CHAPTER VII 



THE WHIPPER-IN 



" High o'er thy head wave thy resounding whip." 



SOMERVILLE. 



VERACIOUS French gen- 

 tleman writing on England, 

 observed that we were a 

 cruel, melancholy nation, 

 for in all parts of London 

 he saw written up, " Horses 

 tdkoi ill to bait," and 

 "Funerals performed here." 

 Doubtless the same observ- 

 ing traveller would assert 

 that people keep hounds, and servants to do nothing but whip 

 them. The name, " Whipper-in," certainl}' favours the sup- 

 position, at all events as much as the sign-boards did the con- 

 clusions Johnny Crapaud drew from them. Indeed others 

 than Frenchmen might be of that opinion, especially if they 

 heard the noisy, clamorous ratings that sometimes attend a 

 half civilized scratch pack. There is nothing, perhaps, so dis- 

 tinguishing as the silent quiet manner of the well-appointed, 

 well-disciplined establishment, and the roaring, cut-them-into- 



