members to bestir themselves, or something more precious than even corn-rents may be brought into peril. When confidential butlers get to the bottom of the plate-chest they have not much further to go, and another week or two at the betting-house may send them with a razor to their masters' throats.”............

Thus that which a few years ago was a noble national sport has been transformed into an outrageous social scandal. The crisis which for seasons I have been foretelling has at length arrived. If the occasion be vigorously dealt with, all may yet be well ; but if no remedy be applied, then assuredly-as an institution for gentle patronage and resort --THE TURF IS DOOMED !

MARGARETTA.

SISTER TO MOCKING-BIRD AND MARMOSETTE.
ENGRAVED BY E. HACKER, FROM A PAINTING BY G. H. LAPORTE.

Margaretta, a black bitch, the property of Mr. S. R. Gilbert, bred by Sir W. A. Maxwell, Bart., in 1843, was got by his black dog Massaroni, out of his red bitch Maid of Honour. Marniosette and Mockingbird, out of the same dani, figure in the Coursing Calendar as winners of large stakes, though we should state that Sir William's Mocking-bird is not the one of that name which has attained so much celebrity further south, and whose portrait has already appeared in the Magazine.

PERFORMANCES. In October, 1844, at the Ardrossan Meeting, Margaretta won the Tyro Stakes of sixteen dogs, for puppies of 1843, Mr. A. Graham's Jock-the-Bleacher running up.

In September, 1845, at the Clydesdale Meeting, she won the Speculation Stakes, when Mr. A. Graham's Rough ran up to her.

In the November of the same year, at the Mid-Lothian Meeting, she won the Buccleugh Stakes, beating Mr. W. Sharpe's Dainty Davie, and seven others.

In December, at the Clydesdale Meeting, after the third round, she divided the Lanarkshire Plate with her sister, Marinosette.

In January, 1846, at the Clydesdale Meeting, Margaretta ran up to Lord Eglinton's Rufus, for the Champion Collar.

In February, at Lanarkshire and Renfrewshire, she wou the All-aged Cup, beating Mr. A. Graham's Lord Turnabout, and six others.

In the same month, at the Midlothian Meeting, she won the Champion Cup, Mr. W. Ramsay's Rector running up.

In March, at the Lanarkshire (Wishaw) Meeting, she ran up in the fourth ties to her old opponent, Lord Eglinton's Rufus, for the Lanarkshire Stakes.

In February, 1847, she ran up to Mr. Wauchope's Victory, for the Cup, at the Mid Lothian Meeting, breaking two of her toes in the deciding course.

It might be inconvenient, as well as uninteresting, to give the full return of courses contested so far back. It would, however, be all to Margaretta's credit, were we to do so, as she met, in her career, with many of our best dogs, beating, for instance, amongst others, Lord Eglinton's famous bitch, Bessy Bell, who afterwards ran up to Mr. Miller's Magic, for the Great Druid Cup, value 320 sovs., at the Ames. bury Champion Meeting. Margaretta's own performances were chiefly confined to the north ; but this running alone will show the class of “ company" she had to contend against.

Margaretta is a particularly lengthy bitch, standing on short legs, and has immense bone and muscular power. Her courage, too, is very great ; for, although now nine years old, she runs as honest and with as much determination as ever. In fact, her constitution and appearance are those of a greyhound yet in her prime. Still, it is not only in the slips that Margaretta has done good service, many of her puppies having already been very successful in public ; amongst others, Mr. Curror's Hector and Shylock, by his Colonel—both superior dogs ; as well as a litter by Foremost, which were first tried during the spring of the year. One of the lot, Wanota, when scarcely over the distemper, and altogether out of condition, ran up to Dove for the All-aged Stakes, at Mountainstown—a performance so favourable as to bring at once an offer of fifty guineas for him, but which was as promptly refused by the owner, Mr. M.Keon, of Dundalk. The reporter of the meeting very justly estimates him as “no contemptible opponent." Another of this litter, Flying Dutchman, also the property of Mr. M.Keon, has run very well in Ireland this season.

Margaretta's last litter, nine in number, and pupped on the 10th of April, are to Figaro, a very promising cross. Several, indeed, have already been bespoken by public coursers at long prices ; and we hear there is every expectation of their doing full justice to the distingnished family from which they spring.

THE MIST AND THE MOOR.

BY HORNYWINK.

CHAP. II. Sir Nicholas and his party traversed the hill-side with the speed of men accustomed to the country. They had crossed the river Cynon, ere the stars had ceased to twinkle in the skies, and were now breast ing the opposite hill in the direction of the Llanwonno Moors, where they hoped to find some traces of young Esterling Sir Nicholas alone, of all the party, gave constant vent to his anxious and somewhat indignant feelings: “He could not,” he said, “understand the circumstances which induced Edmund to desert his cousin at such a pinch ;” and expressed a strong opinion that had he been the missing one, Esterling would have strained every nerve, and undergone any privation, sooner than abandon him in such a Caucasus. Perhaps Edmund's desire to 'justify himself, and his repeated assurance that the charge of the horses prevented his taking active steps to follor his cousin, rather tended to chafe than to soften the baronet's irrita

bility, for the more he excused himself the deeper he floundered into the slough.

“ Where there's a will there's a way, Edmund; and if you had picked your path over the rushes—as I have often told you—there would have been little danger of the bogs, either to yourself or the horses."

“ The bogs never alarmed me, Sir Nicholas, in the saddle or on foot. Being bred on the moor, Old Featherbed is far too good a judge to get into such places: she winds them afar off, and no persuasion could force her upon unsound ground; and, as for myself, if I get into a bog I can get out of it again without much trouble.”

" Which is only another reason against your conduct with regard to your cousin. Had you been unaccustomed to the country, or unacquainted with the actual extent of the danger, there might be some excuse for the heartless manner in which you have behaved; for the bravest and most undaunted of us may on occasions feel unnerved, especially when the danger is unanticipated and unprepared for ; but such cold-blooded indifference, in a case which may have cost him his life, and you so little, is quite too much for my comprehension, and more than I shall easily forget !" and completely overcome by indignation and anxiety, the honest and staunch-hearted baronet could scarcely master his emotion.

“ Cheer up, Sir Nicholas !” said John Griffith, an ancient and faithful follower of the family ; “Providence will never forsake anyone who risks his life for that of another—far less so brave and good a gentleman as young Mr. Esterling. Yes, indeed, he wasn't born for nothing, I do know; and to be lost and choked in a bog, of such a gloomy night as this has been, would be a sorrowful end for the old race to come to.”

" Quod Deus avertat-may God avert the calamity! But push on, my boys !” said Sir Nicholas, with a groan; “push on! every minute appears an age of terror.”

Edmund, who felt very uneasy, and not a little ashamed of the part he had played, strode moodily and silently on; his feelings and position were far from enviable; and as the keen and strong morning wind swept fitfully past them, he had much to do in maintaining his ground along the rocky and precipitous footway, and still more in maintaining his temper. The loss of the latter, however, would not probably have been a source of much regret to anyone, since it was not of the best, and present circumstances were scarcely calculated to improve it. His uncle's last reprimand was unusually severe, and couched in language which induced him to believe that his conduct was not only disapproved of, buc suspected; he determined, therefore, to act at once with all the energy and courage of one who has much at stake, and thus endeavour tv obliterate his fault from his uncle's memory, or at least compel him to forgive it; for he well knew that if his hot-tempered and high-principled relative thought ill of a man he took no pains to conceal it, but on the contrary never lost an opportunity of showing him up.

“Uncle!” said he, placing his hand on Sir Nicholas's shoulder, so as to arrest his progress, "if you will give me leave, I will now lead you by a more direct path than the one you are pursuing ;

so follow me over this sheep-track, and we shall soon arrive at the spot where George struck into the bogs.”

Sir Nicholas paused, looked suspiciously at his nephew, and glanced at John Griffith, as much as to say, “You and I, John, ought to know this moor better than any two men living." John, however, approved of the line, and the baronet's doubts were at once dispelled. The look did not escape Edmund's observation, and after a short interval he said,

" It is hard, Sir, that I am to be considered responsible for a man of my cousin's age, who is quite capable of taking care of himself, and of judging for himself as well.”

“ You had better remain silent altogether, Sir, tban attempt to justify conduct such as yours has been. No one requires that you should be held responsible for your cousin's actions; but every reasonable being will consider you answerable for your own; and on this occasion you have, as I have before said, but little to be proud of.”

As he ended they were beginning to near the scene where the catastrophe had occurred. The ground was gradually becoming soft and marshy, and a wide expanse of dreary-looking country lay stretched before them.

“ Indeed to goodness! Sir Nicholas—that place yonder, where you see the post sticking up, is the worst place on all the moor!". said John Griffith, pointing with his staff to where a black-looking object rose against the sky.

* That's within two hundred yards of the spot where I last saw George Esterling," said Edmund, eagerly.

" Well then, indeed, there's no use deceiving you,'' said John again; “but if Mr. Esterling got in there, he's gone right through the earth, and, mayhap, come out on the other side by this time."

Sir Nicholas smiled, in spite of his anxiety, at the extent of Jolin's imagination, and knew not whether to be more alarmed at the an. nouncement that Esterling was probably engulphed, or amused at the old man's notion of his nephew's specific gravity in going through the earth at the rate of a thousand miles an hour. A sudden change in the manner of the pointers now attracted the attention of all the party : the dogs pricked their ears, and dropped their sterns, as if they winded something unusual and strange; and with heads high in the air, they trotted deliberately up to the very spot, which, by unmistakeable signs, they discovered to be the recent scene of a fearful struggle and bloodshed. From this point it was no difficult matter to trace the footsteps of two men in the direction of Llewellyn's farm ; and in somewhat less than an hour the whole party reached the door of his hometead, and knocked loudly for admission. The summons was tardily answered, and the impatient Sir Nicholas was about to repeat the knocking, when the face of a woman appeared from an upper window, and recognizing the baronet, she begged him to walk in, and she would come to him immediately.

The haggard and terrified look of the woman, and the tremulous voice in which she spoke, still further alarmed Sir Nicholas. He saw something dreadful had occurred, and he hurriedly entered the house in a state of suspense which was scarcely bearable.