head was red, even as far as behind the ears—a bloody token of his victory. He sniffed a moment at the dead stag, and then came to me ; while Donald, running back, caught him in his arms and positively embraced him, exclaiming, “ Ha ! my good little dog ; I knew you didn't stop away for nothing !” Our next question was, how to find the second stag ; and so off we all set, and crossing the little plain to the point where deer and dog had disappeared from my sight, we searched for their tracks. We soon discovered them ; and once found, they were easily kept ; for many a terrific struggle had ploughed up the ground and torn up the heather, and every here and there were splashes of blood and large beaten marks, as if deer and dog had been rolling together. A sudden cry from one of our party announced that he saw the object of our search, and running forwards we came on the stag lying dead, not more than two hundred yards from the place where I lost sight of them, and fully a mile nearer than any of us expected to find him. The fight must have been dreadful ; his shoulder and throat were literally torn away, and the heather around was strewn with pieces of flesh, and blood, and hair, together with some of Gary's hide also. Great was our triumph over this victory, and many the pattings and coaxings that rewarded Gary for his feat, and by far the largest share of the gralloch came to him. It is not often that a single dog kills a cool, i. e. unwounded, stag ; though I have had more than one that has achieved it. Night was now drawing near; so taking the two guns under my arm and leading the four dogs, which I found work enough to do—we could not let them loose on account of the great number of white hares, while the three men dragged the staz by his horns and fore legs, we retrod our steps to the one first killed, and then, after a short rest, proceeded to get them down the steep hill, or rather precipice. Here I had an opportunity of admiring the strength and activity of Donald, he having by himself taken the largest stag down the hill quicker than Ian and Duncan could manage to get the other down. I followed as before, with the guns and dogs. Having got the stags to the bottom of the hill, we covered their heads with heather, burnt some powder near them to keep off the fox, and, as it was now quite dark, bent our steps to the farm-house where we were expected, and which was about two or three miles off, not a little pleased out of so bad a beginning to have made so good an ending. On our arrival there, a Highland welcome, a good fire, a hearty supper, and a glass or two of hot toddy, which our kind host had provided, put us in good order, and we slept the sleep of men who had done their work well. The next day was passed in bringing the stags down to the farm-house, and looking for deer in some corries we had not yet visited ; but being unsuccessful, and my time running short, on the following day we returned to the inn from which we had started. The first morning on our road we slipped the dogs at a roebuck, but he saved himself by gaining a wood just as they were close upon him. The fourth day we went out, though the weather was very stormy, and shot a fine young roebuck ; and on the fifth morning, having danced all night at a wedding between a young farmer and his chosen one, I shook hands with Donald, drank the dioch an-durras, and while he with the dogs proceeded into Inverness-shire, I took my way to the south, not a little pleased with my four days' spree in the Highlands. RACING IN 1825 AND RACING IN 1850 ; OF THE HORSES WHO HAVE FIGURED IN OUR RACING PASTIMES DUR- BY GOLDFINCH. It is notorious that the second quarter of the present century has been more prolific of discoveries and improvements, extending over land and water, than any other period of the same length. Rapid and extensive as has been this progressive advancement in all branches of arts, sciences, and manufactures, through all parts of civilized Europe and America, it is still going on apparently with accelerated pace. If we cast our eyes upon the ocean, we behold it covered with vessels, many of which are propelled by the power of their own internal machinery ; if we glance over the surface of the land, we are astonished by the velocity of flying locomotives ; if we look to the heavens, we find Lord Rosse exploring them with his stupendous telescope. In whatever direction we turn, the mind is filled with astonishment at the universal expansion of the human intellect; discoveries upon discoveries still continue to emerge from the dark chamber of unexplored science, and improvement upon improvement is engrafted upon them the moment they embrace the light of day. Nor has the pursuit of breeding and training that noble animal, the race-horse, lagged behind the general improvement of the age, but allying itself to and dovetailing itself with the general progression of the times, it has become part and parcel of the system of universal advancement. Horse-racing has ever been considered a truly English sport. It is a source of great recreation to our rural popula. tion; but above all, it tends greatly to perpetuate the race of perhaps the best horses in the world, both for speed and endurance, which has no doubt caused it to be both followed and patronized by so many royal, noble, and illustrious individuals, who have graced our places of sport with their presence, and supported them with their purses. The number of places where races were run, exclusive of Ireland, during the season of 1825, was sixty-six, and in 1850 they were increased to one hundred and four, leaving a majority of thirty-eight in favour of the latter year. The total amount of races run in Great Britain during the season of 1825 was five hundred and ninety-five, whilst in 1850 they amounted to one thousand and twenty-five, thus showing the great increase in quantity ere I proceed to the notification of quality. A quarter of a century back the two-year-olds were easily distinguishable in a trainer's stable-string from undrawn rough-coated raw material, which was so manifest in the youngsters of those days. There was no difficulty then in singling out a two-year-old : not so now, the system of training has dovetailed with the progression of general improvement, and those juveniles are now brought to the starting post with coats of silken gloss, forms fined down, and quarters full of muscle, and, in some instances, more like threes than twos, when uncoated for saddling. When I was down at Newmarket in October last, having a desire to see Prime Minister, and being told that he was on the heath, I found out Harry Wadlow, and asked him to point out his Derby favourite for 'fifty-one : when he said, “ There is my team ; can't yoa pick him out yourself ?” my reply was, “ Tell me which are twos and I will try ;" he did so, and I identified his crack from the likeness which he bore to his sire. This little digressive anecdote is merely introduced as an illustration of my statement as to the vast improvement in training and bringing these four-legged babbies to the post, all of which improvements have been not a little accelerated by the very open winters which for some years past have been experienced in this country, being of so mild and spring-breathing a character compared with what used to be our winters, as to allow of the high-mettled racer taking his regular gallops, and rendering straw beds a nullity--the very things which, during the first quarter of the present century, were in full request for months together, and occasionally running farther than was pleasant for sporting purposes into the spring meetings. At the period I speak of, the round betters or book makers outnumbered little more than a baker's dozen ; but they now count nearly as many as the Bread League Company daily issue to their masticating customers. Then, every breeder and trainer backed his own stable, and roping was a thing rarely heard of. Now Johnny Armstrong is to be found on the pigskin from one end of the season to the other. Levanters then were “ few and far between:' now they are as plentiful as blackberries. Then were there no Pennystone swells with obdurate uncles to fabricate robberies, and stand the racket for littler men. Your Redgraves and your Millses then were scarce, for then the betting ring was quite a solvent thing. As a matter of course, the immense increase of sport has let into the betting arena many men of straw that formerly were unknown therein, and who for seasons past have been going upon Owen's plan, and continually craving for breathing time. The crying evil of the system is, that for years past there has been a greater amount of capital pencilled down than was ever in the market; hence comes a settling day, and with it two or three defaulters. The settlement becomes unsettled, the ring disjointed, the accounts confused, men's minds unhinged, and chaos returns again. In the year 1825 Lord Jersey won the Derby with his chestnut horse Middleton, and Mr. R. Watt the Leger with Memnon. To the Derby of that year there were fifty-eight subscribers, and to the Derby of 1850 the number of subscribers amounted to two hundred and five. The Chester Trades Cup in 1825 had fourteen subscribers, and in 1851 its nominations amounted to one hundred and ninety-three. In that year of 1825 you could not have got the odds to a five-pound note, a month before the race came off, about anything you fancied, had you tried at Tattersall's. In 1851 you may obtain the odds to any amount. In 1825 we doubt if there was altogether two thousand pounds laid about the Chester Cup race; it will take a million, or near it, to cover what will exchange hands in 1851. I happen to know one book maker who alone has laid upwards of forty thousand pounds against horses entered or not for this Leviathan Trade Cup, and then there is all the small fry to tack to the big ones ; and though their outlays may not be nearly so heavy in individual amount, yet are these little speculators no ciphers in the aggregate. The malpractices in racing and the ring were then not near so numerous as at present, but still they did exist. I remember Frank Richardson, as a noted better of his day, practising the following ruse. He was a blacksmith, and had vulcanised for some years at the anvil. However, by some means or other he contrived to get into the betting ring. Well, this knight of the bellows took very large odds that thirty horses would start for the St. Leger, and that he would name the winner, thus making the bet a double event. He named Memnon as the winner, but as the day of running neared he found some difficulty about getting to the post so large a field as thirty horses ; however by dint of scheming and untiring labour in his vocation he contrived to accomplish his task, by going into the high ways and byeways to collect the lame, the stringhalt, and the out-of-training animals for a start : and “ very well he did it at the price.” Without this maneuvre twenty-four would have been the actual amount of starters ; but he managed somehow to rake up the wanting half dozen, paid their stakes of twenty-five sovereigns each, bestrode them with stable-boys in corduroys and gaiters, brought them to the starting post, and, after running them something like a hundred yards, had them pulled up, and by this contrivance won his wager, to the disgrace and degradation of the turf. The whole code of our racing laws require revision and reform, speculation thereon requires an enactment of the Legislature to legalise it ; both must go through this ordeal ere the system of purification is complete. Stringent rules must be adopted, in order to destroy the present morbid state of the betting ring; the ulcerated disease must succumb to the knife in the hands of a skilful operator, who will cut beyond the wound to make the cure complete, else will our renown in racing annals come to decay. Our boasted superiority on the turf, as our prowess on the sea, will become a bye-word and a scoff to the nations who have so long been enviously jealous of our preponderance on both. LITERATURE. “ THE VADE-MECUM OF FLY-FISHING FOR TROUT." By G. P. R. Pulman. Longman and Co., London. Mr. Pulman is another“ practical man:"a practical fly-maker he avows himself, with an artist to illustrate his various styles of deception—" also a practical fly-maker and an accomplished angler.” This is a good basis to build on, and of itself goes far to warrant the introduction of a work in a market that, generally speaking, might already be considered a little over-crowded. For very many reasons angling and the whole arcana of the sport has been fruitful in essays, treatises, and even more laborious yolumes ; the contemplative man is frequently an erudite one, and can use the pen as well as the rod. And so it comes to pass that a man who wants a little advice on and knowledge of the science, will have a good catalogue of titles to run over. If he wants the essentially useful, directions plainly told and concisely worded, we may honestly recommend him to Mr. Pulman, a gentleman who speaks with a tone and confidence we believe he is fairly entitled to, and who, on the management of tackle, rods, lines, &c., abounds in valuable information. His great point, however, is the fly-making, a section of his subject that alone should “ make" his book. To those who have a fancy for this dainty craft, the “ Vade-Mecum” should act right up to its title. “ Every man has his fault,” says the dramatist. Mr. Pulman's we consider to be his attempts at the descriptive, and occasionally the use of a rather ambitious style of writing. No man yet could follow Izaak Walton successfully in this way, however much he may have studied and admired that worthy ancient. On the other hand, for sound practical knowledge, seasoned with real enthusiasm for the gentle art, we have no hesitation in recommending our author to the attention of all brothers of the angle. PUBLIC AMUSEMENTS OF THE METROPOLIS. The cheering sounds that nightly echo through the walls of DRURY LANE THEATRE, may be taken as an assurance that the stage is again the arena from which may be extracted entertainment. This is truly the case in the instance of the comedy now being acted under the title of “The Old Love and the New,” a production replete with interest. The dialogue is brilliant to a degree, the similes being as apt as they are numerous, touching which perhaps the objection may be urged against the fire of these being kept up rather too much by the battledoor and shuttlecock form of one character throwing back those of another, by doubling the already strong string. With this solitary exception, there is not a comedy of modern days to be mentioned as ranking before this. This sparkling and clever effort of Mr. Suliyan has received due justice from the management and performers, the former having placed the comedy on the stage with every regard to decoration and effect, and the latter for obviously imparting considerable zest to it by the piquancy and spirit of their impersonations. Amongst these, for an unpretending, quiet, subdued, and a thoroughly artistic picture of an old maid, mention must be made of Mrs. Ternan, whose delineation of Miss Trimmer is altogether the most perfect of its kind. Next comes Mrs. Nisbett's Camilla Haythorn beaming with all that vivacity of manner and merry coquettishness for which this favourite is so remarkable. The father of Camilla is well represented by Mr. Barrett, a late addition to the company, and one that promises exceedingly, from the proofs of ability already evidenced -his Falstaff, by the way, being the best the stage can boast. The other characters are sustained with discriminating tact by Messrs. Anderson, Emery, and Cooper, and Mrs. Walter Lacy. With a smart |