MB. SPONGE'S SPOUTING TOUR. 213 



he must be connected with the peerage some way ; his mother, 

 perhaps, had been the daughter of a peer, and she gave herself an 

 infinity of trouble in hunting through the "matches" — with' what 

 success it is not necessary to say. The old ladies unanimously 

 agreed that he was a most agreeable, interesting young man ; and 

 though the young ones did pretend to run him down among them- 

 selves, calling him ugly, and so on, it was only in the vain hope of 

 dissuading each other from thinking of him. 



Mr. Puffington still stuck to the "anw/zin' pop'lar man" 

 character ; a character that is not so convenient to support in the 

 country as it is in town. The borough of Swillingford, as we have 

 already intimated, was not the best conducted borough in the 

 world ; indeed, when we say that the principal trade of the place was 

 poaching, our country readers will be able to form a very accurate 

 opinion on that head. "When Puff took possession of Hanby there 

 was a fair show of pheasants about the house, and a good sprinkling 

 of hares and partridges over the estate and manor generally ; but 

 refusing to prosecute the first poachers that were caught, the rest 

 took the hint, and cleared everything off in a week, dividing the 

 plunder among them. They also burnt his river and bagged his 

 fine Dorking fowls, and all these feats being accomplished with 

 impunity, they turned their attention to his fat sheep. 



" Poacher" is only a mild term for " thief." 



Puff was a perfect milch-cow in the way of generosity. He gave 

 to everything and everybody, and did not seem to be acquainted 

 with any smaller sum than a five-pound note : a five-pound note 

 to replace Giles Jolter's cart-horse (that used to carry his own game 

 for the poachers to the poulterers at Plunderston) — five pounds to 

 buy Dame Doubletongue another pig, though she had only just 

 given three pounds for the one that died — five pounds towards the 

 fire at farmer Scratchley's, though it had taken place two years 

 before Puff came into the country, and Scratchley had been living 

 upon it ever since — and sundry other five pounds to other equally 

 deserving and amiable people. He put his name down for fifty to 

 the Mangeysterne hounds without ever being asked ; which 

 reminds us that we ought to be directing our attention to that 

 noble establishment. 



It is hard to have to go behind the scenes of an ill-supported 

 hunt, and we will be as brief and tender with the cripples as we 

 can. The Mangeysterne hounds wanted that great ingredient of 

 prosperity, a large nest-egg subscriber, to whom all others could be 

 tributary — paying or not as might be convenient. The consequence 

 was they were always up the spout. They were neither a scratch 

 pack nor a regular pack, but something betwixt and between. 

 They were hunted by a saddler, who found his own horses, and 

 sometimes he had a whip and sometimes he hadn't. The estab- 



