and I had repeated sights of him feet six inches, from the nose to SIR, A I remain yours, GREYHOUNDS, FOX HUNTING, &c. I should be obliged to any of your readers to give me information of the rearing and training of reyhounds, as this part of the country is abundantly supplied with foxes, and as the ground is F. S. for the most part strong and bad for horses with heavy weights. We have contrived to kill some two dozen foxes and three or four hares in the course of a month or five weeks generally speaking, going out only twice a week. We have seen as many as thirteen foxes in one day-not one has ever started before the dogs have got off. The most astonishing of our greyhounds is a little black cock-tailed Scindian bitch, belonging to Riddell, of the 2nd Grenadiers, which he bought whilst in Bombay for seven rupees. Neither fox nor hare has got away fairly from her except by earthing. For the information of your sporting readers who know the country about Sattarah, I will send you down a diary of the sport enjoyed here. Suffice it to say, Thursday is our grand jour. We generally have a picnic five or six miles out. Of shooting we have very little, a hare and a brace of florikan being thought a SONG. TO A BOMB-PROOF SPEC! Parody on "When first I met thee warm and young." When first I twigg'd thee skin I vow'd at once to buy thee, shone I did not wait to try thee- that A week would make it level, Trust such a screw-tail'd brute, Deserves that thou should'st break it. SIR, When Turfite swells thy faults proclaim'd And swore thy joints were wooden, I saw in all the points they blamed The promise of a good unI mounted-rode with ribbons slack O'er plains all brown and barren, And brought thee in ten minutes back A broken-winded garran! But stay, stay, an Ensign's purse Will match thee, old bone-setter, For starving cannot make thee worse Nor feeding make thee better! FOX HUNTING, &c. The Oriental Sporting Magazine has already found its way to Madras and Calcutta, and looking at the list of subscribers will, I 66 guess," as the Americans say, before long, if not already, have reached England. Men in India know very well the great difficulty of printing correctly where natives are employed, but considering this point may not be under stood as clearly in England, and being somewhat anxious that the sins of the press should not be visited on the devoted heads of contributors, I, as one, should feel much obliged by your stowing away in some corner where it may still be seen and yet not interfere with the space required for sporting effusions, the accompanying memorandum of "errata" in No. 4,* which, owing either to the difficulty I have above alluded to, or, equally as probable, the cramped nature of my "fist" (I have once or twice thought of bringing an action for damages against my writing master), have crept in every here and there, to the great detriment and serious injury of grammar, spelling, and last, though not least, the "King's English." The fact is, my letters slow" to admit of their appearing with more defects than originally belonged to them, or I would not have troubled you on this subject. are too 66 Talking of "errata," I was reading in No. 3 the other day the account of a hog-hunting expedition by the Ahmednuggur Hunt, when I was quite 66 at fault" at the end of the description of their work on the 29th September, where it runs thus: "saved the fatigue of a long chase over a country which, with a very little mire," &c., &c., &c. This mire was a complete poser, and I believe I never should have guessed the right wording had it not been for the writer himself explaining for I might have adopted this plan with the three first numbers, but the "errata" were so very numerous, that I thought the shortest plan would be to send you my own copies corrected, so that even if you could not find time or place to insert the correction in some future number-the three letters might at any rate appear in their right shape in the new editions lately advertised. "mire" read "more:" on looking at the passage it will be evident how unintelligible the reading was rendered by the simple substitution of an "i" for an "o"! I am afraid "Brush's " query in No. 3 has not found favour in the eyes of the owners of the "long tails," for no one has deigned to answer him. I certainly never before heard of men thinking the brush of a coursed fox worth fighting about, and as I know therefore of no precedent on which "Brush's" claim can be founded, probably the best answer that can be given him is that of a friend of mine, who on reading "Who shall have the Brush?" instantly observed, "The dog-boy, to be sure ;" and really I don't know a more satisfactory solution of all the intricacies of the case. One point, however, is clear: if the brush of a coursed fox is to be awarded according to the rules with a hunted fox, "Brush " is the very last man in the field that can claim it; for it appears that when Reynard was killed, "Brush coursing a fresh fox in an opposite direction! was poaching. I think slipping four greyhounds at a fox just as bad as shooting a hare in her "form," or a partridge running. Hares I conceive the only lawful and fair game for greyhounds; where they are not to be found, foxes are resorted to, but in my opinion always at the risk of spoiling good dogs. Instead of those gallant and beautiful dashes, the finest sight coursing can give they begin almost immediately to run cunning, and instead of a trial of speed it becomes a trial of turning the dogs literally spoiled. I now bid adieu to "Brush" with the best advice I can give him, and that is to get rid of his present stud as fast as he can: if the price they fetch be not sufficient to get him one or two that can do the trick, why, sell the "long-tails" too; take to hoghunting, and the next time he has need of an answer through the Magazine, let his query begin with "the boar, the mighty boar's my theme;" and if I can afford the requisite information, he shall have it with right good will. and I am always obliged to any man that will take the trouble to set me right when I am found "tripping," and I accordingly thank Guzerattee for the hint that in his part of the world the sunrise work has given way to a more rational hour.-I fancy he doesn't mean to say that was not the hour in the best days of the "Saburmuttee Wartruck hunts - a period to which every lover of that noble sport who was then in that part of the country cannot but look back with mingled feelings of pleasure and regret. I have too often heard tell of their glorious days and well "contested spears to attribute effeminacy to any one that ever belonged to either, and I can assure Guzerattee that he's "nowhere" when he supposes what I said was intended as a sly rap at my sporting friends in that quarter. I am not such a sly old fox as he has evidently taken me for, and I can assure him had I grounds for saying his brother sportsmen were effeminate, and moreover thought it necessary that every one should know it, I should have rapped it out " slap bang" in plain downright English. My information was obtained direct from members of both those hunts in their best days, and it was but lately that a gentleman from that part of the world was speaking on this very subject. I may be wrong, no doubt, but those who gave me my information must be wrong too; but may not "Guzerrattee and I misunderstand each other? He must recollect my assertion was a general one, and I never meant to say that here and there one or two individuals might not hunt throughout the day. Field sports, most epecially hunting-I always understood were supposed to engender liberal and kind feelings in those that follow them, and God forbid that I should so far evince so different a feeling as to attribute effeminacy to others merely because they did not hunt at the same hour as myself-or, supposing for a moment that the heat was the cause of early hunting, to laugh at them because they had sense enough to avoid the risk of cutting short their hunting career by fever and liver complaints, at the small inconvenience of a daybreak gallop, and sunrise breakfast. "Do at Rome as they at Rome do is my motto, and depend on't, whatever I may think of the disadvantages of sunrise work-hunting as I am in the Deccan-was I on a sporting tour with "Guzerattee" in his own country he'd find me booted and spurred ready to go with him-to the devil I had almost said-even if his hour was twelve o'clock at night. Before I bid him "good-bye" I have a favour to ask, and that is to inform me in the next number of the Magazine what was the origin of obliging men in his part of the country to throw for the 66 first spear," instead of allowing them to use their blades as best suited them-the usual way elsewhere. I always understood the taking the first spear was intended to show the best rider across a country, but as the rule alluded to seems intended to alter this original purpose, I shall let my next letter on "hog-hunting" lie over till I see your correspondent's answer. I promised in my letter in your first number to say a word or two on "fox-hunting" in the Deccan, and as "John Dockery" and his brother "Phil" have both had a touch at the Ahmednuggur pack -both calculated to mislead-it is, perhaps, high time for me to take up my pen too, although I must confess I labour under the disadvantage a certain discarded huntsman attributed to a more fortunate brother of the whip and horn, who had somehow or other— the reasons shall be namelesssupplanted him in his office-" he know anything about hunting! what can he know about it, he ar'nt been above fifteen years in a kennel. Why, I'd take the cast' from him any day." 6 A man whose hounds are all marked alike, are perfect in make and of one height, can afford to show his friends the kennel; but those whose packs can't pass muster in these respects, had best do what is done with the one I am speaking of-keep the kennel door shut, and let those who wish to see them take a look at them as in the "field," and I will answer for it they'll not be disappointed. Well "stopped" to to deer handy as a cricket ball," with plenty of "go" and good noses— why it's a devilish good "Puggy that can beat them:-the proof of the pudding is in the eating, and they kill ten foxes out of eleven. In Calcutta there seems to be no want of thoroughbred foxhounds, and it would be a hard case if there was, considering the immense prices given and the attention shown to the sporting men in whose ships they are brought out. Though no such inducement on this side of India, Captain Thacker of the Upton Castle, to his everlasting credit be it told, brought out three couples of foxhounds from the Hatfield Hunt in a present to the owner of the Ahmednuggur pack. Nor was he the only sporting character in the ships of that season. Captain Chapman, of the Recovery, deserves every praise for his exertion in the foxhunting cause. These are "the boys for my money "-may they live for ever, say I! From the want of a "hunt" similar to the Calcutta in the island of Bombay, one can never expect to see a pack of thoroughbred hounds on this side of India, at least for a continuance. Bombay itself is unfit for hunting-let alone the want of spirit for the thing but what a splendid country is Salsette-scarce ten miles distant! If the good folks at the Presidency had but a gallop twice a week over eight or nine miles of Salsette, I would venture to say their "up country" friends wouldn't know them again ;— there would be none of your yellow-face, cadaverous-looking, spectres-but fine, healthy, rosy cheeked fellows, up to anything! |