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link-boy exclaimed, "Why, some blackguard has taken the head-stall off. Wait till I've lit a gentleman across the street, and I'll help you." But the tiger, fearful of accident, sprung from the cab; Webb extinguished his light, it was the work of a moment, and whilst the boy was buckling the bridle, Webb had gained the long-sought prize. We will not describe the noble owner's rage, nor have we time to enumerate the many ingenious ruses employed by our hero in his daily avocations; the course of roguery, like that of true love, never did run smooth: Webb was marked by the Police; conviction followed conviction, until at last, for a robbery of the Prima Donna's jewels, as he assisted her into her carriage, Mr. Webb was sentenced to be transported for life. He had only anticipated eighty-four months, and bowing very profoundly to the Recorder, he politely inquired, "If he could not be favoured with AN ADDITIONAL WEEK!" His last letter was very characteristic; we only give an extract, for in these days, when lives, biographies, autobiographies, memoirs, reminiscences, times, diaries, wanderings, 'pencillings, journals, personal sketches, narratives, correspondences, are sought with such avidity, we may be tempted to give the "Memoirs of Hoppy Webb, or Lights and Shadows of a Link-boy's Life."

"Heaven does with us as we with torches do,

Not light them for ourselves."-SHAKSPEARE.

But to our hero's letter, in which he said, "That he contemplated a trip to a remote colony, and should shortly embark in a ship that had been provided for him at the expense of the country. He took with him a letter of introduction from the Secretary at State, and was transported at the idea.”

Poor Webb died on his passage out.

Alas!

"The LIGHT of other days is faded."

THE LAWS OF COURSING,

As altered and amended from the Code adopted and published by the Thatched House Tavern Committee in 1838.

THE importance of the Stakes now run for at many of our Coursing Meetings, and the extremely difficult and delicate duty that devolves upon the parties deputed to decide them, render it most essential that the laws by which this sport is to be governed should be combined in a recognised code, as clear as comprehensive. The subjoined are the rules that have been adopted and published by the Thatched House Committee as the Laws of Coursing for the next season.

1. Two Stewards shall be appointed by the members at dinner each day, to act in the field the following day, and to preside at dinner. They shall regulate the plan of beating the ground, under the sanction of the owner or occupier

of the soil.

2. Three or five members, including the Secretary for the time being, shall form a Committee of Management, and shall name a person, for the approbation of the members, to judge all courses; all doubtful cases shall be referred

to them.

3. All courses shall be from slips, by a brace of greyhou is only. 4. The time of putting the first brace of dogs in the slips shall be declared: at dinner on the day preceding. If a prize is to be run for, and only one dog

is ready, he shall run a bye, and his owner shall receive forfeit; should neither be ready, the course shall be run when the Committee shall think fit. In a match, if only one dog be ready, his owner shall receive forfeit; if neither be present, the match shall be placed the last in the list.

5. If any person shall enter a greyhound by a name different from that in which he last appeared in public, without giving notice of such alteration, he shall be disqualified from winning, and shall forfeit his match.

6. No greyhounds shall be entered as puppies unless born on or after the 1st of January of the year preceding the day of running.

7. Any member, or other person, running a greyhound at the meeting, having a dog at large which shall join in the course then running, shall forfeit one sovereign; and, if belonging to either of the parties running, the course shall be decided against him.

8. The Judge ought to be in a position where he can see the dogs leave the slips, and to decide by the colour of the dogs to a person appointed for that purpose; his decision shall be final.

9. If, in running for prizes, the Judge shall be of opinion that the course has not been of sufficient length to enable him to decide as to the merits of the dogs, he shall inquire of the Committee whether he is to decide the course or not; if in the negative, the dogs shall be immediately put again into the slips.

10. The Judge shall not answer any questions put to him regarding a course, unless such questions are asked by the Committee.

11. If any member make an observation in the hearing of the Judge respecting a course during the time of running, or before he shall have delivered his judgment, he shall forfeit one sovereign to the fund, and if either dog be his own, he shall lose the course. If he impugn the decision of the Judge, he shall forfeit two sovereigns.

12. When a course of an average length is so equally divided that the Judge shall be unable to decide it, the owners of the dogs may toss for it; but if either refuse, the dogs shall be again put in the slips, at such time as the Committee may think fit; but if either dog be drawn, the winning dog shall not be obliged to run again.

13. In running a match the Judge may declare the course to be undecided. 14. If a member shall enter more than one greyhound, bona fide his own property, for a prize, his dogs shall not run together, if it be possible to avoid it; and if two greyhounds, the property of the same member, remain to the last tie, he may run it out or draw either, as he shall think fit.

15. When dogs engaged are of the same colour, the last drawn shall wear a collar.

16. If a greyhound stand still in a course when a hare is in his or her sight, the owner shall lose the course; but if a greyhound drop from exhaustion, and it shall be the opinion of the Judge that the merit up to the time of falling was greatly in his or her favour, then the Judge shall have power to award the course to the greyhound so falling, if he think fit.

17. Should two hares be on foot, and the dogs separate before reaching the hare slipped at, the course shall be undecided, and shall be run over again at such time as the Committee shall think fit, unless the owners of the dogs agree to toss for it, or to draw one dog; and if the dogs separate after running some time, it shall be at the discretion of the Committee whether the course shall be decided up to the point of separation.

18. A course shall end if either dog be so unsighted as to cause an impediment in the course.

19. If any member, or his servant, ride over his opponent's dog, when running, so as to injure him in the course, the dog so ridden over shall be deemed to win the course.

20. It is recommended to all union meetings to appoint a Committee of five, consisting of members of different Clubs, to determine all difficulties and cases of doubt.

The following general rules are recommended to Judges for their guidance :The features of merit are

1. The race from slips, and the first turn or wrench of the hare (provided it be a fair slip), and a straight run up.

2. Where one dog gives the other a go-by, when both are in their full speed, and turns or wrenches the hare. (N.B. If one dog be in the stretch, and the other only turning at the time he passes, it is not a fair go-by.)

3. Where one dog turns the hare when she is leading homewards, and keeps the lead so as to serve himself, and makes a second turn of the hare without losing the lead.

4. A catch or kill of the hare, when she is running straight and leading homewards, is fully equal to a turn of the hare when running in the same direction, or perhaps more, if he show the speed over the other dog in doing it. If a dog draws the fleck from the hare, and causes her to wrench or rick only, it is equal to a turn of the hare when leading homewards.

5. When a dog wrenches or ricks a hare twice following without losing the lead, it is equal to a turn.

N.B. It often happens when a hare has been turned, and she is running from home, that she turns of her own accord to gain ground homeward, when both dogs are on the stretch after her: in such a case the Judge should not give the leading dog a turn.

There are often other minor advantages in a course; such as one dog showing occasional superiority of speed, turning on less ground, and running the whole course with more fire than his opponent, which must be left to the discretion of the Judge, who is to decide on the merits.

LOCAL RULES.

1. The number of members shall be regulated by the letters in the Alphabet, and the two junior members shall take the letters X and Z, if required.

2. The members shall be elected by ballot, seven to constitute a ballot, and two black balls to exclude.

3. The name of every person proposed to be balloted for as a member shall be placed over the chimney-piece one day before the ballot can take place.

4. No proposition shall be balloted for unless put up over the chimneypiece, with the names of the proposer and seconder, at or before dinner preceding the day of the ballot, and read to the members at such dinner.

5. Every member shall, at each meeting, run a greyhound his own property, or forfeit a sovereign to the Club.

6. No member shall be allowed to match more than two greyhounds in the first class, under a penalty of two sovereigns to the fund, unless such member has been drawn or run out for the prizes, in which case he shall be allowed to run three dogs in the first class.

7. If any member shall absent himself two seasons without sending his subscription, he shall be deemed out of the Society, and another chosen in his place.

8. No greyhound shall be allowed to start, if any arrears are due to this Society from the owner.

9. Any member lending another a greyhound for the purpose of saving his forfeit (excepting by consent of the members present) shall forfeit five sovs.

10. Any member running the dog of a stranger in a match, shall cause the name of the owner to be inserted after his own name in the list, under a penalty of one sovereign.

11. No stranger shall be admitted into the Society's room, unless introduced by a member, who shall place the name of his friend over the chimneypiece, with his own attached to it, and no member shall introduce more than one friend.

12. The members of the

Clubs shall be honorary members of this Society, and when present shall be allowed to run their greyhounds, on paying the annual subscription.

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ASCOT HEATH, Tuesday, May 28th.-Those who contend that, in the matter of morality, if we are not retrograding, we, at least, are stationary, assign, as the reason, the practice, common to the whole civilized world, of executing all spiritual business by contract; whereas, in their social issues, men are wont to minister to themselves, and, therefore, in such the march of improvement is constantly progressive. Whatever may be urged against the former of these posi-. tions, the latter will be very generally subscribed to: upon this principle alone is it that we can attempt to account for the monstrous anomalies, which so frequently present themselves to our notice, in the economy of every-day life. Need a more striking instance be sought than that furnished by the subject of this notice? When we find splendour and squalor, the famous and the infamous, purity and pollution mingled together on a spot exclusively selected by the votaries of fashion-the most fastidious of caste-as the arena of their pleasures, can we regard such heterodox miscellany as a natural amalgamation? Let it not be supposed that it is here meant to convey any personal censure-to imply any individual blame. The glaringly offensive nuisances by which the Ascot Heath Meeting is now overrun, are the consequences of a conventional contract, by which the authorities in existence act as if bound by the system so long adhered to by their predecessors. I trust, without exciting any angry feelings, it may be hinted that a change is very anxiously desired. Surely, with the vast revenue now derived from the various sources of emolument which the ground supplies, there can be no want of means to afford ample protection not only to the properties, but to the eyes and ears of those who pay so well for it. It is a scurvy solace to those who go in search of enjoyment to any given spot, to tell them they may rely upon being safe from having their persons rifled in the noon day. The hordes of thieves at Ascot are but trifling items in the mass of ineffable scoundrelism by which you are incessantly assailed. It is not because races are being held upon it, that therefore it is to be given up for a Saturnalia of unmitigated blackguardism.

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Decision and energy of purpose are certain remedies; it is devoutly to be hoped that they may, in the coming season, be unshrinkingly applied.

Weather, such as an English summer now and then assumes, as if to shew what she can do if she pleases, and a brilliant company, were, this year, the characteristics of the Ascot Meeting. To the accustomed home-supply of Royalty, we had an import of Imperiality from the banks of the Neva, and a batch of principalities and powers of twenty consonants a piece." Everybody has not seen the CzarAutocrat in posse, and those who have not had the luck, may yearn to know something anent his hereditary absolutism. Like Captain Smith, of Halifax, he is "not a handsome man," whatever claim he has as a "gay deceiver." His countenance has in it a strong leaven of the Calmuck, but his figure is good, and his bearing "every inch a king's." Byron tells us that "Catherine was generous "-her descendant, during his stay among us, was lavishly profuse. As Jupiter to Danäe, even so came the prince to Mr. Mivart: lo! with diamonds and precious stones might they have Macadamised Brook-street and places thereunto adjacent.

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As a pageant, in which all the divisions of society played their parts to the best of their several possibilities, there was nothing could have been more effective than the late Royal Meeting. The new Grand Stand, too, was an item of much importance, though rather less useful than ornamental: but no doubt the second edition will be perfect; errors effaced." So far all appears couleur de rose: the picture, however, was not without a few dark tints, here and there. Bloomsbury, with all his Derby honours "thick upon him," is again destined to win "golden-opinions," "and there an end." Mr. William Ridsdale is fain to run his famous courser upon the principle that the big boy toss'd with the little boy-" heads I win; tails you lose." It was really an affair to be much regretted-seriously, no joke in any sense— -but we can't afford to be serious; and as to the joke, we had ours, whichsoever side o' the mouth Mr. Ridsdale might have used for his laugh. "What a row they are making about Bill Ridsdale's nag," said a friend to us, in Tattersall's yard, on the day that was supposed to be the settling day for the Derby, "it's wonderful to hear the blasphemy that is being done upon Bloomsbury." "Not the least surprising," said we; "on the contrary, quite natural: don't you know that he is an offspring of St. Giles's dam's ?”* (d—mns).

As usual the appearance of the sovereign at the window of the Royal Stand (after as loyal and warm a welcome as we ever saw given to the occupant of the throne of these realms, in the days of their most palmy popularity,) was the signal for the commencement of the racing. There was plenty of it, and it was good of its kind. The opening event, the Queen's Hundred, brought together a field including some of the most famous names of recent years. Grey Momus was the most prominent, both in the market and the contest, till the eleventh hour. He was no doubt amiss, and the form in which he went, under the circumstances, shewed him to be, what he has ever proved himself, a downright honest nag. For the Ascot Stakes there was a gathering

* Bloomsbury by Mulatto out of Arcot Lass-St. Giles's dam.

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