ones" of Newmarket. If a green coat, suddenly retreating from the hips, and a frontispiece of Sibyline portent, give the world assurance of a sage, then write them down of wisdom beyond their fellows. Herein, of course, I allude only to the or moλλo. Among the members of the Jockey Club there are, probably, few secrets, and they constitute nearly all the owners of race-horses running regularly over the heath. Nothing amuses me more than quietly to esconce myself under the lee of the ring, and listen to the observations that fall from the "Newcomes," sprinkled over every meeting, anent the mysteries of betting, and the wonders expressed as to whence the Legs are enabled to draw their information, and pick out what to back. "No man is a hero to his valet," quoth the proverb; and in every other relation of life, that peep behind the scenes will be found to "call back reality, and break the spell." Let no one suppose, who visits Newmarket to learn a little of life, that he alone wanders over its classic sod an unlearned Theban. He will have imbibed full many a moving tale of craft and subtilty, in which your betting man is pourtrayed as the Machiavel of his calling. He will stand aloof, gaze upon the busy "slaves of the ring," and mentally offer up a petition for grace to the tyro who may haply fall into their toils. What would he think were I at his elbow, and, reading his self-communing, thus to whisper in his ear In nine cases out of ten, those who have never seen a horse save at Astley's Amphitheatre, or had experience of racing beyond that afforded by the saw-dust Derby, run annually in the circle at Westminster-bridge, are in safer condition to traffic in the ring at Newmarket, than all the old stagers that have kept Sathanas waiting for the penalty of his bond for the last half century. In betting upon matches, toss a shilling, and call heads or tails with yourselt for choice that is the true criterion. Matches are always handicaps, made with caution, upon the true diamond-cutdiamond system, without a farthing per cent. to choose between either. You go to the ring, however, and the chance is, that you find the current of exchange running as though the bargain on the tapis had been entered into when one of the parties was non compos. Nowhere is the esprit de corps more omnipotent than on the turf,-nowhere on the turf so omnipotent as at Newmarket. and not horses, are backed. precept; so I will illustrate. riding leisurely down to the the time announced for the first race. in consequence of an accident, I was under the impression that it would be no go. There, stables, Example, however, is before About two years ago I was heath, being careless about It was a match, and, The parties engaged we will supand my reason for believing there pose to be A. and B.; would be no start, was this :-The match was for a hundred, and in the morning I was aware that B. had offered A. seventy-five pounds forfeit-tolerably strong grounds for such an opinion. As I passed the weighing-house, I went in, and, to my surprise, I saw the jockeys for this match just out of the scales, and preparing to set off for the saddling-stables. Both the parties were obstinate; A. was sure of winning, and would take nothing less than the whole amount (it was a P. P. event), and B., as he must pay, "would have a shy if he lost his stick." Slowly Take, for instance, the episodes of the Angelica colt, and Eringo, in the past year, and the present. that wending my way for the ring, the first sounds that saluted my ear, were odds being freely offered, and no takers, upon B. Here was coin a-begging, and no friendly purse would give it an asylum. I have an oath registered never to bet, under any dispensation, however providential, but there was no reason that I should not give a friend a turn -I did so, and, in five minutes, he was a richer man. There was nothing wrong here; the very fact of the absence of takers was proof enough-but B.'s was a crack stable, therefore its inhabitants must win. From the lighter tintings, the ornamental filling-in of my design, I conclude with a word touching the foreground of my sketch. Here necessarily stands, in the strongest relief, the Jockey Club, a body of gentlemen associated for a very noble purpose; collectively and individually, of unquestionable honour and integrity, but not exempt from the possibility of backsliding, as shown in the instance that once compelled them to purge their society of the presence of the first subject in the realm. The turf, infinitely the most important of our national sports, if, indeed, from the vast speculations to which it now gives. birth, it deserve not to be classed among schemes of a higher character than those of mere amusement, is virtually in the hands of that body. From it has emanated a code of rules, very excellent, as far as they apply, by which the whole detail of racing in Great Britian is influenced and regulated. That they tend to produce good order, and essentially to serve the best interests of racing, I cordially bear testimony; and hence the anxiety I feel lest any chance may weaken their present conventional weight. Let them, above all things, eschew apathy and contempt of little sinnings though ease, and emancipation from trouble, may be the privileges of their order, as legislators on, and executors of, the laws of racing, they must not hope We are not parted, though, between, At morning, faintly o'er the flower To muse upon the parting tear With which thy cheek was wet, At evening, when the golden rays Upon the lingering beams I gaze, For thus to watch those glories set There was a time-can I forget? Thus art thou with me, though, between, We are not parted-no! J. W. C. |