February 11.] 
THE FIELD 
129 
nnd oven opened the conversation by a gracious regret thnt lio 
had been obliged to withhold from tho public a work of so much 
talent. But lie hud no doubt Mr. Carlyon would sec the propriety 
of the interdiction. 
« Mr. Cot'lyon hoped to induco his lordship to romovo it. und 
would re«pcctfully beg - Lord DovCton to point out the objection- 
able portions of the piny. His lordship sent for his own copy, 
nn ,l while it wns being fetched, expressed a hope (which, had tho 
Lord Chamberlain been a less kindly person, would have been a 
sarcasm) that theatrical interests were flourishing. Tho play was 
then brought for examination. 
“•In tho first place, Mr. Carlyon, tho name of your play isopen 
to objection,’ euid bis lordship. ‘ You call it tile Slaves of the 
Iting, the ‘ring ’ referring to marriage. Now you are doubtless 
aware, that al this moment there is a bill under discussion by tho 
legislature upon the very subject of marriages in Scotland. You 
jnuat see thui this title is calculated to give offenco. Suppose, Mr. 
Carlyon, instead of answering those objections in detail, you 
makca note of each in your own copy, and consider them at your 
leisure.’ 
“‘Leisure,’ thought Carlyon, ‘nnd tho Inst rehearsal but 
one going on while lie speaks.’ But ho took out his pencil. 
“ * Now. in tho list of characters, I observo ‘Lord St. llollox.’ 
I hnve no doubt that you hnd too much good taste to intend this 
for on allusion to Lord * * * ; but pray alter this name, ns St. 
llollox sounds a litllo like tho first half of his title before his last 
elevation.’ 
“Carlyon smiled, and noted this. 
“ • In the opening soliloquy,’ said Lord Dovcton, ‘Ibis nobleman 
observes, ‘ I wish 1 had kept my wife in Herefordshire.’ Now 
it so happens that there is hut one nobleman in Mint county who 
has differences with his wife, and thoreforo you had belter alter 
the county, or, still hotter, sny, 1 1 wish I had kept my wife in the 
country.’ 
“ Bernard bowed, nnd wondered who the non-uxorious noble- 
man was. 
“ ‘On pago 3. Mr. Carlyon,' continued Ins lordship, ‘ tho Ame- 
rican servant hns a sneer at * Highgate’s Ointment.’ Now I do 
not suppose that Mr. Uighgntc's ointment is so infallible as he 
alleges; but ns lie is nn indefatigable tradesman, nnd this is a 
trading country, the Government, at this commercial crisis, do not 
feel justified in sanctioning his interests being injured by the 
American’s remark, that in Kentucky they cure all the hams nt 
once by putting Highgate’s ointment into the pigs’ trough. Say 
* a quack medicine,’ if you like.’ 
“This also was duly noted by the author, who scarcely dared 
to look up. 
“‘Now in page 5, if you please,’ said the Lord Chamber- 
lain, 'I SCO that Lndy St. llollox says. ‘Yes, Sir Malachite, 
hut n good painting may bo hung in a bad light.' Now this 
inuy be taken in two ways. Either it is a severo remark 
directed against the Committee of tho Royal Academy, whoso 
exhibition is now open, and who are a most respectable and 
influential body, and must not he insulted, or else it is a stricture 
against Government, in reference to the treatment of the Vernon 
Collection, in which ease I need lmrdly say the observation is un- 
called for.’ 
“ Carlyon could not trust himself with more than a bow, but he 
made some strange marks on the manuscript. 
‘ A word, only one, in page 7, — 'Good gracious, Fonmbell, 
don’t he so pnsitivo. You would contradict Bnbbugo’s calculating 
machine.’ We don’t like names to ho introduced — soy tho cal- 
culating machine, please.’ 
“ ‘And now, Mr. Carlyon, we como to a very serious matter, 
and one which mokes me doubt whother, under any circum- 
stances, I can license this comedy. This you need not write 
down, hut liavo the kindness to consider what I sny. Your 
Sir Mnlaoliito, a person of low birth, who lias been knighted 
by nn accident — (that you must, of course, remove, ns every- 
body knows to whom you refer) — seeks to seduce the wife of a 
nobleman. Now, in these times, wlint can I say to this?’ 
“‘I would merely say, my Lord,' said Carlyon, ‘ that though 
your lordship and your predecessors liavo hitherto protected 
the monopoly of theatrical vice, I liavo thought myself justified 
in opening a little free trade. From time immemorial tho 
stage seducer and libertine lias nlways been a nobleman, nnd 
lus victim a plebeian. Evory drama intended for the lower 
classes is framed in the spirit of one of their most popular 
songs, ‘ See tho star-breasted villain to yonder cot bound ! ’ 
l'coplo liavo been taught to believe the aristocracy one innss 
of cruel, ignorant, and selfish Don Juans. That this sort of re- 
presentation has been always permitted, and is at this moment 
taking plneo in a dozen theatres attended by tho class upon whom 
these umueomenle really make an impression, is a fact to which 
tho attention of your lordship's offleo lias no doubt been directed. 
Hut in selecting my libertine from another body Ilian tho House 
of Lords, I venture to think that it' I linvo not done u good service, 
I have exhibited a good motive.’ 
“ ‘ There is much in wlmt you say, Mr. Carlyon, nnd I doplore 
the habit which lins arisen of permitting the elnss of pieces you 
describe. But my business is with the drama immediately before 
ino. In making the libertine n man of tho people, you excite 
attention to antagonistic principles, and that is very undesirable. 
All is very quiet in tho country just now, and we will try to keep 
it so.’ 
“ ‘ It is a spurious quiet, my lord, that turns its hack upon a 
danger, and denies tho existence of what it refuses to behold,' 
said Bcrnnrd. 
‘“AH politics area compromise, you know,’ snid Lord Dovcton, 
smiling. ‘ But wo are straying from business.’ 
“ ' Perhaps not, my lord,’ said Carlyon. ‘ I am suroyour lord- 
sliip will acquit me of any intention of dictation or declamation, 
but I would respectfully urge upon you that this is not. a mere 
question of dotoll. Your lordship, oxoreising n discreet supervision 
nf the drama, sees many allusions ami inuendoes in every play, 
upon the propriety of retaining or rejecting which, your opinion, 
us thot of a high-minded nobleman us well as u practical man of 
the world, ought in all reason to ho final. For myself I could 
wish nothing bettor than so gentlemanly nconsorship, which would 
tend nt onco to tho improvement of the lono, ns well ns of the art 
of tho dramatist.' 
“Lord Dovcton nodded, not asscntingly, but in token thnt ho 
listened. 
yon must reckon its prohibition ns one of the obstacles, in spito 
larlty'’ 1 L “ Ve n ° d ° ubt you wiU 01,0 da * allnin d «ervod popu- 
Carlyon do? Bow; and, having ascertained from 
tho Chamberlain, ihut, subject to the alterations ho had dictated, 
", a ,j‘T ,ar °" C9 afterwards mentioned by Lord Dovcton, 
theie would ho no further objection to tho play, tuko it to the 
tbentro, nnd alter it m Conformity with instructions. The ‘Slaves 
ot tho Ring, after a volley of execrations from Mr. Phospcr. 
directed against hereditary nobility in general, and tho gentlo 
Lord Dovcton in particular (whom Phosper was certain could bo 
impeached, if Mr. Thomas buncombe would only lake the matter 
op ? was re-baptized as 'Love, Honour, and Obey.’ Lord St. 
Rollox was called Lord Serpentine, and was made to regret that 
be had not kept his wife in sight of the Wrckin. The Yankcoisin 
waj struck out, to tho improvement of the piece, and in dcferenco 
to tho quack salver; nnd tho innocent statement, that a picture 
might lie hung in a bad light, was altered to some other common- 
plnco, which could not offend the Academy or the Vernon Trust. 
1 be complimentary mention of tho most extraordinary mechanical 
mathematician in the world wns suppressed, nnd the great griev- 
ance, St. Malachite's low birth, was redressed, to the remarkable 
advantage) of the aristocracy, by un awkward discovery thnt he 
wns the illegitimate child of another “ Star-breasted villain,” 
who had to lie dragged in, most in artificially, nt the end of a 
piece in which he hnd never been hoard of previously. 
“ Thus cleared of ‘ offenco,’ tho comedy wns produced.’’ 
©iff Sdhr-§it|. 
THE BATH (CAPT. WEST’S) STAG HOUNDS. 
Friday, Fob. 4lli, Atwortb, foggy morning, a large field 
very varmint-looking. Afler giving the host of the White 
Hart n turn, tho deer was uncarted on Norriogton Common, 
and went away in capital style; the usual law having been 
observed, the hounds were laid on her slot, going away at 
a pace that told us that the scent ivas not interfered with by 
the weather, and those of tho field who meant 6ceing tho 
sport saw that to linger was a sure blight to their prospects. 
The deer, oil leaving her carriage pointed for Atworth, 
but being beaded, turned short back, and crossed by Slmw 
hill House (the seat of the Rov. Mr. Heaihcoat), to Shaw 
School, nearly to the railroad, crossing ihe Bath-road to 
Bennacre, by Shaw Church, leaving Whitley to the right for 
Nestor Park ; again crossing the Batli-ioud to Cottle’s House 
Hobb’s Bottom, and on to South Wraxull, leaving that 
village to the right for Ford furm, turning again to the Chal- 
fields by Hull's House, to Holt Common, when we whipped 
off, tho log being so thick t hut we could not see the hounds- 
time, one hour and forty minutes, with only one check for a 
few minutes; the country ridden over, about 14 miles, was 
of a varied description, intersected w ith some stifflsh fencing. 
Captain Itoyds, always in the front rank, had rather a nasty 
tall, which shook the old gentleman a bit, but did not slop 
Lim. Out of u field of 4U, well mounted, we only mustered, 
at the finish, tho two Captains West, Captain Royds, 
Messrs. Suinsbury, Ford, Bateman, nnd Dr. Basset (of 
course, old Sam was, as be always is, with his darlings), and 
your huinblo servant, A Stagger. 
A DAY WITH LORD LONSDALE’S FOXHOUNDS. 
Sir, — O n Tuesday Inst we met at Wigginton Common ; 
and soon after eleven, the hour appointed, the hounds, with 
the worthy owner of the pack, appeared on the common, fit 
und ready for somo good fun. His lordship did not wait 
long before off we went to the covers belonging to Sutton, 
Esq., of Rossway, when we found a good old fox, who took 
us straight away to S. Dorreen, Esq.’s, covers, where lie ran 
to ground nlicr a run of about a quarter of an hour. We 
tried this gentleman’s covers and found unother, which gave 
us another quarter of an hour, and some very fast and good 
hunting was exhibited. We had no more runs worthy of 
notice to be placed in a newspaper, but we went away with 
the same joy as is usual upon leaving tlioso hounds which 
are now a credit to whom they belong, by whom they 
are hunted, and every one elso. Yours, Cochin. 
Aylesbury. 
LOUD DACItE'S HOUNDS. 
Mr. Editor, — These hounds huve been doing well since 
the frost, and have had several good duys. On Thursday 
last we had a very fast thirty-five minlues from Mr. Kin- 
der’s (joi’so, and should inevitably have killed had we not 
changed. Found a second fox in one of Mr. House’s springs, 
and killed alter a good hunting run of un hour and ten 
minutes. Met yesterday, at Rcdbourn Common, and 
trotted on to How Grove — a sure find, thanks to Mr. God- 
win, than whom there is not a better preserver of foxes in 
the county. The hounds wero hardly in covert when a fine 
old dog fox broke at the upper end, crossing the Hemel 
Hemp.'tcod roud to tho right of Mr. Hole's Park, thence 
pointing over a stiffly enclosed country, to Mr. Dickinson's, 
and, turning to the left at Chamber’s Bury Farm, crossed 
Leverstock Green at the new chapel, and ran from this 
straight to Gorlmmbui-y Park, but lio was too much beaten 
to get over the palings, and skirting them for a short distance, 
the hounds close at him, wns run into on the edge of Pluck’s 
bushes, after as good a forty minutes as I have seen this 
season. The finish was perfection, and we hnd not a check 
during the run ; in fact, tho hounds were never two fields 
behind their fox the whole way. I am, sir, 
Yours very obediently, \V. R. 
*’int such doings nro un-English nnd ought to bo dts- 
,i n . ,' v hv-rcos Idle and dishonest gamekeepers pretend that 
Lr lf i 0 .', ,h 7 r n, ^ r5 ttn sale of game ....less they 
ITdttfiS * h0 dwtrucilon of foxes, although tt Is well known, 
Xh ideeds b Tn‘i r T' ' ’ ,hu ! ,uch »• ““ unwarranted pretext for 
iinaitinn nf on«nti, n ' ''j! l ’ rcns t,lcre are certain persons occupying tho 
»h« iliMnr* * 0 " U '' ,ncn " disregard proper social feeling* on 
"I 1 . 0 ha * , !" r ’ or Qfl «Mn g for their pockets 1 sake to 
heiVm?r^bv f tL , «l "^ "' U S1 ' 0rt - *“«« effectual measures to flit 
^ h , “L° « f eamc ' wUh “'at view destroy all tho 
o lh s W r, y wlll °h "’ey possess, or on which 
t he> hine the shooting. And whereas such conduct Is xcltlsh. short-* 
*evcia^tn^nceJ 3 tn b n2« eabl °V t"* wlKTI “ lt been traced In 
exhibit alond httv 1 to »*i»tatotw Justice, and should 
exhibit a good example. And whereas it seems desirable that the Chief of 
he county should mark his sense of such malpractice, by ending from 
K n“ 0( ft 0 , 1V , aciJ “ ll HUch l )0, '* 0n »- Your Lordship Uttiere- 
the 0 «iin P rf tfU y ' lollel ! cd t0 ‘ ako auch measures us the Importance of 
the subject may seem to require.'' * 
The above dooumoatj wo are informed, is most numerously and 
respectably signed. ' 
W o lmve extracted the above from the last Notts. 
Guardian , a newspaper in extensive circulation amongst 
agriculturists. The lush aims at certain vulpecides in that 
district, but it might bo extended, wo aro sorry to suy, into 
several others. This game preserving, butluo shooting 
game selling system lias positively become ft national curse, 
und grievously militates against tho truu national sport, 
because it is used us a pretext for trapping foxes. -It cannot 
bo too strongly condemned, or loo severely ridiculed. Can 
anything be more absurd, more contemptible, tliun to seek 
eclat by a distinguishing paragraph like tho following, tnkou 
perchance from the Morning Post of lust November : — 
“Magnificent Sport! Lord Curmoalling, with his friends 
Count Alexis Alabaster, nnd the Damn do Falsetto, tho Hnnour- 
nbles Fairfax l’iddledee, Peregrine Piddlcdeo, and Sir Benjamin 
Hangup, bagged in three duys last week, upon his lordship's 
preserves in tho munors of Harum and Sonriiin-cum-Rutum, 
C\4S7 head of game, comprising principally hares, pheasants, 
nnd rabbits, and exclusive of waterliens, wood pigeons, and 
peowits.” 
Indeed! very magnificent and noble sport truly! Wo 
happen to know something of this kind of covert shooting, 
und how it is got up, and how done ; und wo take upon 
ourselves to ;>ay, that more unmauly, more puerilo, more 
degrading work cannot be. Is it not sickening to contem- 
plate six or eight full grown men, each with un extru double 
barrel, and a loader at his elbow, silently watching at the 
corner of a ride, an unfortunate, miserable, frighteuod hure 
or rabbit, creeping about listeningly and anxiously without 
possibility of escape from either shot or net, or heater’s 
bludgeon, and then to see the result of it ull blazoned forth 
in an English newspaper forsooth as “ magnificent shooting, ’’ 
“wonderful sport?” When will there be un end to such 
disgusting work ? That it is waning, we rejoice ; and arc 
ashamed for our country that It has been tolerated so long. 
Yours, See., Subscriber. 
COURSING IN NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. 
Sir, — O n Tuesday last Sir Charles Wake gave his annual 
coursing day to his friends and neighbours, on his estutes at 
Courtcen Hall. 
The day was most beuutiful, and the sport of flrst-rnto 
quulity, Sir Charles himself, in true English style, acting, on 
his brown pony, as director of the beaters. Thanks to the 
careful keeping of Mr. Brown, about fifty Imres were found 
between eleven und four, and after some Hve-and- thirty 
courses, nineteen of them were accounted for. About twelve 
or thirteen brace of dogs were present from all parts of t he 
county, and the course of tho day was one between two black 
puppies, of the Foremost breed, belonging to Mr. Iluyton, 
of Kilsby, which ended in a kill, after one of the most mag- 
nificent contests ever witnessed. One of them fell head over 
heels after ricking her hero, but recovered herself, and went 
to her work again with all that desperate resolution which 
used to characterise her great blond-relations. War Eagle, 
Wrestler, and Wicked Eye. A dog of Mr. Smith of North- 
ampton's “ blood” also greatly distinguished itself in a single 
handed course. One of the prettiest points of Hie meeting was 
the breaking away of the dogs in the slips. After running 200 
yards tints locked together, by apiece of luck, little short of a 
miracle, one of them trod on the spring handle, and having 
thus neatly released itself and its comrade, killed the hure. 
l’crhups the same good luck might not attend one out of 
twenty thousand of such break-aways. The ground was 
ruther sticky, and being principally plough, the odds were 
heavy against the hares. However they run much better 
than two foxes did befnro the Pytcheh-y, when they met at 
Bullock’s Booth last Monday week. The first ran a short 
ring, and then becamcaoexhansted, from f.it and want of work, 
that it luid down with ita head and shoulders up a dram, end 
was killed in that position. The other went i freight away 
for three miles, and then laid down, dead beut, in adry ditch, 
vainly trying to hide itself under a little grass ; and although 
the hounds were at fault for ten minutes in the adjoining 
Hold, it never attempted to move, und was killed then and 
there. Youra truly, S. 
Northampton , Feb. 8. 
NOT ABOUT A 1I0R.*E THAT WOULDN’T EAT, BUT 
ABOUT A HERON THAT WOULD. 
Sir, — One day during the late full of snow, the Rev. 
Edward Elmhirst, of Shawoll Rectory, Leicestershire, 6hot a 
heron, the crop or stomuch of which, when opened, con- 
tained the following entire bodies a trout, weighing half- 
a-pound, a full-grown wuter-rat, a mouse, and a fieldfare. 
Yours, dtc., S. 
‘ * But I would urge upon your lordship the consideration of 
on ° simple fact. There are fifteen theatres open every night, 
withoutcounting aristocratic regions whero Mnsuniello's treason, 
Lncreziu’s incest, and Bertram's blasphemy, will, it. is presumed, 
fill harmlessly upon tho exalted and educated. But at cocli of 
lie olher theatres, a low average oi' a thousand speotntora nightly 
n >ibo, with tho good faith, greediness, and earnestness of plebeian 
i<euers, precisely such lessons us it suits the Government they 
* ">u learn. Fifteen thousand eager auditors every night attend 
‘ 10 sennuns appointed for them by their betters, and your Lord- 
ipf'P ni “ v n»ly no portion of text or inference escapes them. 
„ ' s . mighty crowd may be reached, in tho most effectual manner. 
in spue of themselves, by ns weighty u machine, now in your 
urasDip s hands. Bat Government does not think it worth 
•vuuc inlluenro ninety thousand people every week— nov, not 
even to toko care that they shall not he influenced by its enemies. 
only care of Government is, thnt tho dramatic machine shall 
the wheels > °° croakin gJ and your lordship’s ollico is to oil 
" Car ly° n 6 Poko earnestly, but with so much natural courtesy, 
' t it was impossible for Lord Dovcton to take offenco at the 
Bor^DovolOT 8ahl° ,nim0le< * UUtbor ‘ ^ ut wbcn ,ie llQ ' 1 conc| uded, 
8t , ron S , y u P on 11 matter connected with vour pro- 
it Tint r " , Cftrlyo "’ a,ld that is a sure ouien of your success in 
formiho 8 yo “ nro wiU,n e to alter your comedy in con- 
y witn an opinion which I see no cause to change, I fear 
FOX HUNTING. 
Sir, — F or n century Nottingham was tho best situation in 
England for tho lovers of tho clinse. It hue now become one of 
tho worst. Tho Rufford hounds would, we believe, give our 
neighbours more frequent opportunities of a day with them wero 
it not for the game preservers, who take care th’ut “ tho animal ” 
shall ho (as a certain doceased old ’squire townrds tho north of the 
county used to say of money) “very scace.” Wo hear that tho 
following memorial is about to bo sent to Lord Scarborough. It 
is lull of truth ; and as his lordship's hereditary best wishes for 
the old sport will accompany his intimations on tho subject, wo 
trust it may provo of servico. Tho evil referred to is indeed n 
crying one. 
“ To the Right Honourable the Earl of Scarborough, Lord- 
LieuUnant of Aoltinghannhirc, 
“ The memorial of the undersigned respectfully shews that— Whereas 
fox hunting Is an old English pursuit, and It Is expedient that it be 
encouraged. And whereas thero have been within some years past 
great Inroads on that pursuit, namely, by the late Lord Wliarnellffe s 
Act legalising the sate of game, and Mr. Colville’s Hare Act And 
whereas those enactments have proved to be practically the best friends 
of the poacher and tho worst enemies of the fbx-hunter. And w hereas 
battue shooting has been fashionable with certain persons as a noble 
occupation And whereas It is considered by Englishmen generally 
as a very Ignoble pastime. And whereas It Is considered Unit how- 
ever Interesting It may be to such characters to get a lot of hares, 
pheasants, and rabbits fed and congregated together, und to prevent 
their escape at the coverts' sides by nets and other Implements, and 
then to let fly into the half tame and innocent creatures with wholesale 
FLAT RACE AT ETON. 
Sir — The annual flut race came «ff on tho Oth instant. 
Yorke, Denne, Lord E. Clinton, Hall, Mr. Rollc, Wharton 
mu., Dloleld, Alderson, and Browning, had entered their 
names to run 100 yards. Yorko came to tho scratch, 
accompanied by Wodoliouse, whoso powers aro well-known 
as u “ hurdle jumper.” 
Owing to Yeo's absence, it was generally thought Yorke 
would liavo it all bis own way. 
In the first heat, Yorko, Dunne, Akfereon, and Browning 
came to Hi* post. At tho word “ ofl ” Yorke sprung to the 
front, followed by Browning, who, alter 50 yards, gave way 
to Denne, und, being 60 dreadfully out of condition, was 
easily passed by Alderson. Yorko made the running 
throughout, and won cosily by three yards; Denno second. 
Time, 11 seconds. 
In the second he.it were placed Mr. Rolle, Hall, Lord E. 
Clinton, Blofrld, and Wharton, ma. At tho word “off” 
Lord E. Clinton and Mr. Itollo jumped to tho front, running 
ubreast for a considerable distance, when tho former, who 
wns straining every nerve to rank No. A in his lu-ut, shook 
off his opponent, but lio wanted strength. Hall now shot 
a* head, and passed Clinton. Tho latter gentleman's work 
was not over yet ; the “ little creeper ” now disputed with 
