ROYAL SPORT.

Waikato Times, Volume VI, Issue 311, 12 May 1874, Page 2

ROYAL SPORT.

pTnc Czar ha 3 been showing b:i EnglUb visitors a bear hti Tho wedding festivities appear te l)ave culminated in t illustration of an imperial pastime. We have been from ( to day reading of the gay junketings connected with 1 I marriage of the Duko of Edinburgli and tbo Mu*coi Princess, whose face is already becoming familiar to through pictures m the shop-windows. We have liad : blessing of the Neva almost distracting our attention fr the trial of the Claimant, and the description of the wond ful palace of the Empress Catherine at Tsarskoe, wh must render, wo are afraid, the English home of the Di of Edinburgh's bride a comparatively humble mansion put up in. Then comes th« account of the imperial hu Nothing oouid afford a more striking contrast to our vic of following the chase. The meet had to be approach by twtnty-five miles oi railway. London men, who n down m specials to well-known packs, \\ ill not consider tl in this fehei*e was anything to wliieh tli<?v are unused or i accustomed. Many of them trn\el much farther, and, M a hard day's work, contrive to return to town ready i] fresh enough to dress for dinner, and not regard the p] formance as ft feat of endurance or strength. The hunt the Gratcbina chasse was, however, an organized expediti on a grand scale against the hybernating bear. The bea when they retire into winter quarters are marked down the peasants through their, idotsteps- in the eaily falls snow. Bruin at most times is Hot an active annual, but the winter season he is supposed populmh to be in os con tose a condition ub any gentleman of the old school considi it orthodox to be after a bottle of heesvunge« port fact, it is difficult to rousfr him from Ilia prolonged sluml or snooze. He will not, if he can help it., stir fiom Ins la and ho has to bo driven out m what seems to 6e almo-t ignoble fashion. Tlio Russian custom is, in the first nistij to try and raise the bear in a manner which in a ddH resembles the style in which " Kathleen mavQiirueen " w] summoned in a popular ballad from, her pillow. Music let loose at the bear before the dogs are slipped at him. "V know tbe comparatively humble part which music plays our modern fox hunt. The horn is but sparingly employe and the only harmony or melody encouraged is the ocuasioi concert to which the hounds treat the field. In Russia t business partakes of an operatic character. A sort of errture on the horns ia performed at the quarry, and, if this not enough for him, a resort to stronger measures is resolv upon. It seems to us en pcusant that the Scottish bagpip or a rheumatic barrel organ, might be found more lmtati to beast or man than any other orcheatrul implement ; b we have it on record that the bear- is in the first instarJ subjected to a flourish of trumpets. If he refuses j] challenge, and simply turns round m his bed, as if ha hm the call of "hot water" at the door of a frosty mornii his persecutors determine upon stronger measure*. T hunds are encouraged to attack him, and if they do n succeed in bringing him to. the scratch or the hug, t huntsmen have to invade his dormitory, and prick him ink rage with their, lances. After this he is shot, and Liv boc is artistically laid out upou the sledg*. As a second course to the bear, the Czar brings hit guei to slaughter tbe wolves. This would appear to be at ai rate brisker eport, if w-e ara to judge-of it, as Mr I^oKfc *a with reference to finance, by remits. Tbe wolves are pleu ful enough in Russia, and have indeed on that score be made the subject of interesting and picturaique fablci ai paintings, in which their attacks hava to be staved off wi concessions of plump infants. A* Gmtchina, however, t wolves, wore both outnumbered and helpless. They we received with bullets instead of babies. The horns we blown, at them as they were blown at the walls of Jench , and the wolves brokq covert at once, and were potted an th< tried tovescape. Wo aro told that vulpecide was penmtta on the occasion, and that a couple of 1 foxes shared the f*to J their relatives- In Russia, however, the fox is not preiegJ for the hounds, and the etliirs of the chase vary wffl geographical and historical conditions. On the whole, til imperial bag was not rery heavy ; one bear, thirteen wolvel a couple of foxei, and a couple of bores were not much t boast of. But the subsequent proceeding, as Mr Bret Hart would say, proved, that the Emperor at least was please with the day's sport. There was wJiat we should call hunting dinner to follow, at which the same band of mus that had asiailed the bears in tbo morning attacked tli guests in the evening, and the whole affair wound up in manner suggestire of a scene conceived by Weber. We are often taunted in England with the tame stylo o fche sports in which we indulge. It would not be fan perhaps, to take this Russian hunt as a specimen of th manner in which the chase is usually followed in the countr of tbe Czar. From tbe earliest times kings and great peopll from Nimrod to King James the nervous who rode on « padded saddles, and down to later existing potentates, ba\| had their ceremonial pursuits of what we used to term th beasts of venerie. Koyal hunts have been as frequent an common at royal receptions. Our English prirces have s< what we should venture to think a good example in tli xespect. The Prince of Wales might perhaps display irnioi direct interest in hunting than he does ; but then he known to bo a patron of shooting, and can liold his ow well without favour in the hunting field. We have, bow ever, apparently abandoned the royal chase, ai it was undci stood when the forest laws were in force, and when th Conqueror and Rufus established preserve*, which are ye the subject of blazing or smoking questions in politics, whicl it is not nocessary for us here to discuss. The neares approach to imperial sport are some of our large battuesthe practice of tbe battue being a German importation, open if not to all the objections which entirely ignoinnt writer urge against it, to a few which we have not hesitated fron time to time to express. We have indeed seldom the oppor tunifcy hero of showing sport io distinguished and roya personages. When the Shah was over the rotes were blow ing, and the sound of the. bunting born wm no longer hi^ in the land. Nor, if the Shah had arrived when theQuon or the Py toh ley were at w,ork and in full swing, is it like); that he would have been asked to try a burst with th< bounds. The late Emperor of the French was, until lllnes: incapacitated .him, a bold rider, though somewhat weak n ; the saddle ; and no monarch perhaps, of ancient or inoderr times, got up more nugnificent boar-bunting or shooting parties than he did in the heyday of his prosperity. We must bo ooritent, in any case, in England with milder quarry than the " rugged Russson bear," although the nnimall represented at tho Gat china entei tainment did not seem Iq| be a terrific beast to encounter.

. On the 30th of Jtnuarj, at a dance iv Davidson count j, Tennessee, Joseph Briley, aged 1?, nns shot dead wliikio/* the floor with his partner by .Robert Bates. A quarrel sprang up through their rival claims to a young lady iorthe dance. They left the decision to her ; she took Bn'lej, and Bates slioL him, then and there.