148 THE HOUSE AND HIS EIDER. 



reasons we have explained, each mounted on the very 

 best of their stud, it need hardly be stated that the lot 

 of horses before us are an accumulation of the finest speci- 

 mens in the world ; and yet with the highest breeding, 

 courage, and condition, with magnificent figures, and 

 with bone and substance sufficient to carry, through deep 

 ground, from twelve to eighteen stone, there is a calm, 

 unassuming demeanour in their walk, which it seems 

 almost impossible sufficiently to admire. In like manner, 

 among the riders, nobody appears to have the smallest dis- 

 position to talk about what he is going to do, or apparently 

 even to think of where he is proceeding. A man from 

 Warwickshire will perhaps describe the run he had there 

 on Thursday; while another will fashionably say to a 

 Leicestershire friend " Did you do anything on Fri- 

 day ?" but most of the field are conversing as they ride 

 along, not at all about foxes, but about Lords Palmerston, 

 Derby, Italy, the Pope, &c. 



On arriving close to Waterloo Grorse, Charles Payne 

 pulls up to remain stationary for a couple of minutes, 

 surrounded by his hounds, who, instead of gazing at his 

 face, are all looking most eagerly at the covert, until 

 the two whips, getting round it, have each taken up a 

 position on the other side. "Now-TiiKN-little-bitches /" 

 says Charles, as, with a twitch corresponding with his 

 voice, he waves forwards his right hand, in which is 



