186 THE HITNTING FIELD 



yard, had run the horse up to their utmost Hmits, and still he 

 stood below what Blatherington Brown had in his note-case. 

 Accordingly he blurted out ''fifty I " on the top of forty- seven, 

 and turned on his heel with a m'-gligi sort of air, as much as to 

 say, " he's worth that if he's worth anything." 



" Fcfty! going for f(?fty ! are you all done at ft-fty !" exclaimed 

 Tattersall, with a quick glance around, and in another instant 

 the hammer was down. 



Blatherington wanted a second horse, for he was going to 

 Brighton, where he meant to play old gooseberry with the 

 Brighton and Brookside dogs, to say nothing of astonishing 

 Colonel Wyndham, and the " East Sussex," and \ery well 

 pleased he was with his purchase until he got him into the 

 Sussex play, when he began to play his old tricks, and off 

 went the shoes. A horse is desperately soon blown in the 

 country ; we don't mean in his wind, but in his character, 

 and Brighton being only a slice of London, poor Claudius 

 Hunter, for so Blatherington christened him, after the great 

 civic patron of white horses, very soon had his London reputa- 

 tion tacked to his Brighton one, and he was what theatrical 



people call d d. In this dilemma it occurred to the fruitful 



mind of old Mr. Boss, the tit-tup-ing, Hessian-booted riding 

 master, that Claudius might prove a valuable acquisition in 

 his stud. It may appear singular to our readers that a horse 

 which was a drug in one man's hands should be an acquisition 

 in another's, but Boss had lived a long time in the world, 

 almost as long as Widdicomb, who Punch says has turned 

 three hundred years, and Boss had learnt a thing or two. 

 Among other things Boss had learned that half the people 

 who hunted from Brighton only hunted for the sake of 

 wearing red coats, and that they were never so happy as 

 when they got off their horses, having qualified to strut on 

 the flags and tell their exploits to the ladies. The only 

 difficulty of doing that is an excuse for coming home, and 



