customs of an amusement which they have hitherto so unsparingly libelled by their silly and unmeaning balderdash. ANGLO-SCOTUS. November 1, 1828. THE PEDIGREE AND PERFORMANCES OF Ꭺ LITTER OF GREYHOUNDS, BRED BY MR. J. H. VIVIAN, OF MARINO, IN SOUTH WALES. THE litter was whelped on the 16th of April 1826, and was got by Sir Hussey Vivian's blk. d. Voltigeur, out of Mr. J. H. Vivian's f. b. Vanity. The sire of the litter was given to Sir Hussey Vivian by Mr. Lumley, of Yorkshire, where he had previously distinguished himself under the name of Clermont. The dam was bred by Mr. J. H. Vivian, being got by his bl. d. Valentine (by a dog of Mr. Gurney's, out of a bitch of Colonel Mellish's), out of his blk. b. Vesta, also from Mr. Gurney's kennel. Vanity won the Puppy Cup at Amesbury in 1825, beating Sir H. Vivian's Victrix, Mr. Bayly's Racket, Mr. Biggs's Bellefleur, and Mr. Dansey's Dandy. The litter consisted of six puppies: viz. two black puppies (a dog and a bitch), one fawn dog, two fawnbitches, and one blue bitch. The two black puppies were sent to Sir H. Vivian, and have run under the names of Verity and Venator. Verity won the Puppy Cup at Ashdown Park in November 1827, beating Mr. Pettat's Pawn, Mr. Biggs's Brocard, Mr. Pettat's Promise, and Mr. Cripps's Catiline. (There was a difficulty about this course, and Catiline was drawn being lame, which gave Verity the Cup J-She also won the Oaks Stakes (16 subscribers) at Deptford Inn, in December 1827, beating Mr. Everett's Envy, Mr. Heathcote's Hurricane, Sir J. Hawkins's Helen, and Mr. E. Cripps's Euryone. In the last course she broke one of the small bones in her toe. Venator has only appeared once or twice in public, having been injured when a puppy, and incapacitated from running, as he otherwise would no doubt have done. Of the remaining puppies the blue bitch Violet has particularly distinguished herself, having won in the season ten courses out of eleven: and it is presumed that she would have started on more equal terms in her last course against Wilhelmina at the Deptford Union Meeting, had she not been so severely cut in her course with Bolonos at Amesbury, as to be subsequently incapable of being exercised. Violet and her sister Vivid (one of the fawn bitches before specified) won the Puppy Cup and Guineas at the Amesbury November Meeting-Violet beating Mr. Briscall's Berwick and Barton (winners of the two Classes of Ashdown Puppy Stakes), and winning against Mr. Heathcote's Honor (drawn lame); and Vivid beating Mr. Etwall's Energy, Mr. Biggs's Brocard, and Capt. Wyndham's Wilhelmina. Violet (a puppy) won the Allaged Cup (a circumstance before unheard of) at Deptford Inn in December 1827, beating Mr. Biggs's Blowing, Mr. Phelips's Rosa, Mr. Cockburn's Cinderella, and Mr. E. Cripps's Emerald-all well known and tried good greyhounds, in their second season. She also won the guineas at Amesbury in January 1828, beating Capt, Wyndham's Witikin, Mr. Etwall's Matilda (winner of two Cups at High clere), and Mr. Biggs's Bolonos (late Marmaduke). Her last course with Bolonos was of such excessive length and severity, and over such flinty ground, that she was totally disabled for running the last tie, and was in consequence drawn. Vivid was considered in her private trials superior to Violet, and was entered for the Cup at Ashdown Park in November. A course with Brocard was given against her in consequence of a fall; but it was a near thing, and many thought she should have had the course and in the following Meeting at Amesbury, she beat Brocard easily. At the Deptford Meeting in December, she was entered for the Oaks Stakes, and in her first course, in high turnips, had a sinew divided, by which she was ruined for life. The other fawn bitch, Victrix, has been lame during the greater part of the season, and has only run two or three matches. Victor, the fawn dog, was also lame in the early part of the season. He won a match against Mr.Biggs's Bullfinch at the Amesbury November Meeting; and at the Dept ford Meeting in December, being entered for the Derby Stakes, he beat Mr. Everett's (Mr. Dansey's) Denmark and Capt. Wyndham's Witikin; and, had the last tie course been of ordinary length, would have won the Stakes, being very superior to Mr. Goodlake's Grammar in speed throughout the early part of the course:-in fact, if the whole course had been seen by the umpire (which it was not), there is little doubt but that Victor would have had it. Such are some of the performances of this excellent litter of greyhounds-performances, it is believed, unrivalled in the annals of modern coursing by any one litter in the same season-the three bitches having won three Cups, two second prizes, and one great stake of sixteen subscribers, within the short period of three months; and the only dog fit to course having run the last tie for the other great stake-and having, it may fairly be affirmed, lost it from the accidental circumstance of the course having taken place in broken and bad ground, such as no dogs ought to have been taken into in order to decide a course of such importance. It is a singular circumstance, that of the four best of these puppies-Vivid, Violet, Verity, and Victor-two of the bitches, Vivid and Verity, should have been so lamed as to prevent their being able to run after Christmas; and indeed, in all probability, totally disabled from ever appearing again. CONDITION OF HUNTERS RESUMED, BY NIMROD. FIRING. Have fired very few horses in my time, certainly not a dozen; but from the experience I have had of the mercurial plaster, I should fire still less if my years could come over again. My opinion of firing has often been asked; and my answer has always been, that if adopted from real necessity, and not from caprice, it is the best accessary to other means of cure for cases of severe injury to sinews, as well as for all bony excrescences. The actual cautery, when applied to the leg, appears to me to act thus :-On the fire reach ing the membrane or sheath of the tendon, some of its glands are destroyed, and by the tendon becoming more rigid, a bandage is formed*. A great authority lays it down that firing benefits the hunter, but spoils the race-horse. This, however, is not always the case, although much too near the truth to be pleasing to such as are called upon to adopt the practice in their racing stables. To go only a few years back, Crouch, the trainer, told me he considered Claude Lorraine quite as speedy a racer after he was fired, for a very bad leg, as he was before; and his winning the great Gloucestershire Stakes at Cheltenham seemed to confirm his assertion. This, however, may be considered an exception to the general rule. The grand mistake commonly made in firing is, having recourse to the operation before the parts are ready for it. Every atom of inflammation should be got rid of by repellant lotions and repeated doses of physic; and if the horse is quite sound and fit for work before he is fired, he has a much better chance of remaining so after ward. I am a great advocate for the out-door system after firing. Had I a valuable hunter that required the irons for an injured sinew, I would fill his belly every day during the cold months with good hay, old oats, and beans, and expose him to the winter's blast, housing him only at night. LAMPAS, nature often blushes for some of her errors; and so indeed she ought. Is it possible that it was ever contemplated by Him who formed the animal, that an unbroken colt should be submitted to the exquisite torture of a red hot iron tearing away the palate of his mouth? I cannot believe it; and in only one instance did I ever suffer the villanous operation to be performed on a horse of my own. My regard for the noble animal induces me to present to my readers the following admirable extract from Mr. William Percival's Lecture on the Diseases of the Mouth of the Horse:-" The Lampas is a name given by writers on farriery to a swelling or an unnatural prominence of some of the lowermost ridges or bars of the palate. I should not have thought it worth while to have taken up time with this supposed malady, but that it has called forth the infliction of great torture on the animal by way of remedy, aud that it has been a cloak for the practice of much imposition on those who have been in the habit of consulting farriers on the diseases of their horses. I allude to the cruelty and barbarity of burning the palates of horses so affected. Equally consistent would it be-and were it consistent, more requisite-to cauterize the palates of children who are teething; for the truth is, that the palate has no more to do with the existing disease (if disease it can be called) than the tail has. Lampas is neither more nor less than a turgidity of the vessels of the palate, consequent upon that inflammatory condition of the gums I have before said that human which now and then attends the * If the fire reach no farther than the skin, says Osmer, little advantage can accrue to the tendon; but the fibres of the skin will becoine contracted, and become less pliant, and thus a bandage is formed. If the tendon be burnt, the consequence will be still worse; and in either case the velocity of motion will be impeded. |