The Sun.
London, England, 1855-11-12 00:00:00

SPORTING NOTES.

SOMETHING ABOUT SHREWSBURY.
The Shrewsbury programme is really a marvel of tact
and ingenuity. The care bestowed on its compilation
and the judgment with which the different items have
been distributed are alone sufficient to command success
for the meeting. Ido not pretend to a knowledge of
the "charms and mighty magic" which Mr. Frail has
employed to insure such large entries as those he has
obtained. This fact is, however, patent : he has esta-
blished a most important meeting at a period of year
most unfavourable to horse-racing ; and, what is more,
an increasing success and a widening popularity attends
his undertaking. The gathering, which will commence
to-morrow and terminate on Thursday, is likely to be
unusually numerous; and from the reports which I have
received of horses
.02 route, I am inclined to believe that
the fields will equal, if not exceed, in numerical strength
those of last year. "Good things," too, will doubt-
less be abundant enough ; and fortunate will be
the man who discovers them. At present I must plead
total ignorance on the subject ; my opinion, therefore,
on the probable result of the races must be regulated
only by the known merit of the probable competitors,
and without reference to private arringements or
money-getting motives. Fifty-five animals of various
degrees of merit are weighted for the Shrewsbury Han-
dicap. On examining the list the attention is arrested
by the names of Mishap, Homily, Titterstone, Panto-
mime, Pole Star, Fanny Fern, and Yorkshire Grey.
Whether these animals are "intended," I of course
possess no present means of ascertaining ; but
`could
I calculate upon a start I should be inclined to stand
on" Mishap and Pole Star.
For the Aristocratic Plate I shall select Eulogist.
The Chicken, Brother to Grey Tommy, Lord Alfred,
Foxhunter, and The Cropper constitute a formidable
lot for the Column Handicap. Of these the last three
mentioned are entitled to the, first consideration.
For the Copeland Handicap I am informed that Maid
of the Miil is, in the significant language of the turf,
"a real good thing."
On principle I shall not pronounce judgment on the
Steeple Chases.
Nov. 12.

A FRESII MAN.

MR. G. V. BROOKE IN SYDNEY.—We see by the Syd-
ney papers that Mr. G. V. Broke took his farewell
benefit at the Royal Victoria Theatre, on Wednesday,
the 13th of July. He chose for his last character Pierce
O'Hara, in the farce of the Irish Attorney, or Galway
Practice in 1770. At the fall of the curtain he was en-
thusiastically called for, and in earnest language ex-
pressed his thanks for the warmth of his reception in
Australia, and the pleasure which he anticipated when,
in the course of a few months he hoped to re-appear in
Sydney. The vaudeville of the Loan of a Lover suc-
ceeded, in which Mr. Coppin and Miss Fanny Cathcart
performed the characters of Peter Spyke and Gertrude.
Both artistes were called for at its conclusion, and a
shower of bouquets greeted the fair representative of the
simple villager. We also perceive by an advertisement
in the Sydney Morning _Herald that a splendid testimo-
nial is about being presented to this gentleman by the
residents in Sydney, in order to mark their appreciation
of his great and transcendent abilities.
The writer of " Town Talk" in the Illustrated News
Sir Charles Eastlake has re-
has the following :—"
turned from his first continental tour as Keeper of the
National Gallery, and has, it is said, effected certain pur-
chases at Florence that will materially contribute to
make our gallery a history of art. Mr. John Payne
Collier has been, and is still, reading lectures at Maiden-
head upon our early dramatic poetry. Sir Edward Bul-
wer Lytton has become a writer in the Quarterly Review.
The article on Pitt and Fox we suspect is by him."
ACCIDENT TO vur SCREW-STEAMER HABANA. A
letter from Fayal, dated Oct. 27, says :--""The Spanish
war steamer Velasco, from Havannah, put in here on
the 22d inst., having on board 120 passengers taken
from the screve•steamer Habana, from Havannah to
Vigo and Liverpool, on the 11th October—the latter
vessel having her engines and rudder damaged, but would
continue her voyage under Pail.",