MB. SPONGE'S SPORTING TOUR. 431 



railway times, had got a hint not to engage the hotel beyond the 

 opening of the line. Consequently, he now had the great house for 

 a mere nothing until such times as the owner could convert it into 

 that last refuge for deserted houses — an academy, or a " young 

 ladies' seminary." Mr. Viney now, having plenty of leisure, 

 frequently drove his "missis" (once a lady's maid in a quality 

 family) up to Nonsuch House, as well for the sake of the airing — 

 for the road was pleasant and picturesque — as to see if he could 

 get the "little trifle" Sir Harry owed him for post-horses, bottles 

 of soda-water, and such trifles as country gentlemen run up scores 

 for at their posting-houses, — scores that seldom get smaller by 

 standing. In these excursions Mr. Viney made the acquaintance 

 of Mr. Watchorn ; and a huntsman being a character with whom 

 even the landlord of an inn — w r e beg pardon, hotel and posting- 

 house — may associate without degradation, Viney and Watchorn 

 became intimate. Watchorn sympathised with Viney, and never 

 failed to take a glass in passing, either at exercise or out hunting, 

 to deplore that such a nice-looking house, so " near the station, 

 too," should be ruined as an inn. It was after a more than usual 

 libation that Watchorn, trotting merrily along with the hounds, 

 having accomplished three blank days in succession, asked himself, 

 as he looked upon the surrounding vale from the rising ground of 

 Hammercock Hill, with the cream-coloured station and rose- 

 coloured hotel peeping through the trees, whether something 

 might not be done to give the latter a lift. At first he thought of 

 a pigeon match — a sweepstake open to all England — fifty members 

 say, at two pound ten each, seven pigeons, seven sparrows, 

 twenty-one yards rise, two ounces of shot, and so on. But then, 

 again, he thought there would be a difficulty in getting guns. 

 A coursing-match — how would that do? Answer: "No hares." 

 The farmers had made such an outcry about the game, that the 

 landowners had shot them all off, and now the farmers were 

 grumbling that they couldn't get a course. 



" Dash my buttons ! " exclaimed Watchorn ; " it would be the 

 very thing for a steeple-chase ! There's old Puff's hounds, and 

 old Scamp's hounds, and these hounds," looking down on the ill- 

 sorted lot around him ; " and the deuce is in it if we couldn't give 

 the thing such a start as would bring down the lads of the 

 'village,' and a vast amount of good business might be done. 

 I'm dashed if it isn't the very country for a steeple-chase ! " 

 continued Watchorn, casting his eye over Cloverley Park, round 

 the enclosure of Langworth Grange, and up the rising ground of 

 Lark Lodge. 



The more Watchorn thought of it, the more he was satisfied of 

 its feasibility, and he trotted over, the next day, to the Old Duke 

 of Cumberland, to see his friend on the subject. Viney, like most 



