work that quickly succeeded it; a first attempt, wherein the author shews the singularly ill-taste, if not ill-nature, to catch at the flaws and straws of a brother sportsman, and one almost cotemporary in courting the public regard, by way, we presume, of recommending his own wares. But with Nimrod-the very best " pen and ink sportsman," as some of our great swells will occasionally and affectedly designate him-a man who had seen so much, who knew so much and had written so much, the case is very different; instead of a presumption, it seems to us rather an absolute duty that he should have put a proper estimate on the labours or recreations of a class of which for so long a period he continued by word and deed so far the best qualified to judge. The well-seasoned observations of Beckford, or the poetical experience of Somerville, must surely become doubly valuable and impressive when collated with and supported by the more modern but equally elegant and original matter from Nimrod; while his proverbially easy, conciliating, and unaffected style has done much to change the usually dry, captious form of a review into what the reader can without much stretch on the imagination bring himself to believe is an after-dinner chat between the Mazagine man and Tom Smith, Delmè Radcliffe, Dame Julia Berners, or any other lady or gentleman who, before or since his start, had ventured to prate of hounds and horses in print. With respect to the last of these series of papers-the "Analysis of the Diary of a Huntsman," -we have, from the fact of their being published posthumously, more perhaps to answer for than usually falls on the Editor of a "made man's" efforts; but this we can afford cheerfully to undertake, being convinced that the chief party concerned, Mr. Smith himself, must feel complimented by, we had almost said grateful for, the notice of his book, and ever regard it as a valued memorial from "an old and kind friend," a brother sportsman, and a brother workman, who penned his last lines in doing the "Diary" high honour, though still nothing more than thorough justice.

And this, we repeat-this, we regret, brings us to the end of Nimrod's contributions; articles may be hashed up, as they have been even in his own time, and the far-famed signature attached to them, or others may have the plentiful lack of discretion to take up a title they never can hold, but here we have the best authority for saying, the work of Nimrod's own hand and head ceases. He had by him, at the time of his death, a long treatise on the subject he wished Mr. Smith had entered more fully upon-scent, with the variety of ways wind and weather affects it-a subject, it may be remarked, that has never yet been fully or sufficiently discussed; this, however, with some shorter papers in manuscript, were all destroyed, according to his direction-that dread of printer's errors and editor's corrections no doubt influencing him to the last, as it ever had from the first.

Once again, then, do we recall the memory of one as an old friend individually, as we trust our readers can generally; a man who, like most men, may have had his failings, but of whom it is not too much, if not too little to say, in the remark of Dr. Johnson, that "he wrote very well for a gentleman," and always with the feeling and in the language of a sportsman. EDITOR.

A COPER'S CONFESSIONS.

No. I.

(FORWARDED BY THE OXONIAN.)

66 I think, Tester, I've been a very tolerable master to you?"
"Very tolerable indeed, Sir."

OLD PLAY.

There are few men, I feel bound to say, who can have a greater regard for thorough independency of character than myself; and yet it has been my constant aim through life to act up to that beautiful old English axiom which so touchingly develops itself in this simple inquiry

What is the use of having a friend if you don't make use of him?" By this candid avowal, I would not wish it to be understood that I treat my round of acquaintance just as I should their pheasants and hares-by taking one single shot at, and then have done with them. Far from it. I flatter myself I am too good a judge to commit so monstrous an outrage on their good fellowship or my own good feeling. I would never, for example, gammon a man, with a civil smile and insinuating address, into standing security for any of my little rail-road liabilities; never wish him to be guilty of perjury in testifying to the morality of my character or the sobriety of my conduct; and would as soon think of asking him to lend me his wife for three weeks as his name for three months. No, no; the very nature of these sort of things has, I am convinced, let them turn out how they will, a direct tendency to knocking your name off" the free list;" and consequently I have generally confined my operations to the loan of last numbers of magazines, clean shirts, opera-glasses, half-crowns, umbrellas, and such like trifles, which, as a matter of course, no gentleman is ever expected to recollect or return-without it suits his convenience so to do.

Still, any allusion to one grand item I have purposely omitted in the above enumeration-one particularly adapted to my present purpose, and one which, from the experience and success I have enjoyed in pursuing it, I am very much inclined to consider as my own peculiar property it consists in nothing more or less than an innate and high ability for borrowing horses. Egad! the very mention of my secret in such plain language nearly stays me from proceeding; for the plan hitherto has been so systematically subtle as to have almost at last deceived its author himself. Here, by the bye, I would warn the very open-hearted, unsuspecting auditor from supposing my attacks could come in any such shape as the following: "My dear Williams-got the young ones home for the holidays-like to give 'em a treatHampton Court-offer of neighbour's four-wheel-venture to hintyour beautiful brown pony-all admire so much-loath to disappoint the ladies-yours ever and ever, &c., &c." And " dear Williams," picturing to himself his "beautiful brown pony" toiling through Brentford in the heat of a July noonday sun, with his head loose, and Ma and Pa, and Ben and the baby, in front; and Jenny and Annie, and aunt Mary and Mr. M'Carthy, the medical student, and a

rabbit pie, and a fillet of veal, and a Yorkshire ham, and a rhubarb tart, and a bottle of salad, behind, returns in answer either" his compliments, and he's very sorry to say he shall want the pony every day for the next six weeks;" or, if he has anything like the heart and humour of ourselves, encloses a post-office order for fifteen shillings! What otherwise should be expected from such "an impudent attempt at robbery?" And then just compare it with my perfect, actually obliging, style of going to work. I never wanted to borrow a horse, but I persuaded his owner I wanted to buy him. And the troops I have taken horse exercise on at these terms! and the provoking little defects which prevented my purchasing-heads a leetle too long, or tails too short-nice hack, but wouldn't suit me, as he'd not been in harness, or a clever animal, certainly, but a heavy goer-had him in a minute if he hadn't been in harness-too big, too small, too fat, too sluggish, too leggy, too punchy-by Jupiter! if I had only bought one in a hundred of the horses I've tried, Anderson must long have hid his diminished head, and the lower end of Oxford-street have erected a monument to my memory.

But few pursuits-I may not say pleasures-are without their drawbacks, and a plain statement of one of the heaviest and most unavoidable I ever experienced may tend to the edification of any who feel inclined to adopt my profession.

The winter before last found me breaking into February with far from the feeling of having had enough of the hunting season; to be sure I had three days with the Queen on a thorough-bred, skyscraping tit, which a sucking barrister was very anxious to get out of, and which I fancied at first I rather liked; had condemned again a couple of machiners for an ex-coachmaster, after trying their merits with the Surrey, one because he couldn't jump, the other because he wouldn't try; and had been persuaded also to feel the mouth of a thirdrate steeple-chaser in a scurry with the Hertfordshire, during which his owner evinced a very laudable, but, I need scarcely add, unavailable ambition, to stick "Young Vivian" into me. Well, Christmas was passed, and I saw nothing for it, but a line to a friend in a far county, explaining my want of horse, price not over a hundred, and age not under six; this, as I expected, produced an invitation, and away I went without further notice to try his stud and his board. The first morning after my arrival was chosen for the first taste of the string; but in which my host could not accompany me, being nailed for a special jury cause at the assizes, on the usual conditions of gaining a guinea if he did go, and losing five if he did not. Previous, however, to setting forth, he gave me full particulars of the nag I was about to cross-age rising eight, or, by the book, just that age; figure, my maximum, eighty-five guineas, in fact, having already been offered by an officer quartered in the neighbourhood; and character as to pace, fencing, and temper, as near perfection as possible. One thing only in the way of command was strongly impressed upon me-that, whether I liked my horse or not, I was to go along with him, for the captain was still on the nibble, and one decisive day's work might hook him outright; "In short, sir," concluded my friend, " the grey, I know, as Sir Charles Bunbury said, will do his duty if you do yours, and consequently I

shan't hear of any excuse. Bring home a lame horse if you must, but I can't admit of a lame story." And with that he started to find a verdict, and I a fox.

The grey certainly, as far as appearances went, was worthy all that could be said of him; and in the three-mile ride to the meet I had some opportunity of proving his more important accomplishments. I dropped my hand, gave him his head, and away he walked with an ease and confidence that quickly imparted itself to his rider: then I jogged him into a trot that finished as sure and as safe as a Welsh pony's; while, last of all, I sent him at three parts speed up a green bite by the road-side, from which I confess I pulled him up in no little chagrin, not to say dissatisfaction: he went so oily and well— playing with the plain snaffle in his mouth, arching his neck, and bending to the hand in a manner truly delightful.

"Egad!" said I, "if Blue Peter (so they called him) only turns out half as well as he promises, I'm fixed at once; for where the deuce shall I ever find a fault or a reason to give the Squire for not buying him?" But let me hasten to the cover-side, a large wood, from eighty to a hundred and twenty acres in extent, with plenty of good lying, and, from its situation in the heart of an otherwise open country, warth its length in gold to the man who hunted it. A fox, three or four indeed, were soon a-foot, but, despite plenty of rattling about from one side to another, not much inclined to break; seeming to think that if there was any thing like the scent out there was in cover, it could not be much use their having a run for it. Not knowing a yard of my ground, the cover being large and the wind strong, I thought it advisable to keep as near as I could to the pack, and for nearly two hours continued wriggling and twisting up and down the awfully heavy rides, in I am sorry to say, a good deal of that slack rein, rough-riderish, hard-hearted manner, which men will occasionally adopt with horses they either don't own or deserve. During this terribly prolonged prologue, however, an opportunity was afforded me of looking over the field; and I and the soldier gradually deciphered each other. He was a six foot, fine made fellow, though with rather a ferretish face, large white moustache, and small red eye, mounted on a neat little chesnut mare, certainly not more than fourteen two, which, with his own long shanks, gave the pair a very jack-a-dandyish appearance. His companion-the hero or crack man of the hunt-was the only other person I had any particular cause to notice a thin, light-complexioned young man, in highly polished jack-boots, with an eye-glass stuck in his hat, and a sneering sort of smile on his face; unquestionably under ten stone, but riding a blood bay stallion up to at least fourteen. Now, no sooner was a fox forced to fly-an event which at length did come to pass--than I found this brace of swells had made a dead set at the stranger: every time he made a move, it was 66 eyes right" on him, though for some time without any decided advantage on either side. I had followed King Herod (the stallion) over a couple of high new gates, shown him the way at a good drain with a bad take-off, and rather excelled the military man in three or four of his own hop, step, and a jump, or on and off fences, when a low holly-hedge, with a very long drop, which experience enabled them to avoid, struck the balance

against me: poor Peter, in sheer surprise, came on his head, and I went over it; a piece of agility which I at once saw had the effect of curling the captain's hair-lip, and adding considerably to the broad grin of the hard-riding skeleton. All this put my blood up; but as soon as ever I got righted again, I luckily had a chance for putting them down: the hounds, running like mad, had crossed a lane, the only exit from which was as nasty a stile as ever I came across in my life: a single stone slab, about four feet high (looking ominously like a grave-stone) stuck upon rising ground, with two cruelly placed stepping-stones before you reached it, and a cart-load or so more lying loose around them-a very nice, pleasing impediment, no doubt, to hand a young lady over, but a mightily different affair when you attempted the same piece of politeness with a young horse. Well, King Herod was a hard-pulling, hot-headed beggar, that rushed at every thing he attempted, so the eye-glass, with very excellent discretion, was brought into service for something more inviting. The captain, too, was not in any vast hurry, when at that moment (I do believe they had forgotten me) I touched the crack on one of his jack-boots with the handle of my whip, tipped him a civil and cool "By your leave, Sir," and trotted Blue Peter up to it. He picked his way like a cat, measured his ground to an inch, and hopped over with a finished grace that even now makes my heart beat to think of it. Yet, alas for the force of example! before I could turn my head the bay stallion had chested it in one of his wild charges, and rolled over with a smash that sent the rest of the field down the lane as hard as they could pelt.

Revenge is a very vile passion, I allow, the indulgence in which is only admitted by bravos and barbarians, yet I think just then I had "the happy man's" shirt in my possession.

*

It is extraordinary, but no man yet, I believe, was ever found with sufficient candour to acknowlege the advantages of a check; at any rate it was not exactly with a blessing that I saw the pack hang fire round some farm buildings—of a truth I was not at all in the best of humours, for I was the only man fairly up, had been carried magnificently; and ergo there was that purchasing incubus still heavy on me, though in intent wonderfully altered.

"My income was not large," I reasoned; "the season was nearly over: a hundred guineas was a great deal of money. And what would my mother say if she heard of it? But, then a hundred for such a horse! pshaw! Quibbler as I was, what excuse could I make to MYSELF if I did'nt have him?"

After a ten minutes' lull, during which some half-dozen re-appeared, including the King Herod firm, very strongly lithographed, the steed with plenty of skin-deep evidence of his mishap, and his pilot with the loss of the smile and the eye-glass, a head whip-somehow or other head whips, as far as horsemanship goes, always are the head of the establishment-set us going again.

To follow the fortunes of this second heat in any great detail would, I fear, verge upon the tedious; sufficient be it, then, to say, that with, if anything, an increasing speed, I still "followed the hounds;" beginning with a terribly stiff rail out of the rick-yard;