246 THE HUNTING FIELD 



It has been well said that there is no secret so close as that 

 between a rider and his horse, and as Shabbyhounde had no 

 taste for disclosing the secrets of his stable, it will be 

 abundantly clear that the only way of selling a horse like 

 Lambkin — at least the only way of getting anything like a 

 price for him — was selling him in the field, a process that the 

 Captain was particularly partial to, especially after having 

 " gone a good on " before the expected buyer. 



Our readers will now have the kindness to consider it a fine 

 morning in February, and the " Squire's " hounds meeting at 

 Kelmarsh, a few miles below Market Harborough, on the 

 Northampton road. They will further oblige us bj- supposing 

 that Captain Shabbyhounde, having mounted Lambkin in the 

 inn-yard without more trouble than usual, has walked him 

 quietly to the meet. 



We took occasion lately, when sketching the portrait of old 

 Mr. Bullwaist, to introduce the adventures of another horse — 

 Claudius Hunter — and to comment on the admirable dispensa- 

 tions of Providence in turning even the infirmities of His 

 creatures to good account ; and in relating the adventures of 

 Lambkin, we may observe how a never-failing supply of flats 

 is kept up in the world — a fact most perfectly understood by 

 advertising tailors, persevering wine merchants, and peripatetic 

 map men. 



It so happened that on this particular morning, the 

 Honourable Julius Milksop, a newly emancipated, but beard- 

 less Cantab, made his appearance with the Pytchley in all the 

 luxuriance of flowing locks, cheroots, and a perfumed pocket- 

 handkerchief. Shabbyhounde's eyes, which had had " no 

 speculation in them for some time, glared withal," for 

 Milksop looked like a man for his money, added to which he 

 did not seem to have any acquaintance in the field, so the 

 Captain ascertaining from his groom who he was — a piece of 

 information that the groom of course accompanied with the 



