STAFFORDSHIRE.-BARR-BEACON STEEPLE-CHASE, AND DEAR N. S. M. OTHER MATTERS. THE only event of the past month in our neighbourhood is the steeplechase on Barr-beacon, which came off last Tuesday. Barr-beacon, you must know, is the summit of a great hill rising gradually for miles round in every direction; and, being situated like a focus amidst the towns of Birmingham, Sutton, Tamworth, Lichfield, Walsall, Wolverhampton, and Dudley, and at the very edge of what we call " the black countries" (alias the mining districte), you may be sure that a fête of any sort there is not likely to be short of company. The races were fixed for Monday last, and the assemblage was as numerous and as motley as might be expected. There were literally thousands; and of all ranks and callings. Here the dapper sportsman in his neatly-cut Tosh and unexceptionable smalls; there the sturdy miner in his flannel frock, and pipe stuck in his hat; here a group of swell coves in a flash drag, smoking a whole Havannah of cigars; there a knot of unwashed pedestrians from some neighbouring manufactory; here a bevy of merry girls from the adjacent village, determined to enjoy themselves at any rate; there a collection of Johnny Raws from the surrounding farm-houses, cracking their robustious jokes and making the very welkin ring with their boisterous shouts of laughter. Up to about twelve o'clock all seemed bright and smiling; but just then came on such a storm of snow and wind as I believe is not often seen, even on the top of Barr-beacon. This continued with such fury and for so long a time, that racing became quite out of the question, and the meeting was accordingly adjourned till the morrow. The company on this day, though not so numerous as on the preceding, was yet sufficiently large; and every thing, I am glad to say, went off satisfactorily. The first race was won by Captain Fendall's Grayling, ridden by Mr. Oliver; Mr. Parker's Lady Teazle ridden by Mr. Arthur, came in second. Waverley, the favourite, ridden by owner, Captain Macdonough, fell at the second jump and lost all chance. The course, I had forgot to say, was a ring one, with jumps, &c., made for the occasion. The second race, the Wallsall Troop Stakes, heats, was won by Sir Edward Scott's (the steward's) horse, The Shepherd, ridden by Lowe; Mr. Chawner's Mouse trap running second. The third race, the Barrbeacon Stakes, was won by Mr. Godwin's Tom Leedham, ridden by Oliver, beating Small-hopes, Rosebud, and others. The Wallsall Second Troop Stakes were carried off by Mr. Friend's Bess o' Bedlam, beating Sister to Jim Crow, Victoria, and Doubtful. The last race, the West Bromwich Stakes, was won by a horse of Mr. Bates's, beating several others whose names I don't know. The affair, as you may suppose, lasted till a pretty late hour in the evening, and, I am glad to say, it was kept up with good spirit by all parties concerned. Of hunting news I have just nothing to tell you; the cold dry winds of the earlier part of the month having made scent quite out of the question. Mr. Meynell's hounds, however, have had one or two capital days" in spite of wind and weather." There is not likely to be any change in our neighbourhood in the management of hounds between this and the next season, which is always a good sign. It was reported that Mr. Errington would take the Atherstone country, Mr. Applethwaite retiring, but I believe there never was the slightest foundation for such a rumour. Lord Suffield, I suppose you have heard, has taken to the Melton, and I believe will establish his kennels and stud at Quorn. Mr. Granville is, I hear, to take the Warwickshire hounds next season, and the Leamington staggers are to be hunted by Mr. Bradly. I am sorry I cannot give your correspondent in the north any account of Lord Uxbridge's hounds, their proceedings being kept a profound secret, and their fixtures never known till "a day after the fair." Anxiously looking forward to a good season next year, and wishing you in the meantime all health and happiness, April 22, 1838. I remain, dear N. S. M. THE WARWICKSHIRE AND MR. DRAKE'S HOUNDS. DEAR SIR, I trouble you with a few lines about the finish of the season here, if it be allowable to apply the word to the dreadful winter we have experienced. I wish I had better sport to record; but I am sorry to say March and April have offered but little to make up for the deficiencies of February and January. The best run I have seen was on Thursday, the 15th March, when I met the Warwickshire, at Bishop's Itchington, to draw the famous Radbourne-gorse; it was ordained, however, by the powers that be, that in our way to Radbourne we should try Watergall, a small gorse cover on the Southam and Banbury road, which has not the reputation of being by any means a sure find; to-day, however, he was at home, and gave us a beautiful burst of forty minutes, without a check, over the splendid parishes of Wormleighton and Boddington, leaving the Boddington-hill gorse on the left, and skirting Lower Boddington, up to Warden-hill in Mr. Drake's country, where the gallant fellow gave us the slip, and lives to afford more sport: we had, as usual in the neighbourhood of Leamington, a large field out. On the following Saturday, Mr. Drake's hounds met at Lower Shuckborough, to an enormous field, (near Leamington again, and Warwick races coming on). We found at Jessup's, otherwise called Noble-field, but there was no scent, and many of our friends took themselves home. Those who remained were repaid by an afternoon run from Griffin's-gorse up to Byfield; a quarter of an hour fast, and afterwards slow hunting, by Warden-hill and Trafford-bridge, in an hour and twenty minutes, in the boundary fence between Edgecot and Thorpe parishes. I mention this day as highly satisfactory, on account of Wingfield's superb hunting, and the beautiful manner in which the hounds did their work. I have had some fair day's with the Duke of Grafton, but nothing worth recording in your pages. As a pendant to the Watergall run, I may say that a number of pigheaded bipeds who had most improperly assembled at Radbourne-gorse, in expectation of the arrival of the hounds from the meet, were so exasperated at their not coming that they took sticks, staves, terrier dogs, and every other available means, and actually beat the gorse from one end to the other, the consequence of which was that when we came to draw it with a large field of visitors, &c., the day before Warwick races, reynard was wanting, and we had the disappointment of going back some six miles to the woods in order to find. No language is necessary to reprobate such unjustifiable conduct; but I am sure every true sportsman will bear me out in condemning a practice which too often prevails of parties assembling at the cover to be drawn (particularly when it is a small one), instead of at the meet advertised. If a wild fox, which is synonymous, be it remembered, with a good fox, comes within hearing of the "coffee-house" by the cover side, he is sure to take the hint and make himself scarce; and on the arrival of the hounds the cover is either drawn blank, or some cowardly brute is found which without spirit to face the open either dies speedily the death of a cur, or, what is worse, detains you badgering in cover for a couple of hours, and then saves his life by ensconcing himself in some rabbit hole beyond the reach of his pursuers, and affords you a similar day's diversion the next time you come there. I have known instances, too, in which the draw was actually disclosed by the master to a favoured few, who preferred the indulgence of their own laziness to the sport of their friends and neighbours. But the subject is not a pleasant one to discuss, and it is perhaps useless to din these things into the ears of those who know what is right and sportsman-like, and take an opposite line of conduct; but I do hope that if you do not consider my letter worthy of a place in your Magazine you will yourself take occasion to refer to this subject before November returns, and have a good slap at this lazy, feather-bed, unsportsmanlike practice. NO LXXXV.-VOL XIV. 2 z On the 30th of March the farmers, and gentlemen of the hunt were to have dined with Mr. Drake, at Banbury. He was, however, unfortunately prevented attending by the death of a relation; but Sir Henry Peyton took the chair, and we sat down to the number of fifty. The evening passed sociably and merrily, and two o'clock had struck before the superb turn-out of the chairman was summoned to convey him to his domicile, at Swift's House. Such meetings keep up a pleasant intercourse between the gentleman and the farmer, and I am happy to say that this is intended to be annual, and that a most popular and influential gentleman has consented to officiate as chairman next year. The hounds met at Fenny Compton the next morning, for, alas! the last time this year in the Northamptonshire country; but, to the disappointment of a numerous field, we had no sport. Perhaps in the absence of a better informant, you will be glad to hear that in spite of the unseasonable weather they have had a splendid season at Leamington. They have established a pack of stag-hounds, which commenced operations as soon as the frost departed; and a pack of fox-hounds is in agitation to hunt the country, which became vacant the season before last by the resignation of Mr. Vyner. It is principally woodland, but there is a fine tract of grass country about Dunchurch, which formed part of Mr. Vyner's country, and also Sir Theophilus Biddulph's cover, which will be added to the Warwickshire woods, and will afford room for three days a week. The stag-hounds I have not seen, but understand they have had some good things. One fifty minutes I heard spoken of from near Ufton Wood to Napton. One of their runs terminated tragically, the stag being shot by a gentleman's servant, who thought he had secured a stray prize from some neighbouring park, and was no doubt greatly disappointed when the arrival of the huntsman with his hounds destroyed his anticipations of the savoury haunch. On the third of this month, April, I turned my horse's head towards Daventry, to see the steeple-chase; but there is so good and true an account of it in the Northampton Herald, that I shall not attempt any description: but surely the death of two of the horses engaged ought to bring this absurd amusement into disrepute. The stag-hounds turned out the next day in the neighbourhood of Daventry, but I would not stay to see the run. Varieties. ESSAYS ON NATURAL HISTORY, chiefly Ornithology. Waterton, Esq. Author of "Wanderings in South America." By Charles Autobiography of the Author, and a View of Walton-hall. Longman and Co. To begin at the beginning. Though Walton-hall, near Wakefield, the seat of Mr. Waterton, be a very pleasant place, we scarcely think that the very indifferent cut of it, which forms the frontispiece to the volume, was worth a distinct notice on the title-page. The Essays which form the body of the work were originally published in Loudon's Magazine of Natural History, and to that gentleman, it appears, we are indebted for them in a collected shape. In the essays, the character of Mr. Waterton appears in a most amiable light; kind to his inferiors; a lover of birds of every species; an intelligent observer of their habits; an enthusiastic field naturalist; and a bold adventurer-tam ingenio quam vi— in the regions of Natural History. In the Autobiography, however, we are sorry to observe so many traits of religious bigotry, antiquated politics, and egregious self-conceit. Had Mr. Waterton been so fortunate as to have lived in the reign of James II., there can be little doubt that in his person the declining fortunes of his house would have been revived, though perhaps but for a short period. The eulogist of "good Queen Mary-she in whose reign Latimer, Ridley, Hooker, and Cranmer were burnt for their religious opinions-would have been a fitting counsellor for the "gentle James," whose name will never be forgotton so as long the memory of Judge Jeffreys and the bloody Western Assizes shall survive. 180 Mr. Waterton is evidently vain of his ancestry-and well he may, for he is come of gentle blood"—but it is rather amusing to find him, after parading his descent, attempting to cloak his vanity on this point by expressing his firm belief" that we are all descended from Adam and his wife Eve," and by quoting the hackneyed lines of Matthew Prior. After this, who could venture to say that he was vain of his pedigree, when he candidly allows that he is only a descendant of the simple gardener "Adam and his wife Eve?" Mr. Waterton, it appears, was educated at the Jesuits' College, Stoneyhurst; and from a little trait which he unwittingly affords, of equivocation on the part Joe Bowren, the brewer of the establishment, we are inclined to suspect that Joe was a lay-brother of the society; at any rate he appears to have perfecly understood the Jesuitical doctrine of equivocation. We give the passage, merely premising that one of the familiars of the college-called a prefect-was in hot pursuit of Mr. Waterton, for having ventured, in search of a crow's nest, beyond the boundaries marked out for the students. "I luckily succeeded in reaching the outbuildings which abutted on the college, and lay at a considerable distance from the place where I had first started. I had just time to enter the postern gate of a pigsty, where most opportunely I found old Joe Bowren, the brewer, bringing straw into the sty. He was more attached to me than to any other boy, for I had known him when I was at school in the north, and had made him a present of a very fine terrier. |