26 SPORTS AND ANECDOTES. 



into his soul, and the wound that had been made still 

 rankled in his breast. As he sits at breakfast how- 

 ever next day, a letter arrives, for which he has to 

 pay ninepence, the usual charge for an ordinary letter 

 in those days, and many is the letter for which I 

 have paid as much as elevenpence. There was no 

 penny post, and nothing but a letter being franked 

 by some M.P. could save you from having to fork 

 out one of the above named sums. 



The letter in question is from the Master of the 

 hounds, whose heart in reality was as warm as his 

 temper was uncontrollable. He regrets that anything 

 he should have said in the heat of the moment should 

 have caused his old and reverend friend so much 

 annoyance as to cause him to turn his horse's head 

 and ride deliberately home, and he assures him at 

 the same time that, but for the shortness of his 

 neck, the broken state of his bellows, and the attack 

 of asthma that he was then suffering from, he should 

 have used, as Mrs. Malaprop says, a much stronger 

 "derangement of epitaphs," and should probably have 

 consigned him body and soul to perdition at once. 

 That he is aware that using bad words is wrong, but 

 that as it is much done by Masters of hounds, he 

 hopes he will think no more about what" has so lately 



