The Merry Past 



day a pony, laden with meats, wines, and strong beer, 

 was duly dispatched. About eleven, or half-past, 

 the hounds usually turned out ; sometimes a hare 

 was put up, but most generally nothing was done 

 till towards one, when, as was the saying, " Now, then, 

 the Squire's making the right cast, we shall find 

 directly " ; and off the field would trot for Holywell. 

 As the half-dozen men who on most occasions formed 

 his field were all known to Mr. Leche, a general 

 invitation to luncheon was uniformly the conse- 

 quence ; indeed, it was shrewdly suspected that a 

 deep old file, who never missed a meet, from Chester, 

 went there expressly with the view of feeding, as 

 he was never seen after the banquet. The table 

 groaned under a spread — all cold — fit for the Cor- 

 poration of Bristol ; meanwhile the horses were 

 regularly stabled, and the hounds shut up by the 

 veteran Joe, and a salvo of corks fired. The Squire 

 was a lover of toasted cheese, and this dish always 

 came bubbling in by way of dessert. The party 

 then drew round the fire, " just to have something 

 warm before starting, for luck.'* Tobacco was placed 

 upon the table, and every man was furnished with a 

 yard of clay. 



Mr. Leche's company was sought after more than 

 that of any other man in his neighbourhood ; and 

 so original was his wit, and so happily was it applied, 

 that he was ever the very life and soul of every party 

 he was in. Although naturally abstemious — so much 

 so that when alone he drank but two glasses of wine 

 after his dinner — yet in a party he never failed to 



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