lo Mr. Grimboy. 



is no danger about it, and it makes one look like 

 an out-and-out sportsman, a tip-top Nimrod, he thinks, 

 to get back to town well splashed all over with 

 mud, so he drops his reins on his horse's neck, and 

 proceeds very deliberately to eat his sandwiches, and 

 take a suck at his " monkey," as he calls it. The Scrubs 

 is the place of all others for sportsmen like Jack. It 

 consists of a large extent of scrub, surrounded on three 

 sides by big woods ; it is wet there at all times, so after 

 heavy rain it is in beautiful order, and Jack and Co.'s 

 horses sink into the binding clay over their hocks at 

 nearly every step. In former days it used to be a great 

 resort of foxes, in fact was one of the greatest strongholds 

 for them in the country, but two lines of railway run right 

 through the heart of it now, besides which the shooting 

 is let to one of the wrong sort, who abominates ''Sly 

 Reynolds," and, as he is aided and abetted by a vulpecide 

 in the shape of a keeper, it is not to be wondered at that 

 of late the Scrubs have very often been drawn blank. 

 Indeed, a find there now is the exception, not the 

 rule. 



A greater contrast to each other in the two sportsmen 

 we have introduced cannot well be imagined. Mr. Jack 

 Sprouter is a small, pert-looking little gent, with sandy 

 hair and whiskers. He wears a cap, and a particularly 

 badly-made red coat. A stick-up collar, with large blue 

 spots, surrounds his little neck, and round the collar 

 again comes a blue satin tie (with white spots this time), 

 folded in a bow, the ends terminating in a fringe. His 

 breeches are of white cord, and look as if they had been 

 shrunk in the wash. His boots, very badly blacked, 

 have brown tops, and, to add to the general effect, he has 



