410 MR. SPONGE'S SPORTING TOUR. 



ran? - with the outburst of the pack and the clamour of the fiehl. 

 "Talli ho!" "Talli ho!" " Talli ho!" "Hoop!" "Hoop!' 

 " Hoop ! " cried a score of voices, and " Twang ! twang ! twang ! " 

 went the shrill horn of the huntsman. The whips, too, stood in 

 their stirrups, cracking their ponderous thongs, which sounded 

 like guns upon the frosty air, and contributed their " Get together ! 

 get togetner, hounds ! " " Hark awag ! " " Hark away ! " " Hark 

 awag ! " " Hark ! " to the general uproar. Oh, what a row, what 

 a riot, what a racket ! 



Watchorn being " in " for it, and recollecting how many saw a 

 start who never thought of seeing a finish, immediately got his 

 horse by the head, and singled himself out from the crowd now 

 pressing at his horse's heels, determining, if the hounds didn't run 

 into their fox in the park, to ride them off the scent at the very 

 first opportunity. The " chumpine " being still alive within 

 him, in the excitement of the moment he leaped the hand-gate 

 leading out of the shrubberies into the park ; the noise the horse 

 made in taking off resembling the trampling on wood-pavement. 



" Cuss it, but it's 'ard ! " exclaimed he, as the horse slid two or 

 three yards as he alighted on the frozen field. 



George Cheek followed him ; and Multum-in-Parvo, taking the 

 bit deliberately between his teeth, just walked through the gate, 

 as if it had been made of paper. 



" Ah, ye brute ! " groaned Mr. Sponge, in disgust, digging the 

 Latchfords into his sides, as if he intended to make them meet in 

 the middle. " Ah, ye brute ! " repeated he, giving him a hearty 

 cropper as he put up his head after trying to kick him off. 



" Thank you ! " exclaimed Miss Glitters, cantering up ; adding, 

 " you cleared the way nicely for me." 



Nicely he had cleared it for them all ; and the pent-up tide of 

 equestrianism now poured over the park like the flood of an irri- 

 gated water meadow. Such ponies ! such horses ! such hugging ! 

 such kicking ! such scrambling ! and so little progress with 

 many ! 



The park being extensive — three hundred acres or more — there 

 was ample space for the aspiring ones to single themselves out ; 

 and as Lady Scattercash and Orlando sat in the pony phaeton, on 

 the rising ground by the keeper's house, they saw a dark-clad 

 horseman (George Cheek), Old Gingerbread Boots, as they called 

 Mr. Sponge, with Lucy Glitters alongside of him, gradually steal- 

 ma- away from the crowd, and creeping up to Mr. Watchorn, who 

 was sailing away with the hounds. 



" What a scrimmage ! " exclaimed her ladyship, standing up 

 in the carriage, and eyeing the 



Strange confusion in the vale below. 



