bird will be left to die by inches, instead of coming gloriously to bag, but for these opportune services. Like a clever hack, however, a good retriever is rather a difficult thing to define; while some people seem to fancy that so long as you have a horse for the one, or a dog for the other, the end is accomplished. For our own part, indeed, we do not bow to the fashion that suffers only such dogs to retrieve as by common acceptation are held to look like retrievers. For water you may want the amphibious cross, perhaps; but any man with a temper may teach almost any dog with a nose to play his part at the fetch-and-carry business.

"We have all our prejudices. Every Englishman has a right to many. One of mine is to think a regular retriever positively not worth his keep, if one of your setting dogs will retrieve. However, I acknowledge that a good retriever, which does not refuse to come in when signalled to, without being called to, is very useful when you shoot in cover with beaters; but even then he should not be the idle rascal one generally sees. He should be broken-in to hunt close to you, like a mute spaniel. I grant this is somewhat difficult to accomplish, but it can be effected. I have seen it; and if it be practicable, it is at least worth the trial; for if you succeed, you make one dog do the duty of You will thus obtain in the course of a season many a shot which your other dogs-especially in hot weather-would pass over; and if the retriever hunts quite close to you, he can in no way annoy the other dogs, or interfere with them-for I take it for granted he will be so obedient as to come in to heel the instant he gets your signal.”

two.

Colonel Hutchinson is our authority here. From his entertaining and instructive little work, "Dog-Breaking," we borrow another hint or so on the same theme :

"Though you may not wish your young pointer (or setter) to retrieve, still you would do well to teach him, whilst he is a puppy, to fetch and deliver into your hands anything soft. You may occasionally throw it for him, or leave it behind you in some place, where he will have observed you deposit it, while he is following at your heels. If you practise him in this, you will probably find him, years hence, occasionally bringing you some dead bird he may come across, and which you otherwise might have imagined you had missed, for its scent might be too cold, and consequently too changed, for the dog to have thought of regularly pointing it. I have observed it was something soft which you should teach your dog to fetch and carry. Probably you have seen a retriever taught to seek and bring a stone, upon which, in a delicate manner, the tutor has spit. Does it not stand to reason that this must have tended to give his pupil a hard mouth? When your dog has picked up what you desired, endeavour to make him run to you quickly. Many who teach a dog to fetch and carry, praise and encourage him while he was bringing what he was sent after. Clearly that is an error. It induces the dog to loiter and play with it. He thinks he is lauded for having it in his mouth, and carrying it about. Reserve your encomiums and caresses until he has delivered it into your

hands."

LITERATURE.

THE COMIC ALMANACK FOR 1853. London: Bogue, Fleet-street. Under the strong impression that the condition of the laughing philosopher is by no means an unenviable one, this little Olio may be considered as an auxiliary to such a happy consummation. Cruikshank, as usual, wields the pencil, and pen too; less of the latter, perhaps, "Look on this picture, would not diminish the effect of the plates. and on this," philosopher of the world, and then confess your disposition to enjoy a happy New Year."

66

PUBLIC AMUSEMENTS OF THE METROPOLIS.

"We belong to the unpopular family of Tell-truths, and would not flatter Apollo for his lyre."-ROB ROY.

N. You are quite wrong; nothing worthy of notice at any of the theatres before Christmas, indeed! Now, my friend, mount your chapeau, and jump into the Brougham, and you shall see what you

shall see.

M. By all that's great-glorious and free, I will add, if it please you-i never could have supposed that JULLIEN'S PROMENADE CONCERTS would act so powerfully in herding humanity together. Why, I never beheld such a dense mass in DRURY LANE; no, not even at a great Protection Meeting.

N. Out of order, you must not institute comparisons, particularly at such a time as this, when Protection

"Oh no, we never mention it !"

M. What an orchestra; what a singer, fair Anna Zerr! Queen of Night, your florid execution is most charming. What a house! what nectar for the Gods-and Goddesses too-provided in those comfortable lounging-rooms. What journals, magazines, and reviews; what readers, and what a Leader. Oh! Jullien!

"None but himself could be his parallel."

America should make much of you; for search all the world around, it would be difficult to find one who studies the public's taste to such a degree.

N. Listen to Beethoven's sublime symphony, and if you've music in

M. I know the rest, my fides Achates. Here now, all night till" to the "English Quadrille."

I can

"dance

N. I suppose the respect you entertain for his sable majesty causes this rapture for "the King of the Cannibal Islands." I really begin to suspect

M. Tush, say what you will, such a monarch is worthy of the respect of all; so here's a health to "Hokey Pokey."

N. You are so favourably disposed to ebony; what say you to "Those Dear Blacks" at the LYCEUM?

M. A slight joke at Uncle Tom in its way, to be laughed at.

N. In other words, the acting of Mr. Charles Mathews and Mr. Suter carries the bagatelle through with success.

M. I think you spoke of Mr. Suter; does he not perform in "Taking by Storm"?

N. In that very amusing sketch he does perform, and admirably too. Character is well studied by him; and, in addition to much humour of a quiet and dry nature, you will will always find that there is a finish imparted to every performance he undertakes.

M. To run from the Lyceum to the Haymarket, let me ask what you think of the novelties there: "Masks and Faces" and "Richelieu in Love"?

N. Indeed I cannot say; for, to tell you the truth, the "dogs in office" are so ill-bred that I would fain avoid them.

M. It's a pity Mr. Webster should entrust the management to a person so incompetent!

N. What say you to a drive to Regent Street?

M. You mean Oxford Street.

N. You are not dreaming assuredly of visiting the PRINCESS'S ?
M. Is it not all Wright?

N. Yes, he is there; but there's nothing new old farces, old comedies, and everything old, like the year, and not your port; but

M. This is the Polytechnic, eh? Well, I had hitherto avoided paying a visit from the fear of suffering from an admixture of dry statistics and a fit of heavy somnambulism; but a " Midsummer Night's Dream soon dissipates such ideas. The music here introduced, together with the dancing, must be a powerful incentive to a visit to the POLYTECHNIC.

N. True-thou reasonest well! Now, if you cry enough, farewell, and a merry Christmas?

NOTES OF THE MONTH PAST.

THE DUKE'S HORSE COPENHAGEN.-In our April number it will be remembered we gave a portrait of this celebrated charger, accompanied by a few particulars of him, that we were at some pains to procure. As regards their authority, we may state that we were favoured with notes by an officer of high rank in his profession, who was directly concerned in the purchase of the horse for his last and most illustrious master. This account, on the death of the Duke, went the round of the papers,

having been sought out with other matter likely to be interesting. Some worthy, however, who assumed to himself the privilege of knowing a good deal more than anybody else, issued a kind of general contradiction to anything already said about the horse, and then favoured the public with his "true and authentic account." The sum and substance of this, taken from the Racing Calendar, went to prove the grand fact that Copenhagen was not celebrated as a race-horse! and if he was celebrated in any other way-say, as a charger-why, "the authority" knew nothing about it. Unfortunately, however, our friend in giving his own especial and "correct account "of how the horse got his name, ventured beyond the Calendars, and getting deeper and deeper, begged at last to hint a doubt as to " the General" (Grosvenor) having ever been in Copenhagen at all. The whole thing was evidently written in so bad a spirit, that we thought it better to let it die away of itself. But unfortunately again, the Illustrated News, having engraved another portrait of the horse, reprinted this "true and authentic account' the Saturday in their paper; while The Times gave the following by way of comment on the Monday :

"TO THE EDITOR OF THE TIMES.'

on

"SIR,-Perceiving that several of the public accounts of the horse Copenhagen, justly celebrated as having carried the Duke of Wellington through the day of Waterloo, are very inaccurate, particularly in the last number of the Illustrated News, I beg you to give insertion to this short statement, for the accuracy of which I vouch. Lady Catherine, the dam of the horse, was the charger of the Marshal, then Major-General, Grosvenor at the siege of Copenhagen, who, on his return thence, received the thanks of the House of Commons, in company with his associate, Sir Arthur Wellesley, on the 1st of February, 1808, both Generals being members of the House. The mare gave birth soon after to a colt foal, which, in memory of the event, was named Copenhagen, and was reared by General Grosvenor. The horse went afterwards into other hands before he became the favourite charger of the illustrious man we have lost. It is not for me to enter into other details, nor should I have attempted to correct the errors in question had not one of them grieved me in stating that the late Marshal Gros. venor, who reared the horse, had never been at Copenhagen. "Your obedient servant,

"Richmond, Nov. 20."

"ANNA GROSVENOR.

In justice to ourselves, we insert this letter, and refer the reader to our account, to see how far the two agree. We repeat that we are at some trouble to have our statements correct; and so happy at all times to be put right by any one who can do it in the spirit and with the feeling of a gentleman.

A month that, for continuance and heaviness of rain, has no precedent-at any rate, in remembrance, opened the season of our winter pastimes with but little flourish. We hear of few clippers, fortunately perhaps, for the half-prepared ones, it being difficult enough now to cross a country on any terms. How the beneficial effects of a summer's run may show themselves, it is terrible to contemplate. The thin, dry lands, of course, have the best of it; and our flint-and-steel friends in Surrey are, as yet, quite satisfied with the sport they have had. Another well-wisher has favoured us with an account of a famous day's work with the Oar Harriers" over Exmoor, where, it seems, they get not only a good moor-deer or a fox, but as stout hares. Poor Puss, however, seldom strikes out far enough for general interest, or we should have been happy to chronicle this day in detail. As it is, we

can only congratulate our Simonsbath friends on their luck, and wish them more of it.

Mr. Webb's horses are the only hunters of note that have been sold during the month, the three offered making a very good average-King Charming, 200 gs., Crystal, 130, and the Flying Dutchman, 85.

The Steeple Chase Kalends have commenced with even less eclât. Foul weather is not the only thing they have to contend against, though this, too, made the various "ploughing matches" miserable enough. A robbery now is as a matter-of-course part and parcel of almost every steeple-chase that is run; and even these are becoming reduced to the Hell-ite's old toast-" When we can't rob the public, let's rob one another." The gentlemen are quite sickened, and steeple-chasing, like pugilism, reads very much like a condemned sport.

The New York Spirit of the Times occasionally compliments us by making an extract or two. It is with much pleasure we return this by the following, from a well-written notice of the late Mr. Webster :—

"Hon. J. Prescott Hall, U. S., Attorney for this district (himself a good Waltonian), in announcing the death of Mr. Webster to the bar of New York, remarked-I have partaken of his innocent and manly amusements; I have walked with him alone, at twilight, upon the shore of the far-resounding sea.' His success at sea-fishing is proverbial, and there is scarcely a bay or an inlet within a day's sail or ride of Boston or Marshfield that has not felt his line. Many members of the venerable 'M. C. A.' can bear testimony to his success in this his private amusement.

"Mr. Webster was a good trout-killer, and delighted in this most refined of all the modes, salientes calamo ducere pisces.' Apropos of this fact, we may quote a playful allusion of his, in a dinner speech given to him, in 1851, at Syracuse, in this state:

"It has so happened,' said he, that all the public services which I have rendered, in my day and generation, have been connected with the general government. I think I ought to make an exception. I was ten days a member of the Massachusetts Legislature, and I turned my thoughts to the search for some good object, in which I could be useful in that position; and after much reflection I introduced a bill which, with the general consent of both houses, passed into a law, and is now a law of the State, which enacts that no man in the State shall catch trout in any other manner than the old way-with an ordinary hook and line.'"

STATE OF THE ODDS, &c.

SALE OF BLOOD STOCK.

Lord Ribblesdale, after a very short taste of it, has declined the turf, and sold his stud, as he bought it, in a lot. Mr. Stebbings, or rather Mr. Knowles, is announced as the purchaser, and 4,000 guineas as the price. For this sum is exchanged three two-year-olds, six yearlings, seven foals, and six brood mares, including the dams of Kingston, Chatham, and Tadmor; twenty-two lots in all, and generally considered no bad bargain for the buyer. Mr. Kirby, of York, has bought Hernandez for the stud; Mr. H. Lister Doubt of Mr. Palmer, for two hundred pounds. The new establishment at Fairfield, near York, has purchased twelve of Sir Tatton Sykes' picked mares for 1,000 guineas, as well as Agnes Wickfield, by Birdcatcher, and The Gip, by