... SKA TING A T OXFORD GIVEN only a sharp frost and a fine day, and the Christ Church Meadow is just now a social concentration and amalgam of Oxford. Its assemblage is quite as variously picturesque as that which a few weeks hence will be thronging to the Berkshire bank of the Isis, when, in technical parlance, the torpids are on. As for the spectacle, its attractions are infinitely superior ...

... THE dulness of the winter seems at length to h1ave passed away, and the turf world is now astir with several subjects of general interest. First, of course, are the Spring handicaps, for which the acceptances have been published this week. Even before they appeared thcre had been some betting on the Chester Cup and the Grand National, but now it has grown comparatively heavy and the Lincoln ...

... COURSING AT ALTCAR Tjli. greatest recent sporting event has, of course, been the Waterloo Cup. It was first established in 1836 as an eight-dog stake, under the name of the Altcar Stakes, and the number of the entries doubled each year in suc- cession, till in 1838 it had an entry of thirty-two. In 1857 the entry was again doubled, and, at this point, the Waterloo Cup has remained ever since. ...

... THE GRAND NATIONAL THIS year the great steeplechase at Livcrpool has created tflore than usual excitement, nearly fifty horses having been backed, and several of them very heavily. As soon as the weights were out, The Doctor was at once talked of as being ell in. The Colonel also gained some share of suppu.1t, evcn thoughl he had a great deal miore weight to carry than when,, he Nvon last ...

... SINCE the Grand National there has been little actual racing of interest. The meceting at Cottenharn w as, how- ever, signalised by the victory of Primrose ov'er The J)octor, and Rugby by the success of Knock:any. In our hurried account of Liverpool, we noticed that The Doctor received a severe dressing in the tnall struggle home, and that was quite sufficient to account for his defeat at Cot- ...

... WE have depicted here some of the most picturesque contests of the modem palestra borrowed from the athletic sports of the University of Oxford. That these games are held in that honoured place, the Athens of England (a modern Athens though it be), has a special significance, and justifies a word of comment. It is difficult to compare things so widely dissimilar as the Athens of Pericles and ...

... THE UNIVERSITY BOAT RA CE THE University Boat Race for IS7o has excited more than usual attention, as Cambridge, after nine defeats in succession, was thought to have rather a better chance this season. The Cambridge crew were the first to appear on the scene of action, arriving at Putney on the 24th tilt., and taking up their quarters, as usual, at the Star and Garter. '1he following is a ...

... l. ?? 7SIJY ;BOAT RA CES *l-l a:n EInglish lad 1-ut once fairly feel the oar in his hands, and you sec the tric descend!a.lnt of the old Scandinavian piratical stock. The instincts of his seafaring ancestors stiailhtway revive in him, atnd because lie is on the water he fecls that he is at home.' In these words, or in words to this effect, somewhere or other in oine of hi; (-ointless treatises ...

... SPORTING NO TES Ii recent settling-day at Tattersall's showed the magni- tII ! of betting transactions during the Epsom week. 'Ai itcver the racing may have been, at any rate the * ltl)lmng was very heavy. But allowing for the difference between this year's meeting and that of 1869, which the absence of the two-year-old racing caused, Epsom showed but little falling off. The only events of ...

... THE PAST BOAT RA CE: ITS HEROES, HEROINES, AND CHARA CTERISTICS IT has been objected to the many eccentric schemes which have been pro- pounded for the vindication of feminine dignity and the assertion of feminine rights, that their success will inevitably have the effect of bringing the two sexes into a competition which will generate an unnatural jealousy and destroy every sentiment of ...

... SPORTIN.G NO TES No cvent of any intcrest has occurrccl during the past week in the racing world. General attention has becn con- centratcel upon athletic sports, and chiefly on thc contest between the two Universities, and thc amatcur champion meeting at Lillie Bridge,. The first affair camne off amidst splendid weather, and was witncssed by a very fashion- able company of spectators. The ...

... SI'ORTING NOTYES THE chief feature of the Newmarkct Craven Mecting this year has been the splendid weather with which it has been favoured. To our mind it is, under these circumstances, the most pleasant racing gathering of the whole year. There is no crowd, and if you stay at Cambridge and ride over each day, there is opportunity for a gallop on near- ing Newmarket from the end of the Beacon ...