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Otago Daily Times, Issue 141, 29 April 1862, Page 5

(-'' ' I am, Sir, :• .Yours obediently, ... Okaiiu. Dunedin, April 22nd. 1862.

An Irish Squire's Sports Fifty" Years Ago.—Mr. Grattan, in his new book, ,•' Bnaten Paths," tells us that some fifty yoars ago there was a "Bachelor's Hall in every county in Ireland, and *ho tourist still comes upon the ruins of some of those mansions, wiiure the "rakes" of a bygone generation drank and gambled and fought. The " Hall" to .which Mr. Grattan obtained''the enlrce was in the county of Waterford, and its proprietor was one of a wild race, now happily extinct, whoso lift; was pissau between the saddle and dining room, and whose ambition was to see all his guests under the table, and to prolong his own unholy revels until the sun liad risen upon another day. The particular specimen whose acquaintance Mr. Grattan made had one inconvenient peculiarity—lie was born without legs. : But still lie managed to keep his seat on hqrseback .with, the boldest, to bunt his own hounds, and to fly over everything that: n horse could be brought: to face. But in ..addition to,an, ordinary pack for fox-hunting, j the ■'Squire of Kuo'jkderiig" maintained a troop of bloodhounds, and on special occasions treated: his frieni's to a man-hunt, in which one of his ownjeiy vants, smeared with blood, got twenty minutes' start of the .dogs. Mr. Grattan was one of the .favored! few who took part in an exciting chnse of this description, the last in which "the squire" indulged,., andi the. narrative of the shocking adventure is capitally told. Godroon, the human drag, armed witha light pole, with; which he bounded across streams and hedge-, rows, rushed forward, and was in due time, followed' by the bloodhounds and ''the field." Gtotlroon's. object wa4 to reach a certain hill, and having climbed a tree,'to sit secure amongst its branches until : the, dogs were called off and muzzled. Hj did reach: the Mil.and climb the.trea, but just as the prcfrk were mounting the slope, the branch on which .he j was seated broke, and than began a run for life. It was a wild, uriwooded ,c nmtry. The hum in quarry, \ t!ie : dDgs, the riders, all swept forward at a fearful pare/. The squire, daring as he .was, saw the imminent risk, and sc?»rcely hoped to beat off the paok in time to save the life of his unhappy sen ant.. Still Grodroon rushed on, and just as the foremost d)g was upon him, sprung into a lake, followed by the pack, who were in turn followed by the riders, slashing right and left to save Grodroon from their, faags. Half a minuts later and the wretch's life wou'.cl have been sacrificed to his master's brutal folly ; aid even as it was, he was not rescued until some indelible marks of the ferocity of his pursuers bal been.-inflicted... Tlie squire subsequently had the grace to kill the bloodhounds, lest, in some future excesses he might again be tempted to the v;rge of a great crim". Self Possession.—At the.Tl;eitrj of iV'cj, a few nights back, a curious scene occurred. In the performance of" La Cenerentola" one of the! actresses, Mad'lle Mistrali Vetant, having gone' too near the footlights, set fire to her dress, but Bonconi, who was singing by her side as "'Oon Magnifieo" extinguished the flame by pressing the dress between his hands. , In so doing, strange to say, be did riot interrupt for a moment the morceau he was singing, and the actress, on her part, deriving confidence from lite remarkable' calmness, went on with ; the. performance as if . nothing had happened. \ The audience were so pleased with the self-possession displayed by Ronconi that they summoned him three times before the curtain with loud applause.— Horns Ne\y Allot.: —MM. de Ruolz and de Fontehay have obtained a new alloy, -which may be very useful for small coin and for many industrial. purposes. ; It. is composed of one-third silver, twenty-five to thirty per cent, of nicol, and thirty-seven to fifty-two jjer cent, ofcopper. Its inventors call it Tiersargent. or Tri-silver. The,three metals, when melted.to-: getherforma compound which is not homogeneous, and it is only by a process yet a secret, that a mal'eable mstal is produced. In color it resembles platinum, i It is susceptible of a very high polish, and is extoemely hard and tenacious. It is. not affected by exposure to the atmosphere, or by any but the most powerful re-agents, and is without odour. It can be. supplied at forty per cent, less than silver,, and its greater hardness will give it a.marked superiority. It may. serve as a substitute for plated articles, but will be most valuable for small coin, from the difficulty of counterfeiting, arising from the skill required in.its preparation and coining.— Nmo York Tribune. : Goixo to See Gtibkaltar, Taken. —We find the following ,in the '" Private Diary of the Duke of 'Buckingham,''-just published:—"l remember iiow often the present King, of France, Charles X, had told my father and me the story of his* being sum-, •moned- to meet almost all the Catholic princes of Christendom, and all the flower of the French and Spanish: armies; as to a party of pleasure, to see the. 'taking of Gibraltar,' where various amusements,, and-bull fights, and ' balls wore provided to away each day, of anxious expectation when the:_ propitioUs ;mornirig at; last arose which ■ was again ,to plant the* flag of Spain upon the walls, of' Gibraltar.' So certain did they consider themselves of- conquest, that dinner and ■a; ball were prepared at - A Igesiras for General Elliot and his^ officers wjien.made.prisoners. At length the Spanish batteries moved down'j constructed with all- the' care that science could be', stow and art in vent..The Acadamo Frdnctfise eohtAi-. buteditslabors to improve upon these mighty-engine-of destruction—and they Amoved down the tnonupeh'ts of the combined-science, as; well as;anger, of Europe,, united ragainst this- one- object'so dear'to the vanity,' so dear to the: interests,: of the -partiesl engaged in the attempt. The princes witnessed the scelie from the first parallel,' and; the surrounding hills were crowded, with the of-the country, fancying even the.' reality of the visonary 'existence- bfthe- Queqh'flf. Spain in: her chair,rwho had vowed to'remain^there until she saw the standard of Spain float upon.the t walls of the fortress' she called;her own.- ;In a few hours-all-was" dust and; ashes, and the few-Tsuryiv'pr.s amongst the assailants < owed'their lives to British ge-V nerosity and humanity^" '■■■ ■"-."• -.-'■' ■