CAPTAIN SHABBYHOUNDE 273 



was disconcerted, when he committed himself by 

 writing the following letters : — 



" George Inn, Northampton. 

 "Sir, — Understanding the Honourable Mr. Milksop has 

 been looking at a horse of yours, i shall be glad to kno when 

 it will suite you for me to com over and examine him and so on, 

 yours to command, 



"Simon Strutt, Stud Groom. 



"To Captain Shabbyhounde, Market Harborough." 



The Captain replied as follows : — 



"Sir, — Your master has bought my horse, and he only 

 remains in my stable to suit his convenience, and save the horse 

 a journey southward, when he is going west. He had a hard 

 day at Kelmarsh, and as we thought he would not be fit for four 

 or five more, we arranged that he should stay here, and I would 

 send him to meet you at Dunchurch on Friday, where Mr. 

 Milksop proposes riding him with Mr. Osbaldeston's hounds on 

 Saturday. — Yours obediently, 



"George Shabbyhounde. 



"To the Honble Julius Milksop's Groom, Northampton." 



We should have premised that Mr. Milksop was a 

 mere bird of passage, hunting his way to Leamington 

 Priors, where the Viscountess Creamjug had gone in 

 a terrible hurry, suffering from an affection of the toe 

 (what common people would call a corn), which she 

 preferred placing under the silent treatment of Doctor 

 Jephson, to undergoing the public gibbeting of Monsr. 

 Eisenburg, or any of the advertising fraternity. 



Before Captain Shabbyhounde's answer reached 

 the anxious hands of Mr. Strutt, that vile jade rumour 

 had spread some very unpleasant stories respecting 

 the Captain's mode of doing business. Indeed it 

 appeared that a jury of grooms had sat on him only 

 the season before, when they returned an unanimous 

 verdict that he was a "snob," and strongly recom- 

 mended that he " should be transported back to the 

 country from whence he came, being totally unfit," as 

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