as '24 that I introduced my new system into the Deccan, and Sir Lionel Smith, commanding the Poonah division, give me fifteen rupees, the first shoe I ever tacked to his favourite grey 'orse's foot; you was there, Succoo?

This appeal was made to a lank, ill-favoured, attenuated disciple, the expansion of whose olfactory organ warranted the supposition that it had, at one period of his life, formed a prominent feature of the wearer's physiognomy. It had however succumbed to the violent impingement of some hard body of superior specific gravity, which had brought it to a rude level with the rest of the face; and the obsequious alacrity with which Succoo adduced his testimony in the matter referred to him, gave birth in my mind to a very natural suspicion that Mr. Bruton's Bristol knuckles might not improbably have been that opaque substance.

The group had now departed some distance, when Mr. Bruton, appearing suddenly to recollect something of importance unsaid, returned, and abating at least half of the rectilinear stiffness of his former salutations, approached me with a singular assumption of confidential disclosure. "I beg your pardon, Sir, but I'm a Brother, because I was tyler of Lodge Hope, acting under orders from No. 63, when you was i-niti-ated, and by the same rule I'll trouble you for eight Rupees and a bottle of beer." But I obstinately denied all knowledge of the transaction, and the tyler of Lodge Hope deemed it prudent to lower his demand. "Ah, well," said he, "if I am mistaken, never mind the eight Rupees, only I'll thank you for the beer all the same." And, with a bottle of pale ale under his arm, the regular-bred farrier made his adieu and departed.

Not long afterwards Tom was so unfortunate as to become himself the inmate of the kanjee rooms, a dilemma which I ascertained was by no means of unfrequent occurrence, and was on this occasion preordained to result in his supercession by one of his obnoxious pupils, the young 'ands. The following éclaircissement took place after his enlargement. He was pacing the stable in ludicrous discontent, and venting his spleen on the horsekeepers collectively-"A pack of d-d dewanas.' I demanded the interpretation of the word.

"Dewana,-why, it's moors for a fool; I thought everybody knew that. Come, ootao his pawm, d'ye hear me" (to the horsekeeper), "and let's see how they've shod him."

"It is some days since I have seen you, Bruton, I'm afraid you have been exceeding."

"No, Sir, because I thought Sergeant-Major was going to give me liberty from watering parade, that's why I got into kanjee for an hour; and if I had been drinking it's no odds, for I was no worse for liquor than you are at this moment. Farrier Hobridge tells me he's adoing of your work now, Sir; he's just finished the grey." Here followed another military salute which had reverted to its original obstinate squareness. I replied that his long absence had obliged me to seek for assistance elsewhere.

"Long absence-why, I was only in six hours anyhow."

"Then how came it to pass that you did not exhibit your person for more than three days?

"Well, and supposing I didn't, that's only twelve hours, make what you will of it."

"You got in on Sunday, and out again on Wednesday; that's a long twelve hours."

"Now I think of it, I believe it was Lord's day. Ah well, admitting that it may have been fourand-twenty or thereabouts, it's no use my doing nothing in the veterinary line if them young 'ands is continually called in over my head. Yesterday was a fortnight I received a letter from my brother, who is body-servant to a gentle man; and as I can't get my rights, the sooner I'm away to Bristol to see the old woman the better."

So ended my acquaintance with Mr. Bruton, who is at the present instant diligently prosecuting a Voyage to the seaport town Bristol, for the laudable purpose

SIR,

of

of hugging his superannuated mother, and feasting her old eyes (if indeed they be optically available), after an absence of twenty years, on the comely exterior I have attempted to pourtray; and there, in his native town, under the influence of a cool thermometer, free from the persecutions of and at an immeasurable distance from the "young 'ands,' Tom purposes to drive the same honest trade that his father and his father's father drove before him, and that he himself has driven from his cradle upwardsthat of a regular-bred farrier.

It is not often that mention is made in any of the English prints of the time in which races are run upon a public course. The enclosed extract from the Times of the 8th August last, showing the time occupied in running the two miles at York for onethird of the great subscriptions of twenty-five sovereigns, with fifty added, on Friday, the 5th of that month, and for the three-year-old Produce Stakes on the preceding day, will therefore, in all probability, be acceptable to your sporting readers, and serve also as a record of what is considered a severe pace" on the York course at the present time.

66

I am Sir, your obedient servant,
PRO BONO PUBLICO.
Poonah, 20th April, 1832.

York August Meeting, Aug. 5th. The list of this day's races was more attractive than in any other part of the meeting, and the attendance, in consequence, more numerous. The following are particulars of the running:

N.

Betting-6 to 5 on Rowton against the field.

As usual, Lord Scarborough's horse made the running, Rowton lying two lengths behind, with the race in hand. At the stand Rowton went in front, and without any difficulty won by threequarters of a length. Rode by Scott, Windcliffe by Nelson, Tamboff by Lye, and Redstart by Templeman. The severity of the pace may be collected from the fact of the two miles having been done in 3m. 36s., being three seconds less than the same distance was done by three-year-olds for the Produce on Thursday.

SIR,

May I beg you to insert in your valuable work another performance of that game little horse "Hookey," whose former performances I some time ago gave you an account of? The match I am about to relate was made from some idea that the distance he performed before was not actually thirty miles (if you recollect he performed that distance in 1 hour and 8 minutes); his sporting owner now backed him to do the 30 miles, carrying 10 stone, in one hour and a half. He started this morning at half-past nine o'clock to go 20 times round the course, which

is exactly one mile and a half
round, and finished his task in
45 seconds under the given
time, running the last mile and
a half in 3m. 42s. The bet-
ting, after he had gone 15 miles,
was in favour of time, and 3 to
2 went a begging.
This per-
formance is really wonderful, and
I should thank you if you can
inform me if anything like this
has appeared in your Magazine,
or come to your knowledge, as
the sporting world here say they
have never heard it equalled.
I am, &c.,

LONG.
Bangalore, 1st April, 1832.

SIR, Seeing in your last number some remarks by one of your correspondents regarding the best charge for fowling-pieces, I have been induced to send you a few lines on the subject, which, if you think worthy of insertion, are at your service. In my opinion, one drachm of powder to seven drachms of shot, apothecaries weight, is the right charge for a flint gun, but I have generally found one quarter less of powder quite sufficient in this country for detonators, thus making the charge of both guns nearly equal, allowing for the priming of the flint gun.

For a heavy piece intended mostly for duck, the best charge I know of is one drachm and a half of powder, exclusive of priming, to

an ounce and a half of shot; this I conceive to be the heaviest charge that can be fired with convenience.

For my own gun, which is a particularly light one, I merely load with two scruples two grains of powder to six drachms of shot, and it kills remarkably well. But as guns differ in their weight of metal, so must their charges in a small degree differ also, which convinces me that the surest method of getting the correct charge is to apply to your right shoulder for it, for few can shoot if their guns kick them, and a heavy bag and unbruised shoulder is a greater proof of a correct charge than any other I know.

1 am, &c.,

AN OLD SPORTSMAN. Guzerat, 1st March, 1832.

SIR,

If Nimrod be the last, I am assuredly the first amongst your contributors who should complain of any misapprehension of his caligraphy, for such is the hand in which my former communication was transcribed. In the 9th line, 2nd col., of the 279th page of your 15th number, however, Mephistopheles has contrived most effectually to subvert my meaning by the artful substitution of a 3 for a 1. Now, to save the reader the trouble of suspecting that I am a fool, and actually make use of the very proportions I have ventured to deride, I shall feel obliged by your announcing the mistake without loss of time, and to save me the trouble of pointing out such glaring blunders, I shall further feel obliged by your admonishing the offending party to beware how he perpetrates them in future. cuse my plain speaking.*

Ex

of more than one respectable housekeeper to both facts. Extraordinary as they may appear, you will not, for a single moment even, suffer yourself to labour under the erroneous impression that I am a disciple, imitator, or humble admirer of Baron Munchausen. It is a bargain-very well.

On the 27th of January I fell in with a herd of antelope at Sidpore, near Deesa, and succeeded in approaching within eighty yards of the two nearest, a black buck and a doe. They were standing exactly parallel to each other, but looking in opposite directions; the doe's broadside presented to me, and the head and horns only of the buck visible. My ball passed through the heart of the former, and entered the shoulder of the latter, penetrated the liver, and was only arrested by the skin of the opposite side. Both trotted on a few yards, and then incontinently yielded up the ghost. I feel assured that any man who has had experience in these matters will readily acknowledge the difficulty of securing even one large antelope with a single ball, and the occurrence I have narrated cannot therefore fail to excite his astonishment.

The rifle employed on this occasion was an 18 gauge detonator, and the charge of powder exactly the fill of the bullet-mould.

At Meysana, a few days afterwards, I fired at a female goat antelope, also presenting a side

* In elucidation of this difficulty, I may mention that about ten days since I put no less than three consecutive balls into the hinder quarters of a buck, before bringing him up. The first broke one hind-leg at the hip, and the third performed the same office for the other.

front to me, at the distance of 300 yards. The ball carried away the back part of her head, and she turned over on the spot. When I came up she was struggling violently, and I therefore held her down until she appeared quite dead. I then mounted my horse, and while in the act of issuing orders for the removal of her remainders to the tent, was thunderstruck to observe her again on her legs and absconding. A gentleman, who had been a cool spectator of the transaction, assisted me in an attempt to ride her ladyship down, but she ran perfectly strong, and fairly beat us both to a jungle a mile and a half distant, where we

SIR,

Being well acquainted with the liberal and sporting feeling existing on the turf in Guzerat, I have been induced to forward the following for insertion in your valuable Magazine.

The last number has just reached me, and I cannot refrain from making a few observations on the leading paper containing an account of the Poonah races.

The unassuming Guzerat turfites appear to be severely handled by S. Y. S., who states that a bad feeling was evinced towards the Deccan horses in the north last year; this, as a spectator of the Guzerat races, I have no hesitation in denying; and I really believe that Observator's "bull-ina-china-shop" remark was a hit at a northern stable, and not at the far-famed Goblin.

Should S. Y. S. be a proprietor, and conceive it worth his while to visit Guzerat next season, he will, he may rest assured, meet with a hearty welcome, and, should his

nags prove successful, a heavy bag, as it can be safely asserted that the northern stables never have, nor ever will stand in need of backers. I entirely agree with S. Y. S. in thinking that Observator was "out in his know" regarding the three "indifferent horses," as their maiden time was far from mediocrity, and the performances of Bustle and Red Jacket this season have stamped them as good ones.

What I have written will, I trust, convince the sporting world and S. Y. S. that the only feeling prevalent in the north is a desire to lick those southern kill-devils, about whom there appears to be no inconsiderable quantity of chaffing. QUIS EGO.

Guzerat.

P. S. Any communication regarding matches, &c., &c., for next season, over the Ahmedabad course, will, I make no doubt, remain but a very short time unanswered.