2 HUNTING AND SPORTING NOTES. 



horses as St. Gatien and Florence, and the proud 

 possessor of the Jockey Club Cup ! What an example 

 of the great lev^elling tendency of the turf! The man 

 who, in common with all his class, has scarce withstood 

 the ban of Jockey Club wrath, or avoided being hunted 

 from their heath, comes and, at the j5.rst attempt, wins 

 their two great handicaps, and places their proud trophy 

 on his plebeian sideboard, chuckling over the =£150,000 that 

 he counted as his gains in a single year, to keep it in 

 dignity ! 



Shropshire is not without the honour of its season's 

 doings. It has aided Mr. Hammond in his triumphs. 

 Wisdom, the sire of Florence, and Enigma, her dam, hail 

 from Snifnal. She is, therefore, a native-born one. How 

 well I recollect looking over that pretty, neat little horse 

 Wisdom, at Tattersalls', the day before he was bought for 

 a very few hundreds, to come into Shropshire, dud 

 thinking that, taking as he was to the eye, how little 

 likely he looked te make a name for himself at the stud. 

 Florence's dam. Enigma, cost £25, I believe, and-; St. 

 Gatien's repudiated sire was condemned to the life of a 

 cab horse, until his brilliant son dragged him from his 

 obscurity. Talking of Wisdom, he is more curiously 

 inbred to Pocahontas than any animal I know, his sire 

 being by Blinkhoolie, by Rataplan, and his dam by Stock- 

 well, „both sons of Pocahontas. Let us speak it in all 

 honour of Mr. Hammond. He has showed an example 

 worthy to be followed by some members of the Jockey 

 Club in the straightforward way he has run his horses. 

 Only one question of the British pu])lic remains un- 

 answered by him — What was Florence doing on the City 

 and Suburban day with 6st. 121b. on her back, from 

 Tattenham Corner to the winning post ? 

 . And now to hunting. Such a spell of fine autumn 

 weather, with scarce a drop of rain, has never been 

 chronicled for the last half century, and undergrowth in 

 the coverts has increased marvellously. The partridge 

 shooters have had an unparalleled time of it, while 

 hunting has been surrounded by difficulties. Foxes 

 like all other animals this season, have bred well, and are 

 plentyful, notwithstanding that more were killed last year 

 by hounds than ever before. Mr. Heywood-Tjonsdale, in 

 succeeding Lord Hill in the mastership of the Shropshire 

 has undertaken no mean task, and every huntsman round 



