THE NOBLE SCIENCE. 295 



There was but one drawback to the pleasures of the 

 day — the absence of the owner, who was then at his 

 seat in Wales ; — but we were, on this account, perhaps, 

 the better able to appreciate the regularity of his sys- 

 tem, by the notice of a circumstance which would other- 

 wise have been the less remarkable. I allude to the 

 perfect order which prevailed around, and the extreme 

 attention and civility on the part of all, by whom we, 

 a party of unknown and unexpected visitors, were 

 received. In the time of George the Fourth, " the first 

 gentleman of the age," it was observable, that no domes- 

 tics were so obsequiously attentive, or correct in their de- 

 portment, as those of the court. Respectful demeanour 

 to all comers is ever the attribute of gentlemen's ser- 

 vants. Impertinence, or insolent indifference, is seldom 

 met with, but in the tinselled lacquey of the purse-proud 

 parve?m ; but it is not always that things will shew such 

 evidence of the master's eye, when he is some hundred 

 miles removed, as those which must attract the notice 

 of any observant stranger at Tedworth. Here, from the 

 huntsman to the helper — from the stud-groom to the 

 stable-boy — from servants within to those without doors, 

 all bespoke the retinue of a man maintaining that elevated 

 position in society, which I would hold as one (and 

 that not amongst the least) of the qualifications of a 

 master of foxhounds. To Mr. Northeast, the gentle- 

 man officiating as agent for Mr. A. Smith, to whom I am 



