24 



"'Clieroot Stakes" lias proved to them that it is not such an easy under- 

 taking as it appears. The second heat is generally left to a select few, 

 as a natural consequence — at tlie termination of which, both winners 

 and losers are glad enough to relieve their smoke-dried palates with 

 bumpers of pale ale ; and for the next month, race dinners, race balls, 

 and gaiety of every description, are the sole occupation to be found at 

 cantonments." 



A Race Course has been established in China. A correspondent of 

 the London Sporting Magazine observes that " the Race Course, as you 

 may suppose, approached, as nearly as possible, to the state in which na- 

 ture had formed it, the turns and angles not being upon all occasions the 

 most easy to accomplish ; one in particular, was called ' Promotion Cor- 

 ner,' from the repeated falls and other accidents experienced at that 

 point ; but, strange to say, without the expected, and, perhaps, too fre- 

 quently hoped ibr, result. That everything should approximate, as near- 

 ly as possible, to the manner which things are done in England, we es- 

 tablished a 'Tattersall's,' where Ave all met, and in due form arranged 

 our little bets and other sporting matters. 



"The minor amusements contingent to country races, were by no means 

 forgotten ; and throwing at the snuff-boxes, thimble-rig and pricking in 

 the garter, were well supported by the crowds of both soldiers and sail- 

 ors, who, upon every occasion, thronged the Course, and which would 

 have done credit to the olden times, when such games were allowed, 

 either at Epsom, or Ascot Heath." 



The passion of the Arabs for Horse Racing is without bounds. Horse 

 Racing occurs on the Island of Zanzibar once a week. 



We need hardly say anything about the connection of our own Turf 

 in America with that of the mother countr)^ Is there any one so little 

 acquainted with American Turf history, as not to know that we obtained 

 from England our best and only stock of race horses, and that horses 

 were running with distinction on this continent (in the ancient colony 

 of Virginia), long before any stud book appeared in England ? 



Bulle Rock, foaled in 1718, was imported into Virginia in 1730. 

 He was got by the Darley Arabian, the sire of Flying Childers (as I 

 have already stated above), his dam by the famed Byerley Turk, the an- 

 cestor of the English " patriarchs," Partner and Herod, grandam by the 

 Lister Turk, out of a natural Arabian mare. 



With regard to the horses of America in different parts of the 

 country, we will merely say, that they originated from various nations. 

 Columbus, on his second voyage in 1493, brought over with him many 



