THE WRONG HORSE 49 



incessantly through the glass roof, driving us into corners, old 

 Saunders with a pencil clapping down damage in inflammatory 

 figures. I forget the sum " that the party upstairs," as Tom, 

 the best waiter in the world, called them, had to pay for their 

 after-supper frolic. 



My hounds hunted twice a week; and the night before 

 meeting, when the fixture was near Cranford Bridge, every stall 

 in the inn and village was full, and some one or other of my 

 friends came down to me over-night. On one occasion, every 

 stall at the inn having been full, the fixture being Cranford 

 Bridge, we had just commenced a run with a middling scent, 

 when, at the first check, a gentleman, Mr. Mercer, I believe, rode 

 up to another not badly dressed sportsman, and, after looking at 

 him for a moment, very red in the face, said, under a state of 

 considerable excitement, " Yes, I thought so ! Yes, it is ; " and, 

 addressing the other, he asked, " Pray, sir, what business have 

 you on my horse ? " 



The other, affecting the greatest indignation, replied, 

 " Your horse, sir ? What do you mean, sir ? Do you suppose, 

 sir, you're the only man in the world that has horses, sir ? " He 

 then evidently longed that the hounds would take up the 

 running again. 



" Yes, sir," replied the owner of the horse, " I'll swear that 

 you are on my hack, that I rode from London and left at 

 Cranford Bridge Inn. I'll have you taken into custody for horse- 

 stealing." 



The sportsman, finding that he was decidedly likely to be on 

 the wrong horse, then altered his tone, and coolly said, " Well, 

 sir, if it is your horse, I'll take him back again ; " and set off 

 for the inn at a hand-gallop, when at that moment the hounds 

 hit the scent, and the owner of the horse, briefly hesitating 

 which to ride after, followed me. 



It was the number of men that hunted with me that 

 hastened the impossibility of maintaining staghounds in so 

 populous a country ; and, in addition to this, the farmers of the 

 Harrow Vale were certainly the most untoward set of men to 



