firstly, that a name of some sort should be given before the racer's entrance into public life; and, secondly, that names shall not be repeated until all danger of confusion in the 'Stud Book' shall be considered at an end. In any case of identity of nomenclature, the French rule should be adopted, of compelling a suffix of II. or III., as the case may be, after the repeated name. It would save much breath, and trouble in writing and printing, if foals were named and registered soon after birth; or at any rate, the christening ceremony should not be deferred until after their yearling days, when engagements have to be made. Since the death of Lord Glasgow, and the retirement of Mr. Merry, we have had fewer owners delighting in the great unnamed;' and many breeders, following the example of Mr. Cookson, have tried their hands in conferring winning names upon their yearlings. For many years none of the nameless tribe have succeeded in pulling off any of the great three-year-old events, though one or two have been provokingly near, and some, like Favonius, have only saved their bacon by a few days. This, of itself, should deter owners from courting ill-fortune with Bribery and Makeshift colts, which nothing but indolence or perversity prevents them from converting into Savernakes and Pell Mells, before they are sent forth to win their spurs in earnest. Lastly, the name of a horse, conferred and registered, should be absolutely unchangeable at the caprice of even a new owner-a regulation likely to prevent the many misconceptions certain to arise from a practice too common among pariahs of the Turf, and calculated to upset some of those well-laid but nefarious schemes of ringing the changes' which crop up now and again in the practice of racing. The only exception to the proposed rule should be in the case (likely enough to occur with some frequency) of two owners having hit upon the same name for their foals or yearlings, when seniority in registration of colours should determine the affair. While so many coverts teeming with classical, mythological, and other appellations remain to be drawn, there can be no sort of excuse for owners in search of something appropriate repeating names familiar as household words, and calling some suburban crock after the title of some potent and noble seigneur of the Turf in days gone by.

The practice, now so sadly on the increase, of assuming fictitious names, is an evil which must be endured, so long as expediency demands a strict incognito on the part of certain participators in racing pursuits. The great unknowns and little-knowns of the Turf are, at present under some sort of supervision, having to qualify for the use of the privilege (?) by certain payments; but here we think the same rule should apply as to horses, and that persons racing under assumed names should be compelled to retain the same pseudonym under which they originally elected to register their colours. Persons who are continually sailing under different flags (we are, of course, referring to bearers of assumed names) are justly looked upon as piratical cruisers; and the chameleon-like process can only be adopted for the purpose of mystification or deception, of which unde

sirable qualities we have enough and to spare in other departments of the racing game. Some few years since, a most fortunate sportsman, either through a morbid dread of identification with the Turf, or for the purpose of blinking handicappers and the public, owned, from time to time, horses running in the name of half a dozen individuals of the Mrs. 'Arris' type, with different colours in each case; and we have remarked certain individuals who change their nom de course with each year as it comes round, and indulge in a corresponding variety of caps and jackets. It is curious, bythe-way, how many hangers-on of petty meetings, who own, perhaps, one leg of a suburban plater, register colours which are never sported at all, and how large a proportion of these pettifogging gentry are not content with first colours,' but must need register second sets in the Calendar.

Passing on to forfeits and the Forfeit List, we find nothing to attract special attention until we arrive at the 35th rule, where we must call a halt, firstly, for the purpose of animadverting upon its construction when taken in connection with Rule 70, and, secondly, with the object of exposing certain hardships resulting from its application in practice. As they stand at present, these two rules cannot be read side by side without their contradictions becoming apparent; in fact, the first, as has been well remarked, 'com'pletely overrides' the second, an occurrence not unfrequent in patchwork legislation, when regulations are framed to meet certain contingencies, without due regard being had to the spirit and scope of the entire code of which they form a part. Their aim and object are clearly apparent, but in terms they contradict one another; and the best remedy would seem to be to amplify Rule 35 so as to embrace all possible views of the question, and to expunge Rule 70 altogether from the list. By all means let a statute of limitations stand in the way of those who may be termed professional obstructives, but let the time within which the objection may be made be clearly defined in all cases. The notorious Ptarmigan case has been cited as inflicting peculiar hardships, the recurrence of which should be obviated by the use of language as clear as possible; but here we touch upon hitherto forbidden ground, having overstepped the boundary-line between racing and betting, which the common sense of most has proclaimed inseparable, but which the Jockey Club has seen fit to divorce by No. 10 of its 'Rules and Orders.' We are not entirely without hope, however, that, in the face of existing difficulties, and while the revision is on hand, the delegates of the Club may be induced to consider the policy and propriety of once more uniting these really inseparable interests under their rule, as arbiters of the destinies of the Turf. It is highly anomalous that Sport, so intimately connected with Speculation, should, nevertheless, be divided from her twin-sister in many cases of dispute, and that two distinct tribunals should be required to adjudicate upon the merits of certain causes arising out of racing and betting. We are quite certain that adequately experienced

arbitrators could be found among the ranks of members of the Jockey Club to command confidence and respect among all classes

men of high integrity, unblemished honour, and endowed with judicial capacity of sufficient calibre to pronounce judgment in ordinary cases, such as are brought under the cognisance of the Committee of Tattersall's. We have nothing to urge against that painstaking body, either as regards its constitution or the general fairness of its decisions, but it cannot be expected to sit permanently, and vexatious delays not unfrequently occur in cases demanding immediate solution. On the other hand, if betting were transferred to Jockey Club jurisdiction, there would be no difficulty in finding at any of the frequently recurring important meetings of the season a quorum of their Committee appointed to adjudicate upon betting disputes, who might determine the case upon the spot, without any necessity for disturbing the harmony of settling day, through dissentients refusing to liquidate.

Only lately it appears to have become apparent to those holding high positions in the betting world, as members of Tattersall's and the principal London Clubs, that something must be done to make the company in special inclosures, for which an extra fee is charged, more select than recent experiences have proved these high places to be. If we understand the proposition aright, it is for members of the ring to obtain their diplomas of respectability and solvency from the Jockey Club, or rather from a licensing' Committee of that body; and further, that some distinguishing badge should be worn by those certified as entitled to bet within the jurisdiction of the authorities. We have no hesitation in asserting that the separate ring established at all our important meetings for members of • Tattersall's only' is a lamentable delusion in many cases, and that it contains an undesirable sprinkling of goats among the sheep. This undesirable state of affairs arises (in most cases, we are willing to believe,) from carelessness on the part of officials; but those interested in the financial success of meetings too often wink at such irregularities, and cannot find it in their hearts to turn away good money. Outsiders there always will be to minister to the wants of clients in a small line of business; but there is no reason why they, too, should not receive certificates, and thus the evils of welshing would be materially lessened, if not entirely removed. The betting ring is so intimately bound up with the Turf, that its recognition, and consequent regulation, should not be omitted in any scheme of Turf reform, and a favourable opportunity now presents itself for, as they say in public offices, 'remodelling the department.' Half the supposed evils of betting would disappear under proper organisation of its machinery; but the hole-and-corner system, under which it is at present followed in too many cases, imparts a needless air of mystery to proceedings merely partaking (in their natural state) of the character of ordinary business.

The labours of those to whom the task of revision has been entrusted will be lightened by the consideration that a great work of

utility will be accomplished through their application to the allotted task. It will not be the light and easy business that so many dilettanti reformers would have us to believe; and even when the scheme has been perfected to the utmost ability of Friends in Council,' it will have to encounter successively the ordeals of criticism by colleagues in the Turf parliament and of public opinion. Necessities for reconstruction of racing law arise but seldom; but when the time is ripe for action, the subject must be handled with all the nicety that skill, judgment, and experience can supply. We need not fear the adoption of extreme measures, nor the introduction of any of those radical changes which convulse for a time the society upon which they are intended to opera te. There is still a solid substratum of conservatism underlying the ground upon which the ploughshare of reform is to be set at work, and we trust that it may be said of the scheme, when presented for final ratification to the Jockey Club, that

"Tis not the hasty product of a day,

But the well ripened fruit of long delay.'

Ghosts of former occupants of the old-world stands on Newmarket Heath might flee in dismay during their search after ancient landmarks of the days when 'specials' were unknown, and when no plebeian influence intruded itself upon the aristocratic seclusion of the fathers of the Turf. But recent reforms, more in accordance with the spirit of the times, betoken that auspicium melioris ævi which opens the gates of sport to its humble votaries without abating the dignity of its supreme arbitrators; and we hail the present movement as one likely to confer lasting benefits upon a pursuit which must engross the sympathies and affections of our hours of leisure for all time. AMPHION.

FROM KNAVESMIRE TO PENHILL.

UNSATIATED by many weeks of turf wandering, commencing on a course from which Rosebery Topping seems on a clear day little more than rifle-shot distance, and ending at the Rowley Mile finish, with shouts of Munden' in the air, the writer of these veracious lines availed himself of three blank days to make a long-deferred pilgrimage to that far Yorkshire district whose every hillside and hamlet bears a name chronicled in racing history. Not unpleasant was it, for once in a way, to tread the platform at King's Cross unsolicited for probable starters and likely winners, and with no care as to whether Mr. Griffin, the sporting reporter of the Morning Mercury,' would arrive in good time to occupy the seat fiercely defended on his behalf, or, according to his scandalous custom, saunter leisurely into the station as the wheels of the engine made their first revolution. It was not unpleasant to recline on a cushion, and know that you would not presently be asked to give it up for conversion

into a Bluff or Napoleon table. The talk of an opposite neighbour, too, strongly as it smacked of rewarmed 'Saturday Review,' was, at any rate, better hearing than those incessant cries of 'I was a fool to come in on two eights!' 'Yes!' Taken a pool at last!' that weary the ears of racebound travellers. Smooth and speedy is the journey to that dear old minster city on the Ouse, in whose clean, narrow streets life seems to be dozed away as in another Sleepy Hollow, save at York August' or assize times. A long, refreshing sleep, an awakening made strange by the soundless streets, a delightful Yorkshire breakfast in the comfortable coffee-room at "Harker's' (whose visitors' book holds the names of half-travelling America), and a furtive inspection of the Sunday-clothed crowds making their way to those seven or eight and twenty churches that are not more than sufficient for the requirements of so decorous a population. And what pretty girls help to make up the congregations! Surely five minutes' gaze from a York window on Sunday morning must be fatal to the peace of mind of bachelor or widower who has not yet reached his sixtieth year. So at least thinks the writer as he looks out from his corner of vantage, and so, too, he thinks as, making his way through the thoroughfares, again well-nigh silent, he seeks in vain for the barber, whose absence has ofttimes before caused him woe and perturbation of spirit. Yet to be written are the sorrows of the unfortunate unable to shave himself. What recollections are aroused of vain searches for the man of razor and basin at Saltburn, of weary waitings for the peripatetic sud creator at Singleton, of the shame of an unshorn chin so far overpowering modesty as to render welcome the offices of the waiter at a refreshment booth on Ascot Heath, even though they were tendered on the course itself in broad sunlight, and in the midst of an attentive throng of list men, welshers, and all the dingy camp followers of the great Turf army. Procured at much trouble and cost, the longed-for man is at length presented. He maintains, not unworthily, the traditions of his calling, although if equally fluent of tongue with the babbling Bagdad shaver of Arabian Nights' renown, he does not go the length of singing the song, and dancing the dance of Zantout.' Sport of all kinds, but especially horse-racing, is beloved of the craft throughout Britain, and most of all in Yorkshire. It is no surprise, then, when, after commencing cautiously with allusions to the historical associations of old Ebor, and working gradually up to its neighbourhood, he at last leads the discourse to Fairfield, and, finding that a key-note is touched, boldly winds up with a leading question about Coeruleus's chance for the Cambridgeshire. The walk to Knavesmire a couple of hours later, made familiar by many a pleasant stroll on Convivial, and Prince of Wales's, and Gimcrack days, seems incomplete without the rattle of fly wheels, the call of card sellers, and constant salutations from the race-goers of the Riding. The big pasture itself contrasts strangely with the Knavesmire last seen five weeks before, when people were straining their eyes to find whether Thunder could lessen the advantage that his erratic starting had given to Spin