222 WHIP AND SPUR. 



fifteen different masters, but I 've about done, 

 and I sha' n't lose much, — it 's all up. How- 

 ever, I suppose we could never pay the interest 

 on the national debt without the railways ; but 

 it 's all up with hunting." At that, he called 

 away the young lady, bade me a melancholy 

 "good-by," and rode half sadly home. I gal- 

 loped back to Stratford with nry handsome old 

 host, — a little more knowing in the ways of the 

 field, but without yet having had a fair taste of 

 the sport. 



Seven miles from Peterborough, in the dismal 

 little village of Wansford, near the borders of 

 Northamptonshire and Huntingdonshire, is, per- 

 haps, the only remaining old posting-inn in Eng- 

 land that is kept up in the unchanged style of 

 the ante-railroad days. The post-horses are gone, 

 but the posting-stables are filled with hunters ; 

 the travelling public have fled to the swifter 

 lines, and Wansford is forever deserted of them ; 

 but the old Haycock keeps up its old cheer, and 

 Tom Percival, who boasts that he has had the 



