The Sun.
London, England, 1838-02-26 00:00:00

LATEST BETTING AT MANCHESTER,

CHESTER TRADE CUP.
11 to 2 agst Mr. Mostyn's Birdlime—taken
17 to 2 agst Mr. Price's Wentworth
17 to 2 agst General Yates's Sylvan
9 to l agst Mr. Robinson's Whaley
9 to 1 agst Mr. Fowler's Mersey
12 to I agst Mr. Clarke's Magician—taken
13 to 1 agst Mr. Fairlie's Zohrab
100 to 6 agst Mr. Ilouldsworth's Combat—offered
100 to 6 agst Captain Lamb's Chit Chat—offered
100 to 6 agst Mr. Bowes's Lord Stafford
20 to 1 agst Lord Derby's Parolles
20 to 1 agst Mr. St. Paul's Galewood
25 to I agst Mr. Barrow's Catherina—offered
25 to 1 agst Lord Miltown's Fusileer—taken
25 to 1 agst Sir T. Stanley's Violet
100 to 1 agst Mr. G. Cooke's Rachel—taken

METROPOLITAN STEEPLE CHASE, SATURDAY.
At half-past one the men trotted out on hacks to view the
' ground. The line taken was from a place called Barnet-gate,
below, and on the west of Barnet town, over a gorse cover, up a
• hill with a stump in the centre of it, leaving a pond on the right,
crossing a lane, and over enclosures home. A brook and one or
• two raspers added to the beauty of the country. Two particular
gates were voted "impossible in the then state of the ground," by
Messrs. Becher, Barker, Martin, Mason, Oliver, Rice, and Seifert ;
it was, therefore, unanimously agreed that the aforesaid gates
should remain open. The jocks returned from the view, and re-
tired to their respective chambers to adonize.
A great delay occurred before the start to the ground took place,
and as a heavy mist was rising, some calculated on the affair being
once more postponed. The line was marked, and the last two
flags, white and red, attracted all the pedestrians, who, during a
long hour, got up a snow bicker, which ended in a boxing match ;
at last the welcome sounds " They are off," rose on the car, and
certainly a pretty start was made.
They all got off together, and kept pretty nearly so until the
second fence, which Lottery, who was leading, refused ; on being
put to work by Mason, he went into a ditch where there was snow
enough to bury horse and rider. Betsy Bounce was first over this
fence, and led, followed smartly by Birthday and Snacks; they got
altogether again on the hill op to the pilot post in the centre. They
next came to the open gates, and crossing the lane, Lottery led ;
here a jump was taken prettily in rotation, as but one could go at a
time. They progressed towards some cottages, and a brook, when
the field divided, Martin, Mason, and Becher seeking their for-
tunes to the left, the other four to the right. In the middle of a
field Snacks slipped and fell. Becher followed Seffert's unfortunate
example, and came down heavily. Lottery was still foremost, and
there was strong running by all. Shortly afterwards Nigger de-
clined, and Barker and Seifert pulled up. At the next fence,
Becher fell a second time, and hurt his knee, recaught his horse,
remounted, and came off gaily, but too late. Lottery all
this while maintained the lead, Performer being too near to be
pleasant, and Betsy Bounce on his quarters. Performer looked
more and more like a winner every second, but alas ! down he came,
and poor Oliver with him, and Mason ran in first by four or five
lengths. The field stood thus :
Mr. Ellmore's Lottery .. Mr. J. Mason 1
Mr. Russell's Betsy Bounce Mr. Martin 2
Captain Gill's Nigger
Mr. Lambden's ura Mr. G. Rice 4
Mr. Frith's Birthday Capt. Beecher a
Captain Halfacre's Snacks Mr. Seffert 6
Mr. Lambden's Performer (distanced) Mr. Oliver
Laura had a slip in the last (save the winwing) field, or she would
have been third.

- --
Considering the state of the ground the pace was very severe.
With such hedges, such ice and snow, and such a fog, it was almost
madness to ride. When we left, Performer was not expected to
recover. The distance was called three miles, but appeared a short
21% miles. The affair did not come off until half-past four.

!LASSICAL EVENING CONCERTS

The second of the Classical Evening Concerts (wind in-
struments) was given on Friday at the Hanover-square Rooms.
Notwithstanding the extreme wetness of the weather, we were
glad to observe a much larger assembly of company collected
together, than at the first concert. The performers were the
same as on the former occasion—flute, Mr. Sedlatzik ; oboe,
Mr. Barret ; clarionet, Mr. Willman ; horn, Signor Puzzi ;
and bassoon, M. Baumann. The compositions were executed
with the same skill, the same delicacy and expression, as we
then had occasion to notice ; the instruments were throughout
accurately in tune together, a circumstance rather extraordi-
nary in wind instruments, and only attained by professors of
first-rate eminence. The rich combinations, however, ofin-
struments of this class becomes almost irksome, when heard,
piece after piece, fbr the whole of an evening, and we find
ourselves, in the end, actually cloyed and surfeited with
sweets. Besides, as we intimated in a former paragraph,
when speaking of Pilati's concerts, on listening to the same
performer for the length of an evening, when repeatedly
taking up solo and difficult passages, we have too much op-
portunity afforded us of discovering his defects—and there
are defects in every performer (such, at least, is the
limited nature of human attainment I)—whatever may be
his eminence or his gifts. Friday night, for instance, the
bassoon appeared to us to be far too prominent in almost every
piece; his style of tonguing too staccato, when forced upon
our attention the whole evening without relief; and the reedy
buzzing effect of the instrument, despite the high talent of
the performer, became an actual nuisance. Signor Puzzi,
too, splendidly as he played, and pure and beautiful as ap-
peared the quality of his tone on the horn, had so many ex-
tremely difficult passages to play in the course of the evening,
that we had the opportunity of discovering, either that he was
" dead beat" in some of them, or that the composer had
strangely mistaken the nature and genius of the instrument
for which he was writing. Willman's clarionet appeared to
us as nearly as possible to approximate to pet fection through.
out, and was never too prominent ; in fact, we could have
borne to have heard more of it. Of Mr. Sedlatzik's flute
also, we seemed to hear too much, although he played with
great judgment and taste, and was never at a loss. The con-
cert opened with a Quintet of Reicha, at the commencement
of which was an effective Solo for the horn, in the true
style of the instrument, beautifully played by Puzzi; in another
part of the composition was an extremely difficult passage, for
the same instrument descending to " the depths below"
twelve times repeated 1 It was played, as perhaps no other
man could play it, but still, as Hamlet says, there was " some-
thing too much" of it. The last movement was extremely
good, and exhibited the capabilities and beauties of each in-
strument in turn, and the talents of the players in a conversa-
tion well kept up between them. The next piece was a Ger-
man song, " Der Wanderer," sung by Herr Kroft, the com-
poser, Schubert. It was a very trashy affair, and Mr. Kroff
did not improve upon us. Winter's charming Aria " Paga
Fui," was sung by Miss Masson with great chasteness and
feeling, and the obligato horn accompaniment of Signor Puzzi
was as perfect and effective, as a pure and rich tone, combined
with neatness of execution and great taste could make it.. The
audience showed their judgment by encoring it. The first
part of the Concert concluded with Spohr's Quintet for Piano-
forte, Clarionet, Flute, Horn and Bassoon. The performer on
the Piano-forte was Mr. Moschelles, and when we have said
that, we need not add that it was a very rich treat indeed.
Still it was a piece of extreme difficulty and intricacy through-
out, and did not appear to have been sufficiently prac-
tised together by the performers, for in many parts
they were not so acurately together as they might have been.
Moschelles, either from the difficulties of the composition, or
caprice, frequently hurried, and was otherwise uncertain in
his time, and it was obviously a task to the accomparrists to
keep in with him.. At the opening of the Second Part of the
Concert, Miss F. Wyndham sang a beautiful aria of Morlacchi,
" Notte tremenda," with an accompaniment for the flute, ex-
tremely well played by Mr. Sedlatzik. Miss Wyndham sang
delightfully, and some of her friends tried hard for an encore,
but did not succeed. Another quintett of Reicha followed, in
a similar style to the first, but rather more intricate. A duetto
of Niedermaycr, " E pena troppo barbara," was next sung by
Miss Masson and Miss F. Wyndham. The composition itself
had nothing very striking in it, and the voices of the two
ladies, so dissimilar in quality, (lid not combine well together.
The Concert concluded with Beethoven's Ottet ; the per-
formers already mentioned being reinforced by Mr. Bowley,
clarionet; Mr. Keating, oboe ; Mr. Rae, horn ; and Mr. God-
frey, bassoon. This piece was not so well played as some of
the others, the performers not appearing to be entirely masters
of it. We hope they will favour us with it again at some future
period, when practice together shall have made them more
au fait, as it is a splendid effort of the composer, and deserves
to be heard in its highest perfection, at least as well as tha
compositions of Reichar, who, clever as he is, is scarcely to be
considered exactly "classical," a distinction to which the most
careless of the compositions of such a master as Beethoven is
clearly entitled.
The next Concert of this Series takes place on the 9th of
March.