64 THE NOBLE SCIENCE. 



octogenarian divine, one of the most highly polished, 

 and, consequently, one of the most agreeable gentlemen 

 to be met with in the hunting-field or elsewhere, when he 

 has occasion to animadvert upon misconduct in any one 

 holding the rank and station of a gentleman, " Rely 

 upon it that fellow never had a grandfathe}:" There is 

 a fund of truth and meaning in these few words ; for 

 although it has but too frequently happened that some 

 scions of the aristocracy have proved degenerate (as if 

 determined to maintain the existence of black sheep in 

 every flock), it will be found in ninetij-nine cases out of 

 a hundred, where the harmony of any society is dis- 

 turbed by an obnoxious individual, that he is a cock- 

 tail ; a low, underbred fellovv ; one, in short, who never 

 could have had a grandfather. Thus it is with horses, 

 the better bred, the more manageable are they gene- 

 rally found ; they are seldom fractious or inclined to 

 waste their energies in petty ebullitions : they are not 

 excited by trifles to an exhibition of their might ; but, 

 at the covert side, in " the park," or amidst the din of a 

 crowded race-course, j^i'eserve a dignified sobriety of 

 deportment, characteristic of their order. If, on the 

 contrary, you see what is called, probably, a very nice, 

 spicy prad, exposing himself from the moment he leaves 

 his stable, with his head in the air, till that of his return 

 to it, with his tail over his back, going backwards, or, as 

 a sailor would say, with stern-way, at his fences, and 

 " kicking up a bobbery" for the sake of making *' much 

 ado about nothing," you may write him down as the pro- 



