i 4 SPORTS AND ANECDOTES. 



mud boots ; his master then got on his hunter, and 

 there he was mounted and eager for the fray. 



As a general rule every one rode to covert, and 

 many a man who had not a very long distance to 

 go to covert was not too grand to ride his own 

 horse. Dogcarts and such conveyances were 

 unknown ; and if by chance one saw a man arrive 

 at the meet in a jingle or post-chaise, with straw 

 at the bottom, which that obsolete conveyance 

 actually used to have, one set him down at once 

 either for a very heavy swell of some kind, or a 

 Melton man, who were usually a cut above all other 

 men in being luxurious in their notions. No man, 

 in the days I am speaking of, used to have a 

 servant following him with half a hundredweight 

 of sandwiches and half a butt of sherry. A small 

 packet of sandwiches or a few ginger-bread nuts 

 in the pocket of his swallow-tailed coat was all he 

 required. I remember a sporting parson, who had 

 his servant following him, with a brown leather case 

 containing sandwiches and sherry strapped round 

 his waist, and he at once got the name of the 

 Licensed Victualler. However, these were pristine 

 notions, and in 1826 the notions of things differed 

 from those of 1886. 



