Returning to the stable, we will look round and see what more is wanting there. If we should see that which in a badly organized stable is sure to be seen, namely, all sorts of stable utensils and requisites in holes and corners, on the window ledges, the corn-bin (if one be in the stable), the steps of the loft-ladder, and various other improper lodgments for them, the want which will suggest itself at once is that of a good cupboard, or rather press, at each end of the stable. Nothing looks more unstableman-like than seeing forks, brooms, buckets, et cetera, standing about. Should it be at all dusk, or even by daylight if your attention is occupied, the chance is you break your shin over a pail, and while dancing with agony on one leg, you hop into the dropping-scuttle, and out of that pop into the cold stopping-box.

The presses should be made so that all these things can stand in them, and on shelves and pegs to also shut in. There will be a place for chamois, sponges, dressing tools, mane combs, water brushes, bandages, the men's strapping jackets, and sundry other articles in daily use.

Anything like a shelf in a stable should never be seen; not even a sill to the windows. I need scarcely say that nails or hooks in the walls are absolutely inadmissible. A wooden peg or two to hang a bridle on while the horse is being saddled is a convenience, and not objectionable if never used for any other purpose.

Numerous accidents happen where utensils are allowed to stand in the stable. Horses coming in and out are almost sure to strike against them. This frightens them: they run back, hit something else, or run against other horses and get kicked. Should such a thing occur as a horse getting loose in the night (no very improbable circumstance, bythe-bye, in a badly conducted stable), probably if he walked quietly about, or even into another horse's stall if used to each other, no harm may happen; but if in the dark he gets kicking the buckets about the stable, as Dr. Ollapod did the phials about his shop, he (not Dr. Ollapod), gets frightened, frightens the other horses, and they all get kicking and snorting together; and then, in allusion to the doctor's pet numbers, it is "two thousand five hundred and thirty-eight" to one that some mischief ensues.

Having now got a tolerably comfortable stable (that is, as far as my knowledge of what is a comfortable one goes), that is one not a bit too good for a hack, and quite good enough for a hunter, there are certain little adjuncts to it, convenient if only destined for the first-named humble inhabitant, but absolutely indispensable to the more aristocratic tenant. The first of these are (in the stable) gates to fall back against the wall, and fasten across from it to the stall-post at night. They are a small expense, and no inconvenience in any properly proportioned stable; and in one whose six stalls contain, perhaps, a thousand guineas, they are a safeguard that it is reprehensible to omit. Though a properly-made head-collar cannot be slipped off in case of fright or a horse getting cast, some part of it may be broken, or if the safety-collar and rings I have mentioned are used, they will disengage themselves and get loose; and a broken leg from the other horses in such a case is too serious a matter to be risked.

(To be continued.)

The perusal of that amusing work, "The Sportsman in France," induced me to try the shooting in that country; and, finding matters so changed since the period at which that book was written, I thought some information as to what it is now might be of use to your sporting readers, and perhaps induce others more competent to give, through your pages, an account of the game and the places they have found in other parts best calculated to afford amusement to shooting-men. I shall observe, for the benefit of those who have not yet been in France, that they should bring with them from England whatever they may require-clothes, shooting appointments, &c.; as they will be charged in the French shops double the amount for an inferior article that they would have to pay for a good one in London; and this habit of extorting is such, that a gentleman told me he overheard the lady of the house where he lodged, at Abbeville, cautioning the peasants not to sell him poultry, eggs, &c., too cheap, as he was an Englishman, and ought to pay more!

The sportsman should at once apply for his permis de chasse, or game licence, as it is sometimes delayed; mine was not delivered for more than a month, and so I lost some of the best shooting season. The permis de chasse costs twenty-five francs, and with it is given a receipt of the date of the delivery; it is necessary to keep this receipt, as the licence is good for one year from the period of its being granted; so, if given late one year, it lasts a good part of the next season. A very useful book to have is the " Vade mecum du Chasseur;" it costs one franc, and gives the French game-laws, with observations on them, that may prevent the sportsman being imposed on, or getting into unpleasant scrapes. No one should bring pocket-pistols, dagger-knife, or lifepreserver, with them to France, as they are strictly prohibited, and will be seized at the Custom-House on landing. I must also give a caution against hiring saddle-horses; as if they should fall, and they are very successful at that trick, the rider has to pay fifty francs for that performance; and their mouths are so bad, that it is impossible to keep them on their legs; so that, by the French laws, a tumble-down horse is a very lucrative thing for a livery-stable keeper. The best French powder costs six francs a pound; it is weak, and fouls the gun; but, being a government monopoly, there is no hope of its ever being better. Shot is a little dearer than in England. I recommend all sportsmen in every country to carry a pocket compass with them, for finding their way out of a forest or a marsh in a fog; I was once, from the want of one in Hungary, for many hours unable to find my way out of a brake of high reeds, which I had entered to pick up a wounded bird. In entering marshes on the sea-side one should be acquainted with the times of high water at spring tides, as, during the three highest springs, the coast

marshes of St. Valery sur Somme are under water; and from their extent, and being intersected with deep streams, escape is impossible: at all other times they are perfectly safe. I must, in conclusion, say for the French peasantry that I have invariably found them honest, civil, and obliging.

Montreuil, and its vicinity, has been much extolled for its cock-shooting; but a sportsman will be disappointed if he goes there for that purpose. The arrival of cocks is a matter of great uncertainty; and some years that appear to be the best, they do not come at all-for intance, the winter of 1846-7 scarcely any arrived; and the custom of hiring shooting-grounds has so much increased that a stranger would find it difficult to get ground to shoot over.

Snipe-shooting is, however, tolerably good; but the town of Montreuil is so dismal, that it requires very good shooting indeed to compensate for the misery of living there. One may pick up a useful dog for the marshes for about forty francs; but it is not to be expected that the best French dog, at no matter what price, will be equal to an English dog, either in blood or breaking. They excel, however, as retrivers, and for fetching in wounded fowl from the water, a dog of that sort is indispensable. At Abbeville, again, the sportsman will be disappointed; the draining of the marshes has greatly diminished the quantity of snipe that were formerly to be found there. The best marshes are let, and strictly preserved, and the number of chasseurs is sufficient to render the game scarce and wild. While at Abbeville, the shooter should not omit getting a pair of waterproof shooting-boots from the bootmaker Duflos; they are most superior, being so light and pliant that they neither fatigue nor gall the feet in walking; and at the moderate price of twenty, twenty-five, or thirty-five francs the pair, according to their height.

The Chasseur, Isidore Lefort, recommended by "The Sportsman in France" for shewing the best shooting grounds, is dead. He remained sunk in a bog the entire night, and died in a short time after; but a comrade of his, Gallifront, will serve shooters equally well.

I consider St. Valery sur Somme, for many reasons, the most desirable place for a shooting-man to take up his residence at; as, if he were in other parts, not on the coast, he could not go out to shoot while the snow is on the ground, under heavy penalties; while there, if the snow prevented his shooting on the plains, that is exactly the time when he will have the best wildfowl shooting; and all along the coast and harbour shooting is allowed during the snow. Added to this, there is a most comfortable house there, the Hôtel du Père Adam, kept by a German of the name of François Vidnsoller, but known all round the country as Monsieur François. I have lived there a long time, and can safely recommend it to all sporting men for comfort, clean cooking, and at charges astonishingly low. His wife is English; and French, German, English, and Spanish are spoken in the house. It is pleasantly situated on the quay, so that a sportsman can, with his telescope, from his window, reconnoitre all the wildfowl in the harbour. If a person were inclined to pass his summer there, he can pass his time agreeably; as there are regattas, and a fine expanse of water for sailing; both sea and fresh water fishing, good sea-bathing, and the country round prettily wooded; good roads for riding and driving, with pleasant excursions in the neigh

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bourhood to Ville d'Eu, Tréport, Cayeux, &c.; and a carriage, holding four persons, may be hired for five francs a day. There is a constant influx of visitors by the Paris railway, now completed as far as Abbeville; and it is intended to resume the steamboat communication with England. In August, snipe and quail arrive in great numbers, and there are plenty of hares and rabbits. The quantity of partridge that I found at the end of the season was so great, that I am certain, if next season is favourable for breeding, the partridge-shooting will be equal to that on the best preserves in England. There are extensive snipe marshes at Rue, in the neighbourhood, and not much shot over. As the winter advances, the wildfowl arrive in immense flocks; and among them so many rare birds, that anyone having a museum would obtain numerous specimens that he would seek for in vain in England. Wild geese of various kinds are taken alive by nets set in the harbour.

There is a canal close to the town, where the wildfowl, during hard, stormy weather, continue alighting; and the shooters, being concealed by the trees on the banks, obtain capital shooting without any of the fatigue usually attending that sport.

One can imagine the quantity of game, when it is known that peasants, who work on the roads, and who can only shoot on Sundays and holydays, find it worth their while to pay their twenty-five francs for a licence; one of them told me he gained the price of it in the first three days' shooting. I must confess that, had my arrangements permitted me to return to St. Valery sur Somme, I would have delayed giving this information; and I fancy the author of "The Sportsman in France," while living there, had the same reasons for not informing the sporting world of the quantities of partridge, lest the country should be overrun with shooters.

There is an intelligent gun-maker there, Coiret, who will give a wellfinished, double-barrelled, Damascus gun, and a good performer, for 250 francs, something less than £10. Formerly, the French guns were most contemptible, and so unsafe that they would burst if highly charged with English powder; but now, by closely imitating the English guns, they can produce a really good article.

The peasants, who supply the markets, when they go out for shooting wildfowl by night, take, besides their gun, a spade, bundle of straw, and a basket of call-dueks, which, being tied by the legs with a long cord to a stone, swim about on the water in the neighbourhood of the shooter, who has dug a hole in the sand, and sits on his straw concealed. The call-ducks are perpetually crying, and are sure to attract any wildfowl that are passing. Those who have wooden cases sunk in the bank to shoot from, have, in addition, large flocks of wooden ducks floating on the water; and so well executed, that a sportsman not acquainted with the trick, would be apt to take a shy at them.

Monsieur François will procure a man named Navarre to accompany shooters. He is civil, intelligent, a good shot, and useful if a servant was wanted, as he can wisp a horse, take care of a garden, and attend at table. As there are no punt guns, anyone bringing such would have the sport all to himself, and could get a punt built for a moderate sum. I would, however, advise a person going abroad for wildfowl, not to encumber himself with a punt gun, but to take a seven-barrelled gun, and a duck-gun of large calibre, four feet long, and use the spiral-wire car

tridges sold by Willis and Gardner, of Birmingham. They are superior, for long shots, to anything I have met with. I always take a supply of them abroad with me, and find those in green for longest range, No. 1 shot, will, from a double-barrelled gun, 14 bore, at 100 yards, put more than half the charge in a four-feet square target. To do this, I load with a charge-and-a-half of powder, and take such an elevation as to see the sight at the muzzle, half an inch above the elevated rib at the breech.

In snipe-shooting, where I expect to meet ducks also, I usually have a wire cartridge in my left barrel: this will also turn over a hare, at a distance where loose shot would have no effect.

With cartridges, and a seven-barrelled gun, I think more game may be killed in a season than with a punt gun; though, of course, at one successful discharge the punt gun would have the advantage. But a punter may be poking about for days without getting a shot; while a man, cruising under sail, without fatigue, will get shots at the birds flying, which the punts have put up. The seven-barrelled guns I use are short, and not inconveniently heavy; one weighing 10lb., and the other 8lb. : they are 84 calibre, and rifled; and when loaded with accuracy, usually put the seven balls at 100 yards, in a three-feet circle. But for wildfowl I have smallersized balls, made up in cartridges of soft paper, holding three cach. By this I load quickly, and avoid putting too great a strain on the barrels; and I can always buy mould shot of the size required, and so avoid the trouble of casting balls. These 21 balls I find effective at 200 yards, with force enough to kill a swan; and on water the balls ricochating through one another, tear up the surface for 100 yards further. I consider these 21 balls will be closer together, and have more force, than any like number and sized balls from the best punt gun at 200 yards, and have, moreover, the advantage of taking birds flying over, which the punt gun cannot do. At Caycaux, six miles from St. Valery sur Somme, there is a very deep fresh-water lake, surrounded by capitally-constructed shooting boxes, sunk in the earth, where a man can pass his time as comfortably as in his room. There are, occasionally, quantities of wild fowl; and in summer, good pike and other fishing may be had there for a trifling sum.

THE YACHTING SEASON.

BY THE EDITOR.

"Vocat in certamina divos."

VIRGIL.

W.

The motto of my paper is also its thesis or text, to be understood as setting forth the subject or purpose in two phases; our certamina having relation as well to those passages of emulation yclept matches, as to those joustings of opinion which, like matches of another sort, are too often rife with anything but agreeable consequences. Yachting, like all our national sports, when first instituted was purely a