home, but Crib, the Champion of England, was officiating as his locum tenens, and handing about pots of porter and grog with persevering industry. Mrs. Gulley, Mrs. Gulley, a neat little woman, civil and attentive, superintended the business of the bar; where, through Emery's interest, for I found he was in high favour, we obtained leave to sit. Crib uncorked and decanted, but could not give us his company, (which to me, as a noviciate in such scenes, would have been a treat,) owing to the business of the house, which he seemed to pursue much to his master's interest. Crib, who had obtained popularity by his prowess, was originally a coal-heaver, and has several brothers in the same employment; he is sturdy and stout built, about five and twenty, stands five feet eight inches, clumsy in appearance, rather hard featured, with a profile not unlike Cooke the tragedian. He is, I believe, a good-natured quiet fellow, and after we had detained him a few minutes in conversation "Well," said Emery, "what do you think of the greatest man in his way, or perhaps any other, can boast? for Gulley has altogether declined the business." "Why, to speak the truth, notwithstanding your caution, I expected, in a house kept and frequented by boxers, to have seen nothing but blackguards, and to have heard nothing but blasphemy; but I am so pleasingly deceived, and so comfortably situated, that I believe this will not be the last visit I shall pay Mrs. Gulley, and as to the Champion of England, I can only wonder how a person of his apparently good disposition can ever be wrought up to wound, to lame, perhaps to kill his adversary. And how is it that people can meet in this manner without any cause of quarrel? Is it glory that stirs them on? Can ambition so far stimulate a man, that he shall be dead to sense of pain, and callous to personal suffering? It must be so, for a meeting of this kind is so truly a matter of business, that previous to the most fierce and determined battles, the parties shake hands as a proof of amity, and this is the signal for black eyes and bloody noses." "Come, come Romney," said Emery, "I brought you here to be amused, and not to mo ralize; but since you are for the latter, we will e'en wish Mrs. Gulley good night.' " JEALOUSY AND REVENGE OF A COCK. The habitudes of the domestic breed of poultry cannot, possibly, escape observation; and every one must have noticed the fierce jealousy of the cock. It should seem that this jealousy is not confined to his rivals, but may, sometimes extend to his beloved female; and that he is capable of being actuated by revenge, founded on some degree of reasoning, concerning her conjugal infidelity. An incident which happened at the seat of Mr. B, near Berwick, justifies this remark. "My mowers," (says he) “cut a partridge on her nest, and immediately brought the eggs (fourteen) to the house. I ordered them to be put under a very large beautiful hen, and her own to be taken away. They were hatched in two days, and the hen brought them up perfectly well till they were five or six weeks old. During that time they were constantly kept confined in an out-house, without having been seen by any of the other poultry. The door happened to be left open and the cock got in. My housekeeper, hearing her hen in distress, ran to her assistance, but did not arrive in time to save her life; the cock, finding her with the brood of partridges, feil upon her with the utmost fury, and put her to death. The housekeeper found him tearing her both with his beak and spurs, although she was then fluttering in the last agony, and incapable of any resistance. The hen had been, formerly, the cock's greatest favourite." DEATH OF TOM MOODY. The noted Whipper-in, well known to the Sportsmen of Shropshire. You all know Tom Moody* the whipper-in well: *The veteran sportsman, who is the subject of this ballad, died some years since, in the service of Mr. Forrester, of Shropshire. He had been the whipper-in to that gentleman's pack upwards of thirty years: and from the whimsical circumstances attending his burial, it is considered as worthy of a place in this collection. But he'd challenge the tone, and could tell if 'twas good; Six crafty earth stoppers, in hunter's green drest Thus Tom spoke his friends, e'er he gave up his breath- OF THE QUALITIES OF THE GREYHOUND. It appears from a Welsh proverb† that a gentleman was known by his hawk, his horse, and his greyhound; and Mr. Pennant has observed by a law of Canute, a greyhound was not to be kept by a person inferior to a gentleman. * The famous mountain in Shropshire. + Wrth ei walch, ei farche, a'i filgi, yradwaenir donheddig. Pennant. British Zoology vi. 1. p. 53 The different perfections of the greyhound, it seems, have been comprised in the following rude and barbarous rhymes :→ The head like a snake; The neck like a drake; The foot like a cat. Ludicrous as this poetical effort may be, the description is still correct; and these different qualities, when united, even now form the model of perfection in the race. On the superior breed of greyhounds, there has been a variety of opinions the blood of the late Lord Orford's was allowed to stand very high, if not the first, in the public estimation. Perhaps there has not been any person who took more pains to arrive at the utmost state of perfection in his object; and it is a circumstance generally believed, that he even had recourse to a cross with the English bull-dog, in order to acquire a courage and resolution till then unknown. After seven descents, it is said, he obtained the object for which he had been so solicitous, without any diminution of speed, or the beauties of shape and symmetry. Lord River's stock is now allowed to be one of the first in England, and its superiority may be owing to a judicious cross of the Dorsetshire and Newmarket blood. Mr. Gurney of Norwich, has likewise for some |