EMBELLISHMENTS. THE FIRST CLASS; ENGRAVED BY E. HACKER, FROM A PAINTING BY E. CORBet. WAY BILL.-The University Boat Race-The Fishery Commissioners— THE GRAND NATIONAL.". -BY CASTOR. "HERE'S SPORT INDEED!"-BY LORD WILLIAM LENNOX REMINISCENCES OF A COCKNEY.—BY FORWARD RECOLLECTIONS of spoRT IN CEYLON.-BY COLONEL W. W. TURNER, C.B., 97TH REGIMENT. MAY SPORTS.-BY WANDERER THE FIRST CLASS . " OTHER DAYS."-BY ATHELWODE. MY LADY'S HOBBY. APRIL SPORTS IN PERTHSHIRE.-BY NORVAL. SNAKES AND SNAKE BITES.-BY P. L. SIMMONDS. HOUND SALES. STATE OF THE ODDS 329 THE TURF REGISTER. Chertsey Royal Hunt, Military and Open Steeplechases-County Down-Brackley Union Hunt-Malton Spring MeetingShipston-on-Stour-Norfolk and Norwich - Croydon - Margate SpringWarwick Spring Meeting-Torquay-Bromley Spring-New BuckenhamWetherby Lutterworth-Brocklesby-Hayling Island-Epsom SpringAylesbury-Lewes-Cheltenham-Diss — Bangor — Croxton Park-Kidderminster-Melton Hunt-North Warwickshire Hunt-Sandbeck Hunt-Cambridge-Rugby-Eastbourne Hunt-Bridgnorth-Northampton and Pytchley Hunt-Isle of Wight-Chepstow Hunt-Sedgefield-North Walsham Hunt -Aberystwith-Hedon, Hull, and Holderness-Newcastle-on-Tyne Spring Meeting-Grand National Hunt-Albrighton Hunt-Edinburgh SpringNewmarket Craven. M. W. D. D. New Moon, 4th day, at 40 min. past 7 morning. OCCURRENCES. 1 W The Chester Cup Day. r 4 2929 4 25 1 s 7 27 N SETS. r 4 26 1 8 55 7 30 210 5 2 28 2 49 3 10 3 32 7 3 54 4 16 4 S Ranelagh Y. C. Opening Trip. 8 W s 7 33 311 411 59, 4 40 5 4 5 7 9 T Cricket-Ld's, Artillery v. Brigader 4 19 10 F Sale of the Herefordshire Hounds. s 7 36 11 S R. London Y. C. Opening Trip. r 4 16 12 S Third Sunday after Easter. s 7 39 8 1 48 13 M Cricket-Lord's, M.C.C. v. Colts. r 14 T Bath Races. 15 W County Louth Races. 612 40 6 21 6 53 4 13 9 2 15 s 7 42 10 2 3911 r 4 1011 3 5 12 4 16 T Crkt.-Ld's, M.C.C. v. Knickrbkrss 7 45 12 3 30 12 29 12 50 17 F Harpenden Races. Fourth Sunday after Easter. r 4 415 8 34 7 51 16 9 28 2 30 2 47 3 5 3 23 r 4 20 M Cricket-Lord's, M.C.C. v. Irelands 21 T Epsom Races. 22 W The Derby Day. 23 TR. Mersey Y. C. Opening Cruise. 25 S The Islington Horse Show. 29 WR. London Y. C. Match, Erith. s 7 54 1810 58 7 42 8 12 s 8 r 3 53 25 1 56 9 5910 30 s 8 r3 THE OMNIBUS. "There he sat, and, as I thought, expounding the law and the prophets, until on drawing a little nearer, I found he was only expatiating on the merits of a brown horse."-BRACEBRIDGE HALL. WAY BILL:-The University Boat Race-The Fishery CommissionersDeath of Butterfly-Ashton Hall-The Pugs in Chancery-Racing Mems of the Month-The late Bill Bean-The Hound Sales-Mr. Donkin on Hunters The Two Thousand Day. MOTHING has gained on the Londoners so insensibly and yet so surely of late years, as the love of the "Water Derby" or the University Boat Race. One remembers exactly how the tallow-faced Decrfoot, with that great feather and waggling head, first kindled that love for athletic exercises in England which has made Matthew Arnold so furious, and extended to every school of any size in England; but the growing Cockney feeling of interest in the dark and light blues cannot be traced. The repeated defeats of Cambridge might have had something to do with it. Indifferent people liked to hear of the pluck which led them to train again and give battle year after year, and so they gradually grew sympathetic, bought a bit of light blue (as a little tailor once told us) "just to encourage the young gentlemen," and hied away (wet or dry) to the river side. The carriage company, however, did not increase in any remarkable degree until about four years ago; and yet now the block from Kensington to Hammersmith, two hours before the race, is not very different from that in the lane by the Durdans on a Derby afternoon. This year omnibuses were bespoken weeks before; and some cabmen would not bargain to call even at half-past seven and take you to the race, under a guinea. Well may they deck their whips and talk familiarly of "them rowing gents," and discuss Griffiths as familiarly as they would George Fordham on a Two Thousand eve. The betting is over every mahogany, in every tap, and under every green tree, and when the news ran about London on Friday night that Willan had not been in the boat all day, in consequence of a boil, you might have thought Plaudit had broken down, and all Yorkshire in sackcloth and ashes. The photographs of the crew quite impressed one with the idea, that Oxford "had more physique." Tinné looked quite a portly middle-aged man, as he stood in the Oxford undress group; but in the other, which was a marvellously well composed thing, he was "composed" on one knee in the rear, and we had no clear appreciation of his 13st. 2lb. solidarité. Cunningham was a special object of our curiosity in the Cambridge group, as the happy news had reached him during his Putney probation, that he was in the first class of the Classical Tripos. Water may well be called our native element, as it didn't " seem to keep one single person away." Many had no doubt sat up all night, so they felt bound to face everything. Again, the same amount of gudgeons were found to freight the steamers, although it is patent that they never see anything. Two or three captains were as untractable as usual, and only compelled to give in because the crews declined to start, and so it will go on year after year, till we have some Thames bill like that on the Tyne, which will give the river police power to say what steamers, if any, may go with the umpires. Mr. Denman is content to look on from Hammersmith Bridge, and why need others encourage a lot of lawless, greedy, steam-boat proprietors, who are the nuisance of the day? The people stood out the rain and the delay with the most stolid pluck, and many never stirred from the spot, be it bridge, or towingpath, or sand-hills till the winning crew told its own tale by paddling back with the tide. One cad was most demonstrative, not to say pugnacious. When the boats had passed Barnes Bridge, some grave white neckcloth "from the Groves of Academe" ventured to say, "I think Cambridge wins." On this the other turned round, quite savage and insulted: "How dare you say that? if you say it again I'll chuck you into the river." The quiet gentleman might well stare and fly to safer climes. Something was said about "the inevitable barge" again, but the finish was so fine that the Cambridge men scorned excuses. They had done their best, and every man had placed himself unreservedly in the captain's hands to do what he liked with them, and as the defeated candidate always says on the hustings, under such circumstances, "a defeat is more than a victory; it is a moral victory. I envy not &c., &c." Still Cambridge has a head-wind against it. Its river is a mere ditch; fortune year after year withholds the toss, and it was hard lines to have an ex-Cantab pulling stroke against you, and with an energy which kept his head in such a state of chronic activity that we thought he would have jerked it off. The Cambridge seem quite down at losing Griffiths, and, as they say, " we must begin de novo: all the old props are swept away." One thing we shall never understand in Cambridge tactics, and that is their eternal spurting. This year they were avowedly over-matched in point of strength, for so long a race, and yet willy nilly they would have the lead and force the pace nearly to Barnes Bridge. One would have thought it would have been better to have kept waiting on Oxford to about Chiswick Church, and then to have fairly tackled them, to see if they were short of condition, and fought out the rest of the course, stroke for stroke. As it is, Cambridge always seems to row the race with a view to being first in the wrong part of it. Land and water tactics may be totally opposite; but ask who we may, they never seem to explain this curious generalship. The Fishery Commissioners have had a good deal of fun with the Solway Frith mosstroopers, more especially those about Bowness, who claim to fish with poke-net or straight-nets, no man forbidding them, according to "immemorial rects." As for "close time" the simple villagers take no note of it. One of these "Queen's subjacts" could not say what age he was at a given time; but this he did know, that "he was married." Many would not say that they caught salmon in the stream nets, but only confessed to flounders, cod-fish, and seabirds. Another had not seen the stream net catch a salmon, but had seen them "in the stream-net." The wily casuist added that he had "seen flounder-fishing far better than salmon-they are so good to eat." One of the solicitors was so impressed with the words "close time," that he walked to a Temperance Meeting, and proposed in his speech, that the working-classes should have a "close time" as regards drink, from 6 p.m. on Saturday to 6 a.m. on Monday, like the salmon. The Dean, who was in the chair, did not just take to the joke; and they do say that he was once quite annoyed, when he stuck fast in an armchair before dinner, and some one said "Upon my word, Mr. Dean, that's what I call a close fit." Great men must not be trifled with. The following table shows the distances at which the boat-race has been rowed since its commencement. It will be seen that the Crokers and the Denmans had a severer course than the present men : Year Winner. 1829, Oxford Course. ... Hambledon Lock to Henley Bridge, 21| miles 1836 Cambridge Westminster to Putney, 5 miles 1839 Cambridge Westminster to Putney, 54 miles. 1840 Cambridge Westminster to Putney, 5 miles 1841 Cambridge Westminster to Putney, 5 miles. 1842 Oxford Westminster to Putney, 5 miles. 1845 Cambridge Putney to Mortlake, 43 miles 1846 Cambridge Mortlake to Putney, 43 miles 1849 Cambridge Putney to Mortlake, 43 miles 1849 Oxford Putney to Mortlake, 43 miles 1852 Oxford Putney to Mortlake, 4 miles 1854 Oxford Putney to Mortlake, 43 miles 1956 Cambridge Barker's Rails to Putney, 5 miles 1857 Oxford Putney to Mortlake, 43 miles 1858 Cambridge Putney to Mortlake (Oxford broke a rowlock) 1859 Oxford ... Putney to Mortlake, 43 miles 1860 Cambridge Putney to Mortlake, 4 miles ... ... 1861 Oxford 1862 Oxford 1863 Oxford 1864 Oxford 1865 Oxford 1866 Oxford 1867 Oxford Putney to Mortlake, 43 miles Putney to Mortlake, 4 miles Mr. Fell, of Trinity Hall, who was at the head of his cricket average all the long at Cartmel, and who was tried in one of the Cambridge eights this year, died about the boat-race time. He was much disappointed at not being selected; but illness overtook him, and he gradually sank. |