A WRANGLER. 93 



such exceptions, and the JMeadowmere Hunt can furnish 

 an example in the person of Captain Crookton, though 

 it must at once be said out of justice to him that his 

 surliness and ever ready criticisms of a condemnatory- 

 nature stop short at verbal utterances. 



Nothing pleases the gallant Captain. 



He dislikes the country, though he owns a fair slice 

 of it. The hounds are full of faults, the servants in- 

 efficient, the master self-willed and overbearing, the 

 fields either too numerous or else so scanty that the 

 Hunt must go to the dogs — which, bad as it is in every 

 respect, Crookton would apparently regard as a misfor- 

 tune — and even the foxes themselves, to pursue his 

 strictures to their logical conclusion, are disgracefully 

 ignorant of their business. 



It need hardly be added that the weather very rarely 

 indeed meets with Captain Crookton's entire approba- 

 tion, but that, on the contrary, he is accustomed to 

 speak of the climate of his native land in objurgatory 

 terms, much more remarkable for their vigour than their 

 propriety. 



If in the meteorological history of this island there 

 ever was a day that pleased the Captain, it was one 

 upon which we had not the pleasure of meeting him out 

 hunting. Nor is it only actual occurrences which offend 

 him. As a prophet of evil he holds high rank, and that 

 anything can be going on favourably in any way he 

 entirely disbelieves. 



Jhere he is — the neatly dressed man with greyish 



