accuracy disburden his mind from the weight, by the simple operation of writing a few lines. The result of the trials will dictate what engagements certain horses are best qualified to fulfil, and in dwelling upon this matter, much of the skill, knowledge, and judgment of both owner and trainer will be developed; as of course the opinion of the owner will on such important cases make the election, still it will in all probability be considerably biased by the trainers' observations.

If the entering of horses for their various engagements, the declaring forfeit, and such like operations, devolve upon the trainer, it is necessary also that he keep a book in which he makes a verbatim copy of every entry; even Messrs. Weatherby, as well as the rest of the world, are liable to mistakes, and it gives a man great confidence if he can turn to his book, find it to be correct, and implicitly declare that it is a true and faithful copy of the entry sent to the constituted authorities. One arrangement, however, should be distinctly madewhether the master or the trainer is to enter the horses; if one does it on one occasion, and the other on the following, there will eventually be some mistake, as, the one depending upon the other, neither will make the entry, until, the stakes having closed and the nominations are advertised, the omission will be detected.

A list of stakes to which every proprietor of race-horses is a subscriber, should be made out, with a column of the date when the respective stakes close. This should be in the hands of whomsoever the duty of entering may be imposed upon. It is a very common case for a gentleman to subscribe to stakes and cups at race ordinaries, and think no more about them; when, if not reminded by the Calendar, which may be overlooked, he has the mortification of having the stake or forfeit to pay, when perhaps he may have a horse that could have won had he been entered in time. Before railways and vans afforded the facilities for travelling which they now do, owners of horses and trainers, like the learned gentlemen of the wig and gown, confined themselves principally to certain districts or circuits, beyond which they seldom trespassed. The hope of winning a Leger would operate like the loadstone upon the needle, and attract the Newmarket and south country men to the north; and, as a return, the Derby and Oaks at Epsom, with some of the great stakes at Newmarket, Goodwood, and a few such places, would prove attractions to the Yorkshiremen, and those farther north, to try the superiority of their tits and of their training but now, with a few exceptions, things are wonderfully changed; and we find, especially at those towns which are on the lines of the railways, horses and "men from all parts and all places," such are the facilities of travelling.

We still, however, find a few of the steady old patrons of the turf -its lasting and best ornaments, the pride of England's aristocracyconfining themselves to the races in the immediate neighbourhood of their estates: thus the lists at Chester, Manchester, Newton, Liverpool, Wolverhampton, Oswestry, Shrewsbury, and Holywell, are seldom wanting the highly respected names of Lords Westminster, Derby, and Stanley, Sir Thomas Stanley, Hon. E. L. Mostyn, with Mr. F. R. Price, and one or two others. Mr. Isaac Day generally keeps to his old beat in the vicinity of Northleach, such as Bath,

Cheltenham, Oxford, Goodwood, &c. ; where he has, till the last year or two, generally managed to skim a good portion of the cream. Formerly we were accustomed to find his horses at some of the meetings in the principality of Wales, but he appears to have given them up as "dull, stale, and unprofitable." Indeed, those meetings appear to be pretty nearly abandoned by the trainers to the few resident gentlemen who keep horses. With the exception of a man named Oseland-who can scarcely come under the denomination of a trainer, as he combines with it the occupation of farming, and also did, or does now for aught I know to the contrary, couple the business of a butcher to his other employments-no other person seems disposed to interfere in that district. This is the more to be wondered at, as all the horses are most execrably trained. The skill of a rough, ignorant stable boy, who would not be deemed, in a hunting stable in England, sufficiently experienced to take more than a helper's place, is considered to be capable of training and managing the stud of a Cambrian squire. Jones, of Prestbury, was formerly seen busily engaged at some of the meetings on the borders; he however, like Mr. Isaac Day, confines his route to his own immediate neighbourhood. If the strictest punctuality and attention, with the greatest care that a man can bestow, would enable all horses to run, Jones would have a stable full of flyers; but he has not been fortunate in having good materials to work upon, and no human being can make horses run if they have not got it in them; no trainer can take more pains with his horses, or bring them to the post in more perfect condition than he does.

CHAPTER X.-WEIGHTS.

The effect of weight upon a race-horse is so universally acknowledged that it would be waste of time to enlarge greatly on the subject, beyond a few comments explanatory of the mode by which it is made to operate. It is well known that certain portions will bring the best and the worst upon an equality; that is, if the bad one can gallop a little; if not, it appears that no weight in reason will produce the effect: unless the animal which gives the weight can be taken along by the one receiving it, at a pace to extend his action, and thereby make the weight tell, it will have but a trifling effect; and from this cause weight does not produce the same consequences in the hunting-field as it does over a course; in the former, the stride of a horse is constantly being broken, and his action relieved by being pulled up, or at all events eased, on arriving at every fence. We find similar results in steeple-chasing, a more clear proof of which need not be sought for than in the case of Lottery. At Cheltenham a penalty of 17lbs. additional weight was imposed upon him in consideration of his previous unparalleled success, but in defiance of the addition he won his engagement. It must here be observed, that the ground selected was of a nature similar to what is usually met with when riding to hounds-the fences of a diversified character, and somewhat numerous. At the Liverpool steeple-chase he again came to the post with 18lbs. extra, on which occasion he was beaten a considerable distance. Now, it would be absurd to assert that the

additional weight of one pound could have told with any visible effect, but a cause is readily found in the nature of the ground: having gone about a mile over fields, intersected by fences, the horses entered upon a portion of the training ground, which presented flat racing for a distance exceeding three quarters of a mile; having completed that, and gone again over the first mile, they entered the racecourse, which was parallel with and of a similar nature to the training ground, where three quarters of a mile of flat racing was again to be encountered; thus there were two distinct opportunities of making the weight tell, and, as might be expected, it had its ordinary effect.

It is a matter worthy of consideration to reflect which is most desirable for a horse to carry, live or dead weight; and, if any, what difference arises. In my opinion, a moderate portion of dead weight is more easily carried than all live weight, especially under certain circumstances; as, for instance, a great awkward fellow, ten or eleven stone, such as the majority of those gentlemen who are more qualified to exhibit at Croxton Park, rolling about in all directions, and pulling their unfortunate animal out of his stride every hundred yards, is much worse than a nine stone man, whose pretensions may not perhaps be very superior, with an addition to his own weight of two or three stone, properly distributed in heavy saddle-cloths and on the saddle. The custom of carrying weight by means of saddle-cloths is certainly an admirable one: by placing a portion on each side of the horse, where it must be carried perfectly steady, the weight is as it were divided; and it is wonderful what a man can stand under if the weight is properly distributed.

Dead weight, when properly arranged, rides perfectly steady; and I am certain that no jockey will attempt to maintain that either he or the horse are as comfortable when necessity compels the use of a three pounds saddle, as when one of a greater size can be allowed, by which the weight is more regularly sustained, and the seat of the rider more secure and steady.

I would not go to the extreme, and purposely select a seven stone jockey to ride twelve by means of carrying five stone of dead weight; but if I were compelled to resort to such an alternative, I should endeavour to divide it thus:-about twenty-one pounds in saddle-cloths, a fourteen pounds saddle, with a truss upon it of equal weight; there would then remain twenty-one pounds to be carried upon the jockey's body-quite as much as he could manage, without considerable inconvenience; if a rider is to be overwhelmed with such difficulties, they will operate very materially against him by impeding the free action of his limbs.

Those persons who may be put up to ride without having had sufficient practice in the art to enable them to sit very still, are evidently much more objectionable than almost any portion of dead weight, with a steersman possessed of a good seat, more especially if he equals the other in the two important attributes of hands and head.

If the improvement of our breed of horses be made a subject for consideration, it is evidently desirable that a high scale of weights be countenanced, and that higher than what are generally adopted. If

the standing weights for the Goodwood cup were to be taken as an example for all weights for age stakes, there is no doubt it would be found extremely beneficial on many points. It commences at 7st. 4lb. on three years old, and goes up to 9st. 12lb on six years old and aged horses; these weights are not beyond what any horse deserving the expenses of training ought to carry, whilst the establishment of them would go farther towards the condemnation of weeds than the abolition of two-year-old stakes, or the re-adoption of the obsolete, long distances of four miles which were in vogue in the time of our grandfathers. There is not much cause for complaint at the weights generally found on the best horses in handicaps, without which, in fact, the bad ones could have no chance; and as it is, they are seldom weighted light enough to allow them to win, unless they be of that class who have previously shewn some running, or their true form has been disguised for the sake of getting them well in.

There is another very cogent reason why weights should be established upon a higher scale, which is that of being able to find jockeys to ride them; the disadvantage of putting up very light boys must be obvious to every one, and is not compensated by the allowance, especially on country courses, where the turns are frequently numerous and difficult to ride round.

THE PAST RACING SEASON.

BY CASTOR.

"Vires acquirit eundo."

"Your influence has increased, and is increasing-
Sure none will say it ought to be diminished."

SHERIDAN.

That which was denied nearly all its grand predecessors, Hampton enjoyed to the utmost possible and desirable extent-not merely fine, but really beautiful weather; which, coming at the time it did, was doubly welcome: and this above every other item may be considered as the key-stone to the success the Moulsey speculators were so abundantly favoured with. The exertions of the officials, we admit, were well-deserving of it, and the increased value in the stakes of the good fields of horses that showed for them; yet other meetings which had offered these allurements to twenty times a greater degree, had passed off with anything but equal eclat; and I cannot bring myself to believe that, had Mackintoshes and umbrellas been the order of the day, one-third of " the holiday rejoicing spirits," who gladdened the hearts of Parsons and Co., would have

turned out for the trip. A Lord Mayor's day without the spread, or a borough election without a contest, would scarcely be a flatter affair than the Hampton lark, minus dust, sunshine, and champagne. The capital sport has, however, of itself raised this meeting a step or two in the list; an advantage which, unless I much mistake, those chiefly interested will not fail to keep up, if not increase. The running calls for no particular remark, most of the horses coming direct from Ascot, and appearing in very much the same form; amongst others Lord Lowther's colt and the Knight-of-the-Whistle again threw in; while the Queen's Plate, the only one with a selling condition attached to it, was won by a mare, whose subsequent performances estimate her much higher than the figure at which her owner was then ready and willing to get out.

Newton was not a whit behind its fellows in the march of improvement, both as regarded the locale and the infelices, against whom every man now raises his hand; it however wants the merit of propinquity in place, as well as time, to furnish a bumper in the style of its cockney cotemporary. After the fatigues of Epsom and Ascot, neither bipeds nor quadrupeds feel sufficient vigour to sail away and break fresh ground without some time being allowed between the heats. The way in which Aristotle won the two best stakes here, affords us a capital example of the manifold advantages to be enjoyed in a large training-stable-the small cunning and great mistakes so generally appertaining to them. Had this horse been in private hands, or the only string to the bow, the easy victory thrice repeated could scarcely have failed to inspire his friend or friends with confidence sufficient to reap a heavy harvest, when on the fourth occasion he was proclaimed the winner of one of the most valuable handicaps of the season. For the Two-year-old Stake, a previous victory had too much the contrary effect, as the Best-of-the-Three, holding his field too cheap, was started and beaten, though after a very severe struggle, so much the more against him, when evidently

amiss.

The Newcastle week, if not an improvement on that of last season, is certainly not retrograding. The only indifferent days' sport were the first and the last, both of which might well be dispensed with: that the first contained matter of little interest, the good attendance at Tattersall's the same day proved; and that the last boasted of even less, by nobody stopping to see it. Of course, as one of the great meetings before Goodwood, we had the now established custom of running, not for money, but weight; though neither Charles XII. nor Gorhambury found their work a mere matter of form: the former, for his second race, giving signs of his speedily ranking amongst the "have beens ;" and the latter winning his weight and some money with it, after a very near thing with the Yeoman—a trial which must have increased the regret of the once first favourite's friends for the form in which he appeared at Epsom. Another trial, but a private one, produced an equally unsatisfactory result, though whether as regards the more intimate friends of the over-rated animal I cannot take upon myself to say: sufficient that his sayings and doings, like many before him, were by no means on a par; and that undoubtedly