The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1862-04-08 00:00:00

Mlrtufactory:—Viatoris Iron Works, Bedford.

"FORD'S EUREKA SHIRTS
Now everywhere obtain the preference 0f,43,31;

tlemen who determine to wear only such Shirts as
are made uniformly well. spurious 6 hirtatire
advertised and sold as "Ford's Eurc k se." obserre
that none are genuine unless stamped inside the
eollsr-band with
the R.FORD'S
Trade mark, EUREKA SHIRT I
thu2— 38.POULTRY.LONDO

sma by moat respectable Roden and Drapers.
Where difficulty occurs In procuring the above, staid Ism Ns
Ihntratod Price List to the Patentees, MCNAIR° FORDO; C.O.

DORCHESTER :—Cauemis
Do. EDWARD STRNAR.
Do. JOUR Firm.

THE PATENT LOCKFAST BREECH.

LOADING GUN.

7kTo Gentleman should purchase • Ere._L athl Loader without learning the principles of tire '
" Lockfavt," the solidity and shooting powers of wltiels -
are gained by • patented mechanism, which esa be
applied to no other gun without infringement. By egn
construction the barrels and breech are locked together • •
by powerful leverage. Equally adopted or
Rifles. Common Breech-cartridges ;se&
ngs
jabr:putili.mevotliejamito:tBe:Pacistartenrateite.
rp:i:ordvi
on itires"o4 Priessaiew:ll •
"mimes 'stabilised 1700.

r Dorsetobire.
DORCHESTER —WORKING MENB' itau 11.—
On Monday ttia yembins of this institution were
favoured with a lecture by Horace Motile, Esq. on
the late Prime Consort. The Townhall was filled
by • large and attentive audience, and the Mayor,
(j. (lalpm, Esq.), took the chair, who, in • short
speech, introduced the lecturer to the assembly. Mr.
Menlo, on rising, said :—Mr. Mayor Ladies, and
Gentlemen,—lf -Prince Albert had been • man of
ordinary disposition and character—if he had been
the pommel:ger of a few popular qualities of the
heart calculated to captivate and dazzle for the
moment, but to leave no solid result behind, we
should have been too late this evening in approach-
ing the eonsideration of his life and memory. Nearly
four months have passed by since the midnight
bell of St. Paul's warned the city of London, and
twenty thousand knells from the churches warned
the- towns and villages of England that • great
%amity had fallen upon the nation. Four months
would Wive been amply enough to send a formal
qprrow out Id fashion, to accustom the moot con-
PAM worshippers and readers to the omission of a
wonted name from the prayer, of the Church and
the daily journals of the Court; to make us all weary
ofulfiave ahoy which would never really have
to the hearts of the nation. And I, to-night,
have• felt a difficulty in taking up a theme
whi& everyone would know to have grown thread-
karealready. Ido not think that the middle classes
, of England, to one or other of which so many of us
present to-night belong—l do not believe that the
waking men of England—that you members of
society now addressed by me—have yet grown weary
of the name or of the tardy fame of ALBERT THE
GOOD. We know that enconium is a dull and com-
=Waco thing. But when no vulgar desire of
plesang, but the plain unadorned virtues of the
•sublet-t; are the genuine fountain of praise, even
eulogy and panegyac should, as they generally will,
command an attentive audience. For his was • life
so unobtrusive as to require careful study before it is
niestaand and understood, and yet so full of work
and worth, that it is hard indeed to avoid feeling
ankexpresaing enthusiastic admiration as its real
proportions are unfolded. And now, in turning to
Vdowmeata of the head, I may my that if
itlhert had been • man of every-day intellect
-L..na more than a second Prince George of Denmark
—I should be speaking to-night • great deal too
awn. Sail a man in such a place would have in-
terfered with religion, politics, and science, in a
feeble and unpurpose-like way. He would have
committed many great blunders, which would have
rendered it natural to keep silence regarding his
name fer praise or censure, till • much longer inter-
pa lid been placed between us. These are, hoo-
ey", by no means the conditions under which we
have been bereft of our illustrious Prince. Whether
we wonder at the depth of his character, or critically
weiglistb• evidences of his vast activity and strength
of mind, we may be confident that time will be on
hie side. Well may we make sure, as the Laureate
6noble phrase made sure of the great Duke of Wel-
Om, that "whatever record leap to light, he never
shaltbe shamed." The annals of this great man's
lifiiiroay soon be told, and they will leave me space
to addafew remarks on the Prince's character and
qualities from three distinct points of view, regarding
him first as a constitutional statesman, next as an
intellectual man and patron, and lastly as the head
and guide of the royal family. This tripartite divi-
eMniwas carefully followed out, the lecturer giving
a full explanation of the term "constitutional states-
nien,r and instancing agriculture, the arts of design,
and the science of statistics as quarters in which the
Prince's intellect found a special object for exertion.
ThecTomestic life of the Queen and Prince at Wind-
sor,"Osborne, and Balmoral, was largely eulogised;
and.Lerd Palmerston was quoted in proof of the
benefits which the household purity of the Court has
confenren upon the nation. The following passage
may be read with interest as • second specimen of
the lecture :—Never did mince or sovereign cherish
a simpler and nobler aim; divining instantly his
position and its duties, he saw that his prime
duty to the nation was to secure the happiness of his
wifb add Queen. And what was the ideal of hap-
pineas which that young man conceived for his young
bride at the very outset of their joint career, and
steadily held before her consenting eyes, at a time
when absedant errors would have been forgiven,
and when lofty reflection was a thing altogether
tinexpectedi It was Ino other than this, that she
should herself attract round her ancient historical
crown such bright rays of dignity, reverence, and
love as might outshine all former glories. To infuse
new life into the august functions of the throne, to
fintle"self a source of happiness and a means of ele-
vation to • great people, and to recognise her chief
happiness in that—this was the dream of queenly
aspaitllon which that young pair dreamed for them-
mints two-aad-twenty years ago. The years have
rolled by, and the dream of the future has grown to
be a statue of past achievements wrought by the
triuilove, the steady will, and the strong hand of
him'who is gone. The lecture was brought to a close
by a touching review of the incidents connected with
the Prince's last illness and funeral. A vote of
thanks was accorded to the lecturer, and also to the
Mayor for his kindness in presiding on the occasion.
THE -DORSETSWIRE HUNT
• STEEPLE CHASES.

playing been unable to supply the enormous demand
for ifrai Telegram of Friday last, we reprint the report.
—U....D. a s.)
Ills upon record that when Sir Edward Biashe,
Clarcnicieux,' made his visitation of Oxfordshire in
1664.9; the county gentlemen were present in very
small timbers at his heraldic symposium, they being
mostly engaged "at a horse race at Brackley."
Proud as they were of their quarterings, and anxious
to prove that their families came over with the
Conqueror, or were settled here long before the
arrival of that most successful of filibusters, the
Thanes of Oxfordshire could not resist the tempts-
tone of a horse coursing match, and, just thee, were
disposed to set much more store by the achievements
of tbs "produce" of Oliver Cromwell's far famed
"coffin mare," and the Arabian stook introduced by
CharlendiL,tban by esearteheons without flaw or crests
datfpg. from the Crusades. The example set at
Braeklby would find no lack of followers these days
in the county of Dorset. Most ill-advised would it
be for even the world-renowned Blondin or his imi-
tators to give an exhibition within fifty miles of Wad-
don Vale on the day of the Dorsetshire Hunt Steeple
Chases. If the-shy were to fulfil the long-promised
prophet" ofraining potatoes and hailing roast larks
if the ifue on the king's monument at Weymouth
were.lM be heard to distinctly sing "Wapping Old
Stairr:and the town pump in Dorchester seen to
dance, k' hornpipe to the tune of "Auld Lang
Syneeli nethiug but a listless and languid excitement
would on this day be created by those otherwise ex-
traordinar phenomena. The Darsetshiro Haat
Steeple finb weather empties the towns in
the surrounding district. The fear of a pestilence
or of a foreign invasion could not more effectually
thin the streets. Innumerable blinds are drawn
down, and those who don't go to the Waddon Vale
wishvin Jr* be thought that they are gone, and hid'e
themselves in attics and back drawing rooms,
until-th4shades of evening enable them to conceal
the blushes that should suffuse their countenances,
when they mendaciously declare that they have
been to the race* Trust no man who says "I don't
care for Waddon Vale sports." For the ladies the
plea may be all very well, but it would be a libel on
the opposite sex to say,they have no desire to see these
much vaunted "Isthmian game." of modern times.
Great is Diana of the Ephesians, but greater to
the inhabitants of Dorset, are the Waddon Vale
Hunt Steeple Chases. For the time being it is
Aaron's rod, and mallows up all the rough magic in
the lower part of the county. Politics and
diplomacy, science, and art, Reuter's telegrams,
treaties of commerce, ministerial complications, the
American war, moat all cede for a season to the
contest in which Fencer, Inkerman, Lady Jane,
Count, Saltfish, Jack Hinton, and other celebrites
are taking part. '1 he Southerners may cede from
the Northern Yankees, Mc'Clellan may march with
his army of the Potomac against the "rebels," •
five-hours' contest may ensue between the two iron.
cased verde of the belligerent States, but what are
these to a " scratch " on the eve of the Steeple
Chase? What are all the false moves on the great
European chessboard to a "false start ?" Not but
this day has its anxieties, ita cares and its
oorrows, but they are all hidden under the garb of
gaiety. Every year we bail the advent of the
Waddon Races, we send forth words of glad
encouragement to the votaries of the turf—not
merely bemuse we admire the manly English sport,
but became we recognise in the lively scene on the
mountain-side, popularly called "the grand stand,"
the best features of a cordial and generous sympathy
and kindliness of social intercourse between all
classes of society—when work is forgotten, and the
excitement of the sport is enjoyed by rich and poor
alike. It must be conceded on all hands that a more
delightful spot than the Vale of Wadden for the
holding of the Dorsetahire Hunt Steeple ChasaN
could not be found in the whole county. As viewed
from the hill-side, a scene of great natural beauty
presents itself. The valley sweeps on either side
for many miles, among grassy steepss of diversified
forms, whilst in the distance, almost as far
as the eye can reach, may be seen in the background,
standing out is it were in the midst of the English
Channel, with its picturesque sharp jagged cliffs, the
far-famed ipiand of Portland. The landscape en-
chanted us, but it is no part of our intention to fol-
low in the wake of some of our contemporaries, and
tell our readers how we arrived there on Friday
morning last, where we breakfasted, the perils we
met with on the road, whom we were mistaken for,
the beta We made, nor the money we won. Suffice
it to say that we did arrive, and that notwithstand-
ing that the weather prophets foretold that Aquarius
had made up his mind to inundate the lowlands
through sheer pictue against all pleasure takers, the
weather was gloriously fine. It is true the course—
the whole length of which, with its nineteen leaps
over ditOsee, hedges, and a brick wall, as seen from
the Carton-hill—had been completely sodden by the
large quantity of rain that had 'lately fallen- but this
somewhat added to the sport, so far as the lookers-
on were coneerned, instead of detracting from it.
"The more dirt the greater the sport," is an old
adage, tul the saying WM never more alrikingly

•••-ve:o ,

verified than on the present occasion. "Cards for
the races, gentlemen, with the names of the horses
and colour of the rider," were everywhere
to be met with, but who could tell the
name of • horse or even the colour of
its rider in the distance? On the ground were
pedestrians who had walked "to the races," knee
deep in mud," vehicles in abundance, and of every
description—stagecoaches, omnibuses, chariots, dog
carts, and even the two-wheeler of the pedlar.
Not less than 190 the cadets belonging to the
Britannia lying in Portland roads, graced the
some. The cost for conveying them to and from
ths ground, including a sandwich and a glass of
sherry, was 12s. 6d a head, and it is said the con-
tractor has intimated he would like another such
day's work three times • week during
the ensuing summer. Be that as it may, it is
quite evident the 'younkers' enjoyed themselves to
their heart's content. At one o clock precisely the
bell rang for starting, and shortly afterwards, there
was as universal shout of "They're off." The first