The Sun.
London, England, 1864-05-30 00:00:00

THE NOMENOLATIME OF RACIIIG.

Not once alone or twice, haye we borne our testimony
and uplifted our voice, in season and out of season, on be-

half of a proper and compulsory system of naming, Until
this is done, nothing that can be urged in the way of shame

or reason will prevent a perpetual recurrence of from fifty
to sixty mares appearing consecutively in the "Stud Book"

with the year of their birth as the only obvious distinc.
tion ; we say obvious, for no man, who has not passed a

first-class examination in the differential calculus or "Brad-

shave's Guide," can be expected to detect the minute dis-
tiuc ions which exist betwe€n the several mares of the

Sledmere stud, their daughters and granddaughters. For
instance, " Dam by Comus out of in. by Walton (1810), out
of m, by Hampton, out of Brother to Blunderbuss's darn,"
starts the unwilling mind at once upon a sea of speculation,
which is only stemmed by shutting the useful pages up at
once; and into the interminable genealogy of the Physalis
tribe no mortal living, who has not learnt the Second Book
of Chronicles by heart, could possibly venture t It is, there-
fore, our earnest hope that the powers that be will put forth
their hands to compel a little ingenuity and promptness in
the affixing of names,
But while meditating on this topic, and making the neces-
sary researches, a curious and amusing question arises ; on
what principle do men give their horses the rite of baptism
Much, they say, depends upon doing it properly. A horse
with a bad name never won the Derby, at any rate ; and a
friend of ours professes to be able to shift chaff from wheat
at once, by simply reading over the list in Weatherby's Ca-
lendar. Dundee, he says, for example, was a winning name;

so is Blair Athol; but bow should Dormouse win, or Flap.
doodle tarn to himself undying fame in the Epsom annals'

For handicaps, indeed, and such small deer, Catch 'em Alive
may show himself sufficient ; even the St. Leger has been
won (but then it was a very long time ago) by Allabaculia;
but for the Derby, the blue riband of the Turf, nothing but
a gentlemanly sounding name has ever pulled through. The
great Mr. Shandy himself felt and recognised this axiom in
its fullest acceptance, and we can cordially sympathise with
his affliction, when by the mingled inaccuracy of Susannah
and the hasty assumption of knowledge on the part of the
curate, the noble and mouth-filling Trismegistus was shorn
and mutilated into Tristram. What, however, that learned
and ingenious theorist would have said if he could have
looked through a modern Derby list, one can very well con-
ceive. Unmitigated disgust, terminating in an unphiloso-
phical determination to go and lay against the whole lot of
'em, is the least that would have ensued.
There are three methods, or rather proposed ends, in name
making. There is the topic-of-the-day plan, which names
a queer-looking filly Princess Dagmar, and the roughest of
cobs Abe Lincoln. There is the referential, which we take

to be the highest walk in the science, wherein you endeavour
to commemorate the sire or dam, if possible both, in the same
name ; and this may be done either jocosely and punningly,
or secondly by a serious and respectable allusion. The third
method, and the one which seems to us the more generally
followed, is the nohow-at-all plan, which simply requires a
classical dicti ,nary, or an audacious intention, like that of
Mr. Campbell with his greyhounds, Canaradzo, Calabo-
roono, and Co.
The first of these is obvious, and very frequently amus
ing. That Lord Palmerston has broken down, or Glad-
stone turned a roarer, demagogic or otherwise, is frequent
news ; although speaking of the Princess Royal as a " regu-
lar duffer," or Louis Napoleon as "an infernal rip," is cer-
tainly not to be encouraged. When, however, cotemporary
history's lower pages are ransacked, and murderers or
forgers, ladies from St. John's-wood or St. Giles s, are in-
discriminately afforded this species of exaltation, one is
induced to think that good taste is somewhat outraged.
Of the second class, the punning variety finds much and
deserved favour. Blubber, by Whale out of Vexation, and
Old Clos, by Burgundy out of Jewess, are two of. the
happiest we remember ; although, among the multifarious
specimens of allusion successfully made to both parents,
Lora Derby's Bowstring, by Amurath out of Miss Bowe,
Mr. Cookson's Double Shuffle, by Fandango out of Fan-
dango, and the happy suggestion (made, as it is understood,
by a fair lady) of Laughing Stock, by Stockwell out of
Gaiety, may be honourably mentioned. No small ingenuity,
and a considerable amount of general information, is re-
quired for this task; and that there should be so many
favoura Jle specimens reflects credit upon those turfites who
have endeavoured to carry it out.

The last class is but too numerous, and where the name

is either tasteless or offensive, cannot receive too much re-
probation. At cne time, a set of soubriquets, now happily
extinct, were in great vogue. Fashion reigns here as in
other walks of life, and Lord George's compound names
were but too faithfully copied in I-am-not-aware, and
There.you-go with-your-eye out. One noble nominator
had, soma time since, a great fancy for selecting the
longest and most unknown Greek names to be found in
Dr. Smith or Lempriere, if the latter book still exist;
and Onesander, (Enopides, and Lecydes have hardly
yet faded from our recollection ; while even now Thalas-
sius graces the coming Derby with classical sweetness.
Greek, indeed, seems to ba rather the fashion. Why,
oh 1 why ? Captain King, should you have called your colt
2aXzerytcris ? The allusion to Trumpeter might surely
have been made in French or Latin, if you mast travel into
other climes for a name; and we may plead guilty to one
private reason of our own for disliking thie set upon Scapula
I that these long patronymics bother our compositors, and
take up such a vast deal of what correspondents always
cal( "our valuable space."
One or two of the names in this week's card are amusing
enough. We remember hearing Kettledrum objected to,
on the ground that a horse with such a name was
made to be beaten; and "The Scheld" seems to have
been so called in anticipation of his proving a title to
the poet's epithet of " Lazy." Nebuchadnezzar's name,
attached to that of a purely Russian owner, whose
position in the Livre de Velours is unimpeachable,
and the He(o)rsey filly, ominously suggestive of possible
"corpses" from Woodyates, sound strange on toe ear.
"Dearest Tooi Tool," again, may as well be forgotten; and
space drives us to conclude with the hope that the Divorce
Court will not often intrude its presence on the race-course,
and that nevertheless we may afford a stimulus to god-
fathers of racing stock. Were it not, indeed, for that proper
spirit of anti-dictation which characterises every true Bri-
ton, which we observe invariably prevents the owners from
adopting any suggestions of ingenious November corre-
spondents, printed in our own and other journals, we would
set up a christening-shop of our own. We know, however,
that this is of no use, and seek to guide instead of drive.
Give names, good if you can, but anyhow give names.—
Sporting Gazette,

THE WAR IN VIRGINIA.—In the recent actions
the Federals lost in killed 5 generals, 16 colonels and lieu-
tenant-colonels, and a host of officers ; 11 generals wounded
or taken ; and 51 colonels and lieut.-colonels wounded.
General Wadsworth will be remembered by many English
officers who visited the army of the Potomac for his hospi-
tality and courtesy, and Generals Price, Owens, Hayes, and
Stephenson aro much praised and regretted by the Federal
press ; but the fact of such a loss argues an immense
slaughter and great depression in the ranks.—.Briny and
Navy Gazette.
FEARFUL CALAMITY AT CARDIFF. CARDIFF
Saturday, 8 p.m.—One of the most heartrending
occurrences which has occurred for several years in this
town took place this afternoon in the West Bute Dock, by
which no fewer than seven lives have been sacrificed. For
several weeks past, in consequence of the west dock being
closed, a number of boys employed at the wire-works have
been in the habit of amusing themselves at meal times on a
raft of timber, which is kept in the west dock for the pur-
pose of unloading timber vessels. During the dinner hour
some fourteen of these youths were amusing themselves
upon this raft, and had managed by using their hands
and pieces of wood to get into the centre of
the dock. At this juncture the bell rang which sumii:rmed
them to work, and in their anxiety to get on shore they all
rushed to one side of the raft, to propel it the faster. By
the sudden motion the timbers turned over, and capsized
the whole of them into the water, The scene which ensued
was most heartrending, for although there were plenty of
persons on the quay wall they were unable to render any
material aid, as there were no boats in the dock. A few
of the lads were good swimmers, and managed to get out
of the water with little difficulty, but the greater number
were totally unable to keep themselves above water. A
young man named Edward Williams acted in the most
courageous manner. He sprang into the water and suc-
ceeded in bringing on shore two or three of the
poor lads, but in the last attempt he sunk from sheer ex-
haustion, and disappeared still clinging to the poor fellow
he was endeavouring to cave. Fortunately at this moment
he had reached near the shore, and by means of a grappling
iron, and the heroic conduct of a man named Merry, who
jumped into the water and seized him, he was got out,
although insensible. By great exertion on the part of those
present he gradually rallied, but for more than an hour his
life was despaired of. This sad calamity has spread quite
a gloom over the town, and the greatest commiseration is
felt for the parents and relatives. The engineer of the wire-
works, Mr. Wm Rigley, and two other men, named James
Merry and Thomas Ball, exerted themselves most praist.7•
worthily throughout this most painful event, and it is said
endeavoured to dissuade the boys from indulging in the
dangerous amusement.
In a lawsuit, in which M. B. Ullman, the entre-
preneur of the Carlotta Patti concerts, is concerned,
the vouchers of the moneys derived from these continental
concerts have been called into court. From them we learn
that, from the 7th of January to the 7th of April, the pro-
ceeds of the tour have been 221,3951. (about £9,000). To
this total Brussels has produced 10,000 f. in three concerts
—Belgium. altogether, 24,000f—Amsterdam, nine con-
certs, 45,0001—Cologne, in one concert, 7,000 f.—Aix- la-
Chapelle, Ellertield, and similar towns, about 4,000 f each.
Mdlle. Patti's honorarium for the three months amounts
to about 80,0001, The Orchestra.