366 A QUICK TOILET. 



heard o'er muckle of the same sound at Waterloo, 

 and ye have ne'er liked the screak of the pipe sin 

 sine." 



Thus it is with Pug : if he has heard the tongue of 

 harmony once he has heard " o'er much," and if this 

 is heard in a gorse cover or spinney, he knows it is 

 too near to be pleasant, so, like Lady Macbeth' s guests, 

 he stands, "not on the order of " his "going," but 

 goes " at once." For such reasons I doubt not but 

 that the generality of foxes in our best hunting 

 countries are wilder and in better wind than foxes 

 were formerly. 



When hounds were in the habit of getting on the 

 drag of their fox and hunting up to him, as he had 

 probably had a comfortable nap since his nightly 

 round, a good deal of slow hunting took place before 

 they got near him. This gave him time to collect 

 himself, stretch and yawn in a lazy gentleman-like 

 way, and turn out leisurely. He trotted or cantered 

 off to a thicker part of the cover, and then took a 

 good deal of badgering before he chose to make his 

 appearance in public, and when he did it was " all 

 without hurry or care." In all this our ancestors 

 showed the courtesy of the olden school ; but now, 

 however refined, in many respects, our manners may 

 be, we show no refinement to poor Pug: we burst 

 into the sanctity of his dormitory at once, and a 

 crack pack gives him no time to put his slippers on ; 

 so as he has a most unchristian-like objection to die on 

 his bed, he turns out like one of the " unwashed," 

 prudently considering that where life or death are 

 at stake appearances must be dispensed with. This 

 of course makes the burst doubly fast for going off 

 so close to him, the scent is fresh and strong, and 



