286 THE LIFE OF A SPORTSMAN 



Old Adam ne'er example took by other people's ways, 

 Nor ever went to route or balls, to concerts or to plays ; 

 For concert-rooms and playhouses, they were not built then, 

 And Eve was never once accused of flirting with the men. 



For Adam, &c. 



At last poor Adam's days had run their course, and then, poor 



man, he died, 



Xor was there even one stood weeping by his bed-side ; 

 Without a good oak coffin they laid him in his clay, 

 Nor were they afraid of body-snatchers stealing him away. 



For Adam, &c.'" 



Frank Rabij. " Well clone, Jack ! you sing like a 

 nightingale, and the sight of your good-humoured face 

 adds much to your melody. We will have one more 

 bottle of claret, a rubber at whist, in the other room, and 

 to bed in good time a rule I mean to adopt in my house, 

 to the best of my power to do so. It is written of Moses, 

 of whom we have just been speaking, that at the age 

 of 100 years, 'his eye was not dim, neither was his 

 natural force abated ; ' and as I hope to ride a-hunting 

 at fourscore, at least, I mean to keep early hours, as no 

 doubt Moses did.'' 



Jack Webber. " But, as a sportsman, if you wish to be 

 old, you must not regard all that Moses tells you. For 

 example ; he says, ' thou shalt not wear a garment of 

 divers sorts, as of linen and woollen together.' Now, who 

 can expect to hunt and shoot, in this country, without 

 suffering from rheumatism, if he do not wear flannel under 

 his shirt ; as for myself I should have been frozen as stiff 

 as the kitchen poker, many a night during the frost of 

 last winter but one, if I had not been allowed to roll 

 myself up in flannel." 



Frank Raby. " Moses lived in a warm climate, Jack." 



The first step, after breakfast, in a young sportsman's 

 house, is to the stables, a custom which was not departed 

 from by the party at Farndon House ; and when, on enter- 

 ing it, four vacant stalls were observed, Jack Webber 

 exclaimed : 



" Hey-day, Frank ! what is become of your skewbald 

 team 1 " meaning the one to which the chestnut piebald 

 belonged. 



"They went last night to the 'Barley Mow,' twelve 

 miles from hence, to take us on to Townlev Park, twelve 

 miles further, to call on that excellent fellow, as well as 



