THE OMNIBUS.

"There he sat, and, as I thought, expounding the law and the prophets, until on drawing a little nearer, I found he was only expatiating on the merits of a brown horse."-BRACEBRIDGE HALL,

WAY BILL:-Doncaster Meeting-Sporting Mems-The late Mr.

Nightingale.

a

"E devoted much time to the composition of a book of psalms and
ME
the ill-treatment of his wife, and was altogether an eccentric per-
sonage." We heard a cynic quote this observation, with perhaps
more gusto than logic, when he read that Doncaster had passed on
from the parting ministrations of a vicar, such as few towns in England
have ever been blest with, to the celebration of the great corporation
carnival of the year. We do not see that a reverence for the one and
a Yorkshireman's fondness for the other are incompatible, but several
of the community choose to say so, and the thought seems to please
them amazingly. That the race profits half built the church, and that
if there had not been one of those "revivals" in '50, which so shocked
"a certain foolish knight," the Corporation would not have had a rap
to give, are facts the cavillers cannot gainsay. We are content with
that great result, and only wish that the town would have the pluck to
repair the broken pinnacle on the top of its church tower. That little
eye-sore vexed us once more, as we passed through Doncaster without
stopping, a little farther Northwards, about a week before the meeting.
Mr. Gladstone was in the train, and half the town of Malton, which
turned out to tout him, under the impression that he was bound for
Whitby, were sorely disappointed when they found that he had turned
off at York for Raby Castle. Dr. Cumming was another distin-
guished fellow passenger; he did not "liquor up," but he had some
tea at Peterboro'; no doubt going North to "get fit" in his native
breezes before he starts for Rome. Yorkshire was anything but lively
in anticipation of the St. Leger, but had Brennus been only half a
good horse, the old feeling for the "spots" would have burst forth as
hot as ever. Pretender was not a horse in which it felt any special
interest, and the slovenly win at Stockton and the somewhat delicate
preparation made many shake their heads with the most touching
profundity.

Round Malton they were all for George Osbaldeston, and they wouldn't have Royal Oak at all. The chesnut's action certainly did not recommend him; his forelegs were queer, and his muscle did not

come up as it does when John Scott has had full time for a real White-
wall preparation. Still his quality and shape were such that we fancy
he might have made a close thing of it at all events for third. He did
his work well three times up the tan with Jemmy Grimshaw on him on
the Saturday morning, and seemed fairly to pull over Taraban, but the
erring leg began to fill that afternoon, and he coughed so badly, that
he had to join Goldsboro' in hospital, and be blistered from his gullet
to his chest. Of Bonnie Morn, once a well-known grey on the wold,
and the best of the only three greys that Mr. Bowes ever bred, we hear
that he got his stock with very soft fore legs. Westwick, who retired
after the Alexandra Plate, is at Whitewall, we believe for sale, and a
very nice topped horse he is, by Stockwell from West Austra-
lian's dam. If not sold he goes to Dringhouses next sea-
son. His running with the four-year-old Fortunio for
the Great Northern Handicap at York last year, giving
him 23lbs., stamped him as no vulgar boy." Sir Tatton
Sykes has not increased his stock of brood mares, and it is
Wensleydale's turn to be fallow this year, after throwing Morphia
and Flint Jack. Marigold has her third foal at her foot, a chesnut colt
by Stockwell; and, Miss and Little Agnes have foals by Cathedral
and Rataplan. Marigold killed her first foal, and it was most unfortu-
nate that there was nothing from Miss Agnes at Doncaster this year
to follow up Frivolity. She has been with one of the other mares to
Macaroni, and the remaining two to went Stockwell, whose star is sadly
on the wane with age. His fee has fallen from 200 gs. to 150 gs.,
and then to 75 gs.-three mares belonging to the same owner for
200 gs. Voltigeur had no blood mares this season except three of
Lord Zetland's, and he is never to leave his Aske paddocks again.
He had plenty of half-bred mares, but Dr. Shorthouse's Blacklock blood
hatred prevailed against him. We remember the day when the
doctor was almost as hot against Newminster. Caller Ou missed to the
latter horse in '68, but Mr. I'Auson has had three colt foals by him,
one of which unfortunately died. Caller Ou is put to Beadsman this
and Mr. I'Anson's other mares have gone, two to Adventurer, and
year,
two to Rataplan. Piccador, a great fancy of the late John Osborne's,
will no doubt "come" next year on the strength of Torreador.

There was the usual ram jam on the York station the Monday before the Doncaster meeting. The familiar faces were there, from Sim Templeman (looking pretty well after a sharp illness) to Challoner, Mr. Cookson, and Mr. Williamson, of course sweet on Géant des Batailles. Most of the pilgrims seemed armed with hares or partridges; the latter secured as a cockney lawyer once said, "by descent or purchase;" but they had a hard job, when they were once in York, to get out of it again. First it was announced that we were to have a special train at 4.20, then we wer'nt; then the two trains were joined together, and many who were in the special train, had their luggage consigned to the van of the regular. One man with a portmanteau was not attended to, so he lifted up his voice, like the bold York burgher that he is, and upbraided the porters with a grievous lust for silver. It ended in the trains being severed when they were half way through their journey; and the result was that those who reached Doncaster first had to wait half-an-hour for their luggage. Lord Stam

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ford arrived in the second half, and with him a most magnificent buck, whose carcase was the admiration of multitudes as it hung in Hall Gate. We believe it was a present to the Corporation. The Cup was also in a silversmith's window, and proved the cause of boundless discussion. The old school did not fancy the introduction of grape bunches in chalcedony or amethyst, or whatever it might be, but we thought it, as the cautious Scotchman says, "no bad" as a whole, and it will be cherished at Castle Milk as a piece of treasure trove, to remind Mr. Jardine of one of the most extraordinary weeks that ever fell to the lot of a racing men, with Pretender, Argyle, Stanley, and Good Hope. The weather was dull; there was no band about; the public were not enthusiastic about any St. Leger horse; nothing came with a rush" in the rooms at night; and the entries for the Fitzwilliam, and the Cup were watched. No Restitutution, no Mandrake. If the Fitzwilliam had £200 added, £50 of that to go to the second horse, we might have something to tempt owners, and open the meeting well. First thing in the morning as we lay in bed, Snarry and his charges were practically framed into the window which overlooked the salefield paddock, where Blair Athol and Knowsely trumpeted their defiance in that flash match. We had only to lie and watch him, amid his three chesnuts as they "roamed through the dew." He was anxious about the Marigold filly, as she had bruised her foot slightly in the three day's walk from Sledmere. Gradually the late Lord George Bentinck's paddocks are being built over, and the site of Surplice's jump over a wall is now" apartments to let." When we first remember those paddocks, Bay Middleton was the stallion in residence, and during one meeting we saw Satirist, Charles XII., and Blue Bonnet all in one field. Flint Jack, from Wensleydale, has not an atom of his sire Stockwell about him. He looks as if he would never be fast, but a serviceable colt at three years old. Marigold's filly had far the most quality of the lot, but she was a little back in her knees, and she looks as if she would take some time coming to hand. As a racer she has not, to the eye, the last year's promise of Frivolity, though she has more substance. The Thormanby filly, from Little Agnes, was short, and lacked quality, and her tail was set on rather low. In fact she was as plain as the Marigold filly was pretty, and we thought that all three were capitally sold at an average af 400 gs. Still, when an average of 150 gs. has to come off that, for the stallion fees alone, it makes matters look very different. From seven to nine is a great time for scanning the yearlings, and we found a party in the street taking the latitude and longitude most accurately of a half-sister to Thunderbolt, the only one sent to the hammer, with a clause requiring her return when she had finished racing. Tom Dawson was also surveying the Sadler lot in the horse fair, and it seems that he set his affection on three. Stanley had not pleased them in his trial, or Mr. Crawfurd would have had a very much stiffer opposition for the Allegra colt. There was a large penthouse at one end of the ring this year, and as time goes on, we have no doubt that the ring itself will be covered by a sort of gigantic umbrella. Selling in the open air is about the most barbarous custom that ever man conceived. The very Exmoor ponies at Reading are sold under a large canvas, and the bids go all the merrier. Rainwater is a terrible agent to wash the pluck out of men.

There were fifty lots on Messrs. Tattersall's catalogue of the day, and forty-nine of them yearlings, of which four did not come, and fifteen were sold. The Middleton One Row literally "walked up the hill and then walked down again," as not one of the eleven were sold. The prices, if there were any real biddings, seemed fair enough; 320 for a Thormanby filly, and 270 for a Blair Athol colt. Mr. Morris led off the yearlings with a chesnut colt of the Marquis, useful, and with a good back from one of the mares of the Lambton blood, of which this gentleman has always been so fond. Another Marquis filly, whose chesnut was so curiously tinted with white, was passed, and then the Croft Stud Farm sold three out of five. The-Dundee-Letty Long colt (130 gs.) was rather hacky in her style, and the Loiterer colt (100gs.) from a Sledmere stock, was rather light of bone but full of action, and seemed cheap to Nightingale. The Adventurer filly's forelegs were like tobacco pipes, and the Blair Athol-Effie filly only fetched 150 gs. of the 350 gs. which was given for her as a foal at Fairfield. Melissa's colt did her no great credit, and somehow she is a most unlucky mare. The stable put on Sly instead of Job Marson, and "Bob" was fairly ridden by Alfred Day out of the Oaks. Wakefield was far too weak at 6 st. 11 lbs. to ride her for the Cup at Doncaster, where Fandango did her by a head; and she is quite a failure at the stud.

Mr. A. Harrison's Lord Clifden-Scarlet Runner filly (150 gs.) was quite a Newminster, and the Rataplan-Spinster filly had lost the middle part of her tail by some comrade's insatiable appetite for horse hair. The first Middleton-OneRow filly by Colsterdale was a fine free walker (no slight point), and so was the second-a very narrow one, half-sister to Joey Jones, "I'm here, sir," said Joey, bowing to Mr. Tattersall from the opposite side of the ring, close by Mr. Glynn, the Ministerial whip, and Mr. Jardine. "How do you like your sister, Joey ?which is the best-looking of the two?" was the response. "Oh !" rejoined Joey, "if you put those delicate questions I shall retire," and so he did, and we never saw or heard him again. The CavendishWee Wee by Stockwell colt was quite a Stockwell done in bay, and rather fined down. There was a smart Blair Athol All's-Well colt, and after him a very strong and useful brother to Light and Dark Cloud was bought in for 220 gs. The Richmond performance of the latter will now put him at a premium. The average at which the hammer fell for nine was 183 gs.; but whether there were bidders or not, we cannot say. Mr. Wright only parted with three out of eleven -Queen Mab by Caractacus (100 gs.), a very half-bred looking one; Ten Broeck (50 gs.), a very smart first foal; and another at a pony." Blush looked fast, but no one would have her, and 200 was soon arrived at for Prince Teck-a thick, slow-looking colt, but he also returned to the place from whence he came, and Mr. Wright had not a lively time of it as he peered at his pets from behind Mr. Tattersall. Mr. Merry bid with something of his ancient fire for a MarsyasSeamstress colt (240 gs.)-one of capital substance, and with the promise of a 14-stone hunter, if he won't race, Alas! for great racing precedents, a colt by Tim Whiffler's sire, out of his half-sister, only made 10 gs. Half-brother to Perfume, with his dainty purple and white frontlet, was soon at 390 gs.; but " a nobleman" wouldn't part at the price. Half-brother to Viscount (200 gs.) was a well-set colt,

but a little plain behind. The same might be said of half-sister to Royal Oak, whose forehand was very like that of her sire, The Marquis ; and Thetis was pretty, small, and long, with regular Neptune ears. Dr. Trotter kept his Ruffian and Ravenstein, the latter of which took very much after her Annandale dam; and when the fifty lots were ended only a third were sold.

The numbers for sale seem to increase steadily every year, but the winners of note are comparatively few. In 1860 we had Lord Burleigh (210 gs.), Citadel (500 gs., the premier of the Knowsley lot), Caterer (340 gs.), Feu de Joie (250 gs., an Oaks winner, one of the Whitfield stud three), Laughing Stock (310 gs.), Hartington (420 gs., purchased by Colonel Towneley), and Neptunus (350 gs.). In 1861 there were Livingstone (410 gs.) and Lady Augusta (600 gs., winner of the One Thousand); while Chamade, which made 1,100 gs. on the same spot two years before, was knocked down at 67 gs. In 1862 the eternal Paris (350 gs.), Knight of Snowdon (820 gs.) were the only ones of any note; and in 1863 Zambezi (930 gs. ; "wins easy,' as a poet put it in the Rooms at night), Regalia (720 gs., the Oaks winner), Oppressor (410 gs., who did so well with second money under the new selling rule) were the most lucky. In 1864, Mr. Jackson gave 750 gs. for Lady Clifden, 6 yrs old; and Margery Daw was sold for 65 gs., in foal with See Saw. Fal-Lal (210 gs.), Tynedale (450 gs.) Challenge (115 gs.), Mandrake (450 gs.), and Woodbine, the brood mare (700 gs.) were the notables of Gladiateur's year. In 1866 we find Orion (220 gs.), Cousin Bet with a Blair Athol foal (1,000 gs.), Formosa (700 gs.), and Paul Jones (100 gs.) This was the great year, when four yearlings made 1,000 gs., 1,050 gs., 1,100 gs., and 1,150gs., and precious bad ones they all proved. Light Cloud (100 gs.) Alpenstock (630 gs.), Brigantine (200 gs.), Pretender (400 gs.), marked 1867, when Cousin Bet's foal, Glenalmond, brought back the cool "thou" paid for the dam, to the nod of Mr. Fobert, who was generally a most unlucky purchaser. So far Braemar (320 gs.), Stanley (580 gs.), Morphia (160 gs.), and Frivolity (500 gs.) are the only purchases of importance in '68.

The omnibuses, with their three horses, drove a great trade, and 3d. or 6d. is the tariff to the course. On the St. Leger day some lurries were fitted up with seats, and very happy the occupants seemed. The Fitzwilliam Stakes only brought two out of five to the post, and Vespasian did not meet White Slave. It has been a great stake. Borodino, Figaro, Lottery, Mulatto, Emancipation, Birmingham, Tomboy, Nonsense, Birdlime, and Beeswing all won it in old days; and Zinganee, Dr. Syntax, Muley Moloch, The Saddler, General Chassé, and Colwick, who did some work at 13 at Whitewall, and looked so well that Lord Chesterfield did not know him, and asked what three-year-old that was ran in it. The stake was discontinued; then it was made a handicap; but in '57 it was begun in its present form, at a mile, and Vedette, Saunterer, Carnival, Adventurer, Friponnier, and Blue Gown have won it; while Gamester, Butterfly, and Tim Whiffler have run in it as two-year-olds. Hence it cannot be wondered that we wish to see such a stake kept up. Frivolity is a sweet mare to look at, and she won cleverly enough from Agility. It was said that she tired over the half-mile at Northampton that course which two-year-old foot will tread no more-but here