EMBELLISHMENTS. DIARY FOR JANUARY THE NEW YEAR.-BY CRAVEN SURPLICE AND CANEZOU.-BY CASTOR TWO YEARS IN THE FAR WEST.- -BY THE AUTHOR OF 66 STORIES CAPTAIN PIGSKIN'S VISIT TO THE BATH AND BRISTOL STEEPLE SKETCHES FROM THE CAPE OF GOOD HOPE.-BY THE AUTHOR OF SCENES AND SPORTS IN FOREIGN LANDS' "" SPORTING INCIDENTS AT HOME AND ABROAD (FROM THE MS. LIFE OF THE HON. PERCY HAMILTON).-COMMUNICATED TO AND EDITED BY LORD WILLIAM LENNOX FOX-HUNTING IN THE SOUTH OF FRANCE NOTES OF THE CHASE-THE SOUTH BERKSHIRE, THE H. H., M. W. First Quar., 2 day, at 38 min. past 7 afternoon. OCCURRENCES. Sun rises and sets. m.. h. Moon HIGH WATER rises & London Bridge. sets. morn. aftern. d. h. m. h. m. h. m. 1 M Circumcision. Daventry Fair. r 8 9 711a48 2 T 3 W LAMBOURNE COURSING Meet. 4 T EPSOM COURSING MEETING. SETS. 6 10 6 35 6 58 7 25 8 9 1 1 7 55 8 25 13 S Cambridge Term begins, r 8 31910 7 5 0 5 20 14S Second Sunday after Epiph. s 4 162011 15 5 40 6 0 21 S Third Sunday after Epiphanyr 7 5627 22 M Melton Mowbray Fair. 23 T Howden Fair. 24 W STOURTON (CHESHIRE) S. C. 25 T Bingley (Yorkshire) Fair. 26 F Launceston Fair. 27 S 28 Fourth Sunday after Epiph, 29 M EVERLEIGH COURSING MEET. r 7 45 30 T ABERYSTWITH STEEPLE CHASES 4 44 31 W Hilary Term ends. TII E NEW YEAR. BY CRAVEN. "En avant!" Hark! 'tis December's latest chime, It hath that solemn note of time Thou art not meant, stern year of fate! Thus shall be read, dark 'Forty-eight, Thy lore in 'Forty-nine. After the winter cometh spring, And pleasant buds, and birds that sing The dawn upon the night doth wait- At morn the tempest rocks the deep, The wild that now lies desolate Shall bring forth oil and wine: The waters that the frost hath bound The sun-beam will set free, Loose the snow-wreath, and give the ground Accords each season with its date Moves order's stated line: So yield the clouds of 'Forty-eight To rays in 'Forty-nine. The heaven above-the earth below- The issues of our weal and woe Are with the Great First Cause. Shall God not care for man's estate? And will not love divine Replace the tears of 'Forty-eight The year that has just ended was the annus mirabilis of the nineteenth century. Forty-five beat it in the frenzy of finance; but in wonders, political, social, and theological-in anomalies, moral and immoral, imperial and tag-rag-and-bob-tail-there has not probably been such a season since the sun was set in the firmament. In sporting, also, there were a few novelties, of which we shall speak, not in the vein of animadversion, but for the sake of profit from the reversion. "We take no note of time but by its loss," says one, whose philosophy was for all time and all occasions. As it is with the hour, so it is with all that appertains to it. It was customary to assign nine days as the mortal career of a wonder; but as marvels became more general, the term of their existence was curtailed. Who can forget the noise that " gun-cotton" made a little while ago, and the social revolutions it was asserted the discovery would bring about? But does any one hear such reports now ?...... Nevertheless, apathetic as the world has grown, the rule has its exceptions. People shrug their shoulders when mention is made of alchemy and " the powder of projection," yet they gorge the hook baited with a project as visionary by the fishers of men in their own times. The philosopher's stone left behind it a family, some member of which has always made a figure in its generation. The occult science, founded, as the scholiasts assert, by Shem, the contemporary of Ham and Japhet, assumed many characters: now revelling in philosophic mysteries-as among the Sibyls, the disciples of Deiphobe-and anon turning its hand-as in the fourteenth century-to operative chemistry, whose especial professor was the sage Paracelsus. Among the varieties of mystic lore which from antediluvian days to the present have frighted the world from its propriety, none have borne such close relationship, such family affinity, as the transmutation of metals and "Derby Sweeps." Fontinelle, speaking of alchemy, says-" Nothing but the blindness induced by avidity could procure belief that a man who possessed the power of making gold must receive gold from another before he can exhibit his art. How can such a person stand in need of money?" The promoters of Sweeps announced their anxiety to bestow upon their patrons "a splendid fortune for five shillings!" Why did not they keep the independence to themselves, and retire from business? Here's a passage, which, by altering names and dates, will apply to either of those delusions-" The philosopher's stone was a creation of the fourteenth century, and much accredited among the scientific men of that day. Raymond Lully, Nicholas Flamel, Armand de Villeneuve, and several others, were initiated in the secret. Nicholas Flamel was a celebrated alchymist, and having acquired an immense fortune, it was attributed to the philosopher's stone, which of course stimulated the cupidity of the proselytes of alchemy. Eager was their pursuit of a study which was to endow them with boundless wealth; and these lunatics found coadjutors in persons of weak mind, while wiser men diverted themselves by sustaining their hopes, and affecting conviction of their success !..... Most of those who attempted the pursuit were brought to want and wretchedness; and one of them observed in his last moments that he could not imagine a bitterer curse to bequeath than the love of alchemy!" I fancy it would not be difficult to find a modern Nicholas Flamel, neither to discover those who would pronounce "Sweeps" as bitter a curse as the search for the philosopher's stone. The annihilation of those bitter nuisances will rank foremost in the catalogue of sporting promise for the season of 1849. It is difficult to reconcile the judicial crusade now waging against turf lotteries with the conventional impunity so long conceded to them. Sidney Smith prophesied that the lieges would continue to be subjected to close imprisonment in railway carriages until the immolation of a bishop should propitiate the punishment-and lo! "Exeter" became the half-burnt offering. Was it necessary that a rehearsal of the Camberwell tragedy -a second appearance of a real George Barnwell-should precede the |