Mr. Allen's b. f. Promise.-Pavis. Mr. Greatrix's ch. f. by The Colonel, out of Shortwaist.--Wheatley. Duke of Beaufort's Esmeralda.--Wright. Cyprian was the decided favourite, at 2 to 1; Fair Jane stood at 7 to 2; Emineh and Vesper 8 to 1 each; 10 to 1 agst. Destiny; 12 to 1 agst. Promise; 14 to 1 agst. Toga; and 20 to 1 agst. Shortwaist. The race as the Oaks generally is-was sporting and true-every inch of the ground being contested. They started well together, all in a cluster in fact, Minna being the first to give way, which she did at the top of the hill, Vesper and Mr. Greatrex's filly being the next to follow her example. About a distance and a half from home the following five appeared engaged in a grand struggle :- Cyprian, Fair Jane, Promise, Marmalade, and Destiny, which they maintained to the grand stand, when Cyprian and Destiny, springing forward simultaneously, made a beautiful rush in, Scott landing his mare-not without punishment-by half a length. Marmalade and Promise were two or three lengths behind, and a fine flourishing tail came sweeping down the course after them*. Cyprian is by Partisan, out of Frailty; by Filho da Puta, out of Agatha; by Orville-Star-Y. Marske. For a wonder, both Derby and Oaks were carried off by the first favourites, and the week passed over without rain. Though not of so much public interest as some meetings we have seen, this one will long be remembered as productive of one of those melancholy catastrophes that too frequently result from excessive gambling. We allude, of course, to the lamentable suicide of the Hon. Berkeley Craven, a gentleman well known in the sporting world. He had betted. unsuccessfully on the Derby, losing, it is said, some 80001. or 90001., which preyed so much upon his mind, that on the morning after the race, he put an end to his existence by shooting himself at his residence in Connaught-terrace, Edgeware-road. The sad intelligence, which was spread abroad on the morning of the Oaks, caused a gloom not only over a numerous circle by whom the unfortunate gentleman was known and respected, but over the town generally, and will, we trust, operate as a warning to all whose hopes of realizing instantaneous wealth would lead them to speculate on turf uncertainties rather than content themselves with what they are in possession of, or follow slower but surer means to fortune. Mr. Craven, at one time, was in the possession of an income of ten thousand a year, which by improvident speculation he had almost wholly dissipated, so much so, indeed, that the week before the race he borrowed a few hundred pounds of his solicitor, in the vain • Our Calendar, at the end, will supply the particulars of races not given in this report. hope of retrieving himself on the Derby, but with a highly honourable mind, which no adversity could corrupt, when the money was ready, he hesitated to take it, being convinced that his book was a ruinous affair. The settling on the 24th passed off worse than any settling day within our recollection. There was less money forthcoming than ever was known, and one noble lord, a book winner of 10,0001., was only able to draw 30001., while others actually went prepared to pay while they ought to have been large winners. We are happy to add that the blackleg fraternity were the heavy losers, and upon the old proverb of ex nihilo nihil fit, no better settling could be expected. Until gentlemen. and men of reputation separate themselves from such unworthy associates, betting and book-making must continue a mere farce. SULTAN THE STALLION, AND CRAVEN “THE PROPHET." THE result of the Derby, 1835, proved that Craven was no prophetthe result of the Derby, in 1836, has proved also (not that any evidence was required on this head) that he is "no conjurer." It is scarcely necessary, perhaps, to say so much, for the few passengers who now venture to travel with the Old Heavy, have long ceased to put their trust in a coachman so manifestly unfit to handle the ribbons, nor should I have troubled you or myself on the subject but to defend one of the best stallions of the day from an attack in the last number of the Old Sporting Magazine. He asserts, confidently, that send what mares you will to Sultan, he never has got or can get horses to run on! Now, to expose the utter incapacity of this frothy scribe, I will state a few facts:-The first of Sultan's get that appeared were Green Mantle and Varna-they ran first and second for the Oaks, beating a large field, including three Tramp fillies. Varna won the Drawing-room stakes (two miles and a half), and the Oatlands, (two miles); Green Mantle the Port, (two miles); Augusta the Newmarket St. Leger, (two miles); Mahmoud a Cup and a King's Plate; Schumla two or three Plates and a Cup; Beiram the Drawing-room Stakes, besides running a good second to Priam for the Cup at the same meeting; Galata won the Oaks, Port Stakes, and Ascot Cup; Sir Robert the Warwick St. Leger; and Marmora ran Oxygen to a head for the Oaks! Perhaps this may not satisfy the gentleman. Then what will he say to Glencoe, who made all the running for the Derby and came in a good third-who won the Goodwood Cup at 3 yrs. old, the Garden Stakes, and the Ascot Cup. To crown all, how will he get over the Derby and Oaks of 1836? the first won, in a hand-canter, by Bay Middleton, and the winner of the other ran to half a length of Destiny! Truly, Craven has " presumed beyond his last." Yours, ANTI-HUMBUG. THE HAMPTON COURT STUD. In our last number we published an account of this celebrated establishment, from the pen of our friend Nimrod, since when the annual sale of yearlings has taken place, at Messrs. Tattersall's, producing the following prices, which are as good evidence of the value of the establishment as any that can be given. Chestnut colt, by The Colonel, dam by Scud..... Chestnut colt, by The Colonel, dam by Partisan.. Roan colt, by Sir Benjamin Backbite, out of Miss Craven.. GS. 165 200 230 320 ... 195 190 56 55 105 585 74 Bay colt, by Bizarre, out of Young Espagnolie.. Bay colt, by The Colonel, out of an Arabian mare... 66 48 120 THE American Turf Register, and Sporting Magazine, of March last, gives a list of seventy-nine stallions, in different parts of the United States, among which are the following, imported from this country :— Apparition, Autocrat, Barefoot, Claret, Chateau Margaux, Consol, Emancipation, Hedgeford, Luzborough, Leviathan, Lapdog, Margrave, Merman, Rowton, Sarpedon, St. Giles, Shakespeare, Tranby, and young Truffle. Query, Is it not possible that, at some future day, we may have to go to the United States to purchase some of the stout running lasting sort? IRISH TRAVELLING. MR. JOHN BARROW, whose pleasing "Excursions in the North of Europe" and "Visit to Iceland" we took occasion to notice at the period of their publication, has lately added another laurel to his fame, by producing a very instructive and pleasantly written volume, containing an account of a Tour round Ireland through the sea-coast counties, in the autumn of last year, in which we have several graphic sketches of the mode of travelling in the sister country. The following description of the comforts of an Irish jaunting car is extremely felicitous. "Having taken leave of Lord O'Neill and Lieut. Fayrer, with my acknowledgements to the latter for his kindness and civility, I mounted, for the first time, a vehicle, which you as well as myself, have often heard of, namely a jaunting-car,-but which neither of us, I believe, had ever seen. I shall therefore endeavour to give you a sketch of this article of universal use, as I am assured it is in Ireland, that you may be prepared for the mode of travelling, when you visit this country, which to the traveller is a matter of no slight importance. I was told, however, that they were of two kinds. Would your honour plase to have an inside or an outside car?' My good fellew, let me know what the difference is, and I will then tell you.' 'The difference, sure, is this :the inside car has the wheels outside, and the outside car has the wheels inside.' After this luminous exposition, I thought it best to see them, and made choice of an outside one, which I will endeavour, by the double aid of pen and pencil, to make you comprehend, that you may know what sort of thing the usual machine of the country is, for the conveyance of passengers. There are, it is true, dandy cars in Ireland as we have dandy cabs in England—but of these I speak not. "An outside car then is this; —a platform or floor of a few boards has two sides, which are raised up and down on hinges-raised, for no other use that I can see, except it be to grease the wheels. These sides are of canvass stretched on wooden frames, which drop from the edge of a seat, and have a foot-board at the bottom of the frame; the backs of the two seats form a narrow well, as it is termed, for the stowage of baggage in the centre, a name by no means inappropriate, as it is generally full of water when it rains, and when does it not in Ireland? The passengers, of course, sit back to back, which made some facetious wag call the vehicle an Irish vis-à-vis. "If a single person takes it, the driver asks, Which side of the country would your honour like to see?' and, quitting his box, perches himself, very much at his ease, cross-legged, on the opposite side. But my objections to them are, that they are positively dangerous, inasmuch as the legs of the passenger, being outside the wheel and totally unprotected, are liable to be struck, and perhaps broken, through the carelessness of the driver, especially when he has posted himself as I have stated, and not given a single thought whether or not in passing another vehicle on the road, or turning a corner, he endangers his honour's legs, which are likewise by no means free from a rub of the wheel through the canvass when the opposite one plunges into a rut. "If the car has its full fare of four persons, and the Hibernian Jehu, must in that case keep to his stool (alias box-seat), it may happen that, twitching the mouth of his jaded beast, by way of coaxing him into a trot, he pokes his elbow into his neighbour's face, with which it is just upon the level. With this number in going up hill, the whole weight of the front passenger falls upon him in the rear, which is by no means agreeable, particularly if he should chance to be a heavy one; and the same thing must happen to the front passenger in going down hill. "If there be but one in the car up hill, he slips to the farthest end of the seat, and down hill he is involuntarily sent back to the other extremity. Even on level ground he is ill at ease, as the points of the shafts are generally on a line, or nearly so, with the top of the horse's collar; and consequently, it requires no little exertion to maintain his' seat and avoid these slips. My driver, however, made very light of these matters. Och! your honor will asily fall into the way of that?' Perhaps so, if I don't fall out of it!' But allons! let us proceed. "Setting aside, however, all these petty inconveniences, I must say that, of all the contrivances I ever met with in any part of the world, for the accommodation of travellers, an Irish car is just the very worst ; and more particularly so for travellers in Ireland, where it rains, I verily believe, at least three hundred days out of the three hundred and sixtyfive; and yet the car affords neither protection for his person nor his baggage (squeezed into the well in the middle between the seats,) from the wet. But an Irishmen seems never at a loss for an expedient. • What shall I do,' said I, if it rains?' Change sides with me, your honour, and if the rains comes in front, go over to the opposite side, and take it in the rear.' A miserable alternative it must be confessed. In the journey from Londonderry to Enniskillen we have a comfortable picture of "how one travels in Ireland." "The Enniskillen mail was drawn by three horses, one being driven as a leader, which was not easily managed, as is rarely the case when harnessed with only one leader. He was a violent tempered, furious kicker, and could only be kept quiet, as to his heels, by dint of flogging and making him do his work. Going down hill, when the traces became NO. LXII.-VOL. XI. R |