FINE ARTS.

PORTRAIT OF GEORGE BAKER, ESQ., OF ELEMORE HALL, IN THE COUNTY OF DURHAM, ON HIS FAVOURITE OLD MARE.-Engraved by W. GILLER, from a painting by HANCOCK.-ACKERMANN, Regent Street.

We have here a beautiful picture and an admirable likeness of one of the oldest sportsmen in England, of one who from early life to the present time, has been a steady promoter of all noble and manly sports and pastimes. Mr. Baker is indeed one of the most extraordinary men of the day, for though now in his eighty-second year, he still pursues with undiminished ardour, those amusements that generally accompany the outset of life, and which, even if continued through maturer years, seldom retain any influence in later life, save in the pleasure yielded by retrospection.

Mr. Baker has been, as the saying is, "at all in the ring." He has been a gentleman jockey, an owner of race-horses, a master of fox-hounds, a member of Parliament, a patron of the turf, an amateur in the fine arts, in short, he is a thorough-bred British sportsman, and (as some one said of the late Lord Castlereagh, in allusion to the numerous caricatures that used to appear of him,) dress Mr. Baker as you will, and you can never make him look like any thing but a gentleman. Some forty years ago, or more, he hunted the county of Durham, which was then a very different affair to what it is now. It was wild and open, foxes were stout and bold, and we have heard Mr. Baker relate, with unrestrained glee, how he ran one over hill and dale, some thirty miles or more, until the morning sun which saw him found, had been succeeded by the grey twilight of the evening, ere he picked him up stiff and cold under a gate, near Raby-castle-a chase, in short, only equalled by the celebrated one of Sir Roger de Coverley, when a fox cost him fifteen hours hard riding, carried him through half a dozen counties, killed him a brace of geldings, and lost him half his hounds. But we must not suffer this notice of a print to lead us into a memoir of the subject of it; much as we could wish to see one furnished to our pages by a hand competent to do justice to the task, for it is such men as Mr. Baker who are great in the field in the morning, and cheerful and witty in the evening, that afford material for entertaining biography, and put to shame the retailers of cut and dried stories, and dull purveyers of other men's jokes.-In the hopes that some one will furnish us with the means of gratifying our readers, we shall for the present content ourselves with recommending the efforts of Messrs. Giller and Hancock to the patronage of the sporting world.

THE LAST HEAT, engraved by E. DUNCAN, from a painting by J. W. HILLYARD.-ACKERMANN.

We have here three horses contending for one of those now almost extinct prizes for which heats are run. They are just coming in within the ropes, and are going at a somewhat "galloping-dreary-done," pace.

GLENCOE, engraved by E. DUNCAN, from a painting by C. HANCOCK, Winner of the Cup, and Royal Stakes at Ascot.

THIS is a large coloured print from the same picture that our first embellishment of last month was taken from, and is very beautifully executed. Glencoe, it appears by the lettering to the print, is now the property of James Kirkman and James Jackson, Esqs., of New Orleans, to whom we sincerely wish every success with their very valuable purchase.

FOX AND PARTRIDGES, engraved by T. W. GILES, from a painting by R. R. REINAGLE, R. A.-ACKERMANN.

A VERY beautiful and spirited picture of a Fox in the act of running away with a Partridge, while the rest of the covey are seen escaping over the hill. The engraving is dedicated to the Earl of Kintore, to whom the painting belongs.

THE AYLESBURY STEEPLE CHASE, with portraits of the horses and riders, from paintings made on the spot, by JAMES POLLARD. ACKERMANN & Co. Strand.

IN four Plates we have the principal features of the great Steeple Chase that took place in the Vale of Aylesbury on the 11th of last February, got up in the usual first-rate syle of excellence that characterizes the publications of the Messrs. Ackermann. The incidents are happily selected, and make very showy stirring pictures, which we doubt not will be popular with all lovers of Steeple Chasing.

EXHIBITION OF THE ROYAL ACADEMY.

THERE are fewer sporting subjects and more portraits in the Royal Academy this year than usual. Some of the latter are of unquestionable excellence. That of the Duke of Wellington, by Simpson, is the best likeness of his Grace we have ever seen. The Marquess of Anglesey, too, by Sir M. A. Shee, is admirable, as are the portraits of Lord Lyndhurst, by Phillips, and Lord George Bentinck, by S. Lane. A portrait of a young lady in a Greek dress, by T. G. Middleton, No. 368, is exquisitely beautiful. Sir Robert Peel, by T. Wood, is wretched. He looks as though he had rubbed his face with a Bath brick, and Lord Brougham (No. 338) by Morton, looks as though he had just escaped from one of the collieries in the neighbourhood of the town for which

the picture is painted-Newcastle to wit.--There are some sad daubs among the portraits, and some very ugly people exposed upon the walls.

The sporting subjects, as we said before, are scarce. Landseer's scene in Chillingham Park, with a portrait of Lord Ossulston and the keeper, standing over the slain wild ox, is too theatrical for our taste. His lordship stands as though he were going to pronounce an oration over the fallen beast. The keeper's face looks more like business, and he seems to be thinking of the fat on the ribs.

Cooper's sportsman's bothy, (No. 81) a hut in the Highlands, is pretty

and true to nature.

Rampion, a white hunter, the property of Lord Grosvenor, by the same master (No. 115), is a good painting of a finely shaped horse, but the attitude and adjuncts do not make much of a picture of it.

The blood hound, in the portraits of the Marquess and Marchioness of Abercorn's beautiful children, (No. 143) is very good, and displays all the good-natured fondness that dogs have for children. The picture is by Landseer.

No. 146.-Fresh water fish, by a gentleman of the singular name of Bestoesmith, are very good.

W. Barraud has some good pictures this year and the hanging committee have shown him greater attention in the position of them than formerly. "Rufus" a chestnut charger, the property of George Reed, Esq. is a very good, highly finished painting, and "The last Resource," (No. 427) the joint production of himself and brother, representing Arabs about to sell their horse, is a happy idea, ably embodied. Mr. Waring on Peter with five couple of his harriers, (No. 308.) is a very good picture of a very sporting looking gentleman in green old age and a green coat, and one that we shall have great pleasure in engraving in this Magazine. It is by Cooper, and though we have never had the pleasure of seeing Mr. Waring, there is something about the picture that tells us it is a likeness.

339.-Mustard the son of Pepper, given by the late Sir Walter Scott to Sir Francis Chantrey, R. A. painted by Landseer, is more remarkable for the novelty of the arrangement than the beauty of the picture. 469.-Portrait of Count D'Orsay, by Grant, is excellent. Count" all over."

It is the

Hancock has but one picture this year. (No. 558) Portraits of two gentlemen deer-stalking in Falah forest, a very fine painting, quite in the Landseer style.

811. The Surrey fox-hounds, breaking cover from Bug-hill (what a name!) by T. W. Lambert, is a failure for want of Mr. Jorrocks in the foreground.-Ackermann's "Swell and the Surrey," are much more faithful representations.

904. Portraits of pye-bald ponies, the property of W. Forbes, Esq. M. P. by G. Morley, is the last we find marked in our catalogue and is a very pleasing production.

DOES THE HEDGEHOG EAT EGGS? THE QUERY SOLVED. SIR,

My attention was, some time since, called to this little animal by reading an article in one of the numbers of the New Sporting Magazine, and as I could not say whether your correspondent was correct or not, my pride was piqued, and I immediately resolved on setting this hitherto dubious question at rest and for ever,- for what I advance are facts ascertained by myself from personal observation, and "facts are stubborn things."

It is agreed by many theorists, that the construction of the hedgepig's mouth precludes the possibility of its eating, because they say it cannot break the shell of, eggs,--we shall presently see. Others, again, hold it to be so foreign to its nature that it would never make the attempt, --we shall see. Having a setter bitch peculiarly handy at finding, and equally ready at conveying home, these awkward customers, I soon procured several specimens; and I beg to lay before the sporting world (for I apprehend all the sporting world are enlightened by the scintillation from your crack Magazine) the results of my experiments. My first attempt was with a half grown fellow. I placed him in solitary confinement, and gave him food for some days-fish, flesh, and fowl, and bread and milk, all of which he ate without making wry faces. I then put an egg into his cell, and in the morning found it untouched. So! thought I, it must be all gammon their eating eggs. I then broke the shell and he made short work with the contents. The shell had been too hard for his young teeth. He subsequently broke and eat several pigeon and duck eggs--the shells of which were not too much for him. I next obtained a full grown female; the very day I got her I offered an egg, which she broke and eat, and continued to do so, although offered other meat in abundance. I have had several other adults all of whom broke and eat hen and other eggs; and I have one now that eats as many as I can afford to give him. The plan he pursues on getting an egg is this:He opens his mouth as wide as possible, and placing it sideways on the egg, edges it along until he procures a good holding for it, he then turns himself fronting the egg, and with his under teeth, which are admirably adapted for such an operation, drills a hole into the side of the egg, and presently discusses the tempting morsel.

I do not wish to give any opinion on the foregoing evidence, but leave it to all unprejudiced sportsmen to decide for themselves. Yet I am satisfied that they can arrive at only one conclusion. Another view of the subject may be taken, and it may be worth while to consider whether the little evil they are guilty of in eating a few eggs (for I am convinced

they do not seek them as a principal article of food, but merely take such as they accidentally fall in with), is not counterbalanced by the great good they do in devouring beetles and grubs, which make such fearful havock in the crops of the farmer.

WARRANTY.

Court of Exchequer, Guild-Hall, Saturday, May 14.

LADDIE.

Child v. Burford. This was an action on the warranty of a horse purchased in February last by the plaintiff, a coal merchant in Lambeth, from the defendant, a dealer in horses in the London-road. After the necessary preliminary evidence, Messrs. Tucker, Cherry, and Sewell proved the existence of spavin; which, although it did not produce hopping lameness, caused a stiffness and impeded action of the hock joint, amounting to diminished usefulness of the limb, and, consequently, unsoundness.

For the defendant, several witnesses were examined, whose testimony was unimportant; and to support the defence of the animal being actually sound, Mr. Field was called, who could discover no impeded action, although he admitted there was an enlargement of the hock at the seat of spavin. He considered difference in size of the hocks as of common occurrence, and unimportant; that spavins might be the result either of diseased action or of natural formation; that the spavin in question was of the latter kind; and on being pressed by the counsel (Mr. Crowder) for the plaintiff, who appeared very well to understand the structure of a joint, entered into an elaborate disquisition which seemed to puzzle the court and eventually the witness himself.

Mr. Mavor, also for the defendant, could see no unsoundness but differed materially from the last witness. He denied the existence of spavin but as a consequence of disease; and admitted that in the case under consideration there was a spavin. The formation of bony excrescence was often a result of merely increased action which might go on without any inflammation of the part. The reasons for this distinction between increased action and inflammation were not elicited.

The judge (Park, junr.) stated in charging the jury, that unless there was an express engagement between the buyer and seller for the return of a horse warranted sound; in the event of its proving not to be so, the buyer was authorized, indeed required, to sell the horse without delay; and might proceed by action to recover the amount of difference between the price paid and the money received. In London the facility for selling a horse was such that the law did not allow the expense for keep. In other respects the jury would decide according to the evidence they had heard, the material points of which he recapitulated.

Verdict for plaintiff for £22 which included the expense of the sale at Tattersall's.