out to the jockey booked to ride the animal. And where all efforts of the kind have failed, a sum twice the value of the horse has repeatedly been offered for him immediately before the races. "The late Mr. Mostyn was offered the unprecedented sum of seven thousand guineas, a few years since, for a horse of his which was the favourite for the St. Leger; but knowing that the offer was made for the purpose of enabling the parties to practise a fraud on the public, he, like an honourable man, scorned to accept it, though the probability was, he would have taken a third of the sum after the races were over. Had the swindling brotherhood got the horse, they would of course have withdrawn him from the field,—all the parties who had betted that he would win being in that case equally losers as if he had contested the prize, but been unsuccessful. "The trickery which is practised on the Turf may be inferred from the character of the persons who most largely patronise it. Who are these? Notoriously the leading proprietors of gambling-houses in London, and the principal frequenters of those houses. Who ever heard of a race of any note, without seeing Crockford standing on the course, with his hands in his pockets, and looking like one whose mind is occupied with some abstruse calculations as to the way in which the impending events' are likely to come off? And see how the trio of Bonds, the next greatest gambling-house proprietors in the metropolis, dash about in their splendid equipages. As to gambling noblemen and gentlemen-why there is not one of any notoriety in our London hells, that is not equally well known on the Turf. I could here run over in dozens the names of dukes, of marquises, of earls, and of noblemen and gentlemen of every rank, professed devotees of gambling at the hazard-tables of the hells in town, who are equally notorious for their patronage of the Turf. And how many of these are there, who are bankrupt in fortune as well as character? "Then there are the false notions of honour that prevail on the Turf. Such are these notions, that Turfites feel bound to pay, provided they can at all raise the amount, any losses they may incur by betting, even though their tradesmen and families should not only be suffering the greatest privations in consequence of the non-payment of the amount due to them, but should be brought to the verge of ruin on that account. How many poor tradesmen suffered, and how many of themselves or their successors still suffer, from the non-payment by the late Duke of York, of the debts he contracted with them! And yet he always made a point of paying the losses he sustained on the Turf. It was the same in the case of his brother, George the Fourth, when Prince of Wales; and it is the same with numbers of noblemen whose names might be mentioned. Such is the morality which obtains on the Turf! Such are the notions of honour that are entertained by its votaries! "The Turf, then, is a most prolific source of social evil. I am convinced it would be impossible to estimate the amount of mischief it has done to morals, to families, and to society. It first destroys all the better feelings of one's nature, and then destroys one's fortune. Could all those that are still alive, who have been ruined by the Turf, be brought into one place, what a vast and wretched assemblage of human beings would they present! The victims of the Turf! Why, their name is Legion! "It is deeply to be regretted that when the results of betting on horseraces are so disastrous, those races should be specially patronised by the Queen. Of course the blame does not attach to her. The subject is one which, in all probability, has never been brought under her consideration. She subscribes to the Ascot Races, and patronises those races by her presence, because her predecessors have done the same before her. But it is to be regretted that there should not be those around her throne who would point out to her the frightful evils which are necessarily associated with the Turf, and suggest to her that she ought not to become the patroness, either by her purse or her presence-especially not by both-of a pastime which is productive of so much immorality, and of so much misery to individuals and families. I am sure, that were a sovereign possessed of such amiable feelings as is Victoria, and who is so exceedingly anxious to promote the cause of morals, and to increase the happiness of mankind, -only aware of the deplorable and destructive consequences of horseracing, she would at once withdraw her patronage from that pastime.” Having, as we have intimated, only received a portion of the work, from which our extracts are taken, we must of necessity reserve our remarks upon the whole until the remainder shall have reached us. SONG. THE WOODLAND WELL. O the pleasant woodland well! Bright when evening closes; There it was first love begun; O the lovely woodland well! Unto it is given Fairest light that ever fell Full of bliss from heaven. Ever, late and early, Lingering, there I love to be, Her I loved most dearly. RICHARD HOWITT. THE COURTIER OF THE REIGN OF CHARLES II.1 BY MRS. C. GORE. CHAPTER XIII. LABOUR lost were the ponderings of the Duke of Bucks on his way back to London upon the most plausible pretexts to be assigned for his defeat! Whether his wager were paid with a swaggering air of inuendo, or a frank avowal of the truth, mattered not a grain of the dust raised by his gilded wheels. By the time he arrived at Whitehall, not a living soul save Lord Lovell bore recollection of the bet : Arran being engrossed by the loss of an old mistress, and Rowley by the impending arrival of a new wife! A schooner, despatched by the Earl of Sandwich from Lisbon, had arrived at Spithead, announcing that the English fleet, after receiving from the Portuguese the cession of Tangier as part of the portion of Dona Caterina, had sailed from the Tagus with the future Queen of England! What a turmoil at court! From day to day the princess might be expected on the coast! Mistress Palmer in hysterics on one sideVatteville in the sullens on the other; the chancellor labouring to preserve such equanimity of countenance as might prove to the nation that he had not abetted the match with a Catholic princess, and to Mazarin that he did not oppose it: while not a woman of quality from Temple Bar to Whitehall-nay, from Westminster to Berwick-upon-Tweed-but was caballing to obtain some post of honour in the new household. Every morning the printed playbills, laid by royal command upon the breakfast table of the king, were accompanied by perfumed packets, marked "particularly private," or "eminently confidential," containing powerful appeals to his protection from duchesses, countesses, viscountesses, and damsels of honour; setting forth that there was no life or satisfaction for them on earth, unless they could obtain the blessed privilege of being cooped up in a chamber six feet square at Whitehall or Richmond, of figuring in the royal coaches and the court calendar, as mistress of the robes, bedchamber woman, or maid of honour. So malapert in their own households, so indolent in their personal habits, that at home they must needs entertain pages to fan the summer midges from their cheek, these pretty coveters of the glare and gauds of life would hear of nothing but making menials of themselves, or that the magniloquent term salary were substituted for the ignominious word wages. They were ready to air linen, pick up fans, carry handkerchiefs, and comb lapdogs, for the untold beatitude of being proclaimed as of the court -courtly. "The devil sends the breeze that blows good to no man!' quoth the proverb," said Buckingham as, gathering up a handful of similar applications, he proceeded to the breakfast appointed for rendering an Continued from p. 308. account of his adventure. "I have despatched to Lovell his sack of two thousand pistoles; and instead of having to appear in presence with pendent ears and hanging tail, like one of Rowley's spaniels after being whipped for picking and stealing, I shall enter, radiant with triumph, as having avoided to encumber the memoranda of royal promises with the name of a hundred and fourteenth lady of the bedchamber. My life on't, I am thanked rather than bantered for my mischances! Rowley will have enough on his hands with trying on new perukes, and essaying new washes, upon a complexion somewhat of the swarthiest for a bridegroom, to trouble himself further touching the airs and graces of this bumpkin Venus of Shrapston!" The king's mind was, in truth, in the most feverish state of excitement. A new wife, writes La Bruyère, "l'emporte sur une ancienne maîtresse !" and so satisfactory were the reports which reached England of the southern brilliancy of Dona Caterina's large dark eyes, her good grace, and, above all, her desire to please the capricious fancy of her future lord and master, that, strange to relate, his thoughts were rather bent upon the Infanta than upon the duchesses, countesses, and viscountesses, tormenting themselves and him to promote their elevation at court. "Out upon the jades! all in the same vein-all bent upon the same design!" cried Charles, thrusting across the table the packets of perfumed memorials and petitions with which his favourite came charged to swell the amount of his previous embarrassment. "Seeing that I have provided myself with a wife, they would fain metamorphose the gender of my whole household, and set up a petticoat government to my very teeth!-Grand merci, mesdames! as the royal cut-throat says in the play-There'll come a time for that hereafter!' Meanwhile, here-Harris, May, Chiffinch, Sawtrey-one of you bear me this bale of sweet commodities to the chancellor, to keep company with those I remitted to his hands last night; and pray him to provide fair ladies to his liking for her majesty's household, and fair answers of apology to the ladies of his disliking who pester us with their importunities." "A household chosen by Sir Edward were a sight to see!" exclaimed Buckingham, delighted at the verification of his hopes. "Yet I would fain beseech you, sire, to take into consideration the high birth and breeding of Lord Shrewsbury's noble countess !" "Whose noble countess, George ?" cried the king with a laugh. "Would you have me insult her majesty the queen with the services of a quean so notorious ?" .. "I beseech your majesty's pardon," replied the duke, with saucy freedom. "I heard it announced last night that a countess belonging to one Master Roger Palmer-another quean of some notoriety-had been appointed by your majesty to the bedchamber ?" "They lied who said it, George," cried the king, who was in one of his most cordial veins of good-humour. "The new countess appointed herself!—would take no denial from me—would listen to no objections from the chancellor. Nay, so furious is the poor soul at the necessity for her dismissal from my favour, that at one time I feared even the promised coronet would scarcely bribe her from her design of selling her soul to the Lapland witches for a wind to sink the fleet and the Infanta; as the law-pleas of our sapient kingdom avouch to have been done to delay the coming of my grandsire James's red-polled Danish bride!" "Your majesty need entertain no present uneasiness. The wind sets fair for the Downs," observed Lord Lovell, glancing towards the window, and in no mind to have the cause of their meeting overlooked. "So that I may chance be summoned to Portsmouth before set of sun," cried the king. "I, who had promised Barbe to sup with her for the last time! And by the way, Lovell, thou who art so forward to promise me a wife, what news of thy own? Buckingham, we look to you on this score.' 66 My Lord Lovell has received the amount of his wager, sire," interrupted the duke, "and your majesty should receive the confession of my defeat, did it contain any incident more diverting than the amount of a lady's ill manners. I went (according to your majesty's commands)—but neither saw nor conquered. Whether refused admittance to see lest I should succeed in conquering, I leave to the decision of your penetration; but as I am ready to swear that my Lord Arran saw double in the case, I more readily pardon fate and the lady that I was not permitted to see at all !" "Admit at least that I did my best to spare your grace and your grace's road-horses unnecessary pains ?" cried Lovell, with a smile of self-sufficiency. "The Duke of Buckingham is a wizard of renown; yet I am as satisfied of the inefficacy of his incantations to draw my wife to court, as to sink the precious flotilla which bears her highness of Braganza at this moment into the Channel." "The brag is of the boldest, Arthur," exclaimed the king. "Recollect meanwhile that, at present, I choose to hear no profane mention of a lady to whom it is promised me that I am to lose my heart at sight. And, faith, I little doubt it. 'Tis a winged toy ever on the perch for a flight, and, like a carrier pigeon, comes back as fast as it goes, to be ready for an excursion in some opposite direction." "Your majesty is fortunate in being able to make so light of your coming cares!" cried Buckingham, with an affected sigh. "There are two of us here present who, or I mistake, could furnish you to a hundred weight with a computation of the oppression of the chains of matrimony. Yet neither my Lord Lovell nor myself had mortgages on our single estate to increase their irksomeness, such as may chance to be insisted upon by my Lady Barbara of the new earldom." "Au jour le jour!" cried the king cheerfully. "Destiny is still in my arrear a world of joys to compensate for the out-at-elbow days of penance of my princedom. I have promised the chancellor and myself to be the best of husbands; and the king over the water, and his cardinal, promise me that the Infanta shall render me the happiest." "God send it, sire !" cried the duke, with pretended fervency. "I would only that we could add-the richest. But I greatly fear that his Spanish excellency's prediction will prove true, that Dona Caterina's dower will cost its weight in gold to keep our own." |