Hunting in the Golden Days. 73 



" All right," said Mouldy, " have your own way ; but 

 you may go further and fare worse. Remember it is 

 not in every place that you will be treated with the 

 same consideration as you have been here." 



j\Ir. Winebold came across this multum in parvo, on 

 Newmarket Heath, some months after he had left the 

 M.F.H.'s service. Remembering his face, he asked 

 him what he was doing to gain a livelihood. Payne 

 replied that up to the present he was starving, but that 

 he was looking out for a situation. Mr. Winebold, 

 being in want of a man of so vast an experience, at 

 once engaged him, knowing well that he was just the 

 one to look after his hunters and keep them in good 

 condition. And never, from that day up to the present, 

 has he regretted his choice, for he has never before 

 been carried so well and found his horses so fit. But I 

 am digressing from our tale. 



" What sort of a country, may I enquire," says 

 Oldwig, resuming the conversation in as bold a tongue 

 as he can muster, *' are you going to select for us 

 to ride over, because you must remember they must 

 be all fair hunting jumps, and if I might be 

 allowed to suggest I should have it over a moderately 

 easy country, for I do not suppose that Winebold 

 is particularly anxious to make Mrs. Winebold a 

 widow, for I am thinking that some of those oak posts 

 and rails about the Rosbery country smell rather strong 

 of coffins." 



" Don't mind me," says Winebold, now thoroughly 

 alive to the situation, " the stiffer the line the better I 

 shall like it." 



With this remark Mr. Winebold again tosses off a 

 collar-glass of port, for he remembers that he must 

 keep up his reputation, and the larger he talks the more 



