Four Short Chapters on Horses, Hunting, and the Turf. By the late Major Rose, 55th Regiment. Edinburgh, Constable

& Co.

detect.

From The Athenæum. to shape and then to action. His chief requisites should be a light head and neck not too fleshy, full eye, light, lively ear, wide jowl, and small muzzle. The fore-leg must be large, flat, clean, and sinewy; feet black, HERE is a sensible little book, written by heel high, pastern short and oblique; there a Scotch officer, who, after a life devoted to should be a rise at the wither, and a wellsporting in England, Ireland, and India, fell developed fore-arm, haunches wide, loins at Alma while leading on the Light Company strong and wide, and the hock sure and firm. to the attack on the heights. Riding full at But, after all, trial is necessary. A ride of the enemy, just as he would have " slapped "two miles tries the animal's wind and his at a fence, the stout-hearted sportsman fell, vice, or his tendency to trip or shy, and mortally wounded. The present work is brings out any uneasiness in the feet. But made up of scattered papers, in which he listen to this, ye green Oxonians! - navicular had condensed some thirty years' experience and cataract none but professional men can in horse-flesh. With no pretension to literary skill, the author writes as a gentleman of iron nerve and steel sinews would write, always from experience, and never from theory. The book shows how completely an observing, exact mind can turn the merest sport into a science, for it proves that grooming, shoeing, dosing, and every other part of a horse's management, is each a study not to be exhausted even in an intelligent man's life. Men who might have been philosophers or statesmen, throwing from accident their thoughts into varieties of sport, may like Major Rose study them with all the ardor of a science, and derive from them nearly as much profit. Buying a horse exercises the observation and judgment, and the art of choosing so as not be duped is difficult enough to baffle the sagacity of a dozen philosophers; hunting requires temper, endurance, and decision, and nearly all the qualities of a good officer. A man who loves horses must observe their characters, study their anatomy, consider their constitution, know in riding when to aid their efforts and how to give them a double strength, when to check their instinct, and when to confide in them.

If young men knew only the difficulty of buying a horse, they would less often dare the tempter on their own account. The Major (we can see his firm mouth and wise, half-shut eye) gives us a few hints on this head, and they are worth studying. A lover of a horse must buy for himself, because he alone can know what he wants: but he must guard against plotting servants, lying grooms, and his own haste, indecision, blindness, and ignorance. He must discover disease, and detect organic defects :- he must look first BCXII. LIVING AGE. VOL. XII.

26

On stable management the Major has several words of command, which he utters with gentleman-like courtesy and humility. He thinks a low system of diet the best summer treatment for a hunter, better than idleness and grass; - he prefers stalls to boxes, and thinks the gregarious horse happier and quieter in company. Three hours' walk, he says, is sufficient exercise for a horse not in training. Oats and hay, the former crushed and mixed with bran, he thinks the best food for the horse. In grooming, he thinks due rubbing and drying the feet and legs more important than any showy attention to the satin of the skin. Many horses, he thinks, are made incurably vicious by rough-handed and brutal grooming. A horse's expression when his groom enters the stable shows if the groom be kind or rough.

The Irish blacksmiths, the Major remarks, are better than the English, as they love the horse and study his comfort more. He objects to Miles' principle of one-sided nailing as insecure, and is profound on all sorts of subtleties of plating, jointing, inside seating and outside seating. His chief rule is, that, although for town and paving work a heavy shoe may be preferable to a light, a good sound foot cannot be too little covered as long as the crust is protected. In Arabia they do not shoe at all. In India they cover the whole sole with a plate of iron.

On riding the Major is sensible and shrewd, and sees more things in pigskin and whipcord than are found in most men's philosophy. He divides civilians' riding into three classes,

race-riding, hunting, and steeple-chasing. The man who does one of these well seldom excels in the others, just as good fencers are

bad broad-swordsmen, and good organists are not to flog dogs too much, and rather to bad pianists. For flat-racing, seat, hand, watch than force the hounds, only bringing and head are required, for steeple-chasing, in science to aid instinct. nerve and madness, — for crossing country, head, nerve, eye, and the staunchness of a bloodhound. The heavy-weight, to save his horse, drives straight on, and spares him at his fence, the steeple-chaser races at the fence, and saves his horse at the wrong place -"in the open."

Some good anecdotes, too technical to quote, are interspersed in the volume; but the author furnishes no facts to explain the theory of scent and its variation according to soil and weather. One of the best stories we remember on this subject is that of the old huntsman, who, losing his fox in an oak A few pages on hunting conclude this copse, where the banks were purple with clever little book. The Major laments that spring flowers, cracked his whip, swore an speed and blood have now taken all the enormous oath, and declared "there was music out of the pack. He deprecates lifting no having any sport for those stinking in cases of bad scent, and enjoins whips "violets."

66

MR. CHARLES DICKENS' READINGS.-On Sat- | tellectual good of the nation generally. (Cheers.) urday evening Mr. Dickens read his "Christmas I have much pleasure, sir, in presenting to you Carol" to a crowded audience in the lecture hall of the Sheffield Mechanics' Institution, in behalf of the funds of the institute. At the conclusion of the reading, and after a demonstration of applause had subsided, the Mayor (W. Fawcett, Esq.) rose and said—Mr. Dickens, ladies, and gentlemen, I am charged by a few gentlemen in Sheffield with a very pleasing duty, and that is to present to Mr. Dickens on this occasion a very handsome table-service of cutlery, a pair of razors, and a pair of fish-carvers. It was thought there ought to be some substantial manifestation of gratitude to Mr. Dickens for his great kindness in coming to Sheffield on this occasion. (Cheers.) I have enjoyed this evening's treat as much as any of you, and though I have frequently read Mr. Dickens' works with great relish and delight, yet from this time there will ever be associated in my mind the name of Charles Dickens and the Christmas of 1855. (Cheers.) Mr. Dickens knows as well as we know that our town is both black and smoky; but at the same time we make articles that are both bright and sharp (cheers and laughter) — and I think he will find that the articles now presented to him are not only bright and sharp, but that they are good, and will serve for a great number of years. I hope he will live to wear them out. (Cheers.) If he does so, and his faculties are continued unto him, which I hope may be the case(cheers) I am sure that not only we, but those who come after us, will have cause to rejoice greatly in his continued being. (Cheers.) Mr. Dickens has contributed greatly to the encouragement of benevolence and kindly feeling; and I trust he will continue to write works of such a character as will tend to the moral and in

this cutlery in the name of the people of Sheffield,
and hope it will prove extremely useful and ac-
ceptable. (Loud and continued cheering.) —
Mr. Dickens briefly returned thanks, and said
that in an earnest desire to leave imaginative and
popular literature something more closely asso-
ciated than he found it, at once with the private
homes and the public rights of the English peo-
ple, he should be faithful to death. -
-"The read-
ing of his Christmas Carol' by Mr. Dickens at
the Peterborough Corn Exchange, on Tuesday
evening week, was attended, says the 'Stamford
Mercury,' by the largest and most brilliant au-
dience ever assembled at Peterborough, upwards
of 700 persons being present. After a few pref-
atory remarks, Mr. Dickens commenced reading
the Carol.' His clever rendering of the differ-
ent characters was frequently applauded, and
the attention of his audience was closely riv-
etted to the story from beginning to end. His
mimicry was excellent, not overdrawn, but life-
like, especially in the character of Old Scrooge,
the miserable hard-fisted being who could not
bear to see others happy and cheerful, until
warned by the ghost of his former partners and
the dreams of Christmas- - past, present, and to
come. At the conclusion, a vote of thanks to
Mr. Dickens was moved by the Hon. G. W. Fitz-
william, and seconded by the Marquis of Huntly,
who, in addition, proposed as many cheers as
the audience had breath for, which was heartily
responded to by three times three and one cheer
more. The Mechanics' Institution, for whose
benefit the reading was given, are much obliged
to Mr. Dickens. We hear that the receipts
amount to nearly £50."— Examiner.

66

vast

THE Plurality of Worlds is a book that by this time most people have heard something about. Not more, singular in itself, than for the criticisms it has provoked, its reception must have amply satisfied any desire to promote discussion entertained by its author. It maintains, we need hardly say, the rather startling thesis that the myriads of stars which we were taught in our youth to regard as so many suns surrounded by circling planets, each inhabited by a race of intelligent beings, are in fact mere sparks thrown off in the process of creation; it is true in extent, but dreary, waste, and chaotic; abodes not for man, but at the best for such strange reptiles as crawled on the earth before man was created. But whatever may be thought of this paradox, it is impossible to withhold admiration from the immense variety of scientific knowledge which the author brings to bear in support of it; or not to be impressed by the acute reasoning he employs in detecting many fallacies in those who have adhered to the contrary opinion. Very few, nevertheless, have hitherto been his converts; and the obvious analogy to which his theory is opposed will be pretty sure, in the present state of knowledge, to prevent their numbers from receiving increase.

"We assert unhesitatingly that no sceptic during the last 100 years has written a more daring or mischievous page. It gives the lie to the Gospel, and insults the faith of the Christian. We request the reader's attention for a minute, while we show to him the full significance of the passage. The Jews, in our Lord's time, were accustomed to make a threefold division of the heavens-(1) atmosphere, (2) starry firmament, (3) the dwelling-place of God. To one or other of these regions Scripture always assigns the homes of angels. The dream of Jacob in the Old Testament, and the vision of the shepherds in the New, will recur to the memory. There is no mention of any Divine form appearing to man which is not described as descending upon earth, or having its abode in heaven. I will not be denied by any Christian that the Lord of angels returned to them. Whither, then, did He go? After He had led His disciples to Olivet and was parted from them, we are told by St. Luke, in words singularly clear and emphatic, that they looked steadfastly towards heaven as He went up.' And if we open the letter to the Ephesians, we find St. Paul saying that He ascended far above all heavens went, that is, into the remoter and the more glorious country of the Divine Presence. But if He to whom angels ministered ascended among the stars, they who minister to Him must abide there also. Accordingly, the Bible places angels in the sky: the essayist affirms that science refuses a site for their dwelling either in the planets or the stars. The Bible promises to us their sympathy: the essayist declares that we are as little likely to know what angels are doing as they are to feel any care about us. The Bible describes them as ministering spirits: the essayist derides the office as a mixture altogether incongruous and

incoherent.'

Yet we think no one who examines the book, or is acquainted with the antecedents This is turning the tables on the anti-pluof the philosopher and scholar to whom it is ralists with a vengeance! To deny that the ascribed, can hesitate as to the motives which stars and planets are inhabited is to banish most probably suggested it. That a zeal for angels from existence altogether. The schoolrevealed religion mainly induced the author men of old used to debate how many millions to undertake the refutation of the generally of angels could dance on the point of a needle, received theory respecting the plurality of and we have hitherto considered this interestworlds, we entertain no doubt. For, ever ing question as purely speculative. But, acsince the celebrated dialogue between the cepting the doctrine before us, we should Astronomer and the " Marquise "made its have to admit our error; for a resolution appearance, many have found a difficulty in of the problem proposed by the schoolmen reconciling the doctrine of Christianity re- would become a step towards determining specting the destinies of the human species, whether there is in nature a plurality of At least the argument of the rewith the existence of innumerable races simi- worlds. lar to man in their moral, intellectual, and viewer, which supposes that ministering spirphysical constitution, yet apparently not in-its are rather bulky, and require a good deal cluded within the scheme of redemption. of room for their comfortable existence, would With no less surprise than regret, therefore, be got rid of. we are convinced, would Dr. Whewell read the subjoined remark in an otherwise striking review of his book which appeared in Wednesday's Times:

We must add, that, eloquent as the review is, some exception might be taken to its logic. The Letter to the Ephesians says that "He ascended far above all heavens;" that is, ob

Yet the re

viewer is not a ministering spirit to the Jovian-why, then, must the Jovian be a ministering spirit to the reviewer?

serves the reviewer, "went into the remoter stars." Can it have escaped the reviewer and the more glorious country of the Divine that the term "heavens" in its natural or Presence." From which the conclusion is, physical sense is purely relative? To an inthat if "He to whom angels ministered as habitant of Jupiter, the Earth is as much cended among the stars, they who minister" in the heavens " as Jupiter is in the heavto Him must abide there also." Abide ens to an inhabitant of Earth. where? According to the reasoning employed, we must suppose where He abides; far above all heavens; that is to say, far above all stars, and in the more glorious country which the reviewer conjectures, as we believe correctly, to be signified by the expression of St. Paul. Surely, then, when it is asserted that "if He to whom angels minister ascended among the stars, they who minister to Him must abide there also". and the inference is drawn that angels abide in the stars - a palpable non sequitur is committed. To ascend among the stars cannot, by any one acquainted with the meaning of the words employed, be held to signify the same thing as to "abide in the stars." There is no contradiction, therefore, in denying the angels a place in "the planets or the

The cry of infidelity is easily raised. But such imputations, rarely wise, should never be thrown out against a work written in a philosophical spirit upon a subject of legiti mate inquiry. Religious fanaticism is not so entirely extinct among us as to render such appeals harmless. If any one believes that spirits are substantial as the fairies who pinched Falstaff in Windsor Forest, he is of course welcome to his opinion; but he ought to enjoy it without asserting that those who embrace a less material doctrine "give the lie to the Gospel and insult the faith of Christianity."

form them the fleet is coming, or to attempt to frighten them at a distance; paltry the last, and foolish the first," &c. Lots 123 and 124, three letters of Dr. Franklin, sold for £9 17s. In one of them he says:— "The coolness, temper, and firmness of the American proceedings; the unanimity of all the colonies in the same sentiments of their rights, and of the injustice of fered to Boston; and the patience with which those injuries are at present borne, without the least appearance of submission, have a good deal surprised and disappointed our enemies.” Athenæum.

AUTOGRAPH LETTERS. - A few autograph let-mander-in-Chief may send a frigate just to inters of interest have been dispersed by Messrs. Puttick & Simpson. Among those deserving of remark are the following, with the prices at which they were sold: Lots 24 and 25, two letters of Mary of Modena, sold for £4 8s. Lot 26, a letter of William the Third, sold for £4 4s., - and lots 27 and 28, two letters of his Queen, Mary, sold for £6 13s. In one of these letters she says:-"The Bishop of Salisbury (Burnet) has made a long thundering sermon this morning, and has been to desire the Queen to have it printed; this she could not refuse, though she would not have done it of her own motion, for reasons she gave him." &c. - Lot 29, a letter of Anne of Denmark, sold for £2 A SUGGESTION having been made for the pub16s., - lot 33, a short letter of Louis the Four-lication of "Narcissus Luttrell's Diary," so ofteenth, sold for £2 14s., lots 34 and 35, two ten referred to by Mr. Macaulay in his History, letters of Archbishop Laud, sold for £15 7s. 6d. Mr. Thom, the editor of "Notes and Queries,' In one he says:- "Parliament was dissolved on reports that steps have already been taken by the 5th of the month, soe that noyce is at an the Camden Society for making this valuable end, but what is next to be done, since they record, or portions of it, availabie to modern would do nothing, I dare not prescribe," &c. readers. The proper title of the work is " Brief The other related to the mobbing of the Arch- Historical Relations," and these brief Relations bishop's Palace at Lambeth on the night of May occupy no less than seventeen volumes in small 11th, 1640. Lot 50, a letter of Dean Swift, in thick quarto. Application has been made by the reference to the copyright of his works, sold for Camden Society to the Warden of All Souls, £5 5s.,-lots 53 to 57, some letters of Nelson, Oxford, for permission to have a transcript varied from 30s. to £2 18s. One of them con- made. Sir James Mackintosh having obtained tains the following curious passage (speaking of leave to have transcripts of such portions as he his superiors in command):-"They all hate wished, and Mr. Macaulay having had access to me, and treat me ill. I cannot guess why we the original manuscripts, the request of the Camare not off Copenhagen. I suppose the Com-den Society will probably be granted.

-