Hunting in the Golden Days. 35 



cellar myself, but sent down the under-footman and 

 told him to decanter it carefully. The master then 

 rang the bell, as you know, and told me to hurry up 

 the wine, and then another footman saw a bottle 

 standing on the dresser in my pantry, and poured 

 it into a clean decanter, and handed it to me quite 

 unsuspicious. I placed it before you gentlemen, but 

 as a matter of fact the wine you drank was a bottle of 

 half-crown port that we had bought that morning from 

 the village inn for soup flavouring. Don't mention it 

 to anyone, sir, please, or I should doubtless lose my 

 place.' 



" It is needless to say that I never divulged the secret 

 of the last bottle to my uncle's guests, to whom the 

 reputation of my uncle's cellar is still untarnished." 



After a prolonged sitting, for Oldwig is loth to leave 

 so good a vintage, the gentlemen at length rise from 

 the table to join the ladies in the drawing-room. Before 

 going upstairs, however. Sir John leads his guests to 

 the kitchen, where they lend their countenance for a 

 few minutes to the servants' ball which is taking place 

 this evening. What a glorious old kitchen it is, with 

 its highly-burnished spits, like a small armoury ; well- 

 scoured copper pans and other culinary utensils all tend 

 to give it a homely, if not an artistic appearance. The 

 dance is at its height when Sir John and his party 

 enter the kitchen, and though their presence perhaps 

 rather damps the ardour of the dancers for a time, 

 the not-unnatural shyness soon wears off, and the 

 dance goes on as merrily as ever. Great is the rivalry 

 between old Jowles, the huntsman, and William 

 the coachman for the first dance with the pretty house- 

 maid ; they both declare that she has promised it to 

 them. They are, however, both married men, and 



