a gloomy outlook 405 



Season 1853-1854. 



October loth, 1853. A twelvemonth of unexampled wet 

 weather has elapsed since the opening of last season, and a 

 new one has besfun without anv intermediate summer. Old 

 chroniclers declare that there has been no parallel for half a 

 centurv. while a dav in Tulv during- which two and three- 

 quarter inches of rain fell in twelve hours, is said to have been 

 unequalled for a century. As a necessary consequence there 

 has been a very deficient harvest and failure of the potato 

 crop, causes of themselves sufficient, without reference to the 

 imminent risk of war with Russia on the Turkish question 

 \\hich has kept the world alarmed for six months and now 

 looks more threatening" than ever, to o-ive reasons for 

 apprehending" a trying winter ; while as if to complete the 

 melancholy chapter the cholera has reappeared, making fright- 

 ful ravages at Marseilles and Lyons, and the weather seers are 

 predicting a severe winter, which, though it may stop the 

 cholera, will equally stop hunting. 



In regard to horses. I have made some changes since last 

 season, and having parted with " Peep o' Day " and bought 

 a brow^n horse called " Lottery " from Follett, which, however, 

 I do not much like and must let o-o. I have bought also a 

 splendid little thoroughbred chestnut, named "Topthorn," 

 who ran as a stallion under the less euphonious name of 

 " Martin Chuzzlewit," and a thoroughbred grey gelding named 

 " The Novice," the winner of some races and steeplechases. 

 Both belonged to Hopkins last season, though I purchased 

 neither directly of him, for " Topthorn ' I bought of Charles 

 Turner, and "The Novice" of Mr. William Whitfield, 

 " Wide-awake." after a year's rest and treatment looks a 

 picture, but his keeping sound seems doubtful ; " Daylight," 

 after his ineffectual bleeding in the foot by Field, has been 

 unnerved, and I am still in doubt as to the success of the 

 operation. " Tipperary " keeps a suspicious cough and seems 

 of delicate constitution ; " Rocket's " serviceable eye gets 

 weaker and will, I fear, follow the fate of the other, while he 

 shies badly in consequence. " Taunton," and a good-shaped 

 chestnut mare, have both been turned out, and the pony, like 

 ponies in general, gives least trouble and is most serviceable 

 (to the ladies at least) of the stud, 



I am again tantalised as I was last year by the offer of 

 Stondon Place, but with the Manor House on my hands, see 

 no chance of accepting it. The kennels of the new Master of 

 the foxhounds, Henley Greaves, being at Myless. form a great 

 additional attraction, &c. 



