188 THE HUNTING FIELD 



relative to the run, would at last render up Claudius to the 

 hands of Mr. Boss, and, repairing to his lodgings, would re- 

 arrange his curls and whiskers, and, putting a most deceitful 

 little mackintosh over his scarlet coat, would go clonk, clonk, 

 clonk, with his spurs on the flags the rest of the afternoon, a 

 cross between a post-boy and a heavy dragoon. 



But, Lord bless us! what a way out of our ground this 

 mention of Claudius Hunter has led us. ^^'e have been taking 

 a canter on Brighton Downs, and a ride through the town, 

 instead of sticking to the hero at the head of our paper, ^\'ell, 

 here goes at him again. 



Elijah Bullwaist is a full tlowering specimen of the old tribe 

 of " horse and cow leech," and for the benefit of posterit\- we 

 will impale him on our sheet. BuUwaist's nionstrous bulk 

 is further increased by a profusion of foul, filthy clothes. He 

 seems as if he carried his whole wardrobe on his back. Peer- 

 ing above his nasty rusty black duffle frock coat, we see as 

 man}- dirt}' waistcoats as would serve the gravedigger in 

 " Hamlet." Above the rusty-stained unwholesome duffle, 

 with its broad binding, parting from its seams and sides, is 

 one of those ancient abominations, a Witney coat, with large 

 mother-of-pearl buttons. It was once white, but the days of 

 its whiteness are long gone by, and it is now a sort of whitey 

 brown walking pestilence, combining the odour of tobacco, 

 aloes, sulphur, oil, turpentine, opium, what Bullwaist calls 

 harbs (herbs), a definition that he applies to all medical ingre- 

 dients that he is not particularly acquainted with. Harbs and 

 brandy are grand specifics in Bullwaisfs pharmacopoeia. 



BuUwaisfs corduroy breeches and gaiters partake of the 

 general nastiness of his apparel, and two great slits across the 

 middle of each shoe give him the air of being troubled with 

 the gout, or perhaps corns, a sort of retribution for the many 

 his bad shoeing has entailed upon horses. A careless twisted 

 red cotton kerchief chafes against his unshaven chin, and an 



