^ peculiar JSting. 107 



have come into a little legacy, and am, consequently, 

 about to abandon my old vocation ; yet I cannot, 

 with a clear conscience, do so without to some extent 

 unburdening my breast, even should I, by so doing, 

 in some small degrea expose the foibles of my fellow 

 workers. Yes I am, or rather have been, a peculiar 

 being — an individual, too, to whom more sport has 

 fallen than to the ordinary run of mortals. Does any 

 gluttonous Meltonian, who has regularly hunted six 

 days a week, doubt that my words apply equally to 

 such as he ? If so, he is in error, for I unhesitatingly 

 assert that I have not unfrequently hunted eighteen ! 



Eighteen days a week! yes, eighteen; but perhaps 

 this assertion may, to the uninitiated, require some 

 little explanation, more particularly as I am but the 

 humble possessor of one useful horse (on which I 

 hang my towels), and am seldom, except when at 

 the offices of the Journals I represent, for many hours 

 together absent from my happy villa residence at 

 Brixton. 



Yet a kind friend here, and a "tip" there, does 

 marvels, and thus "from information received'' I 

 hunt, so far as the British public is concerned, 

 eighteen days a week. On Wednesday last, for 

 instance, I was in the first flight enjoying a clinker 

 with the Pytchley, and jumping almost insurmount- 

 able obstacles with ease. This great run I record 



