288 THE LIFE OF A SPORTSMAN 



hopes we stall find Sir Harry well. He is a worthy 

 gentleman, and a good friend to us coachmen ; and (look- 

 ing at Sir John) here's another of the same sort. I hears 

 of you, Sir John, and what you are doing for 'em on the 

 north road. I am told you have made some on 'em mend 

 their ways already. And now we are a-going to have 

 another good gentleman amongst us in these parts, and 

 God be thanked for him of course I means the owner 

 of these here horses ; but I arn't a-going to say all I think 

 on him before his face. And sure enough here is Mr. 

 Hargrave and Mr. Webber. Why, Mr. Hargrave, I 

 haven't seen you since you was at Christchurch, when 

 I tried to make you a coachman, but you was so terribly 

 fond of those hounds, there was no making nothing on 

 you in our line. As for the other gentlemen, I can't say 

 as I knows them." 



" Then I'll introduce you to them," said Frank Raby. 

 "This is Mr. Houghton, here is Mr. Goodall, and here 

 is Lord Edmonston ; the two first-named gentlemen you 

 must have known before, Jem, for they were at Oxford." 



" No doubt, sir," continued Jem, " but not in our line. 

 I am glad to see my Lord ; I likes to have a Lord about 

 my coach, it looks so respectable ; and we have as good 

 a one as any in England on our road, and a brother to 

 one that the world cannot beat. I believe, on my soul, 

 that he don't give away less than 400 a year to 

 coachmen and guards, besides having several of them 

 occasionally at his house, when they are sick." 



"You mean the Hon. Thomas Kington," said Jack 

 Webber, shaking Jem heartily by the hand ; " he is 

 an out-and-outer, as we say of a capital leader, but only 

 think of his being the son of a judge ! " 



" He is as good a judge in our line, as his father ever 

 was in his," said Jem ; " I don't think there is a steadier, 

 better coachman in England than his Honour is." 



" I have heard a great deal of Mr. Kington," said Lord 

 Edmonston, "but I never chanced to come across him." 



" Then, my Lord," replied Jem, " as the horses are put 

 to, I haven't time to tell you half I knows of him, now, 

 but as we goes along, I'll let you a bit into his history." 



"Are you all right?" cried Frank Raby, when he had 

 seated himself comfortably on his box ; and on the answer 

 in the affirmative being given, away went the team, the 

 skewbald leader taking to his collar without a single 



