60 THE LIFE OF A SPORTSMAN 



very good coachman 1 he answered, ' Why, Master Francis, 

 Sir John drives very well for a gentleman.' 1 " 



As the summer season approached, Frank was sometimes 

 put to a nonplus for his pastime ; for, although he was 

 making great proficiency in angling, and had commenced 

 trying his hand at the gun, change was now and then 

 sought for by him ; and he addressed his father, on the 

 eve of Whit Monday, with " To-morrow is our Whitsun 

 fair, papa ; I wish you would let Andrew and myself go 

 to it. I hear there is much fun there after the business 

 of the day is over. ;> 



" I am glad to hear it," replied the father ; " all nations, 

 ancient and modern, have allowed and encouraged sports 

 and festivities amongst the lower orders of the people, as 

 the best means of preventing greater and more serious 

 evils ; and he who would check them, when kept within 

 reasonable bounds, commits a great mistake. For my own 

 part, I myself, as a magistrate, rather encourage them, 

 than otherwise ; being convinced that, whatever tends to 

 make people happy, tends to make them good ; and you 

 know we have very little crime in these parts. Now, I 

 have no objection to your brother and yourself riding over 

 to the Whitsun fair, in the cool of the evening, taking 

 your words for not getting into any mischief." 



Andrew and his brother having partaken of an early 

 dinner, afterwards proceeded, on horseback, to the village 

 revels. And here they met with an incident, which it 

 may not be amiss to relate, as a caution to all fair-goers 

 who are not " wide awake." A person approached them 

 ,t full speed, on rather a shabby-looking pony, whom they 

 found to be the son of the miller at the Abbey, and one 

 who had an excellent opinion of himself, the result, per- 

 haps, of his old father's almost everyday boast, that " our 

 John is a very 'cute young chap, and not to be done by 

 any on 'em." "Oh, young gentlemen," exclaimed the 

 miller, pulling up the pony with a jerk, "I hope the 

 Squire is at home." "He is," replied Andrew; "but 

 what's the matter, John?" "Oh, sir," resumed ' our 

 John,' " I have been sarved such a trick and I could 

 have sworn the man warn't born that could have done it. 

 You know, gentlemen, our four-year-old colt, father bred 

 out of the blind mare, a real soldier 1 all over, and honestly 



1 In the time of war it is customary for dealers to say of a horse 

 that he would make a good soldier meaning a troop horse. 



