laying the odds and taking Medoro, Pedlar, &c. against him. Sancho and Mr. Lumley's colt both astonishingly got up, and at the early part of the day were in high request, 17 to 1 being freely taken. Sancho had rather the call; but, towards the last, the betting became rather languid, and both with difficulty maintained their station. All the outside horses were brought more into notice, and very large sums were taken upon several of them. In fact, the betting chiefly rested upon these, and between particular horses. This race so absorbed the attention of the bettors, that nothing else was talked of; and, excepting a few trivial alterations, the DERBY and OAKS remain as before. Yours truly, ST. LEGER. Z. B. 7 to 2 and 4 to 1 agst Mameluke. 20 to 1 agst Lunaria (no takers). 28 to 1 agst Reviewer (freely taken). 35 to 1 agst Antiope. 40 to 1 agst Laurel. 40 to 1 agst Popsy. 50 to 1 agst Olivera. 6 to 1 agst Nonplus, Sancho, and Mr. 6 to 5 Nonplus agst Matilda. 5 to 2 agst Mameluke and Malek. 3000 to 30 each agst Reviewer and Me doro. 1250 to 50 each agst Lumley, Sancho, and Medoro. 10 to 1 agst Matilda and Lunaria. DERBY. 25 to 1 agst Hampden. THROUGH the kindness of the Gazette, we are enabled to present proprietors of the Doncaster to our readers a beautiful engraving of the Cup to be run for at the ensuing Doncaster races. The Cup is from the antique, and of classic elegance,emanating from the known taste of the Duke of Devonshire and the Marquis of Titchfield, the Stewards. It is of a noble size, and will contain six Imperial quarts. The ornaments are extremely appropriate the vine, with its clustering grapes, glowing in burnished gold, adorn the upper part, emblematical of its destined use: the lower part, the foot, and cover, are enriched by groupings of flowers, handles are formed entirely of separated by acanthus leaves: the flowers: and exquisite open-worked acanthus bulb, vegetating in rich This beautiful piece of workmanluxuriance, surmounts the whole. ship was manufactured by Mr. P. Bright, of Doncaster, and its value one hundred and fifty guineas. ONCE MORE IN BRITTANY; OR, A SECOND VISIT TO THE SIR, ST. BRIEUX RACES. BY THE OLD FORESTER. "Jucundum nihil est, nisi quod reficit varietas." IN compliance with the above maxim of the Viscount St. Alban, I now sit down to write, knowing how well a little dash of foreign sporting goes down in your work; as a fricandeau à l'oiselle, or some such light product of the French cuisine, does not appear the least relishing or ill-placed, when we find it occasionally ming ling in the ponderous solidities (so Johnson would call them) of the plain roast and boiled repasts of our native land. Little did I think, when with a blithe and merry step I quitted St. Brieux, nearly a twelvemonth ago, that I should again find my self pacing their sands, and mingling in the festivities of the races held there. Nothing, however, but my being at this time within a few hours journey of the spot could have brought me once more to the same post. I now take up my pen, not so much with the view of throwing any new light on this subject, as to soften down some part which might appear too highly coloured, and to add a little to other parts of the picture I presented to your readers a year ago. I wrote then under the excitement of all that was gay and friendly; amid the sweet smiles of beauty, and the approving looks of surrounding friends; writing too in hasty intervals, snatched from the festive board and sprightly dance, which for a whole month after welcomed me home to stranger and a sojourner in a foreign land! and when I look back to those times, I exclaim, with King Solomon, " Vanitas vanitatum, omnia vanitas!" And "where is that ingenious gentleman, Master Will Wimble?" I hear some exclaim, in taking up this article: "as he has given us already ample details of the sports in Brittany, would not this subject have better suitedhis pen, while THE OLD FORESTER might have soared at higher game?" Truly, gentle reader! that personage-WILL WIMBLE was seen on the race course both days, flourishing about in all his glory, and was pointed out to all, that "He was a man of observation, Filling a literary station;" and, notwithstanding some changes in appearance, honest WILL WIMBLE turned out to be the very man, who, for the last three years, has been a most industrious scribbler in the Sporting Magazine— THE OLD FORESTER HIMSELF*. This will prove I have fulfilled the pledge I held out in the Postscript to my letter of last December (page 150). I wish only I could have made WILL WIMBLE'S letters more worthy of your pages. It has been privately hinted to me, I have rather too much flattered the Natives in my Trips to Brittany; and, while trying to avoid this in my Sporting Letters from that country, as W. W., I have fallen into the other extreme, and regarded French sportsmen in Now, how different is the scene-a * Dr. Johnson says, that "the promises of authors are like lovers' vows, made only to be broken." This is not always true. VOL. XX. N. S.—No. 120. S s general with a jaundiced eye. But the same things will appear often different to the same person when in different moods. In the former instance, I perhaps looked chiefly through the bright glass, which will give the barren moor the appearance of gaiety and sunshine; while, in the latter, I saw too much through the dark glass, which will make even the brightest landscape appear gloomy. On the present occasion I hope to preserve the just medium. I arrived late at night on the 13th at St. Brieux. Even at that late hour (12 o'clock), carriages were coming in from all parts, more people being expected to visit the races than had been known for many years: while the scene of bustle at the two hotels and in the streets all the following day (Saturday) forcibly reminded me of an English town on a similar occasion. I had been told by one of the Commissaires of the races, or stewards, Monsieur Du Croizec, that some foreign horses' were expected, which had been successful competitors for prizes in other Arrondissemens. However, on my visiting the sands, where the horses were taking gallopsthe better to accustom them to the feel of running on wet sand, which few horses like at first-I saw pretty much the same set as last year, with the absence of some weedy fillies of Monsieur De Rose mordieu's, which he wisely kept at home. The only foreigner, in appearance at least, was a pretty bay mare, looking very Hyde Parkish. A very valuable mare, who had, I understood, been win ning lately at Angers, died unfortunately a week before the races: or she was expected to have carried off the grand prize of two thousand francs. Master Jerome, the sporting butcher of Landerneau, I also found there, with three or four very good-looking bidets, which appeared in very good condition, and plainly proved that in his stable (a rare thing in France) the article of elbow grease was not wanting. He was mighty civil to me, having heard I had given him a place in the Magazine; and I heartily wished him success, as no one in this country in its way is a better supporter of the Turf. The races not taking place till Sunday the 15th, I devoted the morning before to paying visits to my old friends; and it is needless to add I met a very hearty welcome-finding myself presently en< gaged for balls, dinners, and concerts, for a week to come, or more, if I had stayed. With the view of giving the peasants (many of whom otherwise would be engaged in the hay and other harvests) an opportunity of seeing the races, Sunday the 15th was the day appointed on which they were to commence ; accordingly, about three o'clock on that day, I walked to the course with a strong party of the Rouxel family, with whom I had taken an early dinner. The scene which presented itself was pleasing in the extreme-no fewer than thirty thousand people being collected on the ground; numerous parties of horsemen paraded the sands below, interspersed among welldressed ladies, and the Authorities in richly embroidered uniforms; while vast bodies of the peasantry in their holiday clothes lined the cliff above. There were a good many English on the ground; but as they came from Jersey and the country round St. Maloes, both * Horses bred in other parts of France. |