at all surprised, if we have a rattling run to-day. We shall first draw→→Hill gorse; but as that is bleak and exposed, and rather thin withal, I doubt our finding there after last night's frost. Then we shall go to some long-sheltered plantations, where we are sure of a find at all times, as they are very strictly preserved by a regular trump; but it is a nasty place to get away from the ground is uneven, and hounds. may slip away without your seeing them; and the only preventive I know against that, is to keep your weather eye and both ears open: but as it is now half past ten, and we have four miles to do, I would recommend a little quicker pace. »

So saying we cantered briskly forward, and soon arrived at the Meet, a large plain at the foot of the hill on which the afore-said gorse was situated, and which the hounds were then in the act of drawing. We lost no time in mounting, and on Old Yorkshireman's back, I was soon among the cluster of red-coats at one corner of the covert. Old Tom, the huntsman, was in the centre of it, in an open part, sitting motionless on his horse, a grey (which I think the best colour for a bunstman's horse, as a hound sees it and gets to him so much quicker). Two or three old hounds at this moment came out of the gorse, and wagging their sterns, looked up into old Tom's face, as much as to say: " no for here, old boy: where to next? Tom seemed of the same opinion, and the gallant grey, obedient to the gentle pressure of the leg and turn of the wrist, moved slowly through the thinnest part of the gorse, occasionally lifting one leg rather higher than usual to keep his fine clean legs clear of the prickles, but never condescending to jump. One blast of Tom's horn with his short, Away hounds, away! brought them out of the covert and to his horse's side, where they moved off at the true hunting jog down the hill to the plantation.

"

The plantations were long strips of covert, close to the park-wall of a neighbouring seat. On the outside they continued to where the wall turned off at right angles, and there ended; which being the opposite point to that at which

the hounds were thrown in, was that where the fox usually broke. They had not been drawn for some time, and a fox was confidently expected.

"

tt

The hounds, obedient to old Tom's, Loo-in!» dashed into covert, showing plainly by their eagerness, that something was there. The second whip was motionless and silent at the far end. Old Yorkshireman was straining at the tight rein, and trembling with eagerness, when a doubtful whimper made itself heard, sending the blood an extra pace through everybody's veins who had any business there. Have a care, Rockwood, cries Joe, the first whip, making the echoes ring with the loud crack of his hunting-whip. His have a care!» however, was uncalled for, for old Challenger, having dashed to the spot, gave tongue immediately.-Old Tom's Hark to Challenger! could be heard at St Paul's-and to make assurance doubly sure, Rantipole, Cerberus, and Hector took it up. Cigars disappeared-horsemen pressed towards the end of the covert-The third whip holds up his hand for a minute, then turns like lightning, and his «Gone away!» resounds far and wide. Tom, cap in hand, gallops like mad to the place, lays the hounds on, and off they go along the park-wall, then down the hedge side-an instant's checkDo hold hard, gentlemen; he is through the hedge; Challenger hits it off on the other side-What a crash! What a scent! Old Tom, on the grey, puts his horse steadily at the stile into the next field, and Yorkshireman, pulling like mad, follows him. A hundred others go at the fence, and no fewer than a dozen are down, as is it a rasper. On we go,

Then comes the his point, and

however, four miles best pace, till we come to a check in a heavy bottom. A strip of osiers is at hand we try around it; and off we go again on the other side. tug of war. The fox had now fixed upon was evidently making for--Woods, which were six miles as straight as a die. The field was thinning very fast; Yorkshireman had brushed through his last one or two fences in rather an unpleasant manner : —— -Brook was straight in our line. Many, knowing the country, and not liking it on blown horses, had sloped off for a bridge, but some ten or twelve

still stuck gallantly to the pack, who were going too fast to be covered with a sheet, » as the phrase is.-Indeed I think it impossible that hounds going the very-best pace can run all close together: the brook looked full: four charged it abreast, of whom three got over, and one in, who was seen no more during the run. The next two got over well, and on looking back I could see splash after splash, as almost every one who could get his horse to go at it got in. The field was now reduced to six, and we had reached the woods. Short halt did the game animal make there, but just gave one minute's breathing-time to the horses, and let in one or two of the bathers, of which my friend had been one, but came up here, minus a skirt of his coat and a stirrup-leather, but determined to go on.

We went away again from the other side of the wood with the huntsman, one whip, a farmer, a hard-riding parson, and three of the members of the hunt, which, including your humble servant and his friend, made nine, out of a field of nearly two hundred. What a capital fox!" said everyone. The horses one and all soon began to show unequivocal symptoms of distress, and I saw one man get three falls in four fields-I think it was the parson. The hounds began to tail, and in going over a double fence, Old Yorkshireman slipped back, into the ditch. I, however, got him out. and, by nursing him, came up in time to see the finish, though we were very near losing him at the last moment, he having lain down in a ditch, and the hounds, dashing on into the next field, threw up their heads; but old Tom, coming up steadily, spied him crawling along a little further down the ditch, and in two minutes had him torn up and eaten. Only five saw the end.-Who-whoop! rang out over hill and dale. The horn sounded loudly; and... I awoke. The horn still rang in my ears, so that I was in hopes it was not all a dream; but the empty tuinbler, red window-curtains, fishing rod, and fly-book, too plainly showed I was the poor solitary angler; and on enquiry I found the cursed tin horn of the mail-cart had disturbed me from my dream of happiness. (OLD SPORTING MAGAZINE.)..

EXCURSION TO PORT ARTHUR;

A CONVICT SETTLEMENT.

Passage thither-Frederic Henry and Norfolk Bays-Peninsular railway-Novel Mode of propelling carriages-Port Arthur; Church; Penitentiary; its economy - Jones and Williams, the ChartistsSavary-the Bristol Fauntleroy-Point Puer, the Boy Thief's Home -Dead-man's Isle-Sabbath Schools-Ferocious Murder - Dock-yard -Tessellated Pavement-Prison Discipline of Port Arthur: Enterprise of its Commandant - The Probation Gangs Interview with Frost, the Chartist-The Coal-mines.

Port Arthur, the penal settlement of Van Diemen's Land, has furnished a thousand texts for a thousand fallacious, if not perverted, commentaries. It is a place the economy of which is little understood even in this colony, and, of course, utterly unknown to the British public. As a faithful description may tend to good purpose, I hasten to supply a narrative which I trust may be found as interesting as it is authentic.

The principle upon which the administration of his Excellency Sir John Franklin is based, being to afford every facility of investigation and information, there existed no difficulty in procuring from the colonial secretary the requisite visiting-permission, together with an order for a passage in

one of the colonial government-the only-vessels trading to the port. To this his Excellency, in the kindest manner, added a personal letter of introduction to the Commandant. Thus furnished, on the evening of Thursday, Jan. 6. 1842. I embarked in the schooner Eliza, Captain Harburg, a beautiful craft of about 150 tons, built at Port Arthur in 1835, partly as a cruiser to be employed in chase of runaways who might carry off any colonial shipping.

We skirted Slopen Island, had a distant glimpse of Pitt Water and the Carleton; and shortly after noon entered the magnificent lake-like sea called (by Capt. Flinders) Norfolk Bay. The prospect on every side was superb,-the view ahead terminating in a glorious salt-water vista, its apex formed by one of those graceful sugar-loaf bills so common to Tasmania. We were the centre of a moving panorama of beauty; bight after bight, channel after channel, glen after glen, presented themselves in endless, tortuous variety; each new feature, basking in all the etherial loveliness of a spotless empyrean, seem- ́. ed more attractive than the preceding,-for, in a 'picture of harmonious grouping, that which is seen last is ever apt to be the most esteemed. Of the present, it may be truly said, there are few scenes to surpass it; hill. dale, wood, water, blent in one enchanting whole every eye beamed with pleasue, every imagination revelled in the ravishing prospect.

We called to land convicts at several probation stations on Tasman's peninsula; but as these were subsequently visited, I shall pass them over for the present, simply remarking, that our coasting-trip made it night ere we let go the anchor off Woody Island, near the top of Norfolk Bay. The sunset was in keeping with the beauty of the day, being one of radiant glory, unsurpassed by any I ever witnessed within the tropics. The following morning broke forth in heavenly sweetness; the Eliza floated gracefully on the bright quiescent waters, and the beauteous landscape, sunk in calm repose, conveyed anything but an idea of being the receptacle of Britain's off-scourings. Guilt, and its attendant punishment, seemed at utter variance with scenes and climes sufficient of them.