of one of the best things of the kind we ever read, either in this sportive periodical or in any other, "Martingale as will be seen by reference to his last month's well-timed and elegant contribution to these columns -notices the incontestable fact that the campaign in the Crimea, which has covered our arms with glory, has also nobly proved to the world that the courageous spirit of the country has not been in any degree diminished by a forty years' peace. He is also of opinion that the perilous duties of the Crimea have established a great truth. A generous participation," he remarks, "in all the sports of the field, gives to the frame the strength, both active and passive, necessary to a military life; and the avocations of the hunting-field particularly are perfectly compatible with all the active duties of a soldier."*

Just so-"Genus humanum multo fuit illud in arvis durius." Foxhunting especially, no doubt, does in some degree foster the daring spirit and fortify the physical constitution of our officers, who, we beg (par parenthèse) our fistie advocates to bear in mind, "participating largely and joyously participating, perhaps in the legitimate sports of the field, would, of course, as soon think of participating at all in pugilism or fighting for a purse, as of picking pockets, or of becoming barmen to Ben Caunt. Let, then, the establishment of "the great truth," pleasantly and pertinently pointed out by the able writer whom we just now quoted, have its full weight in keeping up a thorough English passion for those truly British sports of the field which one may almost affirm are comprehended in the institutions of the country, for they are certainly national pursuits of the highest interest. We have an additional reason as well as a powerful motive for heartily supporting every combination calculated to promote the extension of sporting, if we think that by doing so we shall at the same time indirectly kindle a martial spirit in our boys, and enable them also, by habitually winning high health and energetic strength at home, to rough it all the better abroad in the cause of their Queen and country. "A hardy race of mortals, trained to sports-the field their joy," is just the race required in the present critical conjuncture of the country. But, however views may diverge respecting the question raised by the accomplished writer referred to, there can, we think, be no difference of opinion as to this, at all events, being " a great truth"-England can boast of both an army and navy of heroes!

To this unquestionable truth we may, perhaps, be permitted to addfor it is the fact, although the statement of it thus in juxta-position may be a descent, or even a solecism-that the selfsame England, with its high heroic traditions, which won a world-wide fame for deeds of both naval and military glory, even centuries antecedent to the present brilliant era of our history, is, and always was, eminently and emphatically renowned also for a devotion to sporting. This intense taste for manly athletic sports is a distinctive trait in the national character. And if British sports have a dash of danger in them, so much the better; for does it not enhance their national interest and stimulate their per

The dispute amongst the ancients (noticed by the historian of the Cataline conspiracy), whether military affairs were more advanced by strength of body or by force of intellect, has long been decided-"each of these qualities (observes Sallust) being insufficient of itself, the one requires the assistance of the other."

sonal pursuit all the more for that coincidence? Some of these manly sports so passionately pursued throughout the entire length and breadth of Great Britain (and, indeed, more or less in every part of the habitable glode colonised by our race), are peculiar to Englishmen. In short, if we are not a nation of sportsmen-if every man in our isles is not a Nimrod, at any rate there is no country in the world that can compete with Old England in the number of its real sportsmen.

Happily we have now quite done with all discussion about that moribund amenity termed the "ring." Permit us to say at parting, that having been all along as conscious that we had anything but an elevated topic to deal with, as that it is not easy to make a silk purse out of a sow's ear, the hope is nevertheless indulged in, that as much has been done to relieve the subject of its inherent, hard vulgarity as the nature of the task admitted. If Christopher's style of fighting may be thought a little too skittish and subtle now and then, he nevertheless yields to nobody in a hearty distaste of all sorts of "humbugs, falsenesses, and pretensions." If he has not quite annihilated the fistic philosophy, which was invested with a kind of galvanic vitality by his opponent's coolness, courage, and consummate cleverness, he has at least stood up to it like a man, and fought it out as well as he could in his own way. Although not exactly a novice, he lays no claim to the distinguished dash of a Dutch Sam, or the slashing science of the Sunbury snob; his ineffectual fires pale also in the presence of the descendants of these illustrious heroes. In short, he is a very modest, unpretending caterer or contributor to this publication; but, far from not facing criticism, all he ever asks is a clear stage and no favour. That he has had; and now he takes leave.

LEGENDS OF THE VOSGES AND OLD LORRAINE.

BY ACTEON.

(Continued)

The objects of curiosity worthy of being visited within the circuit of Gérardmer, although exceedingly beautiful, are not of a first-class interest to the general tourist, who may have many opportunities of gratifying his taste for the grandiose and wonderful in other parts of the world. Besides the lakes of Gérardmer, Longemer, and Retournemer-each of which possesses peculiar beauties and attractions which will amply repay the trouble of a morning's drive over a rough crosscountry road, interspersed with lumps of granite, against the bumpings of which no carriage but a genuine Vosgean waggon could be proofthere is an exceedingly pretty waterfall about a league from the village, known as the "Saut-des-Cuves." This cascade, which is upon the little river Vologne, was some years ago considerably deeper

in its descent; but some blindly-avaricious dealer in wood, for the purpose of attempting to float the pine trees, which he had bought, down the river (an experiment which deservedly failed), destroyed the upper rocks over which the water descended; and there they lie in the basin beneath, as mementoes of the stupidity of the perpetrator of so sacrilegious a deed. Close to this cascade is the "Pont de la Vologne," an exceedingly good specimen of that description of architecture; and it really would be difficult to imagine anything more beautiful of the kind than the harmonious manner in which Art and Nature have been brought together to aid each other in the construction of this excessively pretty bridge. It was built in 1838, and consists of a single arch over the Vologne, which roars beneath your feet at a distance of fourteen yards; and the two pillars of the arch are natural, and of granite. At no great distance from this spot is the large flat rock, known as the stone of Charlemagne, of which I made mention before. About a mile from Gérardnier, towards the north, commences the "Vallée de Granges," the drive along which, although flat, is one of the prettiest that could be discovered in the Vosges. It passes along the banks of the Vologne, which in its rapid course roars and boils over the huge granite rocks which Nature seems to have cast there for the purpose of disputing its passage. On either side are high and precipitous mountains, which, as the road occasionally winds, afford by the sombre pine forests which cover them a cool and refreshing shade to the traveller during the heat of summer. The road passes through some rocky precipices, known as the "Basse-l'ours;" a locality dreaded in ages past as the principal haunt of the bears which in those days infested the Vosges. Close to the road-side, and about a league from Gérardmer, is perhaps the greatest curiosity in the whole neighbourhood; at any rate, it is the only existing specimen of the kind in the Vosges. It is a natural glacière; and is formed in some large masses of granite, which have some day or other rolled with a tremendous crash from the summit of the nearly perpendicular mountain which frowns above the place. Here during the extreme heat of July, as if it were in the middle of the severest winter, is ice formed within the rocks, although the sun shines full upon the spot during half the day. This phenomenon is accounted for by the strong currents of air which are continually passing up from the hollow heap of rocks, which are supposed to extend to a considerable distance within the earth, and which have a line of communication with the whole mass of broken rocks which extend up the side of the mountain. If feathers are put in, they are continually blown out by the current of air; which, according to the thermometer, is invariably below the freezing point. The contrast from heat to cold is exceedingly striking, as you turn out of the road in the midst of a scorching July sun, approaching the spot within a dozen yards, where the atmosphere is that of an ordinary ice-house. The characters, manners, and customs of the inhabitants of the Vosges are indelibly portrayed upon each of the two divisions of that depart

In that formed by the arrondissements of Epinal, Mirecourt, and Neufchâteau, where the people of the places have become more advanced in civilization, and accustomed to a more extended commerce with the rest of the world, their manners are more refined and

gentle, and their ideas less crude and primitive; whilst in the neighbourhood of Remiremont, St. Dié, and Gérardmer, a region of wild mountains and valleys, interspersed with impetuous torrents, where the winter lingers with all its rigours for nearly three parts of the year, the inhabitants are not only more active and industrious, but their character seems naturally formed, as it were, in the rough mould of the tempestuous climate in which they live. These people are not only extremely attached to their native hills, but to all the old usages, habits, and superstitions of their ancestors, which they designate as the good old customs of their fathers. In these enlightened days it would really be a matter of some difficulty to discover, even amongst the half-savage nations in the North of Europe and their almost inaccessible islands, a people more prone to cherish, not only in all the old traditionary stories of ghosts, fairies, &c., a perfect credence, but also an habitual observance, in their accustomed labours, of many of the superstitious and ridiculous practices which were hardly worthy of the most benighted epoch of the Druids. Take, for instance, the nanagement of their bees; about which they have not only the same absurd ideas that the lower classes have in England, as to their not thriving if purchased with money, but in the Val-d'Ajol they never omit placing upon the hives, on a Good Friday, a small wax cross, which has been blessed by the priest, to prevent the bees from being lost on that day if they should leave their homes. They, moreover, are not only excessively particular about allowing anything which can annoy the bees being placed near their hives; but, if a person were to utter a blasphemy or swear within their hearing, they would be under the greatest apprehension of seeing their most susceptible protegés take wing in the direction of a quieter and more religious locality. The inhabitants of the mountains of Gérardmer seem also equally superstitious with respect to the influence certain days may have upon their cattle. They give the most implicit credence to the tradition that during the time the midnight mass is being performed on the first day of the year, the cattle are gifted with the power of speaking and conversing with each other. I was assured by a respectable inhabitant of this neighbourhood, who was far too enlightened to put any credence himself in such absurd superstitions as these poor bewildered peasants are a prey to, that not a great many years ago a small farmer, who resided near the mountains, was determined to secrete himself in his stable at midnight instead of attending the accustomed mass, to be assured by his own experience whether his oxen really had the supernatural power of conversing or not during that still and solemn hour of the night. Just as the clock announced the departure of the by-gone year, the terrified guardian of the oxen heard one of them (for it was too dark to see anything) rise up in his stall and give a most thrilling yawn, when he inquired of his companion what he thought they should be employed in on the following day. His fellow-ox immediately replied "We shall have to draw our master to the cemetery ;" and thus the conversation ceased. The farmer, however, was so dreadfully overcome with fear at what he fancied he had heard, that he rushed out of the stable; and, relating to one of his children the conversation of the oxen, fell dead before his own fireplace-thus, in the opinion of the superstitious denizens

of these mountains, putting it beyond a doubt, as to the supernatural power possessed by animals at that period of the new year. Whether any person was secreted in the stable, before the arrival of the farmer, for the purpose of perpetrating this absurd yet unfortunate joke, or whether the naturally superstitious imagination of the man was so worked upon as to render him incapable of distinguishing between the poor animals' accustomed habit of rumination and the supernatural powers of utterance which had been attributed to him, must remain a mystery to the end of time.

In many of the more insignificant practices of superstitious credence, the Vosgean peasants evince as great a tenacity of observance as they might be supposed to cherish for the more important traditions of a popular nature. The old women who may be employed in laying out a dead body, and in stitching up the corpse in the funereal winding-sheet, seem to attract as much importance to the conservation of the needle which they have used upon that melancholy occasion, as the most religious Brahmin would to the possession of some sacred amulet which had been presented to him by his priest. No mountaineer would think of leaving home without first pouring into the fire a few drops of holy-water, as an offering to ensure him against the calamity of being struck with the lightning, so prevalent during the summer months in these elevated regions; por of setting out upon a journey through the forest without putting into his pocket a small sprig of the holy box, which had been duly consecrated by Monsieur le Curé upon the important anniversary of the "Dimanche des Rameaux," as a certain preventive against his wandering from his path and being inadvertently lost during his progress through these difficult and misty labyrinths. What true-bred inhabitant of the commune of Gérardmer would be presumptuous enough to sow his flax or hemp during the unpropitious week of the Rogation, unless he expected to see it grow no higher than his knees? or to commit to the earth the seed of his diminutive carrot crop, without duly muttering to himself during the operation the cabalistical words of "Gros comme ma téte, long comme ma cuiss?" The old women, too, who usually perform an equal share of labour with their husbands in all their agricultural persuits, declare that the labour would entirely be thrown away, unless they were to place their heads between the palms of their hands for a few seconds before they commenced the operation of sowing a crop of turnips, and that the larger the person's head is, the finer the turnips will become, Those persons who are in the habit of rearing poultry in the Vosges say, that a cock hatched upon a Good Friday crows at an earlier hour than others do; moreover, that if any one wickedly disposed were to throw to a cock a morsel of the "pain bénit," the bird would become, as it were, possessed, and attack every one who might come near him; and they pretend that if any of his feathers, when dead, were put into a plumon which was used upon the bed of a sick person, that person would be a much longer time in recovering from his illness than if the feathers had not been placed there. When a young girl wishes quietly to make it known to a lover who is distasteful to her, that his room is preferable to his company, upon his arrival she covers up the fire, and at other times lays a broom across the doorway, that he may see it upon en