The Sun.
London, England, 1866-11-06 00:00:00

Naval and Military Intelligence.

The Admiralty yacht Enchantress, moored in ordi-
nary off Woolwich Dockyard, sustained some con-
siderable damage on Sunday morning by a Jersey
craft, of about 200 tons, laden with a cargo of
stones, coming up the river at the top of the tide
striking her on the starboard side abaft the paddle-
box. The Admiralty barge, hanging to the davits
was stove in, the main shrouds were carried a way,
the bulwarks damaged, and the head of the chart-
house, or deck cabin, was split up. The name of
the craft was given as the Surprise. Mr. Ladd and.
the assistant-shipwrights of the dockyard made a
survey of the Enchantress, in order to estimate the
amount necessary to make good the defects where-
with to tax the owners.

Her Majesty's 4-gun vessel Sylvia, commissioned
by Commander Wm.: Brooker (December, 1863),
for surveying purposes, yesterday returned to Wool-
wich Arsenal from her official trial trip, and shipped
powder at the red buoy. On Thursday morning
Commodore-Superintendent Edmonstone and Mr.,
Lorie, secretary, will go on board and make a final
inspection of the crew and ship throughout. She
will be in readiness for sea on the following Mon-
day, when she will go down to Greenhithe to ad-
just compasses.
ller Majesty's 2-gun double-screw iron and wood
gunboat Vixen, commissioned by Commander S.
P. Brett (April, 1862) at Woolwich, and partially
ready for service, yesterday went down the river to
the Maplin Sands, on trial, under orders to return.
to Gravesend, make fast for the night, and return
to Woolwich this morning.

The following notice from the Admiralty was
T
lyoersdtsehrdipasyhpeovsetehdeeinnlpicoeasolwedicth
oDockyardallow
wol :—"
all men,
onhtehi
the
ten-hour system, entering the dockyard at 8 30
a.m. for a certain period, as an experiment,
such
wo7kmen being informed that if any improper ad-
vantage be taken, or they avoid coming into the
yard at the proper hour, and the work be in conse-
quence delayed, their lordships will have to recon-
sider the indulgence which they have granted, and
will discharge any men who take ,au improper
advantage of it.—W. EDMONSTONE, Commodore-
Superintendent, Woolwich Dockyard."
Major-Gen. Warde, commanding at Woolwich,
yesterday issued a garrison order, prohibiting the
troops from frequenting or entering, on any consi-
dration, the localities in the lower parts of Wool-
wich, Charlton, and Plumstead, in which several
deaths from cholera have .occurred within the last
few days. Officers and non-commissioned officers
are therein apprised that it is their duty to see that
the order be strictly attended to.

The Late Mr. Charles Davis and Mr• James

Mason.

Alas! we have lost within the last few days two of the
very first men of their time, each in his own peculiar way.
Mr. Charles Davis, her Majesty's late huntsman, and Mr.
James Mason, betterkuown as " Jem Mason" throughout
England and France, and probably throughout Europe,
have been taken from us. When shall wo see their like
again? I remember asserting, many years ago, before a
numerous party, that there were then three men in Eng-
land who were facile principes in their own professions,
the second being Sir Edwin Landseer as a painter of ani-
mals in repose ; and the third, " Jem Mason," as a cross-
country rider. No one contradicted me. The great artist
remains not only unvanquished, but clearly invincible. The
third was never " collared" till the day when the ravages
of a cruel malady forbade him any longer to get into- his
saddle. How well I recollect Mason when I first went as
a little boy to Harrow School. He then often rode Mr.
Harvey Combo's second horse. In spite of the excellence
of the successive packs (Mr. Osbaldeston's was one), and
the energy and liberality of the master, sport was rare, for
the extremely difficult character of the old Berkeley coun-
try interfered with it. A fox would run short, turning
at the end of a hedgerow as big as a small spinney—kills
became less and less frequent, and we all know that every
fox which might be, but is not, accounted for makes
hounds mere sllek and less disposed to do their best to
account for the next. But oven iu those days Mason's
magnificent horsemanship and judicious eye for a
country manifested themselves in the fine runs with
the Queen's and Mr. Do Burgh's staghounds over the Har-
row, or as many of the field then called and still call it—the
'Arrow country. And how kind he was to an inferior per-
former ! lam afraid to say, for fear lest I should be thought
to exaggerate, how many times he caught my mare during
the latter part of a very severe run from Oxenden-farm
nearly to Beaconsfield. Mason, as your readers know,
began his career as a first-rate rider to hounds, and
in this line his excellence was so prominent as to in-
dicate to the best judges, such as Mr. Elmore, that he
must, if tried, become a groat steeplechase rider. And
right, indeed, they were! Those three words, "Mason on
Lottery," have long represented the beau ideal of the crack
cross-country rider on the crack steeplechase horse. I have
often seen Mason win, but I do not think that I ever saw
him achieve his victory more magnificently than in a
steeplechase over natural fences in a goodhunting country
about four miles from Oxford, on, I think, Gay Lad, when
he left M'Donough in the second place after a severe set-to.
I t was a real pleasure to see him in a run. His seat, hand,
and nerve, his marvellous combination of eye for hounds,
pluck, and elegance in the saddle, del!ghted the eye, and his
cheery way when a fox "broke" was enough to induce a
doubtful goer to catch the contagion and ride " straight" in
spite of himself, even if he had received before ho started
from home for the rail a circular announcing a heavy call
on several hundred £5O shares in some joint-stock company
in course of winding-up. I never had better opportunities
of observing Mason's excellence with hounds than in some
very agreeable days' sport with the harriers kept byllessrs.
Hall, at Neasdon. In a burst with a fox over grass adTpagn
has quite enough to do to watch the couples of leading
hounds which are to make the turn —if there is tocobampa,_
to select in each fence the weakest bits which are
orse_ '
ible with keeping one's place, and to hold one's
321.1
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to-
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circumstances
ms nurseta bche
si my
you
uhen cannothe isn
find
admire another
acei ogn otrinai es
als•
mreannt.'s riding. But
can take
owiitthinhoraerrcioersollyon;e
fieldsfi rs t-raroteunydoviinagrrohiov7ewistphritehgeaaibloori
breast-high
B.ysotn_vsdl sensations
trtntosl taeshtedli;p:::uaMieCrfikaea rleo odki ffi
neg-
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sh as dh
shade
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high scent in front
like China images and racing ectli
was really is) eagnrye tptohrat
rt
atiht eorfe
Masoni is ot (at
was
of the brush is wanting to his
es escte r
represhentathiotnh,e
sotrylteyp( e)f,seoafthanimd
nitohnvveluren coloured rrint of the steeple-
chase Lottery
e rltosi I.ln o'Bt-u- forswin: to
nt.hee.would there recognistehtTehhet
eohmgrabnedao-ft
s
n
pencil of Sir F.
ott:gs;orricerterne:hni:ne; graceful
i,h2e
setsi
oe:ei;t extolled :hesf
Mr.eots :16cael hispniri individual,
dbovw: oiveasedli
llrdilseunmaitw: fortuneah:yetaltlpsottouiha portrayed.ongner standing
e
s
handed down to posterity the most distinguished
huntsman azioicf
hstachghasoeutnidies.
caOlf f course
p dd
obeyk this word
er. I mean
ere
he sits on his gallant grey, still full of go, though with
ford legs fired and shaken, with men of rank and birth all
round him, yet who more aristocratic in appearance than
Mr. Davis himself, nature's own nobleman ? Well might he
with that high aquiline nose, those marked features, and
tijhoa
dc a r”
oerwf oo rRr ocooku,
"Count
vuogsbalitut
oo rJI o
love
ea
tfor
o"otkh ea
tB Banished
sidei s
beproofdy
engraving of "the Meet at A sec oryoaoytlf-ahtlbepae at Ascot-heath" hanging
side with anotldleetenmrtaesohtefefr-d;ohfceue
Meet at Melton." Alas ! that of those whom the
Academydistin-
nibbnahsreatlsifs tebOoli lmeTcbthreeed
rgaonuudisnhodefdtthhePosnreeosbwi who in the otthhileer picture are gently making'
their way to the gorse, so many lie cold in their graves—
nay, that so many have been cut off in the prime of life !
Alas! for those two gallant Irishmen whom you see on the
rising ground at the right of the Melton picture—Lords
Waterford and Desart ; the latter, I think, the best looking
man as well as the best rider in Christ Church when I first
" joined." And yet the noble earl who rides pre-eminent in
the middle of the group might have sat for that portrait
yesterday, so little effect has time had upon him.—Land
and Water.

THE DUBLIN BANQUET.—The Dublin Evening
Freeman gives the following summary of the official classes
present at the' anquet to Mr. Bright in the Round Room of
the Rotunda the other night :—Nineteen members of Par-
liament (17 of whom were Irish), 5 mayors or chairmen
of town commissioners, 10 aldermen, 13 town councillors,
3 baronets, 1 knight, 5 deputy-lieutenants, 17justices of the
peace, 3 high-sheriffs, 27 clergy, 10 doctors, 3 sergeants-at-
law, 8 Queen's counsel, 27 barristers, and 19 solicitors.
At a conference of ironworkers held on Monday
at Wolverhampton it was resolved that henceforth
there shall be only one union, one executive, and
one code of rules for England, Scotland, and
, Wales.