light ladies" was entered for the beaten horse plate, now reduced to a match with Dick Turpin, which he won easy, giving 2 lbs. instead of receiving 10 lbs.; nor was Milsom less successful in his other race; his two-year-old colt (generally supposed to be a three-year-old) won in a canter, the feather weight not being strong enough to hold him in and make a race of it as he had been ordered to do. The sports of the day, as far as the turf was concerned, were now over; a fight had been got up, before the grand stand, between two youths, who went by the respective names of the "Young Glutton," and "Ebony Bill," but this the Styles' party deemed low, more especially as certain symptoms of hunger began to shew themselves; and Dick Milsom, anxious to quit the scene of his disgraceful triumph, suggested that, instead of dining on the course, they should instantly repair to the Quebec Tavern, at Portsmouth; which motion being seconded, was carried unanimously, and, in less than an hour, the quartett having got into the trainers' onehorse chay, found themselves seated in the best parlour of that caravansery, enjoying all the luxuries which the amphitrion of the feast had so lavishly ordered for them. After dinner a settlement of accounts took place; Styles, having received the amount of his winnings on the course, handed the £100 over to his brother-inlaw, who returned him £20 as his share, saying, he could not think of deducting the £5 he had lost by the accident. "How handsome!" exclaimed the innocent Styles, who, although his confidence in his brother-in-law's judgment was a little shaken, had not the slightest suspicion of his dishonesty. "Here, young Sam'l, here's a sovereign for you," added Mr. Milsom; "be a good boy, and always do everything on the square." "How liberal!" ejaculated both the parents-and Milsom could well afford to be liberal, for his day's profits ran as follows:

Upon the following morning our hero took leave of his disconsolate parents; and with a light heart, a good conscience, and a receipt for ten guineas (duly invested in the Portsmouth savings bank) in his pocket, commenced his servitude with his respectable uncle. Milsom's training stables were only a few miles from Epsom's far-famed downs, and there young Sam was shortly "located." Naturally fond of horses, he submitted without a murmur to the deprivations and exertions of his new life. Up at day-break, a scanty breakfast (for his master was determined to keep him as much of the anatomie vivante as possible), an hour's work in the stable, exercise on a young three-year-old, grooming ditto, a couple of hours' walk in great-coats, followed by the same process that is used to force cucumbers, viz., putting the young plant in hot-beds, forcing him

6

to remain there-spare dinner, more exercise, more grooming, more walking, more sweating, no more eating and drinking, save and except a cup of tea and slice of bread and butter at Mrs. Milsom's evening repast. The three-year-old colt that young Sam, at the expiration of six months, was called upon to look after, was named after a celebrated performer that had delighted Mr. Milsom at Croydon fair, "The Wizard of the North," and was a fine slapping animal. This mighty magician was engaged in several good stakes, which not a little surprized the trainers in general, and the public at large, as Mr. Milsom's ambition had not hitherto made him aspire to more than a plate or two at some of the minor places of sport; when, therefore, the "Wizard of the North" was entered for an approaching three-year-old stakes, fifty sovs. each, speculation was very rife upon the subject; and when, upon a certain morning, "all on the downs the fleet were met" to take their gallops, a crowd of black-legs had assembled to witness the prowess of this dark horse. "Three-year-old!" exclaimed one, "five, at least." "Got by Jerry Blossom?"" said another, referring to the sheet calendar, "as much got by Jerry Blossom (the name of a tenth-rate country stallion), as Eclipse' was." Every sort of ru mour was now afloat, still there was nothing at all in the shape of proof that the colt was otherwise than that he was entered as. The race was to come off the next week, and, a few evenings before, just as young Sam Styles was running to the neighbouring post with a letter, he was overtaken by a remarkably well-dressed fashionablelooking man, driving a handsome horse in a somewhat gaudily painted and lined tilbury. "Halloa, younker," said the stranger, "a'nt you one of Milsom's boys?" "Yes, Sir," replied our hero, "Ah, you look after the Wizard;' well, jump in, and I'll give you a lift to Epsom, I'm going there." Sam was nothing loth, and, in a second, was seated by the side of his new acquaintance. After a little preparatory conversation, in which the stranger completely "sucked the brains" (we use an appropriate, though inelegant term) of our hero, the question of the forthcoming race was started. It would have been an edifying sight to the betting public, to have heard the ingenious arguments of the arch-fiend and the ingenuous responses of his hoped-for victim: after a great deal of fencing and inuendoes and hints, none of which seemed to produce the slightest effect, the wily black-leg, adopting the same principle to youths that Shakspeare recommends to the fair sex-"Win her with gifts, if she respect not words," boldly offered the lad one hundred pounds in hard sovereigns if he would merely let the colt have the contents of a small phial, which he produced from his pocket, on the morning of the race. For some little time Sam Styles could scarcely bring himself to believe his own senses, and for a few seconds remained quite stupified: this being interpreted, by the betting Mephistophiles, as a sign of assent, he continued "Be sure he takes it all-it will only have a temporary effect, and -"here the conversation was put an end to by our hero springing from the tilbury, muttering to himself sundry words, which to the ear of the black-leg sounded strongly like "villain""rascal!" Before he could recover the surprise the sudden escape of

the youth had caused, the latter bounded across the fence, with a light heart and a still lighter conscience, and made the best of his way to the post office, and then home, to inform his uncle of the nefarious propositions that had just been made to him by a man, whose outward garb, at least, bespoke him to be a gentleman.

No sooner had our young hero reached home, than he communicated his adventure with the stranger to his uncle; and, even at his early age, so strong were the principles of honesty engrafted on his mind, that he felt inwardly indignant at the manner in which Mr. Milsom received his statement. "Ah! them sort of things vill happen. A sleeping draught! I almost vish you had partly consented, and brought me the phial." Here young Sam's countenance expressed such indignation, that his wily relation "drew in his horns" -not an inappropriate phrase to one so diabolically inclined—and, turning the matter off into a jest, continued-"Of course ve should not have used it, and it vould have been a riglar sell. Vell, you're a good lad! Alvays tell me vhen any one axes any information vhatever from you, and here's half a sovereign for your upright

conduct."

At first Sam Styles felt loath to receive the proffered money, but, with all the guilessness of youth, he felt that he had done his uncle an injustice, who, he now firmly believed, had only jested upon the subject; thanking him, therefore, for the half sovereign-which Melsom still held in his hand-Sam received it, and took his leave.

The race was to come off on the following day; and the young jockey-who always slept in the stable with the "Wizard"—had retired to rest, and had fallen into a deep slumber, when a noise over his head suddenly awoke him. For a few seconds he held in his breath and listened to the sounds, which he now found to proceed from a building that adjoined the stable-the lower part of which was used as a coach-house, and the upper part as a hay-loft. The only communication to the stable from this building was through a small aperture, now closed by a door, and through which the hay was dropped into the manger. Sam now hastily got up, and, climbing up a few rails that led to the hay-loft, listened, and distinctly heard the voices of two individuals, one of whom was conversing from the hay-loft in a low tone of voice with the other, and whose voice (the latter's) he fancied strongly resembled that of the individual who had attempted to tamper with his honesty in the morning.

"I can't find the ladder anywhere in the loft. Captain, if I recollect right, there was a small one this morning near the pigeon-house. You must get it, for without it I can never descend into the stable." "Pshaw!" hastily interrupted the man from without, who was no other than the owner of the tilbury, Surely you can drop into the stable; the straw will break your fall."

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"Yes, Captain, I can drop in, but how am I ever to get out again? Every one for himself, and the

Here the speaker, who was about to make some reference to the demon of darkness, whose name-"we never mention it, at least to ears polite"-was interrupted by the Captain saying

"Silence, while I seek the ladder; utter not a word; that whelping

cur that attacked us last night may not yet have swallowed the supper we brought him-silence!"

Our young hero descended from his height, and for a moment seemed lost in thought; then, as if an idea had flashed suddenly across him, groped his way quietly into the stall of the mighty "Wizard," and led him into one at the further extremity of the stable. To put an old horse that led the gallops into the vacant stall was the work of a few seconds; and, before a noise in the hay-loft informed Sam that the captain had returned, the young jockey was apparently asleep, and snoring loudly in his own small crib over the corn chest.

As Sam Styles had anticipated, the man in the hay-loft had placed the ladder through the aperture, and was descending, when the voice of the captain was again heard

"Be sure you don't make any mistake-the stall the furthermost from the door."

"All right, captain," responded the other, "and, as you value your life, keep your lanthorn in the dark. Dick's bed-room looks upon the stable window."

The man now reached the floor of the stable, and warily entering the stall in which, as he thought, the mighty magician was still in he took off the horse's muzzle, and drew from his breastpocket a handkerchief filled with corn, which, after mixing with the contents of a phial, he gave to the affrighted steed. Then, hastily withdrawing, he reached the loft without awaking, as he imagined, the young guardian of the night. The bolt was now drawn in the hayloft, and the captain having heard from his partner in guilt that "all was right," that the horse in the furthermost stall from the door had taken a dose that would act as a soporific for the next twelve hours, lost no time in effecting their escape from the scene of their iniquity. Young Sam was now left to his own thoughts; the stable-door was padlocked from without, and the communication with the hay-loft fastened up; to remain quietly, therefore, until morning broke, and his uncle came to stables, was all that he could do. Turning into his small sleeping-place, he in a few moments was buried in death's counterfeit, and his dreams of housebreakers, captains, and tilburies, were suddenly put an end to by a knocking at the stable-door, and the entrance of his uncle. Sam lost no time in telling him every particular of his night's adventure; and was not only thanked by his master for his heroic conduct, but received a promise of a boon he had long sought for-namely, a mount during the ensuing races. Milsom enjoined his nephew to keep the most profound secresy as to the captain's attempt, it being the only way of bringing the guilty parties to punishment.

(To be continued.)

SPORTING PEREGRINATIONS.

BY ROBIN HOOD.

An inspection of a well-conducted breeding stud is, at all times, a source of great pleasure and interest; consequently, being in the neighbourhood and possessing the additional facility, through the medium of Mr. Percy, whose son has the entire management, with much gratification I availed myself of the opportunity of a visit to the Hon. Sidney Herbert's stud, at Wilton.

On being ushered into the paddocks, the first mare on the list was Factory Girl, a large, powerful animal, possessing more the appearance of a hunter, to carry a heavy weight, than the elegance and activity of a creature whose progeny is intended to skim over the elastic turf. Her colour being black, with white about her fetlocks, her appearance, on that account, is not the more engaging; but she evinced considerable speed when in training, and her blood is good, being by Lamplighter, out of Spinning Jenny, by Jupiter; her dam, by Oscar, out of Dairymaid, a sort which, in the late Lord Berner's stud, was highly celebrated. She is in foal to Coronation.

Miss Letty, the winner of the Oaks in 1837, is a dark bay-a remarkably racing-like, wiry, game-looking creature, with, apparently, a very sound constitution; in her racing career she proved herself to be stout and speedy; her pedigree is excellent, having Priam for her sire, Orville for her grandsire, out of Golden Leg's dam by Buzzard-Hornpipe by Trumpeter; she is stinted to Sheet Anchor.

Delightful, the dam of the colt in the forthcoming Derby (of whom I made some remarks last month), is a chestnut mare, of great size; being got by that very excellent stallion, Defence, is, in my estimation, a very great recommendation; her dam was Lady Stumps, by Tramp; grandam, Ursula, by Cervantes-Pet, by Gainsborough; dam by Topsy Turvy, out of Agnes by Shuttle; is a short, compact mare, with considerable muscular power, especially about the thighs and hocks; her produce have not, as yet, evinced much superiority; she is the dam of Petulant, Pest, and Passion, and is now stinted to Elis.

Young Sweet Pea by Godolphin, out of Sweet Pea by Selim, is a very lengthy, sound-looking animal, giving an idea of the most perfect health.

Walfruna, a dark brown mare, by Velocipede, dam by Filho, great grandam by Dick Andrews, out of Miss Watt by Delpini, is a plain looking mare, with rather upright shoulders. Her racing career was not extensive, but I well recollect her showing consideara