344 Cross Country with Horse and Hound 



of the deepest dye on the face of the huntsman, — the 

 Doctor begins an account of what happened that day to 

 the person whom the Master was pleased to call his " new 

 entry": 



" My friend, Mr. Bankclerk, whom most of you met or 

 ran against to-day, was, as the Master has said, out to-day for 

 the first time to hounds. I had prescribed hunting for him, 

 as I do in most cases ["Hear, hear!"], especially for 

 insomnia and nervous prostration. It has been rather hard 

 medicine for young Bankclerk, but if he perseveres it will 

 cure him ; that is, providing, of course, it does not kill him. 



" It was only yesterday morning that we were discussing 

 the matter in my office when our liveryman dropped in to 

 collect his bill. Without mentioning names, I may say, to 

 distinguish him from the other liverymen of our town, 

 that he occasionally rides to hounds. I have never seen 

 him off a highway or out of a lane, myself, if there was a 

 fence between it and him. He generally has a horse or 

 two to sell or trade — he is never at all particular which, 

 though of the two he prefers a trade; and to swop horses 

 with a gypsy is his special delight. You all know whom I 

 mean. He wears a waistcoat of a horse-blanket pattern, a 

 leather watch-guard, a horse's head for a scarf-pin, and cuff- 

 buttons to match. He wears boots and riding-breeches 

 seven days in the week, and is without exception the horsiest 

 man in the county. Indeed, he looks like a horse and 

 smells like a horse-stable. 



"'Well, Doctor,' began our liveryman, striking his 

 favourite attitude — his legs spread, his back to the wall, 

 and his thumbs in the arm-holes of his vest, the better to 



