ON

N Saturday morning, February 26, the King, with his usual attendants, rode to Ascot Heath, his Majesty was there met by the Earl of Sandwich, and a number of gentlemen sportsmen. About eleven o'clock a favourite deer was turned out of the cart for the day's diversion. At starting, the deer took to the right of Hatchet-lane, through the inclosures by Winkfield Church, where he took to the left; and, making for home, he was taken near Mr. Gaust's park, after a race of an hour and a half. His Majesty was in sight of the deer all the time.

On Saturday morning, March 5, as soon as his Majesty had breakfasted, he left the Queen's Lodge, attended by General Manners, and rode to Ascot race ground, where his Majesty was met by Earl Sandwich, and several others of distinction, when the royal deer was turned out of the cart about eleven o'clock for the day's diversion. At starting, he ran with great swiftness towards Sunning Hill Wells, taking to the right by King's Beach Hill, across the forest, where he was closely pursued, and at length taken, after a very hard run of about two hours, near Mr. Crutchley's park.

THE Epping Forest Stag hounds I had a fine chase, but a very severe day, on Saturday, March 19, they enlarged a deer near Chadwell, on the forest, which ran, in three or four severe bursts, along Wealdside to Ingatestone, Mill Green, Writtle park, thence to Chelmsford,

and lastly to Chignal, where he was run into by only three couple of the head hounds, in the presence of about as many hunters, who rode the whole chase: the run was supposed to be about fifty-two miles. Several capital horses died in the field, and many others remained invalided at the different inns along the Essex road.

ON Friday the 25th ult. the Goodwood hounds run a fox for several hours in the neighbourhood of Chichester, followed by a large field of sportsmen, very few only of whom were in at the death. A fine horse belonging to Captain Johnson, of the Prince's regiment, dropped under his master, and expired in consequence of hard riding in the field. The above chase afforded several remarkably fine runs, with reynard in full view, and was esteemed the best before the Goodwood dogs during the season.

THE dashing sportsmen of Melton Mowbray and Quorn, have been much disappointed this season with the little or no sport which the turned-out foxes have shewn, these having proved but a bad substitute for these gallant foxes which, when old Meynell managed the hounds (whose courteous and conciliatory manners prevailed on the farmers to preserve the game) shewed such straight-forward runs and short bursts.-Indeed the Leicestershire fox-hunting, which of late years has been so celebrated all over the world, may be fairly said to be in the last stage of a de

cline. In the North, Mr. Lambton's hounds have proved very successful, and are really capital; while Lord Darlington's, in their visit to our Ferry-bridge country, have kept up their old and welldeserved reputation of shewing uncommon sport, and are usually attended by very large fields. Amongst the forward riders, we have noticed Lord Darlington, Lord Barnard, Sir F. Boynton, and Messrs. Hawke, Hartley, Scott, Parker Clowes, and Lascelles.

THE hunt (late Ward's, and Lord Sefton's) in Oxfordshire, now Sir T. Mostyn's, is most excellently attended, particularly from the Collegians at Oxford. They have

had some excellent runs and severe chases this season, and it is not uncommon to see from one hundred to two hundred horsemen with them well mounted. A gentleman of Christ's Church College, for a bet, about a fortnight since, rode a whole day's hunt with the above hounds (upwards of one hundred horsemen out) with a military cocked hat and feather; he rode in scarlet.

THE Odiham subscription hounds, on Wednesday, March 9th, after a chase of nearly sixty miles, pursued a fox into the town of FarnhamIt was market day, the place crowded, and so unexpected a visit created much bustle and alarm; but Reynard was killed in Castle

street.

THE Oatlands, this year, is the best handicap ever made in England. For many years there have not been three classes for the Oatlands stakes; this is owing to the great justice done by the two handicappers of the stake, Lord H. Fitzroy, and Lord Chedworth.

TUNEFUL'S race stands good with Allegranti, between the owners of the mares, for four thousand gui

neas, and, to a certainty will be run; the former is the favourite, about seven to four; but if both come well and quite up to the post, it is imagined, the odds will be more in favour of Tuneful.

.

BETTING Room, March 21.The bets respecting the Derby Stakes are seven to two against Lord Grey's Colt, and nine to two against Stamford. For the Oaks, four to one against the sister to Allegranti, and five to one against the Duke of Grafton's filly.

THE TURF.-By a notification in the Gazette, it appears that his Majesty's plate of one hundred guineas, hitherto run for at Burford,

is transferred to Doncaster.

MURDER OF A WARRENERIn our sporting intelligence, page 228, for January, is the particulars of the murder of Joseph Lidgate, a Warrener, by Thomas Wilson. As a sequel to that article, Wil.on was tried at the Lincoln assizes, found guilty, and executed for the murder he was only twenty-one years of age.

It is to be remarked that he procured the fatal sword on Monday, Dec. 20; on Tuesday he ground and sharpened it at a blacksmith's shop; on Wednesday he stabbed the unfortunate Lidget, and was dreadfully shot in the arm; on Thursday he was apprehended; on Friday he was committed to Lincoln casile; and on Saturday his arm was amputated near the shoulder !!!-Wilson had almost recovered from the effects of having his right arm amputated.

SHOOTING AT A GAMÉKEEP. ER. At the late assizes for the county of Northampton, came on the trial of George Bacon, who, with George Peake, was committed to the gaol of the same county, for "wilfully and maliciously aiding and abetting John Allen, late of, Stamford, in the County of Lincoln,

printer,

printer, in shooting at John Gamble, gamekeeper to the Marquis of Exeter, on Fiday night the 10th of December ast, between the hours of ten and eleven o'clock, on Easton-hill side, in the parish of Easton, in the said county of Northampton."-The prosecution was carried on, however, against Bacon only, Peake being adinitted an evidence on the part of the crown, and was conducted under

side of his face, were produced in court at Northampton by a surgeon; but Gamble was too ill to attend.

In the last season, Mr. W. Miller, gamekeeper to William Russel, sq, of Brancepeth Castle, shot eight partridges at one shot, being the whole of the covey.

A great number of wild swans have been shot in the neighbourhood of Yarmouth-Seventeen were shot

which makes the individual commission of an offence by one of any number of confederates in an unlawful transaction (as in the shooting of preserved game, which was the avowed object of the offenders in question) the deed of the whole party collectively; and consequent ly all are indictable as principals in an offence which perhaps some of them had not the most distant intention of committing.-Some cases in which persons in similar situations had been condemned and executed under this clause of the act, were cited by the learned counsel on the part of the prosecution.Mr Balguy, in behalf of the prisoner, contended that the melioration of this act, which had been in some cases admitted, was good hold in the present instance, no determination having been ever expressed by the party detected in unlawfully shooting game (as the person admitted to King's evidence had sworn) of prosecuting their intention by force in case of interruption. This consideration, and the very high character given to the prisoner, had weight with the jury, who, after a most able summing up by the mild and merciful Baron Graham, returned a verdict of Not Guilty. Poor Gamble, the subject of the above prosecution, we are sorry to say, has relapsed into a dangerous way from his wound: eleven shot and some pieces of bone, which had been extracted from the

week.

GOOD

A SHOT.-Mr. Barrow, the late traveller in Africa, mentions that several fields of rice. being newly sown, upon the grounds belonging to the settlers, near Elephant's river, it attracted such a number of the birds called the Gross-beak, that no less than sixty-three of them were shot at, the discharge of one small fowlingpiece.

GOOD SPORT IN ANGLING.-,

'A circumstance mentioned by a writer upon the art of angling, in the last century, to shew the abundance of fish in the river Isis, is, that in 1674, the mayor of Oxford, appointed two days for fishing, between Swithin's Wier, and Woolvercot bridge, a distance about three miles, when fifteen hundred Jacks were taken, besides fish of other kinds.

A TROTTING match took place last month between a mare, the property of Mr. Bell, of Manchester, rode by Mr. T .Fenton; and a mare belonging to Mr. Denham, of Chesterfield, rode by Mr. C Faulkner; for two hundred pounds aside, twenty miles, each carrying sixteen stone. stone. They started at Burnley, in Lancashire, and went through Skipton to Skipden in Yorkshire, a distance of twenty-one miles. Mr. Bell's mare won by about a mile and a half, and performed the length in about one hour and twenty-three minutes.

OF

Of the many wagers that almost daily take place, none seem more singular than the following:Wednesday, March 23, a landsman named Kirr, for a bet of ten guineas, engaged to start with a boat at high water, which happened about three o'clock, and to pass through every arch of Blackfriars Bridge; then to proceed to Westminster Bridge, and repeat the same there: after which he was to leave the boat at the landing-place, and proceed on foot to St James's Park, to go round the paling in the park; and, lastly, to return to the boat; -all within the space of fifty five minutes which he completed, to the great surprize of many, in fortysix minutes and a half. He finish

ed his task at Blackfriars Bridge in four minutes and a half, and rowed from thence to Westminster Bridge in nine minutes. In five minutes more, he was ready to proceed to the Park, and in twenty-four minutes time had passed round the paling, without hurrying himself; and in four minutes and a half longer he walked to the boat and claimed the wager.

DURING the present month, a match for twenty guineas was run between a heavy well bred cartmare, belonging to Mr. Davison, of Morpeth, tanner; and an active, hackney poney, belonging to Mr. Thompson, of the same place, tanner; rode by the owners. They started at the Barras Bridge, Newcastle, and went to the fifteenth mile-stone, at Morpeth, in fifty-five minutes. The poney kept the lead for the first twelve miles, when he began to shew symptoms of fatigue, and the race was won with ease by Mr. Davison. On this occasion, the knowing ones were taken in.

FRIDAY morning, February 25, Mr. Barlow, hair-dresser, of St. Clement's, and Mr. Curson, patten

maker, undertook, for a wager of one gallon of porter, to run from the Bull, Magdalen-street, to the Hall, in the Market-place, and back again. At starting, the odds were considerably in favour of the hairdresser, but won with great ease by the patten-maker.

Two pairs of eagles have been lately shot near Yarmouth, of that species which Linnæus calls the Falco Ossifragus ; and Buffon, L'Orfraie; and which Pennant, Latham, Bewicke, and other British naturalists, term the Sea Eagle, The habitudes and distinctive marks of this species are as follow:The sea eagles live chiefly upon fish, and build their nests on the sea shore, or by the sides of large rivers, on the ground among reeds, and often lay three or four eggs, rather less than those of a hen, of a white eliptical form; they catch their prey, which is chiefly fish, by darting down upon them: the Italians compare the violent descent of these birds on their prey, to the fall of lead into the water, and call them Aquila Plumbina, or the Leaden Eagle. The colour of the sea eagle inclines to white, mixed with iron brown; its belly is white, with iron-coloured spots, the covert feathers of the tail are whitish,; the tail feathers are black at the extremity; the upper part of the leg feathers are of an iron brown. One of these pairs measured and weighed as follows:-The Female

Length, 3 feet 4 inches; extent of wings, & feet; weight 93 lbs.— The Male-Length, 2 feet 9 inches; extent of wings, 7 feet 1 inch; weight 94 lbs.

ABOUT the beginning of this month, as a man and a boy in the service of Mr. Ellman were at plough in a field at Glynd, near Lewes, in Sussex, they observed, in an adjoining field, a hare that was playfully skipping about in the

centre

centre of it, which had also attract ed the notice of an old woman, who had been gathering sticks for fuel, whom the rusticks, to create a laugh, advised to go and endeavour to catch it; the woman threw down her bundle, and went as directed, when the hare, to the astonishment of them all, instead of shewing the timidity which is natural to it, by escaping, kept running and skipping round her, in the same playful manner it had done before her approach, which brought the ploughboy to the spot, who, with his cartwhip, struck the little animal repeatedly; but she would not be driven from her station: he at length struck her harder, and knocked her into a furrow, from which he took her up, and carried her to the next field, where she recovered, and ran off. It was a large female hare, and from the prominence of her teats, had her litter to provide for, which induced the boy to spare her life.

UNCOMMON PREVALENCE OF WOLVES IN POLAND.-A letter written from Cracovia, in February last, says, that the winter in that part of the world has been extremely severe, and caused much calamity. The wolves daily arrive at the gates of the town, in search of prey, which they cannot elsewhere find. A soldier, going on a message, was devoured by these ravenous animals, and the circumstance was only discovered by the

tattered remnants of his cloaths and his musket. Many dogs have become mad, and various persons have been bitten, against whose complaints all medical assistance has proved ineffectual.

ON Tuesday, the 15th instant, as a gentleman on horseback was riding along Providence Row, his horse suddenly took fright, owing to the keeper of the turnpike-gate

attempting to seize the reins, upon the gentleman refusing to take some bad haifpence offered in change, the horse running off with great speed, made towards FinsburySquare. The gentleman finding the horse unmanageable, suddenly threw himself off without receiving any injury; the horse immediately after rushed against the iron rails of the area at the corner of the square, and carried the iron railing and part of the stone work along with him to the bottom, where he was dashed to pieces.

DURING the present month, a young horse belonging to Mr Hinxman, of Week, near Winchester, taking fright, got away from a lad who was intrusted to walk him about the street, and galloped full speed into Messrs. Deane and Wooll's wine vaults. The affrighted animal run over thirty dozen of bottles, fifteen dozen of which he broke, without doing himself any material injury.

LATELY, Ralph Cooke, a noted poacher, was committed to the gaol of Berwick, for wilfully and maliciously shooting at Margaret, daughter of William Suggatt, hair-dress

er.

He had been out with his gun, and being followed and hooted on his return by some children, he turned, and lodged the contents of the piece in different parts of her body. Several of the shot cannot be extracted, and she recovers but slowly.

NOTWITHSTANDING the accounts of some of our travellers, the English sojourners at Paris live precisely in the same way as the John Bulls and Milords Anglais of former years. They associate almost exclusively with each other; they are taken in by the filles de joie, pigeoned by the gamesters, cheated by the hotel keepers, and laughed at by all.

POETRY.