IG TALES AND TRAITS OF SPORTING LIFE. 



liim, a strong* favourite for tlie Spring* Handicap fourth^ 

 and a lop-eared Colonist of liig-li character last. They are 

 all g-ood ; hut we ling-er over Aristophanes as he walks 

 back, only all the better for his breathing-, and close at 

 once with the invitation to see him in his box. By the 

 way, though that bevy of bays and greys yonder are the 

 lambkins we first met with ; and the handsome ag*ed horse, 

 even with so much substance about him, is still good enough 

 to win Royal Plates, though the laird does talk of ridings 

 him in the Park. 



But Mr. Shepherd thinks we had better stroll on to the 

 bouse, that Thistley Grove which looked so comfortable in 

 the distance, and where a biscuit and a glass of Barnoldby 

 sherry await us. The rooks in the long* elm avenues are 

 busy in their preparations for a welcome to the little stran- 

 gers ; while the famous dowagers of high descent, and 

 worth at least a thousand pounds each, are looking to 

 maternal cares of their own, as they group themselves 

 under the grand old trunks, or walk oif, in some disdain 

 that their dishevelled beauties should be made a mark for 

 the sight-seeing stranger. There are yearlings, already 

 of fabulous prices ; an intei-esting invalid. Sweet Blossom, 

 with a refined melancholy about her that is quite catch- 

 ing ; and the prettiest horse in England, who has had the 

 terrible misfortune to " hit his leg," and is in physic as 

 a consequence. That massive door-Belle is a daughter 

 of the rare old Grantley hound, and this shorthorn heifer 

 has a pedigree as long* as that of Aristophanes himself, 

 whose toilet by this time must surely be completed. He 

 lias been brushed and wisped until his brownish hard- 

 coloured coat shines again ; his large flat legs are duly 

 washed and bandaged ; his nostrils spunged out ; his long* 

 thin mane neatly combed and arranged. He is just set 



