direction, and the chances are twenty to one that the pulling the trigger is the death-warrant to the bird. His lordship, who is the very Crichton of horsemen, both as to hand and seat, has some well-broke ponies, who carry the noble marquis safely over Cannock Chase, or through the woods that skirt his ancestral domain of Beaudesert. Long life to the roof-tree of the Pagets!

While upon the subject of pigeon-shooting, I will lay before my readers an extraordinary pigeon-match that took place in 1830. Upon the 10th of July of that year, two persons arrived in London from Antwerp, with one hundred and ten pigeons, to be thrown off here, for the purpose of ascertaining whether they would find their way back ; and if so, in what time they would perform the journey. The birds belonged to the Cansdel Tavern Club, Antwerp; and eighteen prizes were to be competed for in this flight :-the first a gold medal of considerable value, and the others sums of money. Upon the day fixed at Antwerp for their departure, the weather was too hazy; but on the following morning, at a quarter before 9 the sun broke out; and it was at once arranged to proceed with the trial. The pigeons were contained in eight inclosures, constructed of wire and canvas, and capable of admitting a sufficiency of air to the birds; and on the top of each was a trap-door of tin. The baskets were all placed side by side, and after the means of opening the traps were so adjusted as to be opened simultaneously, at a given signal the doors were all lifted up, and out rushed the pigeons at the same time. They rose in a flock, and never hovered in the least, but bent their way straight (bending straight sounds Irish, but I cannot pause in my flight of truth-not fancy-to correct it), in the direction they were most likely to reach home. They were all of a cross breed unknown to the English fanciers, having traces of the carrier, tumbler, and dragon pigeon, but all having one distinguished peculiarity in what is designated the "pearl eye." The men set off on foot shortly after, for Dover, with a proper certificate of the hour of departure. A letter from Brussels, dated July 23rd, says "The pigeons, one hundred and ten in number, despatched in London, with a strong breeze from the west-south-west, have arrived at Antwerp; the first one, gaining the gold medal, in five hours and a half; the second, thirty seconds later. Six arrived five minutes after the winner; and all the prizes, eighteen in number, were gained within eight hours and a quarter from the time the birds left London." Twenty-six birds reached home within twenty hours. Of the rest, who were "no where," we have no account upon record. We have now, at some length, digressed from our immediate subject, which was to introduce pigeon-shooting as an agreeable recreation from London; and certainly, faute de mieux, it is a very good way of passing a morning during the London season.

Tennis, although rather an expensive amusement, may be ranked as one in which the constant sojourner in the metropolis can always (with a full purse) have in perfection. The Tennis Court, near the Haymarket, and the newly-erected one at Lord's Cricket Ground, are, we believe, the only ones now kept up; and they are both admirably superintended, and worthy the patronage of the public.

From tennis we pass to steeple-chasing; and here the metropolitan can easily enjoy this sport (if sport it can be called), from London. Coventry, Northampton, Leamington, and Windsor, being all within

distance by rail; and a man may breakfast and dine in "the village," having plenty of time between his meals to drop or pocket a hundred or two, as the case may be. We" are free to confess," as the hereditary legislators say in the House of Lords, that steeple-chasing is not a favourite amusement of ours. More valuable horses are annually sacrificed to this sport (!) than in three times that period in the hunting field. However, as we write for the million, we cannot refrain from giving a notice of it, under protest, that we highly disapprove of a system which encourages gambling, which sacrifices the noble animal, the horse, and which leads to a great deal of foul play and trickery. The late Parisian steeple-chase, although admirably conducted and contested for, made us blush for our countrymen, who, upon the principle of "doing at Rome as the Romans do," desecrated the Sabbath upon this occasion. Had the principal Englishmen represented to the authorities that their religion dictated to them a proper observance of this day, the scandal that has been attached to this breach of it would have been averted.

To resume. In referring to the sporting literature of the last century, we find that a steeple-chase took place, probably the first, on the 16th of January, 1792. The account runs as follows:-"A match was run for a thousand guineas, in the county of Leicester, from Melton Mowbray, and across the country to Dolby Woods, being a distance of ten miles, by a horse, the property of Mr. Hardy, got by the Rutland Arabian, and rode by Mr. Loraine Smith's butler, against the best hunter the Honourable Mr. Willoughby could procure, rode by his whipper-in, which was won by the former, by a distance of nearly two miles. At starting, the odds were 3 to 2 in favour of Mr. Hardy, whose horse went over the country in great style. The intrepidity of the riders was astonishing; but the advantage of superior skill and excellent horsemanship was evidently in favour of Mr. Hardy, whose rider showed much knowledge of hunting by his manner of choosing his leaps, many of which were well-performed."

Steeple-chasing does not seem to have made a great progress, for in 1804 we find the following account in a sporting work :

"CURIOUS HORSE-RACE.-A wager betwixt Captains Prescott and Tucker, of the 5th Light Dragoons, was determined on Friday, the 20th January, by a single horse-race, which we learn is denominated steeple-hunting. The race was run from Chapel Houses, on the West Turnpike, to the Cow-gate, Newcastle; a distance of about three miles in a direct line across the country, which Captain Tucker gained by nearly a quarter of a mile. The mode of running such races is not to deviate more than fifteen yards from the direct line to the object in view, notwithstanding any impediments the riders may meet with, such as hedges, ditches, &c. The leading horse has the choice of road to the extent of the limits, and the other cannot go over the same ground; but, still preserving those limits, must choose another road for himself."

In the following year the newspapers of that day teemed with the following report. It will be seen by the account that the present rules for steeple-chasing did not then exist; for one of the riders gets an awkward fall in going through a hand-gate.

"EXTRAORDINARY STEEPLE-RACE.-On the last Wednesday in November came on for decision a match which had excited much interest in the sporting world, and which, amongst that community, is denominated a steeple race, the parties undertaking to surmount all obstructions, and to pursue in their progress as straight a line as possible. The contest lay between Mr. Bullivant, of Sproxton; Mr. Day, of

Wymonham; and Mr. Frisby, of Waltham; and was for a sweepstakes of 100 guineas staked by each. They started from Womack's Lodge, at half-past 3 o'clock, to run round Woodal-head and back again—a distance exceeding eight miles. They continued nearly together, until they came within a mile and a half of the goal, when Mr. Bullivant, on his well-known horse Sentinel, took the lead, and appearances promised a fine race between him and Mr. Day; but unfortunately, in passing through a hand-gate, Mr. Day's horse's shoulder came in full contact with the gatepost. The rider was thrown with great violence, and, as well as the horse, was much hurt. Nevertheless, Mr. Day remounted in an instant, and continued his course. Mr. Bullivant, however, during the interruption, made such progress as to enable him to win the race easily. The contest for second place was extremely severe between Mr. Day and Mr. Frisby: the last half-mile was run neck and neck, Mr. Day beating his opponent by half-a-neck. The race was performed in 25 minutes, 32 seconds."

Up to 1810, steeple-chasing had made no great progress; for we find the following notice in a sporting work of that year :

"The amateurs of break-neck amusements will to-morrow be gratified with a race not very common in the annals of sporting. Two gentlemen, of riding celebrity, are matched to run their horses over four miles of cross-country ground, chosen by judges especially appointed, who, it seems, in marking the devious course, had no regard to whatever obstructions arising either from gate, hedge, or ditch; so that the most undaunted at flying leaps will probably win the race, which is for fifty pounds; one horse carrying 15 st., and the other 13 st. 12 lb. The race will take place at no great distance from Lewes."

We have no authentic record of this steeple-chase, but have no doubt but that it was between two officers of the 10th Hussars, then quartered at Brighton, and who kept the game up pretty well in those days. In the hunting-field, on the turf, on the road, there were few more sporting characters than the " elegant extracts," as they were afterwards called, upon their being removed from the Prince of Wales's own corps.

(To be continued.)

HUNTING IN THE FOREST OF ST. GERMAIN.

The Forest of St. Germain is beautifully situated on the banks of the Seine, about ten miles west of Paris. Every one knows that before the terrific days of the revolution, it was a royal residence. Here the unfortunate James of England terminated his days; untaught by the misfortunes of his ancestors, he repeated their offences, and found, too late, that a nation is more powerful than a monarch. In a neat church, just opposite the Palace, there is an elegant marble tomb, erected at the expense of George IV., containing either the head or heart, or some other portion of the exiled monarch; for in those days, the Lord's anointed retained the sacredness conferred at the coronation by the holy oil; but the march of intellect has dis

covered that blood profusely shed fixes a monarch more firmly on his throne.

In faults, virtues, misfortunes, and punishments, how close the parallel between the Stuart and Bourbon families!

Charles I. and Louis XVI., were imprisoned, tried, and decapitated by revolutionary governments; to these succeeded military despotisms; the legitimate branches were restored, represented in England by Charles II., and in France by Louis XVII.; these monarchs died in peaceable possession of their thrones; neither mouarch leaving legitimate offspring, their brothers, as next heirs, mount the thrones without opposition, and are soon after expelled their respective king. doms, for attempting to force a religion on their subjects, and die in exile unpitied and unlamented.

The Palace of St. Germain is now a prison, in external appearance unchanged; but, alas! its present inmates are as anxious to escape from their magnificent residence, as others were, in former days, desirous of entering its precincts.

On a beautiful morning towards the close of last February, I was loitering at the terminus of the St. Germain railway, when a most unusual spectacle in Paris presented itself to my view. An English gentleman in full hunting dress, and his servant leading a horse, so beautiful and so well groomed, as to leave no doubt that all three were from the same country. He halloed to me, and inquired if I was going to the hunt at St. Germain? Now, I am, and always was, attached to field sports; and if I have a weakness at all, which interferes with my more serious occupations, it is for a pack of hounds. The temptation was great, and I yielded even more readily than Eve; and had she the same excuse for her disobedience, she would have had my most hearty forgiveness, for

"A fellow-feeling makes us wondrous kind."

Perhaps the gentlemen of Melton Mowbray will stare with astonishment and incredulity, when they are informed that red-coats, topboots, spurs, &c., even to the sweet musical cry of the dogs, had been a thing unknown if Eve had kept her mouth shut. It is, however, a fact-at least I give it on the authority of a popular preacher, who assured us, from the pulpit, that had our grandmother resisted, man with his fellow-man and brute with his fellow-brute would have lived in peace and quietness.

"Sed Diis aliter visum."

I stepped into the train, and in somewhat more than an hour found myself at La Muette-the rendezvous. La Muette is an ancient royal hunting lodge, literally buried in the forest, but delightfully situated; an open space before, trees lofty and old as a dynasty around and behind the winding Seine, which obtains here, with justice, a character for beauty, and retains it during the rest of its meandering course to Havre, where it mingles its waters with the ocean. In former days it must have been a little paradise; for although neglected now, and tenanted only by a garde de chasse or game-keeper, it seems just the spot to recover serenity of mind, or

recruit the bodily vigour, disturbed and exhausted by the eares, annoyances, and vexations of a busy world.

The hour fixed on was 11 o'clock; and as the pleasures of the day were to be shared in by one of the Royal Princes, the huntsman was careful to be there to the moment. A few days previously, I was amusing myself in the Louvre, admiring the splendid paintings, representing the chase in this self-same forest, in the days of Henry IV. and Louis XV.; wondering, if they would revisit the scene of their innocent pleasures, how astonished they would be to behold the many improvements in convenience and beauty of dress, in the fleetness and form of their hunters; for, to judge from the paintings, the sportsmen more resembled warriors issuing forth to hunt their fellowman, or dreading an ambuscade in the middle of ther own domains.

As, at present, in Paris there is an Anglomania for every thing English, especially for equipages, horses, and dogs, and as this rage is said to be at its acme with the Princes of the blood, I naturally expected to see a turn-out like an English fox-hunt. In the name of Diana and her nymphs, what do I see! A fac-simile of the paintings of the chase in the Louvre. The same heavy cavalry horses, the three-cocked hat, the scarlet laced coat, the great jack boots, with spurs as long as a skewer, and a brass French hunting horn crossing their shoulders. Altogether there were six huntsmentwo mounted, and four (called Piqueurs) on foot. The dogs were a noble specimen of the stag-hound- tall, strong, active, and beautifully spotted, but disfigured on the right side by being branded with the form of a triangle, having in the centre some illegible hieroglyphics. I inquired from a piqueur the reason of the brand; but he was a surly, discontented wretch, in whom even the social and exhilarating effects of the chase could not awake a cheerful idea. Perhaps the marks designate them as royal property; but as there are no hounds in France excepting the royal pack, the distinction is uncalled for; or there may have been some antiquated reason, now useless and forgotten; but the mark, like the other paraphernalia, is retained. The French are very slow to change.

I examined carefully the gentry of the meet, and a more vulgar set of persons I never saw on horseback, even at an English country fair; and the horses, save four or five English thoroughbred animals, one would imagine belonged to the Cheshire yeomanry.

"Right glad to 'scape the lumber of the wheels."

But there is no use in being hypercritical, for they answered the purposes of French hunting, better than a first-rate Yorkshire hunter.

The signal was given to commence the chase. The huntsman selected and uncoupled sixteen dogs, and gave directions to each piqueur where to station himself with eight dogs in a leash. I accompanied one, whose good opinion I gained by a well-timed eulogium on the make and colour of a favourite dog. He directed me to an avenue leading direct to La Muette, and crossing the railway. Yes, a railway to Rouen runs through the forest. The hounds were thrown off at the back of the hunting lodge, and before a quarter of an hour had elapsed, the forest echoed and re-echoed with the deep-toned notes of a most musical pack, mingled with the discordant tones of the