it was added by the third Duke of Richmond to the other entailed estates. Westhampnett, which comprises upwards of eighteen hundred acres, was also purchased by the same nobleman. Halnaker House, which was built in the reign of the "bluff Harry," is now a perfect ruin, and is the only specimen in this part of the country of that castellated style peculiar to the age of the Tudors. In one of those beautiful, yet ephemeral works of the day-the Annuals-we find "A Legend of Halnecke," and which contains a very graphic account of the visit of the unfortunate Edward the Sixth to this place in 1551. The park contains some magnificent timber, and a splendid avenue of Spanish chesnut trees.

The manor house of Westhampnett, formerly the property of Sir Hutchins Williams, Bart., who rebuilt it, is now converted to the Union workhouse; and let those who cavil at the new Poor-law system only visit this establishment, and they will find that every comfort and attention that can be paid to the spiritual and bodily wants of their poorer brethren are here dispensed with a most liberal hand. See the aged happy and content; the children cheerful, wellfed, and cleanly attired; test their knowledge in the "one thing that is needful," and it will be found that many of these, poor in the eyes of the world, are rich in treasures far above earthly value.... Return we to Goodwood, which in the Burrell MSS. is thus described :"Rot. Par. 26th of Elizabeth, Godinwood Manor, with its appendages, and two houses, four gardens, two orchards, two hundred acres of park land, ten of arable, five hundred of pasture, and three hundred of wood." The original mansion, a gothic structure, of which we believe no print or painting is in existence, was replaced by an edifice erected under the direction of Sir William Chambers, and which now forms part of the present building. In 1800, the third

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Duke of Richmond, who was a great patron of the arts, and who had expended a large sum upon the improvement of the estate, now commenced those additions and alterations which have produced the present noble domain. The house consists of a principal front, with a colonnade; a portico of six Doric pillars supports another of an equal number of Ionic of Portland stone, extending nearly one hundred and seventy feet, and terminated by two towers with hemispherical roofs; the wings each presenting a front of one hundred and six feet, are also terminated by similar towers. With the exception of the front, which formed part of the building erected by Sir William Chambers, the whole of the new edifice is built with square flints, collected in the neighbouring downs, and which possess an advantage over Portland stone, namely, that the longer they are exposed to the weather the whiter and harder they become. Near the principal entrance are some fine specimens of the cork tree, famed for their size and beauty. Of the interior of the house we shall say little, except that a visit to it will amply repay the sight-seer, as it contains some fine pictures of many of the most celebrated masters-Rubens, Vandyke, Sir Peter Lely, Guido, Titian, Godfrey, Kneller, Salvator Rosa, Teniers, Rembrant, Tintoretto, Ostade, Wovermans, Canaletti, Hogarth, Reynolds, Gainsborough, and Lawrence.

In the park and ornamental plantations that surround the house are to be found some splendid timber, consisting of beech (which flourishes greatly in this soil), cedar, American oak, tulip trees, Turkey oak, cyprus, plane, and chesnut. The pleasure-grounds, orangery, and conservatories are planned with great taste, and the kitchengarden is well stocked. At the extremity of it is the tennis-court, which is now annually used by the West Sussex Agricultural Society, the object of which is to encourage industry, and to reward those sons of the soil, whose general 'good conduct entitles them to the "golden opinions" of their masters. The dog-kennels and stables are two of the most complete establishments of their kind in England; the former is erected on a rising ground, about a quarter of a mile from the house. It is about one hundred and fifty feet in length; the height of the centre is twenty-eight feet, and of the wings eighteen, measured from the crown of the arches on which it is built. The building consists of four kennels, two of them thirty-six by fifteen feet, and two others thirty by fifteen feet; two feeding-rooms, twentyeight feet by fifteen, in each of which hot and cold air are introduced by stove pipes and ventilators. It is now more than thirty years since a pack of hounds have been kept at Goodwood. Sincerely do we hope that ere long the kennel will be restored to its original purpose; for although the county of Sussex is too full of woods and downs to furnish first-rate sport, it would be a most valuable acquisition to this magnificent property to have a pack of hounds, under the auspices of the Duke of Richmond and his son the Earl of March. The foxes are numerous, and, if the woods were well rattled, would afford plenty of sport. We have upon record the account of several celebrated runs that the old Goodwood Hunt had in former days; and although perhaps the present generation are a little "faster" than their ancestors were, we still think that a gallop from wood to wood across the downs, with now and then a smartish thing over a well

enclosed country, would be hailed with pleasure by every resident gentleman, farmer, and yeoman within fifteen miles of the duke's property. It is true that Colonel Wyndham's hounds occasionally hunt the Goodwood country; but for weeks, their places of meeting are not within distance. We must not omit to mention that there are in the house a most interesting series of portraits, in crayons, of the members of the old Hunt, the names of whom we give, as they comprise rather a heterogeneous list of lords, ladies, senators, soldiers, and clergymen :

The late Ladies Louisa and Mary Lennox, grandmother and aunt to the present duke.

Dowager Lady King. All gone to "that bourne from whence

Mrs. General Dorrien.

Miss Bunbury.

The late Earl of Egremont.

The late Lord King.

The late Lord Pelham.

The late Sir H. Fetherstonhaugh.

The late Honourable T. Steele.
The late Mr. R. Steele.

The late Mr. Peckham.

The late Mr. and Mrs. Tredcroft.
The late Mr. and Mrs. Leeves.
The late Colonel Teesdale.
The Rev. Mr. Toghill.

The Rev. Mr. Alcock.

no traveller returns."

This is a goodly list of high-bred sporting men and women. Perhaps, of the above, the late Mrs. General Dorrien, formerly Miss Le Clerk, was the most wonderful personage. She was one of the best riders to hounds in the whole county of Sussex. No distance to cover, no fence ever stopped her; and it was wonderful to witness with what strength of nerve she galloped down some of the steepest hills on the South Downs. This lady, who has been immortalized in verse and print by her daring feats, only died last Christmas twelvemonth at an advanced age.

While upon the subject of hunting, we must briefly allude to a pack of hounds who, when they come within distance, furnish admirable sport to the west-enders of Sussex. We allude to the Hambledon hounds. I happened, by good luck, to be staying with a friend within fourteen miles of the kennel; and finding the "meet" advertised for Bury Lodge at half-past ten on the first day of hunting this season, I was easily prevailed upon to accept a mount of a pony to see this pack, of which I had heard so much; and which quite came up to, nay, more than realized my expectations. After a most agreeable drive, we reached Horndean, where our hunters had been sent on; and here we were visibly reminded that horseflesh had given way to steam, for this once flourishing posting-town looked now quite deserted. What a different aspect did it present some sevenand-twenty years ago, when the Portsmouth road was all alive; when Admirals of the White, Blue, and Red were hurrying to and fro from London to the great rendezvous of our fleet; when generals were flying along the road to embark for foreign stations; when