fully wild forest, and that it would offend no one were I to hunt them, it, of course, struck me that as I might occasionally touch on private property, the first thing to consider was the steadiness of my hounds. I did not, therefore, beg an otter hound here and there, well knowing from previous observation, that the animal called a hound which I should have drafted to me, would be as complicated in his villanies as he was mongrel in his blood, and that he would hunt every known animal in the world as soon or sooner than the otter. There is no pure breed of hound attached to this species of chase; it is a cross which produces the animal generally used for the occasion; and there being but few regular packs of otter-hounds kept, both from the rarity of the otter as well as the nature of the pursuit, from my knowledge of his character and capabilities, I at once determined to use nothing but the old and steady foxhound, accompanied, of course, for the purpose of going to ground, by three white terriers of a favourite sort, whose sires and dams I had long used with foxhounds. This point being determined, I sent for old Harrogate, ten or eleven years old, a splendid foxhound bred by Lord Segrave, entered by me at fox, and given, when I sold my hounds to the Duke of Grafton, as an animal beyond the reach of money, but who at this time was too old to run up in his usual calling. With him George Carter, the duke's huntsman, also sent me Palatine, recommended for his steadiness. From the Duke of Beaufort, I likewise procured Nimrod; and from the kennels at Berkeley Castle, old Watchman, the latter bred and sent there as a cross from the Duke of Rutland. Old Harrogate, while I hunted Bedfordshire, had been made a great pet of, coming round of himself to the drawing-room window to his mistress for a biscuit, while the pack were walking out in the adjoining field; and though he had not seen some of his friends for six years, on his arrival at Beacon Lodge in Hampshire, he was just as happy to see them as if there had been but a separation of a few days. So well did this hound remember his former mistress that, when out with the Duke of Grafton's hounds, and aware of the presence of ladies to see them throw off, he used to break away from the pack to satisfy himself if she were among them; and in this, as George Carter had previously lived in my service and known the attachment of the hound, he was never interrupted.

These four old foxhounds and three white terriers were consequently the pack with which I commenced the otter-hunting in the New Forest last summer.

Having become acquainted with the three strange hounds (old Harrogate was the same as ever), made some spears, and warned the neighbouring gentlemen of my purpose; one beautiful summer's day we met at New Park near Lyndhurst, the residence of Colonel Thornhill: not at the uncouth hour of four or five o'clock in the morning, as I have seen by other streams, but at the more comfortable one of eleven. I may, perhaps, remark here, that I never could see the use of uncomfortable hours in otter-hunting, or much advantage in the drag of an otter. A drag by the river side will as often mislead you as lead to the end you desire. You may run the heel of an otter or you may get on the drag of a fox; and unless you can seal the one or pad the other, you do not know what you are doing. If you touch on the drag of an otter, it is, perhaps, when he has passed to his fish

ing haunts in the night, and leads to any thing but his couch or holt; you have no need to care for dry ground or heat, for your work lies under the shadow of the alder and willow, on soft swampy ground or in the cool and refreshing stream, and the scent of the animal you search for is such that give but a moderately nosed hound the wind of the stream, and on his couch or in his holt, above ground or below, no otter will escape him. Otters will occasionally lie at short distances from the stream; but they are generally on some dry couch overhanging or touching the brink of the water, or in holts immediately under the bank. I have been led forth from my room at hours of the morning to look at other people when they searched for otters, which rendered me unfit for the enjoyments of the afternoon, though I never saw an otter "put down" much before the middle of the day; but, till this species of animal changes his nature, and betakes himself to different ground, his habits and my convenience shall go hand in hand.

The first day that I drew the streams of the New Forest was a blank. I had found more than one stale couch, as well as marked a seat on one or two soft sand-banks; but the fact which pleased me most was, that by the couches and hauntings of the otter, stale though they were, and by my own example of curious search, I had induced the sensible old hounds to be aware that there was some wild animal in their vicinity, for whom it was fun to hunt; and before the day was done, by going into the water myself, and at last, by pointing to peculiar and likely spots, I could persuade them to swim wherever I desired. In leading them to swim, I found my great deer greyhound and retriever Wolfe, the grandson of my famous Smoaker, of much service, he being steady from all riot, and more sensible than most men I knew he would do no harm, and never stir from my heels unless desired.

During my first day's draw, I was much amused with, but at the same time, vastly inclined to have ducked, a man, who, taking advantage of the little opinion my field had of the capabilities of the foxhound for an otter, and of their ignorance of the otter and his habits, on one of the terriers driving a moorhen from a bush, gave the view of "an otter down;" and went so far as to swear that he saw him “vent" -measuring the width of the phantom otter's mouth in his extended hand. The hounds and myself agreed in pronouncing this man a liar; and assuring him mildly of this, our joint belief, we drew on and returned to our quarters at Lyndhurst without a find.

Nothing daunted by the first day's failure, but, on the contrary, assured that there were otters in the vicinity, from the stale couches I had seen, the next morning found me on the heather. It was a beautiful day -the trout stream I was trying rippled over the intervening shallows, or eddied round deep holes beneath broken banks, in the still corners of which, when the wave lay still, grew the white and yellow water-lily. Immediately above the stream, was a thick growth of alders, and for thirty yards on either side, thick lying in the bog myrtle. Beyond this again, for some hundreds of yards, was a swamp, then a gentle acclivity of sound heather, and beyond it again in the distance, a stately and luxuriant foliage of oak and beech.

Occasionally, during the draw, a deer would rush up from his lair

in the bushes, or black game rise from the myrtle the former of these, with an occasional hare and rabbit, offered plenty of temptation to riot; but the old hounds knew that they were not the game they sought, and passed them unexcited.

Once or twice during this day, I had remarked to Major Keppel, who was my most unwearying companion, that the hounds were very busy upon the immediate bank of the stream, and that I was sure the stream was haunted by an otter. However, the middle of the day was reached; the field, tired of accompanying the hounds, had regained their horses and were sauntering idly abreast of me on the higher grounds, and I felt that the greater number of the lookers-on had booked me for a failure. At this moment, I was forcing my way through some tangled cover, when my attention was eagerly called on by Major Keppel to observe a particular hound. Palatine was drawing the bog myrtle about twenty yards from the stream; when suddenly he raised his head, winded high in the air, sprung over the bushes, winded again, then leaped again, still drawing to the stream, and at once I saw that he had found an otter. Two more springs over the bushes brought him to the brink of the stream; he paused an instant, stood on his hind legs to catch the airs from the opposite bank, and then, with an expression of the utmost excitement, dashed into the water and gained the opposite side. While this was going on, I gently encouraged him: old Harrogate heard the applause, which years before he had been used to, and ere Palatine was across the stream, he joined him. On reaching the holt in which the otter was, Palatine hesitated as to speaking to it; but Harrogate's well-known tongue made the thicket ring; and the cheer with which I greeted that which I knew was never false changed the face of affairs, and put some life into the lounging gentlemen. In a moment, all was bustle and inconsiderate haste; hounds and terriers yelled and tore at the holt, spears were brandished, men ran to and fro, looking for an animal they had never seen before, while I ran to see if my orders, as to a watch upon a shallow above and below the find, was kept up by rational creatures. Tucker, one of the forest-keepers on whom I could rely, was above me, as I had directed, and Primmer, another of the keepers, had charge of a shallow below-leaving me about fifty yards of the stream in which to rule the chase. The spade was soon unslung from the shoulders of my man; but ere it had struck the ground, the scratching and baying of the hounds had put the otter down, and he was viewed and turned back at the shallow above me. The moment that the "holloa" was given, all my aids and brother-sportsmen, with the exception of Major Keppel and Colonel Thornhill, flew to the spot where the view was given, quitting their own posts, and forgetting that the view they heard put the otter down again, and that, of necessity, his next appearance would be at one or the other of the places they had quitted. At last, by dint of requests when the gentlemen were concerned, and of more positive declarations to others, I got the field into some order; when the otter, finding that the stream was too hot to hold her, as hound and terrier worked as if they had been used to it all their lives, broke from the deeper water over the shallows, making for another part of the river, and was caught and killed by the hounds. Having worried the otter, Colonel Thornhill, whose opinion on all

sporting subjects may be relied on, declared he thought there was another otter in the same holts. I had some doubt of it, so, not wishing to divest the mind of my hounds of any portion of the knowledge of complete triumph, I sent the terriers only to test the matter. Colonel Thornhill's opinion was then brought me, strengthened by the work of the terriers, and I again repaired to the spot with the hounds. Colonel Thornhill was right; we put the second otter down, a fine old dog, and after about twenty minutes' work, my man's "holloa" told me the otter had gone away; and sure enough he had set his head straight over the heather, and for one of the forest farms (I conclude for some drain he had been wont to use), and in five minutes the hounds ran into and killed him in the middle of a grass-field. This established the character of my pack: we have now put four otters down and killed them all; and I hope, ere the winter is over, to add considerably to the number. In conclusion, let me add, that I hold the New Forest to be one of the most splendid places for royal sport in the kingdom. In extent, in capabilities, I know not its equal; nor do I know the sort of game that might not be induced, with proper care, to abound in its wilds and fastnesses. The pheasant, the partridge, the black game and grouse, wildfowl, woodcock, heron, and snipe, the red and fallow deer, the fox, the badger, otter, hare and rabbit; and these, with the wild boar, might all be made to fill the splendid bag at the royal pleasure, were their haunts watched and attended with sufficient care by one well versed in their preservation. At present, the number of licensed sportsmen is too great, and the unlicensed are given too much liberty, from the fact of the keepers having a wider extent of ground than they can closely defend. If some regulation is not soon passed, the black game will be exterminated; for the trees in the inclosures are getting so high, that the black game will not frequent them to any extent; and the formerly reserved blackgame walk being now thrown open, they have no favourite place where to escape their too numerous enemies. What a noble hunting-ground might the New Forest not be made, if kept exclusively for the royal pleasure; and that too without a hardship upon a single individual! At present, the forest rights are abused; its pasturage impoverished by the too great turning out of cows and horses; and miserable, half-starved things are permitted to vegetate where the monarch of the waste alone should "spread his broad nostrils to the wind," or droop his antlers but in the royal presence.

(To be continued.)

SKETCHES OF HORSE-RACING IN ITALY.

BY ARTHUR VANSITTART, ESQ.

SKETCH FIRST.

Introductory-Horse-racing in the North of Italy in the Olden Times— Anglo-Mania of the Milanese for English Horses and Equipages-Turin Races-and the King of Sardinia's Stud.

"THE taste of the English for racing has communicated itself to France, Germany, and America," to quote the words of a talented writer, who would not have deviated from the strict accuracy of his testimony had he also included Italy in his mention of foreign lands, now vying each with the other in the encouragement and support of that most exciting as noblest of all sports—a sport that heretofore was characterised as exclusively the national pastime of Britons, and classed with "the chase, the sport of Britain's kings." From the earliest periods of the Anglo-Saxon dynasty, few sovereigns swayed the sceptre who devoted not some attention to the amelioration of the breed of the horse, by legislating for their protection, by classing horse-stealing among capital crimes, and by the imposition of heavy penalties and fines for the wanton maiming or destruction of any of the

race.

A passion for pomp, and splendour, and gorgeous pageantries, and arrogant displays of rare and costliest magnificence, which pervaded and characterised the fifteenth century, animated not only the sovereigns of Great Britain, but also the wealthiest of their subjects, to procure at a lavish expenditure horses of size, beauty, and breeding, superior to what former ages had produced. Hence, the obvious and rapid improvement in the breed of the English horse; hence, the substitution of animals of increased size, superior beauty, and greater strength, for the pigmy race which, at the invasion of Great Britain by Julius Cæsar, were, in his "Commentaries," characterised as dwarfish in stature, of feeble powers, and but of trifling value; - hence, judicious crosses, in the first instances, with Flemish and Norman stallions, to procure the size and strength desired;—hence, afterwards, the perfection that was obtained by the introduction of rare and choice gems of the East, by the importation of invaluable Arabians, whose noble and excellent qualities were then appreciated as they deserved to be: for the endurance of which they were capable, and the speed which they possessed beyond all other horses, had been indisputably proved in the Crusades and in all the campaigns of the East.

Thus was achieved the great primary object, by engrafting on our improved and improving stock the rarest varieties of Eastern blood; and by substituting for a degenerate and valueless breed a race eminent for docility and intelligence, spirit and playfulness, grace and symmetry, great speed and uncommon endurance of fatigue. More particular attention was bestowed on the rearing of the foals in their infancy, by sheltering them from the inclemency of the winter, and by