1F BOAT RACE for Doggett's Coat &r 4 25 28 2 S Bridgnorth Fair. 3 Moon HIGH WATER rises & London Bridge. morn. I aftern sets. h. m. h. m. h. m 2m45 3 46 sets 0 47 1 9 1 29 1 50 2 10 2 28 2 45 3 1 r 4 21 2 8 0 3 18 3 33 [Badge.s 7 4529 Elebenth Sunday af. Trinity.r 4 28 N 4M ROYAL VICTORIA REG. at Ryde.s 7 42 1 5 T NEWPORT RACES. 6W BRIGHTON RACES. Ilsley Fair. s 7 38 3 7T Gent. of Kent v. Gent. of Eng.r 4 35 4 8 F Ruthin Fair. [CRICKT. at CANT. S 7 35 9 S Isaac Walton born 1593. 10 Twelfth Sunday after Trinity.s 7 31 11 M LAM. AN. REG. WLVER. RACES. r 4 41 12 T Grouse Shoot beg. R. Y. S. REG.S 7 27 13 W WORCESTER REGATTA. r 4 38 5 6 9 35 5 31 5 49 710 9 6 10 6 31 810 50 6 53 7 20 911 43 7 53 8 23 r 4 44 10 morn. 9 2 9 44 14 T READING RACES. Banbury Fair.s 7 2311 0 46 10 2611 11 7a16 Oswestry Fair.r 4 47 12 s 7 1913 2 011 50 rises 7 40 5718 8 32 15 F Worcester Fair. 719 9 1 020 9 33 5 39 5 59 321 10 9 6 20 6 42 32210 53 7 3 7 31 592311 42 7 58 8 35 624 morn. 9 13 9 54 5425 0 37 10 33 11 13 926 1 3611 48 s 6 5027 2 40 0 16 0 44 Fifteenth Sunday af. Trinity.r 5 1328 3 45 1 4 1 24 ....14 | Tunbridge Wells Newport............................................. Lewes..................18 or 14 Paisley...... Horwich........................... 6 Ripon.......................18 Stourbridge 6 Ashton and Staley bridge......18 20 .21 .25 .25 26 ........26 .18 Egham. .18 Huntingdon .19 | Weymouth ..........about 27 .19 Hereford..................27 ..19 Tiverton ..................28 .20 | Stockton ...... ...........28 ....................20 | Stirling ......28 ..20 | Salisbury .20 ..... THE RACES AND REGATTAS OF JULY. BY CRAVEN. "The air Nimbly and sweetly recommends itself MACBETH. As yet, all who affect the turf do not look upon horse-racing as a business, and the noble amusement of yachting is eminently one of those sports whose labour, as Shakspeare has it, "delight in them sets off." For those who regard our national pastimes and manly recreations in the spirit befitting them, the past was a pleasant month -for the most part rife with that healthful elixir which, as the Thane of Cawdor says, "recommends itself unto our gentle senses;" and cheered by full many a jocund merry-making, albeit in sporting importance they might have stood "more for number than account." The first of its race meetings was the Newmarket July. This was, as usual, a melancholy and gentlemanlike affair, distinguished in no way from its predecessors, save by the attempt to move the economy of the turf a little in the direction of its quick march elsewhere. Woe is me! that so laudable an effort should not have been essayed towards a more worthy end. Why are the souls and imaginations of turfites leagued and confederated for the purpose of aggravating the facilities and contrivances for betting? The telegraph, for the first time set up on Newmarket heath three weeks ago, was one of those great encouragements of the ring for which the present epoch has a bad pre-eminence. It informed-or was meant to inform-the gen tlemen of that circle what horses were weighed for, and, consequently, those likely to come to the post. The contrivance would work better were the ground somewhat darker; but, no doubt, all this will be better ordered anon. The July, or Middle Meeting, as it is called by the natives, is wholly divest of interest, save that attaching to the form of the twoyear-old stock which it brings out. The chief races between animals of that tender age are the July and Chesterfield Stakes. The former of these was won in a field of nine by one of Col. Peel's Slane fillies. The gallant officer is hard to beat at the two-year-old game. She is a fine slapping lass, and ought not to be lost sight of for the Oaksas a hedging investment at all events. Lord Chesterfield won the Stakes for which he stands godfather, with a most promising son of Jereed, hight Free Lance. He is one of his lordship's Derby halfscore, and not the worst of the lot, I should think, by a considerable deal. The three days were remarkable for the "turn" they gave the field'smen: out of nine races the favourites were beaten in six. Next in claim for notice in these pages was the Liverpool July Meeting, as it is called, probably to proclaim that the Autumn Meeting is no more. One hears it reproachfully said the gentry of the district are not prone to the turf; but really one cannot expect that taste to be uppermost among them. By situation they are naturally led to incline for the sea service, and the establishment of the Royal Mersey Yacht Club has latterly given great éclat to the sports of the wave. Still your Lancashire sportsman is fond of a race, anything hereinbefore said to the contrary notwithstanding; and although the Mersey sent a whole fleet of pleasure craft to Douglas Regatta, contemporary with the meeting on the tapis, there was a fair sprinkling of the neighbouring gentry on the course at Aintree. The first day-the 16th ult. (slow everywhere)-was far from fast here. The list was a fair average one, with but one event of any general interest, however, and that was the Mersey Stakes for two-year-olds. The winner was Luminary-a filly without any other engagement except for the Prince of Wales's Stakes at York, for which she will have to carry 2lbs. extra. Her victory over Princess Alice was a good trial, and it is to be regretted she is not more profitably engaged. Thursday-the Cup-day ("Coop" of the natives) brought a monstrous mob to the course, and withal the most respectable rabble that can be conceived. To be sure they did not demean themselves quite so orderly at the railway station when seeking to return to their homes in the evening. But the wine-or swipes-was in, and the wit (the trifle that ever did book itself for the inside) out. A horrid row they kicked up; and can we wonder at it? A thousand "Manchester men, "Bowton fellies" (Bolton fellows), and Bullock Smithy blackguards, pent up in a room sufficient for the scanty accommodation of five-and-twenty, and at the point of suffocation, bolted through the windows and were about proceeding to acts of violence, when the means of proceeding to the bosoms of their families were fortunately substituted for their choice. Had they pulled the building about the ears of the management, it would have been a just retribution. I saw a score of vinous villains force themselves into a carriage constructed for half-a-dozen, and already occupied by six young damsels. How many survived to come out I cannot say; but if the company took the young ladies' money (as, no doubt, they did) under a compact to accommodate them with a passage to somewhere or other, that it was obtaining money under false pretences is mathematically demonstrable: but to the sport. The Cup-day is so called after the Tradesman's Handicap for a piece of plate with which the tradespeople have nothing whatever to do, which is a fair sample of the lucus a non lucendo. From the commencement of the month it was the principal market race, with two prominent favourites always some clear lengths before anything else; these were Winesour and Trueboy. The former was backed freely at 3 to 1 on the Monday before the meeting; in some instances at 5 to 2. Is there nobody that wants money in these times? The echo of the Stock Exchange answers, "nobody;" and so might the coy nymph of the Corner, or would a horse ever be at 5 to 2 in fields mustering their scores? What pretty pickings the layers against the favourites for the great races have had this season: the non-fanciers of Idas, Lancashire Witch, Foig-a-Ballagh, Winesour, et hoc genus omne! We will say nothing of the après from "makings safe:" certain "pulls" while betting is suffered to go on as it does; but what would be the odds against Pegasus (I do not mean my worthy friend, who, under that pseudonyme, favours the world with his opinions in the columns of a sporting paper, but the winged quadruped so called) in a field of thirty over the Derby course, unless he literally flew, keeping well clear of the jockeys' heads? Ask any one who has seen the cannon game played by the ruck as it rounds Tattenham Corner? The Cup race brought out seventeen at Liverpool-too many by half-a-score for the room, as they tumbled against each other like ninepins. Lothario was the favourite at starting, I admit; but wherefore, I cannot tell, for his trial had put his party anything but up in the stirrups touching his prospects. The fact is, Lothario is one of the many horses that run infinitely better in public than in private-a singular property, by the way, but one the existence of which every racing man is aware of. Lothario won, with Rowena next to him: some say, but for the strong use made of her to get her to the front after she had been "cannon'd" by Trueboy, at the upper turn, she would have been first, or too near it to be pleasant. In a field awfully crowded Sweetmeat won the Derby Handicap, carrying 7st. 4lbs. had this clipping three-year-old been named for the Goodwood Cup, I do not see how he was to lose it. Still it was good speed, in both senses of the phrase, which enabled him to pull through. There were all sorts of fouling in the fleet; and had he been situated as Lady Wildair and some others were, his chance would have been somewhat more than jeopardied. The chief attraction of Friday was the St. Leger. Eight went for it; and in a fine race Mentor won. It was done at a first-rate pace, and gave us a fair spice of the quality of every animal engaged in it. This there can be no doubt of: the winner was the best of the lot, and unless there are better nags than I know of likely to show at Doncaster for the Stakes of this same ilk, Mentor is ill to stand against. He may not win; but he'll be a rattling "pot," if brought to the post as he ought to be. I make no mention of Newton, for though a sporting meeting, its interest is local, and its results of no prospective account. Here, then, we bid adieu to the turf, and turn towards the glad waters: "the blue below, and the blue above;" vehemently declaring that this allusion to hue has no reference whatever to the actors in the scenes described. Aquatics were greatly in the ascendant last month: pre-eminent in their annals will be the Royal review of the experimental squadron at Spithead. The pleasure-navy of the Thames and the Mersey, and eke of many another of our rivers, was on the alert. Though sailed for on the last day of June, the match for the Fitzhardinge Cup must claim a place here, seeing that it was something unique of its kind. It was presented by the sporting peer whose name it had the honour of bearing, to be raced for by vessels of the R.T.Y.C., handled exclusively by members of the club. Foolish people at first said that the queen of rivers could not furnish a supply of amateur mariners qualified for the task; but the event, as Goldsmith sings, "shewed the rogues they lied." Every craft had her full complement of able seamen aboard; and if one were ill-natured, one might say that the volunteers in some cases exceeded the demand. At all events, it is good to have a title to public consideration; and if there be one nook of the universe where public consideration waits on that same more than another," it is here! it is here!" We are naturally sportsmen; and perhaps that is the reason we are such mighty tuft hunters.... Four yachts went for this Cup, which the Belvidere, Lord Alfred Paget's new iron boat, won in a gallant style. Some said her trim was better than when she first appeared; others, that the air nimbly recommended itself unto her peculiar properties: at all events, she sailed far more lively than when first she came out of the fire! Lord! what would Tom Pipes think of a vessel going through a fiery furnace before she was launched! To make our ground good as we go on, we will dispose of the Thames Regattas in the first place. On Thursday, the 10th, there was a gathering of the lovers of the oar at the pretty village of Erith. All the crack river crews were there, and business was the order of the day. Malhereusement for the lovers of the trencher, the "hotel" had shut up shop a few days before. Nothing could have been more admirable than the laying down and preserving the course, and, indeed, all the details as regarded the parties engaged in the contests; but truth obliges me to say that those assembled to witness them were sorely puzzled to know what was going forward. Everybody rowed as well as the wager men; and the old puppet-show story of" which is Buonaparte and which is Willington?-Whichever you please, my pretty darling," is about the best illustration of the visitors' edification that I have at hand. The principal race-the Amateurs' Four Oars -was won after a magnificent set-to for the deciding heat, by the Leanders beating the St. Georges by half-a-boat's length. The Watermens Four Oars was a much more easy affair, being won by Coombes's crew-the Unity-in a canter. There was also some spirited scratch matches; and altogether the thing went off with some éclat. A party of west-end polkamaniacs were in a steamer moored abreast of the committee-barge, and saw about as much of the sport as if they had been driving their trade at Almacks, and cared probably less about it than the soles of their boots and shoes.... But is not anything a justifiable plea for flirting-or rather, indeed, why does it require any excuse at all ? The last R.T.Y.C. match for the season was sailed on Wednesday the 16th, for the Stewards' Cup, and another prize given by the Club. It was run over the usual course-from Greenwich to Coal House Point-of which it may be remarked that the sooner it is changed for another the better. Why not make it from Erith Bay round the Nore Light and back? "Go patter to lubbers and swabs, d'ye see, In a prime clipping barky, good sea room for me, |