support of his horse. The spine or back-bone of the jockey must always be prepared to bend in the middle; since in the horse's running there is a necessity for some inclination of the body forward. The true seat is naturally easy and upright in the saddle as in a chair; the knees about as much bent; the legs falling nearly straight down the horse's side, and the feet home in the stirrups; the hands somewhat above the pommel of the saddle, elbows close to the sides, and the view directed between the horse's ears. Jockeyriding is in truth something between sitting and kneeling; and the length which a man rides should be so regulated, that he may be as it were buoyant in the stirrups, without being so much elevated above the saddle as to depend upon the bridle for his support; at the same time he must not ride so long as to sit a dead weight upon his horse. A man who rides too short, and is elevated too much above the saddle, must naturally have a vacillating and uncertain seat. Of late years, and since the military mania has bewitched our country, the riding-house mode of no more than the toe or ball of the foot in the stirrup, has prevailed to a considerable degree. We have seen directions too of late, in print, for the jockey to turn his toe in, and his heels out, a-la-militaire, as though, like Cockney riders, it were apprehended he could not otherwise keep his spurs out of the horse's sides; a groundless apprehension in a well-seated jockey, who, of the two, will find the greatest difficulty in reaching his horse's sides with his spurs.

Chifney recommends riding a racer with a slack rein: but surely it is necessary, in most cases, to hold a horse sufficiently close to keep him together and steady; nor can you otherwise regulate the speed of a horse to make the most of him. Fairly pulling at a

racer whilst he has the full liberty of extending his head and neck to the utmost, can never obstruct his wind or shorten his stroke; and many horses, from habit probably, will slacken their speed on the rein being slackened.

The rider of the speediest, will, in a course, make a waiting race; that is to say, keep behind at a favourable distance, in order to preserve his horse's superior speed for the last run. The distance must not, however, be too considerable, by which error many races have been lost. For example, in a sweepstakes, where the speediest and best horses have sometimes waited so long on each other that the rider of an inferior and unnoticed horse has taken the advantage, and advanced so far, that at last the best could not overtake him. The speedy horse must be favoured also over heavy ground and up hill. The opposite will consequently do for the slow and stout horse. In making the play, however, which is taking the lead, and especially in a four-mile race, it must be considered that the stoutest racer may be run to a stand still; therefore the rider must not at first take too much upon his horse, but keep a few pulls in hand for an occasion; yet go along at such a rate as to keep his speedier antagonist at warm work, wearing him out by degrees: in such a race the stoutest horse will win, unless he is greatly out-footed. In a race of a single mile, or a mile and a half, between a speedy horse with the common defect of that class, inability to run up to his foot, and a stout and honest horse that will run through the piece, it may be necessary for the rider of the latter to set off at scores, and run all the way through; attending only to the single consideration, that he does not blow or burst his horse, of which he ought to be a judge.

It may be proper in this place to advert to the distinct qualities in the racer of stoutness and honesty; a discrimination made, but to be aware of which may sometimes be of consequence. A horse may be honest without being stout; that is, he may have the will, perhaps the ambition, to run to his last sob, but being deficient in physical power-he faints, he sinks internally; his lungs, his limbs, refuse any longer to perform their office with their highest energy, and his pace is compulsively slackened. The stout, but not honest horse, will occasionally slacken his pace, and suffer himself to be beaten without any of the above symptoms or appearance of debility; perhaps there is some analogy in this case with that of the cart-horse, which however, in general, a capital drawer, never will or can draw dead pulls. It would be difficult to discuss satisfactorily this point as regards the racer; but it may fairly be insisted on, abuse with the whip and spur never succeeds in the case, and in fact horses are well known to have their running days, and there are so many obvious and constantly recurring impediments to racing exertion, and the edge or extreme of speed is so delicate a thing, that we may well wonder at the degree of certainty which we are accustomed to witness on the course. In whipping the horse, the hand of the rider is elevated above his head, that the strokes may proceed from the extremity of the whip. Spurring is performed by turning the toe outward, and giving quick strokes. In making the last run, it is an object to keep the whip hand, and to avoid being hemmed in by the other horses. It is also politic and usual not to win the race too hollow, when in the jockey's power, that the extent of the horse's abilities may not be known. The winning by the shortest possible distance is one great and difficult business of the rider.

HORSE RACING.

IN the month of December, 1800, a match was to have been run over Doncaster course for one hundred guineas, but one of the horses having been drawn, a mare started alone, that by running the ground she might ensure the wager; when having run about one mile of the four, she was accompanied by a greyhound bitch, who joined her from the side of the course, and emulatively entering into the competition, continued to race with the mare the other three miles, keeping nearly head and head, affording an excellent treat to the field, by the energetic exertions of each. At passing the distance-post, five to four was betted in favour of the greyhound, when parallel with the stand it was even betting, and any person might have taken his choice for five or ten. The mare, however, had the advantage by a head at the termination.

In Italy, the charming diversion (horse-racing) is not unfrequent. The horses are not, in general, like ours, mounted and managed by a jockey, but are left at perfect liberty to exert their power in the greatest degree to attain the goal. At the time of carnival in Rome, these races are generally run in the long street, called in Italian, il corso; the length is nearly eight hundred and sixty-five torses, or rather more than one English mile. They are generally Barbary horses that are employed in this amusement. In appearance, these animals are small and very far from handsome. They are all kept equal by a rope, against which they press with their breasts till the signal to start is given; the rope is then dropped, and the affrighted horses start away at full speed. In Florence they endeavour to increase the speed of their horses by fixing a large piece

of leather, not unlike the flaps of a saddle, on the back of each horse; the under side of this is armed with very sharp prickles, which keep perpetually goading them all the while they run. In order that the horses may not run out of the course, a strong railing runs along each side of the course, and a rope is fixed across at each end, to prevent them leaving the course at the extremities. The speed, however, of these Barbary horses, though considerable, is very inferior to that of our English racers. The course of eight hundred and sixty-five torses at Rome, is run over in one hundred and fifty-one seconds. An English mile is about eight hundred and twenty-six torses, so that these horses run very little more than a mile in two minutes, which an ordinary racer is able to do in England; not to mention Childers, who is said to have run a mile in one minute, and to have run round the circular course at Newmarket, which is four hundred yards short of four miles, in six minutes and forty seconds. Starling is said also to have performed the first mile in a minute. Childers run the Beacon course in seven minutes and a half. The Round course is asserted to have been more than once run in six minutes and six seconds. The Barbary horse must, according to what was said above, get over thirty-seven feet in a second; the swiftness of the English horse will be found by this mode of estimating far superior. Starling must have moved in the performance mentioned before eightytwo feet and a half in a second.

Dr. Moty, in his celebrated publication, "Le Journal Britannique," considering this subject, tells us, that every bound by the fleetest Barbary horse at Rome would cover eighteen royal feet and a half, and twenty-two or twenty-three feet by the English horses; so that the swiftness of the latter would be to that