El)t Carm- of a ^pui*. 87 



passers by, and the admiring glances of the numerous 

 lookers in — our somewhat monotonous existence 

 being only occasionally enlivened by a rubbing over 

 with a somewhat time-honoured "shammy" leather 

 in the hands of the latest apprentice. 



Where, I wonder, are they, who were then my 

 companions, now ? There were those long swan- 

 necks — they went to Mr. Flickems, the dealer's, if 

 I remember rightly ; and those little wire-like racing 

 spurs were, I fear, brought in the hands of Mr. 

 Brewer, of the Dragon, to the low level of trotting 

 matches. Then there were those little screw-heel 

 black fellows, which neither we nor, I fancy, old 

 Saddleflaps himself thought much of — they, lucky 

 little dogs, although they had been kept up till 

 the very moment of their sale shyly encased in 

 brown paper, behind us — they were purchased by 

 that good old country parson, Mr. Glebelands ; and, 

 before my departure from the little sporting town in 

 which we lived, I used, in the cold days of winter, 

 to gaze upon them with something akin to envy, as I 

 watched them jog by on market days safely screwed 

 into his reverence's well-polished heels, and with their 

 murky little heads well buried in the shaggy-coated 

 sides of that fattest and most tail-whisking of cobs. 



Ah ! mine has indeed been a varied existence since 

 then ! My butty and I were of the ordinary hunting 



