the field 
1155 
CONTENTS. 
Chronicle of the Week 1,153 
Sport and Sportsmen 1,156 
Racing 1,137 
Hunting 1,157 
Shooting and Coursing 1,158 
Cricket 1,159 
Yachting 1,159 
Kowing 1,160 
Angling 1,160 
Sportsman’s Library 1,101 
Gardening 1,103 
The Farm 1,164 
The Country House and Markets 1,165 
Letter Bug 1,106 
Feuilleton lit, 
SirrLKMBsr 1,109 
NOTICE. 
With the first number of the new volume of The Field, 
and the new year , there will be presented to the Sub- 
scribers 
AND 
tantnf Grntlmaifs dfobnitar; 
the field, the garden, the farm, 
For the Year 1855. 
This Almanack ivill contain superb Engravings, from 
designs by Ansdell, Wilson, and others , with all the 
information useful for reference in the country house. 
N. B . — This will be given to all who arc Subscribers to 
The Field for the year 1855. 
Advertisements for "The Sportsman s Almanack " 
should be sent to The Field Office without delay to secure 
insertion. 
NOTICES TO CORRESPONDENTS. 
%• The first and second country posts of Friday brought us so much 
correspondence that it has proved impossible to oblige all our kind 
friends by inserting their communications. Among the very many 
standing over ure : “ Gun Adventures ” (Dead-Shot); "Kenilworth 
and Darton-upou-Humber Coursing Meetings "Poultry" (llusticus); 
" Management of Poultry ” (It.) ; “ Provincial Masonicsj” “Yachting;" 
Ac., &c. Had much of this been sent to us enrlv in the week (and it 
might have been so with due diligence), it could have boon inserted. 
It is now unavoidably deferred. — “ Punctuality is a quality that liigldy 
adorns." 
RACING. 
T T C . — A false description disqualifies a horse for any race. 
Mailer . — A is right ; there were 131 acceptances. 
V 1‘ — Lost by a head. 
Jl. S . — The horse did not run. 
Scale. — The feather weight is -1st. 
ilome-shoe — It is a drawn bet. 
Hurdle — A dead heat. 
Jockey {Newmarket). — Mr. Clark's circuit this year has comprised the 
judging of 545 races, in which 3,246 competitors struggled for victory. 
There were 10 “ dead heats,” 84 “heads," and 63 “necks," amongst 
the number. 
AQUATIC. 
It. T. V C . — The Falcon schooner for sale is 147 tons, not 14 tons. 
There is no yacht called the Loftus. The proper name is Lotus, Her 
name was misprinted in the last number of Tub Field. 
Jl. 17 — The head-quarters of the Royal Canadian Yacht Club arc at 
Toronto. 
A'.— There is no Rear-Commodore at present in the Royal Thames or 
Royal London Yacht Club, or in the Prince of Wales Club. 
Tyro .— As an anchorage, we ourselves prefer Grcenhithe to Frith. 
Lithographer — l The "Nautical Magazine” is edited by Commander 
Becner, of the Admiralty. 2. There are but two yachting magazines 
at present. We believe a third lias recently beon contemplated. 
Jl T. } . r — Mr. Will Scott is the Hon. Sec. of the Birkenhead Model 
Yacht Club. 
POULTRY. 
r . — The Dublin Poultry Show is in type, and will appear next week. 
MASONIC. 
/’. T. Z. — Yes ; wo believe the Emperor of Russia to be a Mason. You 
contend that bis conduct in suppressing Masonry is a negative to his 
being so . that does not follow. In the first place. Masonry cannot 
make good what is radically bad; it will improve n man, but it cer- 
tainly will never mukc a bad man a good one. Secondly, the Czar is 
perfectly well aware that Masonic meetings would be, in his dominions, 
a cloak for political matters. Such he fears ; therefore persecutes it. 
L. A. —We are preparing a narrative upon Russian Freemasonry, which 
will commence in a week or so. 
S. II — You should write to the Grand Secretary's office, and it will be 
corrected, no doubt. 
MISCELLANEOUS. 
Autobiography of a Horse, No. II., is in type, but deferred for want of 
6paee," 
S. S. (Oxford ). — The Kent Poultry Show is fixed to tako place in tlve 
College-yard, Maidstone, on Tuesday, December 12. 
T. T. T — Your MS. is left with the Publisher. 
Lionel .S'. (H'tvenhoe). — The "Armv List" for the present month, price 
cigliteenpunee, can be had at Parker's, Whitehall. Au alphabetical list 
ef the 43 officers killed at Inkerman, on November 5th, appears therein 
at page 147, and L followed by a longer list of the wounded in the same 
buttle. 
Jl 77 — You cannot consult a barrister except through a solicitor. 
Inquirer. — The "Patriotic Fund Journal" will be published in a few 
days. The office is close to Somerset-honse, Strand. 
Luiultord (Hrcntjurd ). — Un Monday the new regulation respecting re- 
muneration for militia billets took ofl'oet, and proprietors of taverns on 
whom they are quartered will receive 10|d. per day. Write to us when 
tho difficulty you mention again occurs. 
Monoenhn {Half- Pay).— Few counties have given greater evidence of 
practical sympathy with the objects of the Royal Patriotic Fund than 
Dcvousliire, Up to the present time, tho county of Devon subscription 
to the Patriotic Fund amounts to A3, 607. 7s. Id., exclusive of the 
notes already forwarded to the treasurer in London from parishes and 
istricts independent of the county movement. 
•S’ — Had you been punctual, you would liavo had an interview. The 
Editor of Tub Field has too much on his hands to see any one except 
at tho very moment appointed. Call again on Tuesday, at three 
precisely. 
M tjor It — 1 The question of an immediate decoration for Alma and Inker- 
nmn is already much talked of in the West-end Clubs. Certainly, if 
thero lacks time to make clasps, bearing the glorious names of Alma 
and Inkerman, for those who fought and survived those wondrous 
achievements of British valour, why should not a riband be immedi- 
ately given, to which hereafter the clasps can be added ; and, Deo 
volente, also some day a Sebastopol medal ? When in India, Lord 
Ellcnborough, ever the soldier's warm friend, instituted the "riband of 
India why, therefore, should there not be a riband of the East, in 
which the tricolor of our gallant ally the French should mingle, as 
have their brave spirits in our mutual cause? 
A Con, hint I tea, ter — We are informed, by the former Proprietors, that it 
..“not yet hilly prepared. 
a . '7 .—We shall bo obliged by tho regular transmi-siou of the 
> lixtures. 
Subaltern ( Woolwich ). —We can best answer you by using the very words 
of the Timet, of Thursday, the 7th instant:— "A contemporary has 
published the exact position oi' the mines prepared by the besiegers, 
«»d that information lias actually led to countermines, and conse- 
quently to the sacrifice of the labour in those mines thus discovered to 
the enemy. We have rigorously abstained from giving any hints of 
tins sort. Indeed, we have ever had in our eye the fact that there are 
Russian agents and partisans in tliis country, who peruso the news- 
papers every morning in quest of hints for tlicir employers ; and who, 
by means ot the telegraph, can communicate what they may think <d 
any service to Berlin, and thence to Warsaw, before the Tmn , is m the 
hands of the London reader. We nre too well aware of the fact, that, 
during the whole of the war, the shortest road from Sebastopol to Lon- 
don. and consequently from Loudon to Sebustonol, lias been through 
ot, Petersburg.’* 
SATURDAY, DECEMBE R 9, 1854. 
CHRONICLE OF THE W EEK. 
r piIE news from the seat of war is not very eventful 
this week. Several sorties against tho French 
lines are spoken of, in all of which the Russians were 
repulsed with groat loss. In one sortie, against the 
English, our troops pursued the enemy so far that 
they captured and maintained a redoubt containing 
five guns, before the Russians could spike them. 
Our siege batteries were grim and. silent, the whole 
army being employed in surrounding the entire camp 
with a perfect line of circumvallation. A flairs be- 
tween the pickets were constant. Flags of truce had 
passed between the generals, and Lord Dunkellin (son 
of the Marquis of Clanricarde). had been exchanged 
for a Russian captain. Fresh reinforcements were 
arriving daily, and in large numbers. The 97th 
Regiment had landed, and the Queen of tho South 
had arrived at Balaklava with largo draughts of 
Guards and other regiments. Turkish reinforce- 
ments, composed principally of more veteran troops 
than those hitherto employed in the Crimean cam- 
paign, were being brought over from Baltschik. All 
the men were busy hutting themselves ; but, owing 
to the difficulty in obtaining planks, tools, and nails, 
it was feared that it would be at least two months 
before that important operation could be completed. 
Meantime, the army is exposed to all the rigours of 
the weather, at an elevation of 700 feet above the 
roaring waves of the Euxine, with no better protec- 
tion than can be afforded by their tents, and even 
these are reported to be damaged by the terrible 
storm on the 13th. A hundred and forty-six ship 
guns had been landed from the fleet, and would be 
used in new siege batteries. 
The details which have now reached us of the 
storm of the 13th prove that the calamity was not 
exaggerated ; indeed, it seems difficult to overrate 
the importance of its effects in the present position 
of the army. The Prince went down with 300 per- 
sons and all its valuable cargo on hoard, this latter 
including ordnance stores for the siege, winter 
clothing for the troops, and medical stores. By a 
piece of mismanagement, unfortunately not singular, 
the medical stores had been stowed away under the 
heavy shot and shell, and could not therefore be 
landed at Scutari. The value of the Prince is esti- 
mated at £150,000, and her cargo at £500,000. 
Thirty transports also went to pieces against the 
rocks at Balaklava and Eupatoria, and on the shores 
of the Katscha; 300 men were drowned, and many 
more fell into the hands of tho Cossacks. The money 
value of these transports is estimated at more than 
half a million. The French fleet also sustained 
heavy losses. Eight brigs, laden with men and 
horses, went to pieces, and the men fell into the 
hands of the Cossacks. The fine line-of-battle-ship 
Henri Quatre stranded, as also a Turkish ship 
of war, off Eupatoria. The gross value of the damage 
sustained by the expedition during the storm, which 
raged without intermission for three days and a-half, 
cannot be less than two millions sterling. The Cos- 
sacks, to their disgrace be it recorded, fired upon 
many of the shipwrecked mariners when they refused 
to come on shore and surrender themselves ; but off 
the Katscha river the Samson replied to them with 
a smart shower of shell, and speedily made them 
take to their heels. We recognise in this the same 
code of humanity which commanded the murder of 
the wounded at Alina and at Inkerman. 
The military authorities at home are making every 
endeavour to repair the loss with all possible 
speed. Fresh stores of winter clothing and muni- 
tions of war are being packed up and sent off as fast 
as they can be obtnined. Many of the London gun- 
smiths are now busily engaged in completing the 
orders which have been shamefully neglected by the 
apathetic gunmakers of Birmingham ; and it is satis- 
factory to know that Minic rifles form the bulk of 
these commissions. Altogether, the nation has reason 
to be satisfied with the exertions now being made to 
bring up the army to a full state of efficiency. 
It is rumoured that the augmentation of the regular 
army intended to be proposed to Parliament will 
amount to 3G,000 men. 
Messrs. Brassey, Peto, and Betts, tho celebrated 
contractors, are commissioned to construct a railway 
between Balaklava and the trenches. A gang ol 
navvies, platelayers, &c., has been engaged, which 
starts for the seat of war early in next week. It is 
clear, however, that this work cannot be finished 
before March, when, we hope, it will no longer be 
wanted. Mr. Nasmyth's idea about wrought-iron 
guns has been taken up by Government, and he is 
empowered to proceed at once. Wo may, therefore, 
expect to have some of his promised miracles of gun- 
nery at work when tho spring sets in. 
Ihc politics of tho present war have been some- 
what cleared up by the conclusion of a treaty between 
trance, England, and Austria. What the exact 
terms are, seems lor tho present doubtful ; but tho 
Times gives the following clauses as including all tho 
important points : — 
Tliat Auatria has ongRRcd to consider any violation of 
tho Turkish territory by Russia os equivalent to a declaration 
of war against licrself. 
2. That Austria will reinforce her army in tho Prinoi- 
palitias, so that Omar Pasha may at once begiu operations, 
tho imperial troops remaining as a kind of reserve. 
3. At tho demand of tho Western Powers, Austria will 
placo 15,000 or 2.>,000 men at Varna, which, in case of need, 
can bo sent to tho Crimea. 
4. England and V ruueo pledge themselves that tho terri- 
torial possessions of tho Kmporor of Austria shall, under all 
circumstances, ronmiu undimi rushed. 
Unlimited credence is not, however, to he given 
to this account of the treaty actually concluded, and 
there arc indeed very grave reasons why a treaty so 
constituted should not meet with the approval of 
this nation. The first three clauses are vaguo to n 
fault. It a violation ot Turkish territory bo a 
sufficient casus belli, the Russians are at this moment 
violating that territory in Asia. The reserve of 
15,000 or even 25,000 men is but an insignificant 
quota lor an army 500,000 strong to supply ; and it 
is not easy to see why the presence of an Austrian 
reserve in the Principalities should be necessary to 
enable Omar Pasha to commence operations, remem- 
bering, as wo do, how gloriously lie fought before a 
single Austrian soldier marched beyond the frontier. 
But it is the last clause that must hold up this treaty 
(if it be really based upon these conditions) to tho 
detestation of all true Englishmen. We arc to pledge 
ourselves to keep the territorial possessions of Austria 
undiminished. In other words, we are to pledge our- 
selves to keep Hungary enslaved by the active power 
of our arms, whenever she secs fit to rise against 
her tyrants. However, when Parliament meets wo 
shall doubtless be put in full possession of tho real 
term 8 of this treaty. 
Speculation is naturally very rife as to tho real 
nature of the business which Parliament will he 
called upon to transact. It is to be hoped, however, 
that all political differences will be suffered to fall 
into abeyance until tho exigence of the crisis is over- 
past. Our army is waiting for succour, rnoro mouo} 
is wanted, and men have to bo raised, in order that 
the war may be carried on with vigour. This is no 
time for party quarrels or party dissensions. Here- 
after a time will come when the keenest party 
man may work his will, and all the shortcomings 
of Ministers may then bo searcliingly inquired 
into ; at present, we have an urgent and vitally-im- 
portant duty to perform, and it must be done at once, 
without waste of either time or words. Nothing 
could gratify the Emperor Nicholas so much as to 
hear that the British Parliament met to consider 
the best means of making war upon him, aud that 
they separated making war upon each other. 
Mr. Sturge, the Birmingham corn-dealer, who 
made himself so eminently ridiculous by going out 
to St. Petersburg to ask the Emperor of Russia not 
to go to war, has written a letter to the working- 
classes of Birmingham, to assure them that the dear 
bread is nil owing to the war. No doubt the war 
luts something to do with it, but not all ; and Mr. 
Sturge is scarcely honest, when he charges it all 
upon the war. Exhaustion of last year's stocks has 
as much to do with it as the war, and Mr. Sturge, as 
a dealer, must have known that. The war, being 
costly, of course increases prices ; but tho people is 
satisfied, and bears its burden cheerfully. 
Ex-Lord Mayor Sidney has laid himself open to 
remark by moving, in the Court of Aldermen, “ that 
a dutiful Address be presented to her Majesty, 
praying that she will be graciously pleased to remove 
Lord Aberdeen from her councils.” The aldermen 
themselves scouted the motion, as feeling that it 
would put them in a ridiculous position ; and the 
public have scouted it, not so much because they 
disliked the suggestion, as because they despised tho 
quarter from whence it came. 
M. Kossuth’s arguments having been attacked by 
a correspondent of the Times, the proud and irascible 
Magyar bursts out into a violent defence, indulging, 
by tho way, in a little sarcasm about the nature ol his 
own reception in this country. The correspondent 
of the Times had stated that “the Hungarian nation 
did not assist the Poles in 1830, but remained a 
quiescent spectator of their heroic struggle. This 
assertion M. Kossuth proves to be historically untrue ; 
for that the Hungarians, on the contrary, dul aid 
them to the utmost of their power. “ And when 
Poland succumbed (continues M. Kossuth), when the 
Government we were subject to issued orders for not 
admitting the Polish refugees to cross the frontiers of 
Hungary, we smuggled them, at the riskot our lives, 
to our homes ; tec gave them not much of thundering 
