CAPTAIN SHABBYHOUNDE 259 



stable to suit his convenience, and save the horse a journey southward 

 when he is going west. He had a hard day at Kelmarsh, and as we thought 

 he would not be fit for four or five more, we arranged that he should stay 

 here, and I would send him to meet you at Dunchurch on Friday, where 

 Mr. Milksop proposes riding him with Mr. Osbaldeston's hounds on Satur- 

 day. — Yours obediently, 



" George Shaubyhounde. 

 " To the Honble. Julius Milksop's Groom, Northampton." 



We should have premised that Mr. Milksop was a mere 

 bird of passage, hunting his way to Leamington Priors, where 

 the Viscountess Creamjug had gone in a terrible hurry, suffer- 

 ing from an affection of the toe (what common people would 

 call a corn), which she preferred placing under the silent treat- 

 ment of Doctor Jephson, to undergoing the public gibbeting of 

 Monsr. Eisenburg, or any of the advertising fraternit}-. 



Before Captain Shabbyhounde's answer reached the anxious 

 hands of Mr. Strutt, that vile jade rumour had spread some 

 very unpleasant stories respecting the Captain's mode of doing 

 business. Indeed it appeared that a jury of grooms had sat on 

 him only the season before, when they returned an unanimous 

 verdict that he was a " snob," and strongly recommended that 

 he " should be transported back to the country from whence 

 he came, being totally unfit," as they thought, "for a civilized 

 one," a sentence, we may add, that they would have had some 

 difficulty in carrying out, seeing that no one had ever been 

 able to tell what country claimed the Captain. That case 

 had originated in much such a transaction as the present — an 

 unprincipled attempt to defraud a man of his regulars. Indeed 

 the cases were so analogous, that it was agreed in consultation 

 that unless the Captain was brought to book before the horse 

 was delivered, there would be very little hope of getting 

 anything after. That impression was quite confirmed by the 

 receipt of the Captain's reply, which did not even hint at 

 doing the " usual " or the " genteel," or anything that could 

 be construed into an acknowledgment of vested rights. Strutt 



