enough to seat six persons. Four posts were sunk in the ground, and, by means of some cross-beams and a couple of stout ropes and pulleys, worked by two men, the passengers were lifted up and let down in a jig-jog way that gave unbounded satisfaction to the customers. T h e tariff was one half-penny per head per minute, or half-a-crown an hour; but ten minutes was considered a sufficient turn. Cooper always stood by officiating as engineer-in-chief, cashier, and time-keeper—and there, with an old silver turnip of a watch in hand, he performed his duties with the most undeviating punctuality. H e did good business, and worked hard till after the last race, when he usually adjourned to the next drinking-booth, and left the aerial machine to look after itself until next morning. T h e jolly old fellow was a general favourite, and even the most mischief-loving scamp (there were none of our latter-day larrikins) would never think of injuring him or his belongings. It was not to be always " cakes and ale" with the veteran Vulcan, for a regular merry-go-round soon drove him out of the running, and he went completely to the dogs soon after. W h e n the Benevolent Asylum was opened " O l d Cooper" became itsfirstinmate, and he gave up the ghost there more than twenty years ago. T h o u g h off races were occasionally held at Sandridge, near Elsternwick and Williamstown, and country meetings came to be established in different part of the province, the Melbourne gathering was the universally-accepted event of the year. T h e race nights were noisy ones in town, and m a n y a rough handling the " Bobbies" got; but if there was a cut head the roysterers were generous in supplying a sticking-plaster of more patent healing power than Apothecaries' liniments. Bank notes would pass to the police exchequer if the phlebotomist were watch-housed as a solatium for either wounded head or dignity, and the police office charge-sheets were every morning so light as to be inexplicable to those w h o were neither in nor knew of the secret agency operating as a peacemaker. There was also nightly a Race-ball, a dinner or other festive demonstration at the Lamb Inn, the Prince of Wales, or some other principal place of entertainment, and, taken as a whole, the Old Turf times were infinitely more jolly and enjoyable, notwithstanding all their drawbacks, than people of the present generation can bring themselves to imagine. T h e writer of this sketch was the first to suggest the changing of the Grand Stand and winning-post from near the river to the hill. H e was engaged on a Melbourne journal, and, when the paragraph appeared, was laughed at and chaffed for giving expression to a notion so preposterous. But he was no idle dreamer, and he knew that it was only a question of time when he suggestion would be turned into a reality. H e has often since stood on " the Hill," gazing across at the whereabouts of the Old Stand, and looking around and over the heads of the m a n y thousands congregated on a C u p Day, his m e m o r y strays back to the olden times, when the circumstances above detailed occurred, and he wonders still at what the unfathomable w o m b of the dim future m a y have in store for the Flemington Racecourse. H e stood on the hill on the first occasion of the winning-post being planted beside it. W h o will be on " the Hill" or# the day when the last race will be run there ? A s there will, some time or other, be a last man, so will there be assuredly a last race meeting at Flemington ; but when that event will come off is a question to which there can n o w be no answer.
VENERY.
Bonwick, in his Discovery and Settlement of Port Phillip, thus notices the earliest meet in the hunting field:—"The first hunt with hounds was on 28th August, 1839. There were fifteen red-coats, led on by ' Old T o m Brown.' A kangaroo was started; the chase was brilliant; the forester distanced the horses and dogs ; and w e have reason to believe, he regained his family h o m e in safety." If the historian uses the term " red-coats" literally, as implying that thefifteenNimrods were so costumed, I a m disposed to question the accuracy of the statement, for it is extremely improbable that there was anything like fifteen fox-hunting uniforms then in the district. Furthermore, though this might have been thefirstmounted hunt " with hounds," it most assuredly was not the first kangaroo-hunting
