The Four 'in- Hand Club, 127 



over. That these prophets were entirely in the wrong in 

 their senile vaticinations was abundantly demonstrated 

 on the occasion of the meet of the Four-in-Hand Club 

 at the Magazine in Hyde Park on Wednesday, when 

 the greatest number of carriages, and ladies and gen- 

 tlemen on horseback, were assembled to look at the 

 teams and their coachmen that it has ever been my 

 fortune to witness gathered together on any similar 

 occasion. " As yet the trembling year is unconfirmed, 

 and winter oft at eve resumes the breeze,^' so the poet 

 tells us j all I can say is, that I hope the ceremony 

 of confirmation will not be much longer postponed, 

 as, after the experience of the tempestuous and dis- 

 orderly doings of the wind on the Oaks Day, and 

 the noise and unpleasant termination of the afternoon 

 selected for a display of the coaches, one begins to 

 lose confidence in those who are responsible for the 

 proper bringing up of the seasons, and to look with 

 apprehension to the possibility of a continuance of 

 these disorderly proceedings extending possibly over 

 the meeting at Ascot Heath. 



That the Four-in-Hand Club is now in grander 

 form than it has ever been at any period is easily 

 accounted for, when it is found that the committee 

 consists of the following distinguished persons : The 

 Duke of Beaufort, the Duke of Sutherland, the 

 Marquis of Londonderry, the Earl of Sefton, the Earl 

 of Macclesfield, Lord Londesborough, Lord Wenlock, 

 and Lord Aveland. The number of members amounts 

 to somewhere about fifty, of whom the following put 

 in an appearance at the Magazine on Wednesday after- 

 noon : the Duke of Beaufort had on this occasion 

 handed over the reins to his son. Lord Arthur Somer- 



