632 REMAARKS ON VARIOUS CONTRIBUTIONS, &c. 
from my own observation. Being on a visit to the late George 
Ackers, Esq., of coaching celebrity, when he rented Lord Fal- 
mouth’s seat, at Woolhampton, on the Bath and London road, I 
heard him give orders to his coachman, as he was about to mount 
his box for a drive, to turn his son’s (the present Mr. Ackers) 
pony into the paddock. On our return, within the space of three 
hours, the coachman told us the pony was dead. “ What killed 
him ?” was the question. “ I know not,” said the coachman ; 
“ but, seeing him stagger, I fetched him from the paddock, and 
he dropped dead as soon as he reached his stall.” I entered the 
paddock, and, at once, saw the cause of his death. He had eaten 
some live branches of a yew tree, and about as much of them as 
would fill the crown of a hat was found in his stomach. I lay stress 
on the epithet “ live," because it is rather generally believed, that, to 
cause death, the branches eaten must be dead, or much withered. 
Another proof, however, that live yew is poison, may be gathered 
from the fact, of some hundreds of the Duke of Northumberland’s 
deer, in the North, having been poisoned by partaking of a live 
yew-hedge, in a deep snow; and, perhaps, the poisonous effects 
of the branches of this tree may be one reason for its having been 
generally planted in churchyards. 
I shall conclude this paper with a few remarks upon the progress 
our neighbours, the French, are making in racing. At Chantilly 
meeting, in May last, at which I officiated as judge, there were 
sixty-three race -horses in the town, and the surd of £1716 run for, 
in the three days. There are now upwards of twenty race meet- 
ings in France and Belgium, and the Racing Calendar for 1838, 
published in Paris, gives the names of 251 owners of race-horses 
in France and Belgium ? Then the spirit with which many of the 
French nobility and gentlemen enter into the thing, is somewhat 
beyond expectation. On one race at Chantilly upwards of £12,000 
was depending, and M. Lupin gave very nearly 2000 guineas for 
three brood mares (Fleur de Lis, Wings, and Mouse), at the Hamp- 
ton Court sale, the produce of which will come to the post, next 
year. The French Government itself is at length on the turf, 
having several clever colts and fillies now in training, under the 
care of Thomas Robinson, brother to the celebrated Newmarket 
jockey of that name. To shew the spirit with which they are pro- 
ceeding, the person at the head of the establishment told me they 
would give 2000 guineas for a good, tried stallion ! Their preju- 
dices are also fast wearing away, although not quite gone, as the 
following fact will shew. The year before last, at Newmarket, I 
purchased Mendicant, by Tramp, out of Lunacy, for the Prince of 
Moskowa, and he won thirteen races at fifteen starts in France, 
within the year, besides running two severe races, at heats, in 
