The Sun.
London, England, 1863-07-18 00:00:00

SPORTING NOTES.

The Liverpool Meeting was a decided success, although
the fields on the first day were the smallest ever remem-
bered, and the competitors were of such an indifferent stamp
that their performances need but few words of comment,
The twenty horses weighted for the Sefton Handicap only

produced two runners—Cerintha and Don't Come Late,
and as the former was weighted only 81b heavier than Mr.
Hodgman's filly, Lord Stamford had it all his own way.
This match was succeeded by a walk over on the part of
Barchettina for the Sefton Stakes, as the King of Utopia
declined to contend for it. The Selling Stakes on the
straight half mile was keenly contested by Confidence
and Virginia, the latter of whom, had she come a litt
sooner, would have won, as Lord Westmoreland's
horse only beat her by a short head. The
Bentinck Testimonial could not help falling to Johnny
Armstrong, when only opposed by such wretches as Mis-
fortune and Flower Safety. On the Cup day, the course
presented a very animated appearance, and whatever short-
comings the racing was subject to, there was certainly little
perceptible falling off in the company assembled. True
Heart in the opening race, the Welter Cup, effected the
overthrow of The Cutler. who inflicted a severe cut on his
' backers, as they laid 2 to 1 on him, and Practitioner P rac
dt issfeeda
ta ft
bye r
pt
ter s
a sameas
s nf a swhaisonaninaththeer
eMetrraseoyrdSintakaryest,uwrnhousi
after his recent brilliant achievement at Worcester. The
Cup brought to the post a more numerous field than was
generally anticipated. There was nothing much to find fault
with in the condition of any
Joey of the though some
tchoonusigdhetreTdhVe iicitnoravteo
abnedo nthejo bag't'aosifid
nee drawn M.
motberrs.
Hodgman's horse was, perhaps, not ~
Jones
qnit.?'
makeup to
tthheemm, ark,
but the others were as fit as training
could
that there was nothing amiss with The
had
elinave was proved
by
not met with an
cc h
OakwouldA haveas taus ,raalned the tables
on Mr. Merry's horse. Stamford,
attractedanot
a
accident
n clever le
I ver
have victory;
no tory;
doubt but i
he f
as
e
most aristocratic attendance, but the meeting w
served by being brought forward a week, as, independent
of Liverpool and Abingdon using up several of the horses
t
engaged, it clashed directly with Hungerford and Ponte-
fract, which divided the Ring, and, of course, lessened the
attendance. The meetings for this week are Notting..
ham, Winchester, Southampton, Knutsford, Cambridge,
and Aldershott, and as all, except Knutsford, are
within a morning's ride of the metropolis they will
afford a good opportunity for an "outing " in this delight-
ful weather, when the heat of town has become almost ua.
bearable. NottieghAra takes place on Tuesday and Wed-
nesday, and Mr. Bradfield has seldom brought cut a better
bill of fare, as there are 18 races on the list for the two days,
nearly all of which have filled in a manner that shows how
popular the meeting on " merrie Sherwood" has become.
Of the nine items set for decision on the first day six are
closed, the principal of which is the Nottinghamshire
Handicap. It secured a fair acceptance, all things con-
sidered, as 23 horses remain in, with a likelihood.
of some ten reaching the starting post, to be
selected from Prince Plausible, Doefoot, Dulcibella, Flir-
tation, Pilot, Bandage, Brighton, Liston, Blithfield,
Airedale, Joco, Luna, Jack's Alive, and Middlewatch.
Brighton has been backed within the last few days, but I
doubt his ability to beat either Flirtation or Blithfield over
the distance, and from what I saw of the latter at Liverpool
last week it ought to be a very near thing between him and
Flirtation, Garotter ought to win the Robin Hood Stakes;
Bertha or Tippler the Bradgate Handicap ; Light or The
Clown the Buney Park Stakes, and Garotter the Rufford
Abbey Stakes. The Hampshire Stakes, run at Winchester,
will be won by either Gardener or Earl of Surrey, and the
Grange Park Stakes by Hengist.
Knutsford appears to be on the sick list for the Goodwood
Stakes, but I expect he will recover his position again as the
horse is well.

A FRESH MAN.

CITY BETTING—SATURDAY.
NOTTINGHAM HANDICAP.
9to 2 agst Brighton (taken)
6to 1 agst Blithfield (taken)
7to 1 agst any other (offered)
GOODWOOD STAKES.
9 to 2 agat Anfield (taken)
6to 1 agst Bellman (taken)
7to 1 agst Blondin (taken)
100 to 5 agat Balham (offered)
100 to 3 agst Knutsford (offered)
000DWOOD CL P.
9to 4 agst Buckstone (taken)
9to 2 agst La Toacques (taken)
6to 1 agst Isoline (taken)

RACING FIX TU
Ju:

IRES FOR 1863.
rLY.

Hungerford l6
Pontefract 16
Stamford ..16
Winchester 2l
Nottingham 21

Southampton. 22
Cambridge 23
Knutsford 23
Hartlepool 27
Gocdwood 22
UST.

Aui
Brightcn
Brighton Club 6
Lewes
Wolverhampton 11
Reading l3
Wenlock
SEPT]
Devon and Exeter 1
Derby Summer
Weymouth
Kings Lynn
Warwick ..
Leicester
Doncaster
_l6

1 York August lB
Plymouth 20
Egham 25
1 Stockton 25
Oxford ' 27
Lichfield ..31
:MBER.

Wordsley gl
Brecon 2l
Richmond 22
Monmouth 24
Manchester Autumn 25
Newmarket Ist Oct. 29
Edinburgh, &c. Club 30
113Ett.

OCT,
Coventry
Bedford
Caledonian Hunt
Newmarket S. 00. l2

Lincoln Autumn 20
Kelso 2l
Gloucester
Newmarket Houghton ..26
:MB R.

NovE:
Worcester 3 I
IRL

I Shrewsbury Autumn....l6
.SH.

Ara
Heath....
Wicklow ll
OCTC

,UST.
ILondondeny ............ 14

.SEPTET
Curragh
Carlow . 9
Listowel 2l
Curragh

)BR/L.
OYER.
Limerick ........••••• 22
Jenkinetown Park 23

20

A Madrid letter, of the 14th, has the following
—" A work of some importance to Spanish agricul-
ture has just been inaugurate_d,.miles)namely,
the canal
of Linares, 54 kilometres (3410ng, and
destined to fertilise 12,000 hectares of
land. It has
been constructed withforreeipegaineraicngagpuiefotafr a
olrbiny grtaLhnaed Glb bu
reaartnitaisne,
company. The King is p
in the forest of RiOSeCO,
which is filled with game. The Ministers and many
other notorieties will receive invitations."
MISS M. E. BRADDON AND THE YORKSHIRE PUB-
LISHER.__At the Hull Bankruptcy Court, yester-
day, a bookseller and publisher, named Charles Robinson
Empson, formerly of Beverley, and now of Hull, applied
The bankrupts debts
for ilia discharp efrom custody.
amount to £276 18s. 7td. ; and in the course of his exami-
nation it transpired that, in the year 1860, he engaged
Miss M. E. Braddon, the popular authoress of "Lad
Audley's Secret" and " Aurora Floyd," to write a novel
for him, to be entitled " Three Times Dead, or the Secret
of the Heath." Miss Braddon was at this time an
actress at the Queen's Theatre, Hull, and played under
the name of Miss Seyton. She wrote the introductions to
the pantomimes, and several odes which were delivered
on public occasions. This brought her into notice, and
while she was staying at Beverley Parks she published
occasional poems, which induced Mr. Empson, the bank-
rupt, to enter into an agreement with her to write him a
novel. " Three Times Dead" was Miss Braddon's first
" great literary effort," and although it was highly sensa.
tional, and above £2OO was expended in getting it out, the
work proved a failure, and to this cause Mr. Empson partly
attributed his bankruptcy. Since 1860 Miss Braddon has
been in London, and what success her literary efforts have
achieved is matter of public notoriety.—Mr. Judge Baines
said it Miss Braddon had made £B,OOO out of her works she
could surely afford to assist the man who bad published her
first work, and who had become bankrupt partly through
doing so.—Mr. Empson said he had not the slightest ex-
pectations from Miss Braddon. The cause of the failure of
" Three Times Dead" was that London publishers invari-
ably attempted to crush works published in the provinces.
—There being no opposition to the bankrupt, he was
allowed to pass his examination, and an order of discharge
was granted.
EXTRAORDINARY ROBBERY.—On the 16th May
last the premises known as the Gael.: near Newport,
Monmouthshire, were burglariously entered, and the will
of the then recently deceased owner, Mr. Thomas Powell,
an eminent colliery proprietor in South Wales,several shares
in local works, and other documents, were stolen. A reward
of £lOO was offered for the recovery of the will, but without
effect, till last week, when a mysteriously worded commu-
nication was received from an anonymous correspondent,
stating that if a lady of the Powell family would attend at
a certain gate on the Gaer property, and there hold a con-
ference with the writer, the missing will and other docu•
ments shoulu be restored intact, on payment of the promised
reward. An interview accordingly took place between a
supposed lady and the anonymous correspondent ; but £125
were demanded as the price for the restoration of the will,
and that sum being refused the conference terminated. A
second arrangement was made by letter for a meeting en
Monday night, but this also went off unsatisfactorily. A
th;rd arrangement was made for Wednesday night, but in
this the services of the police were engaged, and it resulted
in the capture of a young man, named Edward Gill, aged
18, son of a picture-frame maker of Newport, after a des-
perate struggle with Sergeant Hale, of the county consta-
bulary. On searching the ground where the encounter took
place on Thursday morning the whole cf the missing pro-
perty which had been so mysteriously stolen from the Gaer
was discovered. Gill was taken before the magistrates on
Thursday, when some preliminary evidence was adduced,
sad the prisoner was retuauded till this day.