344 Cross Country with Horse and Hound 



of the deepest dye on the face of the huntsman, the 

 Doctor begins an account of what happened that day to 

 the person whom the Master was pleased to call his " new 

 entry": 



" My friend, Mr. Bankclerk, whom most of you met or 

 ran against to-day, was, as the Master has said, out to-day for 

 the first time to hounds. I had prescribed hunting for him, 

 as I do in most cases [" Hear, hear ! "], especially for 

 insomnia and nervous prostration. It has been rather hard 

 medicine for young Bankclerk, but if he perseveres it will 

 cure him ; that is, providing, of course, it does not kill him. 



" It was only yesterday morning that we were discussing 

 the matter in my office when our liveryman dropped in to 

 collect his bill. Without mentioning names, I may say, to 

 distinguish him from the other liverymen of our town, 

 that he occasionally rides to hounds. I have never seen 

 him off a highway or out of a lane, myself, if there was a 

 fence between it and him. He generally has a horse or 

 two to sell or trade he is never at all particular which, 

 though of the two he prefers a trade; and to swop horses 

 with a gypsy is his special delight. You all know whom I 

 mean. He wears a waistcoat of a horse-blanket pattern, a 

 leather watch-guard, a horse's head for a scarf-pin, and cuff- 

 buttons to match. He wears boots and riding-breeches 

 seven days in the week, and is without exception the horsiest 

 man in the county. Indeed, he looks like a horse and 

 smells like a horse-stable. 



"'Well, Doctor,' began our liveryman, striking his 

 favourite attitude his legs spread, his back to the wall, 

 and his thumbs in the arm-holes of his vest, the better to 



