Should it be demanded-Who is Iron-Mask? only let knaves be patent to him at "The Corner," in the Sporting Crib, in what is called High Life or Low Life, the ruse of a trip to Epsom by a lame aristocratic Derby Crack, working the "office" all Sunday to "get out or the scratching of a whole plebeian "lot" long under bond, more holding and scarcely less bloody than that of Shylock-it will soon be seen, at any rate, that he is not Willing to wound and yet afraid to strike."

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Of what import is it if he be by "I wish you may get it," out of "All round my Hat;" own brother to the Hottentot Venus or the Pig-faced Lady, of whom Jack observed that he did not know justly which to prefer, the commanding figurehead of the one, or the raking stern of the other; or whether he trace his pedigree direct to the "Veiled Prophet of Khorassan ?" though in the latter case he should claim the ancestral homage.

"Then on that throne to which the blind belief
Of millions raised him, sat the Prophet Chief,
The Great Mokanna. O'er his features hung
The veil, the silver veil, which he had flung
In mercy there, to hide from mortal sight
His dazzling brow, till man could bear its light.
On either side, with ready hearts and hands,
His chosen guard of bold Believers stands."

My incognito will be preserved as rigidly as that of my prototype, "a man who lived and died a mystery, which to this day has never been unveiled in spite of all the efforts made to unravel it during nearly a century and a half, and to whose memory even the grave denies

But, barring the Mask, I have no desire to maintain any parallel with the poor wretch shut out from all converse with mankind, and drawing the breath of life through a moving dungeon. My tastes and habits are better sketched in the language of our English Cicero:

"Thus I live in the world as a spectator of my species. I can discern the errors in the economy, business, and diversion of others, better than those who are engaged in them, as standers-by discover blots which are apt to escape those who are in the game.”

The contents will speak for themselves with more persuasive eloquence than all the rounded sentences of profession; but the "Gentle Reader" is requested to recollect that the work cannot get into full swing until the advent of the Racing Season.

Into the one or the other class, this PILOT or GUIDE must speedily resolve itself—

'One with a flash begins, and ends in smoke; The other out of smoke brings glorious light."

To achieve the latter will be the strenuous effort of

IRON MASK.

TURF

SYNOPSIS OF 1849,

AND PROBABLE WINNERS OF 1850.

WHAT is likely to be the Winner of the Derby, Oaks, and St. Leger of 1850, is in every one's mind, but in nobody's mouth, unless he choose to seal with a wager the opening of his lips.

As an off-hand answer, nine out of ten of the sporting world, to the query of "Would Pyrrhus, Mendicant, and Sir Tatton Sykes, the trio of 1846, be the celebrities of 1850?" would give it in the negative; but to a similar proposition as to 1847, 1848, and 1849, would yield it freely in the affirmative as regards the horses, but with limitation touching the mares.

Van Tromp, Cossack, and War Eagle were not to be matched since the Bay Middleton, Gladiator, Venison, and Slane of 1836; had Surplice been absent, Canezou, could not, if started fit to run, have missed the triple wreath, which could have been repeated by Lady Evelyn had the world not been electrified with The Flying Dutchman.

of

As to the absolute winners of the Oaks, for a series years they have been a very rotten lot, nor would they have stood the ghost of a chance with the consecutive heroines of 1839 and 1840, Deception and Crucifix, either of whom, if well ridden and sound, were of superior quality, not alone to the colts of their year, but of the average of years.

Or, imagine a Queen of Trumps, but four years prior to Fulwar Craven's daughter of Defence, out of Lady Stumps, pitted against the female cracks of the year from 1841 to 1848; to wit, Ghuznee, Our Nell, Poison, The Princess, Refraction, Mendicant, Miami, and Cymba.

To arrive at the likehood, or the reverse, of our having seen the winners of the coming season, let us take a bird's-eye of the past and judge for ourselves whether the balance of probabilities incline to those who have tripped it on the light fantastic toe, or to those whom yet——

"The dark unfathomed caves of stables bear!"

Let me first select what in my opinion were, arranging them in alphabetical nomination,

THE BEST PUBLIC RUNNERS.

Mr. Bowes's Brother to Epirote.

Mr. Bradshaw's Clincher.

Mr. Dixon's Blarney.

Mr. W. Edward's Bolingbroke.

Lord Eglinton's The Knight of Avenel, Probity.

Mr. Forth's Rhedycina.

Mr. Fowler's Jack Briggs, (St. Leger).

Mr. Freeman's Impression.

Mr. Gannon's Regina.

Mr. Gordon's William the Conqueror, Bee Hunter.

Mr. Gratwicke's The Nigger, Countess.

Sir J. Hawley's Tingle.

Mr. Jaques's Mildew.

Mr. Meiklam's The Italian.

Mr. Pedley's Sweetheart.

Colonel Peel's Hardinge.

Duke of Richmond's Ghillie Callum, Compass, Claymore. Mr. Stephenson's Voltigeur.

By strange ill luck, the two best fillies out last season are neither in the Derby, Oaks, nor St. Leger; Harriott and Officious, the daughter of Gladiator and Pantalonade, virtually never beaten in seven performances, proving as she did at Shrewsbury that it was the start only which caused her to succumb to Countess of Albemarle at Chester, and the descendant of Pantaloon and Baleine running and winning eight engagements.

Were they in the Oaks they would be decidedly first favourites, and it would be a very nice point between them for choice, probably more dependent upon money than merit.

Bee Hunter by Gladiator, out of Valentine, the dam of War Eagle, were he in the Derby I should prefer to anything, as I do pin my present faith upon him for the St. Leger, expecting to see him pull through the 2,000 Guineas Stakes very easily. It is rather severe upon the Sire that he should be unrepresented at Epsom by either Bee Hunter or Harriott, or he would have an uncommonly fine chance of doing with his stock at 3 years old more even than did that of his Conqueror on the hills of Surrey in 1836, that is, carry off the Oaks in addition to the Derby and St. Leger.

It is wholly unprecedented that an animal who to a certainty would have been the first favourite for the Derby should have had four engagements--have won three of