a brilliancy of execution about this gentleman's tours de main that makes him quite an interesting study to the lovers of Legerdemain.

The tide of sight-seeing is set due west at present, and therefore we have not so much to say of the minors as usual. The Strand Theatre is occupied with "Legerdemain," "Midas," and "Richard ye Thirde." Astley's Royal Amphitheatre has enjoyed increased success since the re-arrangement of the house into an enlarged and commodious circle. The attraction for the holiday folk is "The Chinese War," a grand equestrian spectacle, fit to inspire martial ardour in the dullest apprentices on the other side of Temple Bar. In fact, we look for speedy intelligence of the raising of a regiment for India among these the supporters of Lud's wealth and commerce. "The Sprite of the Snowdrift," a new fairy spectacle, in which Mr. G. Wieland figures with marvellous effect, attracts numbers to the Royal Surrey Theatre. The Whit-Monday piece was "The Instrument of Torture," which, as we have not seen, we cannot do justice to; but we can certify that the general order of entertainment at this theatre will satisfy all who have recourse to it. As we have said, the current of popularity runs due west during the early summer months; and the different Exhibitions, Institutions, Opera Houses, and Concert Rooms, take up all the time dedicated to metropolitan pleasures; while race-courses, fetes, excursions into the country, and out-of-door engagements invade the winter prerogative of the Minors. Truly, one should have the eyes of Argus to see all that is to be seen in the commercial Babel, London, these, with the wealth of a Croesus and the health of a Highlander, might suffice.

When Napoleon called us a nation of shopkeepers, he spoke with more truth than courtesy. In the art and science of transmuting the pocket (an eminently polite figure of speech for picking it) one Frenchman shall beat a score of Englishmen, be they Christians or Jews, any day in the year; but the love of speculation is predominant in us. Your Gaul will play push-pin from the rising to the setting of the sun, for sake of the" delight which it sets forth:" your Briton rates his pleasures at their cost, or the amount jeopardized upon them. More money is won and lost annually on the Derby than on any other trial of quality that is brought to the issue in this island:

for that reason, it has become the most exciting (and, consequently, the most popular) of all its exhibitions and resorts. Epsom Races, which in a chronological sense extend over four days, are confined certainly to two, if not to one, in reference to the interest attaching to them. On their recent anniversary, probably less account was taken of the Oaks than was ever known; while the Derby, got up with powerful sauce piquante, was attended with an intense anxiety. To this, both as regards its cause and effect, we shall come presently : in the meanwhile, we will proceed in our notice of the metropolitan meeting, passibus equis.

Newmarket, and the other Spring races which precede it, had done nothing to disturb the positions of the two winter favourites, that still continued, like the two kings of Brentford, in most harmonious juxtaposition. The performance of Ratan in the Craven, when he beat nothing, was considered by his friends a wondrous achievement; and the victory of the Ugly Buck for the Two Thousand, wherein he beat a rip by a head, a triumph worthy a modern Olympian champion. I lost no time in declaring my opinion of these two horses in every sporting publication with which I am connected. When Lawyer Ford's colt by Ion, out of Mary Ann, ran second to Coranna for the Craven, I wrote thus last month in this work: "He is matched against Ratan, in October next, for 500l., receiving 21lbs.; he'll beat him." Does any one doubt that would be the case now? although the engagement, of course, is at an end by the death of Mr. Crockford. After the race for the Two Thousand, my opinion of the Ugly Buck was thus recorded in these pages: "I do not intend to insist that the Ugly Buck will not run better for the Derby than did Coldrenick, but I'm sure he will not have a better chance of winning. He is a lathy, leggy weed, not within two stone of a race-horse to my estimate." As nothing else was to any effect in the market at the time, there my anticipations of Epsom ended.

Now anticipation is no more, let us enter with proper form upon its obsequies. On TUESDAY, the 21st ult., Epsom Races commenced, ushered in by two days of very slight demonstration, in comparison with such Sundays and Mondays as those of Patron's and similar years. There may be those who do not know that the Sabbath preceding the Derby is no day of rest at Tattersall's. It is, in fact, the busiest turf-exchange afternoon of the 365; and by no means as decent a rendezvous as it ought to be. There is time enough for all things : whether it be a point of over-righteousness or not, still the keeping holyday on the Sabbath is a good old English practice, far more honoured in the observance than the breach. The betting on Monday, after the customary morning visit to the Downs, was perhaps a little more general than it had previously been. The ground was as hard as granite; so that the gallops were confined to the ploughed ride, on which many of the outsiders exhibited to the satisfaction, and vice versa, of the spectators and speculators. The matter of most importance mooted was the protest against Running Rein, handed to the steward at the instance of Lord George Bentinck, Mr. Bowes, and John Scott, the trainer. The allegations were that he was not the animal he was stated to be, and that he was more than three years

old. Upon its becoming known that such an objection had been made, Running Rein at once went up in the betting; his current price being 9 to 1. Thus pretty much stood matters when Tuesday's racing began with the Craven Stakes, won by The Odd Mixture (the colt already spoken of, by Ion, out of Mary Ann), which put Ford's lot up in the stirrups. The Woodcote Stakes, for two year olds, were won very cleverly by William Edwards' filly, Fullsail. She is a nice little wiry mare-but not in the Oaks. There was then a scrambling affair of heats for the Manor Stakes, won by Hampton; and then the sport ended.

WEDNESDAY, the all-absorbing Derby festival, dawned cloudily, but by noon it was a lovely summer's day. Long before that hour, however, the usual pilgrimage into Surrey had begun; with what devotion may be gathered from the fact that, with a light britschka and four of Newman's best posters (to say nothing of the boys, the brandy, the steel, and the whalebone), the writer of these presents was two hours doing the three miles on the London side of Banstead. Notwithstanding all the gambling-booths had been razed, and their proprietors routed, the hill was a brilliant encampment, and the Downs altogether more numerously and creditably occupied than they had been before in man's memory. As a pageant it was indeed a brilliant national demonstration, and as a sporting anniversary its promise was second to none; albeit the journals had given reason for supposing the Derby field would be unusually short. By half-past two the audience were all assembled, the nine-and-twenty jockeys weighed out, and expectation was on tip-toe. Leander had now been objected to by Lord Maidstone. Sam Roger's "book" examined, and his accounts passed by Lord George Bentinck (who shall say our young nobles neglect business, or that Napoleon was wrong in calling us a nation of shopkeepers?) even the start was put into preparation. I was one of the last that left the ring-for a reason that may yet come before the public-when the prices were 5 to 2 against the Ugly Buck, 3 to 1 against Ratan, 10 to 1 against Running Rein (very extensively taken), 14 to 1 against Leander, 20 to 1 against Ionian, Orlando, Akbar, and Qui Tam, each. Ratan was fast on the go, and had there been another hour to get on, his price would, I believe, have been a hundred per cent. worse. Wherefore I cannot say—but public opinion was not favourable to him, that was clear. At three the muster at the post took place; and after a false start and a-half, the "ruck," as they call it, got off. Leander set away full crack, with a positive lead: the favourites in a cluster at his heels, and the field beginning to draw out at the end of the first hundred yards. At the mile post, Mann, on Running Rein, seeing that the cracks were in trouble, volunteered to give them a little more, and he made a charge for the lead, and in passing Leander fouled his leg and broke it. At Tattenham corner the race was virtually over. Running Rein was two lengths, clear of everything; and though after passing the road, Orlando, Ionian, and Bay Momus, placed subsequently second, third, and fourth, continued to struggle on, he had there won his race, which, in consequence of his being eased at the end, was only awarded him by three parts of a length. It was the fastest

Derby, I am confident, run during the last quarter of a century, at all events. Immediately on the jockey's returning to scale, a formal protest was made against the winner by Col. Peel, owner of the second horse; so that the affair thus stands:-First, Colonel Peel must prove that Running Rein is not the colt by the Sadler, out of Mab; and then Mr. A. Wood must prove that he is. What luck the devil's domestics have been in lately! The Dublin conspirators and the Epsom conspiracy will positively gorge them. And what a Cartouche on four legs that Sadler must be! First, there was his own little matter with Protocol, then the Squire's small affair at Newmarket, and now Running Rein's dilemma; a quadrupedal Dalon by this good day! I presume to say nothing about the settling on the Derby, either as regards individual engagements or the distribution of lottery prizes; but this I will say, the opinion volunteered by the sporting papers in some instances appear to me to have been given with more haste than good speed. I only know if I had drawn Running Rein in a £2,000 sweep, the conditions for which were that the first prize was to be paid to the holder of the ticket bearing the name of the horse "placed first by the judge," I would have some more satisfactory answer, to my application for the money, than that the holder withheld it upon a newspaper decision. Neither do I venture to offer my belief as to the fact, though evidence strongly affecting it is in my possession, derived from sources of much authority. No more important question has ever arisen in connexion with the turf: I trust it may be decided so as to bring no discredit on the general economy of the sport.

THURSDAY, selected as the occasion on which the first great handicap run for on Epsom downs was to be decided, had not the fortune to make a hit of it. Nobody at all came to the course, apparently that could help it. There was lots of running for one trifle or another, and, a field of sixteen for the handicap, as aforesaid, hight the Surrey cup. The winner was Robert de Gorham, an animal of extremely various character. He generally, however, does very indifferently; being sulky and idle, two very sad qualities in a servant, whether he goes perpendicularly or horizontally.

FRIDAY, being the Oaks day, appropriate to ladies of all kinds, was very properly supplied with as much sunshine and blue sky as our climate can supply. The company was very good. There was a capital field of angels and lower animals-materiel for tastes of all sorts. Business opened with a protest on the parts of Col. Anson, Mr. Gregory, and Mr. Osbaldeston, against one Miss Julia, supposed to be older than she admitted-if that be a sin in a lady, the Lord have mercy on the whole sex. Five-and-twenty fillies were pronounced fit to start, and the lot came to the post-one might have been excused the vulgarity of saying, "to the scratch," because of the characteristic. There was some brisk betting about this issue, seeing there was nothing else on the carpet-the best favourite being the sister to Martingale (the winner of the Thousand Guineas stakes) backed freely at 7 to 2; the Princess next at 5 to 1; then 7 to 1 against Barricade; 8 to 1 Miss Julia (aforesaid); 10 to 1 All-roundmy-Hat (there's a cacphonic!); 12 to 1 the Bee, whose running at

Newmarket entitled her to be done at 1,200 to 1; 14 to 1 Merope; and then a lot of pretenders at miscellaneous prices.

There was a capital start, and the lot, led by Charming Katewho, like Petruchio's Kate, was taking her own way, and running away with her rider, ran handsomely up the hill. At the ominous Tattenham turn, the Princess was clear of her companions-the nearest to her being Barricade and Merope, and the pace more earnest than it had previously been. Thus it was to the Stand, when Merope swerved, and almost made mischief; but Butler (killed two days before in the papers), who was steering the Princess, weathered the lost pleiade, and, without fouling, of any kind, won the Oaks-which is more, by all accounts, than may be hoped for the Derby. The pace was indifferent; the result such as, from the two-year-old performances of the winner, might naturally have been expected. Thus closed the Epsom meeting for 1844; what shall come of it in reference to its great event remains to be seen. Leander, killed in it, buried, exhumed and decapitated, was subsequently pronounced to have been a four-year-old, on the authority of certain skilful veterinarians. The chronoscope of Running Rein has yet to be applied.

MONTHLY MISCELLANY.

The report so generally circalated, that it was intended to break up the establishment of her Majesty's Buck-hounds, has, at length, it would appear, received a kind of semi-contradiction. The rejoinder, however, is scarcely based upon better authority than the rumour it would put down; and for our own part we cannot help still thinking that such a step might have been in contemplation. Our hopes and wishes now lead us to believe that the idea is abandoned, and that in this nationally sporting country, we shall continue to support a royal pack of hounds, in every way worthy of the name they bear. There are abuses, we know, attending the management, or rather, perhaps, in the old form of hunting the Buck-hounds, that would well repay looking to amendment cannot come too soon; while abolition is a measure that we are confident would find but few supporters either in the sporting world or in the community at large.

We are happy to learn that Mr. Colvile, M.P. for South Derbyshire, has undertaken to hunt the Atherstone hounds for the two next seasons. Few men are better qualified to be masters of hounds; and if urbanity, affability, and every qualification of a sportsman, can make a hunt popular, this ought certainly to be one of the most po pular in the kingdom..

The lhunters and hounds, the property of William Russell, Esq., who has declined hunting the Brancepeth and Sedgefield countries, were sold by auction, in the middle of last month, at Brancepeth Castle, Durham. The hunters, nine in number, just averaged forty