The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1863-11-17 00:00:00

gorrosponbmrt.

Sporting Entrlligrna.

Tff g EGGSSFOIID FfeNT.—This celebrated hunt had
it. opening meet on Tuesday at the seat of that noble
master of the hunt The Earl of Portsmouth. A
numerous and distinguished company was entertained
at the breakfast—a social re-union ax highly prized for
the high and genial feeling there displayed, as is the
meet in the field, or the run with the hounds for noble
and manly sport. The isoadommie of the Noble Earl
was meet gracefully seconded by the presence of his
Countess, who gave to the friends of her lord a cordial
welcome to her board. Doubly enjoyable on the present
occasion were the comforts of the breakfast room, as
the raw rainy morning gave proadoe of little pleasure
in
the oven. The breakfast board was a stately sight,
becoming the mansion of an Englimb nobleman.
Among the ornaments which graced the table were the
several trophies won on the race course by the Earl
horses, andalso a pair of silver flower vases presented by
his hunting friends in appre -lotion of his generous
patronage of the. 'Ar& According to the kindly custom
ever observed at esford, the tenantry were invited
to partake in the pleasure. of the day, and as airgereof
of the ever increasing popularity of the Lord of '-
ford, the sport and good fellowship to be had t ere,
and of the kindly feeling subsisting between landlonl
and tenant,the gathering was one of the most numerous
ever seen there. Thelabourers were not forgotten any
more than the tenant', they had their toil relieved for
the time, and • plentiful share dealt out to them of the
good things going. The kennels, stables, and hunting
stud are always objects of interest, especially to new
comers. No one could look on the stud of 30 'muni-
ficent horses without admiration, both for the quality
of the animal,' themselves and the condition ia wldeli
they are kept by groom Whincup. The hounds were
mustered in the lawn shortly after eleven o'clock. The
pack consisted of 22 couple, and when we roe,- Aber
the beautiful specimens (Ton' these kennels exhibited
at the Exeter Dog Show last June, it need not be said
that this was not among the least interesting sights of
the meet. The weather was much against the day's
sport, but as the huntsmen like the Volunteers are not
to be deterred by the rain, • start was made and •
day'. run obtained. It will be good news to the Anti
fox Society to be told that the Eggesford pack has
already killed sonic dozen of the vermin, with •prospect
of doing a still greater stroke of business in the same
time during the season. It will be no fault of the
hounds, horses, huntsmen, or the noble master of
the hunt if there be not as good • sporting mason as
any hitherto known.
TOSS SCANDALS AND TURY ILOGUERT.—The
autumnal racing season at Newmarket has produced a
pretty little crop of scandals. Owners, trainern,
jockeys—legitimate sportsmen and professional "legs"
—all come in for • storm of accusations. The day's
fraud 'seems to have been as confidently expected as the
day's racing, and imputations were as numerous as the
heats. Mutual recriminations between beers and win-
ners were singularly edifying to the bystanders, and led
to the inevitable conclusion that it half what was there
asserted were true the n Ring" was far fitter for New'
gate than Newmarket. Lioness won the Cesarewitch,
and her owner was instantly accused by thousands of
having caused her to be "pulled" for previous races, in
order that she might be favourably weighted for this.
He was also charged—end • most unseemly fracas
more in consequence—with having caused a quondam
friend to be informed that Lioness, could not possibly
win, and that he, the owner, was not backing
her for a shilling, but that, on the contrary,
lie had so far relied on her victory, that be had
notoriously won • very large stake by her
success, to the discomfiture of the accuser, who had
lost in proportion. An illustrious foreigner wins the
Criterion, and the protest is instantly lodged against
his mare, on the ground that a fraud had been com-
mitted with respect tuber age. The charge is disproved
as rapidly as made; but none appears, that is, no loser
to think it monstrous that such an imputation should'
be thus lightly hazarded against • gentleman of position
and credit. It is plain that at Newmarket no one is to
be considered incapable of the dirtiest conduct. These,
however, were all merely aasertians of roguery, anal
were in no case supported by proof. Butthe Cambridge-
shire supplied us with a charming instance or two,
making up for that deficiency. The scales, the touch-
stone of all racing, were discovered to have been
tampered with, and pieces of lead, attached to one side
of the balance, very nearly deprived the real winner of
his victory, and would have hail the effect of dispensing
unfairly sums to an enormous amount The reward of
MO offered for the offender is hardly likely to procure
his detection, but it clearly denotes that this little event
is considered no "accident," But the Cambridgeshire
hail yet another surprise of its votaries. No sooner is
the fraud on the scales detected, and the horse that
came in first pronounced the winner, than it
is suddenly whispered that • leviathan "leg" has
vanished, and is not expected to be visible
on settling day. This worthy coolly leaves
his victims minus about C 20,000, which they fondly
imagined they had won from him, and, by way of
making the proceeding still more agreeable to their
feeling*, it is understood that be is perfectly able to pay
his loam., but that retention of former gains is to him
far preferable to his reputation. The necessity of con-
tending with such rogueries,and of comingin contact with
such robber., so long as be patronized the noble pastime
of racing, may probably have remotely contributed to
the retirement from the turf of one of its most princely
supporters, the Earl of Stamford and Warrington. But
the immediate cause of his secession is what he asserts
to be • vile and treacherous fraud upon hinamlf. It is
well known that Lord Stamford runs to win. He is
understood generally to back his own hones. For the
Cambridgeshire he entered his mare Limmina. She ap-
peared to be as much &favourite with the public as with
her owner. She retained a high place in the betting to
the last, and Lord Stamford was understood to have
backed her to • very large amount. The day before the
race she was in perfect health, and had been tried fit to
run for a king's life. The morning of the contest found
her in equal "form," but in the afternoon, the hour of
the race, she was unable to run a yard. She was com-
pelled to be "roused" in the lesiva:ter of a mile, then
!lewd, and nett abandoned for the raze altogether.
She was utterly beaten from the very start. Lord
Stamford is firmly of opinion that she was drugged.
Ile has expressed that opinion pretty boldly in
words, but still more significantly in deeds. He
quits the turf in disgust, broaka up his princely
racing establishment at Newmarket, and his entire stud
will be sold by auction early in next month. Racing is
becoming • bye-word for roguery, and it behoves the
Jockey Club at least to interpose some check to the
spreading of the pestilemse. If outsiders might venture
an opinion, it would he that to establish a system of
racing in which • little more should depend on the
horses than the men, would be • desirable alteration.
The abolition, at Newmarket at any rate, of the great
handicaps, those seeds of half the frauds on the turf,
would be • beneficial step in advance. Moreover, if the
gentlemen fond of the sport would but bet only with
those of their own condition, end leave the "legs" t
prey on each other, the air on the heath would be some-
what purer in a very short time. We admit ourselves,
however, quite unequal to grapple with the details of •
subject so complicated as to be intelligible only to those
who make it the study of their live.. But It is obvious
that the system was not intended originally to be
nefarious, and we contend that those under whom that
system has degenerated into an evil are bound to pro-
vide the remedy.—Morming Pod.
On the question of Linaosina, and the retirement of
Lord Stamford,we withhold all cornmentforthepresent ;
only remarking, with regard to the latter, that we know
of no movement so calculated to promote his own
interests as the sale of his racing stud. The turf, if
honest and flourishing, virtuous in its object, and inno-
cent in the means for attaining it, need not fear the loss
of even so generous and influential • patron as Lord
Stamford. If as unsound and vicious as it is reported
to be in some quarters, its downward course could not
be stayed by a single arm, and he is well out of the
whirlpool of fraud and rapacity which would have
dragged him down in its ruin. —Field,