ISO THE LIFE OF A SPORTSMAN 



and manners, would, in these days, be placed at the head 

 of all the snobs. There was, also, in the room, a gentle- 

 man in whom he greatly delighted, inasmuch as he was 

 an owner of harriers and race-horses, and, by his extreme 

 good-nature and affability, a highly popular character 

 with the order of which his admirer made one. It 

 chanced that they sat opposite to each other at the 

 dinner-table ; and as the youthful blood of the yeoman 

 waxed warm with wine, he resolved to pay his favourite 

 Squire a compliment, and, taking courage, thus addressed 

 the chair : 



" Mr. President, may I be allowed to propose a toast 1 " 

 " By all means," replied the president. 

 " Then I will give you Down-Barton's glory" said the 

 man, who delighted in hounds and horses, and doated on 

 the Squire that was the owner of them. 



" Down- Barton's glory?" repeated the steward; "I 

 must beg an explanation of the toast, for I do not com- 

 prehend its meaning." 



" Then, sir, you shall have it," resumed the yeoman ; 

 " I mean Squire Cranbrook, and there he sits" (pointing to 

 his opposite neighbour). 



It was now the Squire's turn to pay a compliment, his 

 health having been drunk with great applause ; and this 

 is the way in which he did it. Sending for his servant, 

 he ordered him to go to a druggist's shop, and get half 

 a pint of syrup of buckthorn, which he was to put into 

 a bottle containing an equal quantity of claret, and, when 

 well mixed, to put it by him on the table. " Now, Mr. 

 President," said Squire Cranbrook, " allow me to give a 

 toast." 



" By all means," answered the steward ; " always happy 

 to hear from Mr. Cranbrook." 



" Then I'll give you the health of my opposite neigh- 

 bour, Mr. Ridge ways, a good sportsman, and a dear lover 

 of horses and hounds," replied Squire Cranbrook. " Stand 

 up, if you please, Mr. Ridgeways (himself also rising from 

 his seat at the moment, with a bumper of claret in one 

 hand, and the delightful mixture in the other). Now, 

 sir," said he to his admirer, " to convince you of the high 

 sense I entertain of the compliment you have paid me, in 

 proposing my health in the nattering manner in which 

 you have done it, we will, if you please, pledge to each 

 other in a bumper, out of the same bottle." 



