Yours, devotedly, LADY GAY.

CESAREWITCH SELECTION.

  Oh, Weymouth is a pleasant place,
    And bathing tents are handy;
  When coming out, if white your face,
    Why, take a nip of Brandy.

P.S.—­This advice is not intended for confirmed Topers.

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“SUR LE TAPIS.”—­If the new Carpet Knight, Sir BLONDEL MAPLE—­which is our troubadourish way of spelling it—­be exceptionally successful on the Turf, isn’t he just the man to “make his ‘pile’ and cut it”?

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[Illustration:  A CONTENTED MIND.

He.  “A—­THE FACT IS, I DON’T CARE FOR POPULARITY.  I ONLY WISH MY BOOKS TO BE ADMIRED BY THOSE WHOSE ADMIRATION IS REALLY WORTH HAVING!”

She.  “AND WHO ARE THEY?”

He.  “THOSE WHO ADMIRE MY BOOKS!”]

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OUR BOOKING-OFFICE.

Not the least interesting figure in the circle of The Racing Life of Lord George Bentinck, which Messrs. BLACKWOOD produce in a handsome volume, is that of JOHN KENT, who, under the editorship of Mr. FRANK LAWLEY, tells the story.  KENT was trainer to Lord GEORGE during the period when, to quote the characteristic Disraelian phrase, his Lordship became “Lord Paramount of the Turf.”  It is forty-four years since Lord GEORGE was found lying dead on his face in the water-meadows near Welbeck Abbey.  Yet KENT remembers all about him—­his six feet of height, his long black frock-coat, his velvet waistcoat, his gold chain, and his “costly cream-coloured satin scarf of great length, knotted under his chin, with a gold pin stuck in it.”  These scarves cost twenty shillings a-piece, and it was one of Lord GEORGE’s fancies never to wear one a second time.  When he died whole drawersful of them were found, and honest JOHN KENT purchased half-a-dozen from his Lordship’s valet, who seems to have kept his eye on them.  Did he ever wear them on Sundays?  My Baronite who has been reading the book trows not.  JOHN KENT knows his place better than that, and when he goes the way that masters and servants tread together, the scarves will doubtless be found tucked away in his chest of drawers.  My Baronite is not able to take the same lofty view of the defunct nobleman who played at politics and worked at racing as does his faithful old servitor.  Lord GEORGE seems to have been, as the cabman observed of the late JOHN FORSTER, “a harbitery gent,” kind to those who faithfully serve him (as one is kind to a useful hound), but relentless to any who offended him or crossed his path.  Moreover, whilst, as his biographer devoutly says, he purified the turf, he was not, upon occasion, above fighting blacklegs with their own weapons.  The book gives clear glimpses of men and times which, less than half a century dead, will never live again.  It pleasantly testifies that, though no man may be a hero to his valet, Lord GEORGE BENTINCK remains one in the eyes of his trainer.