First Scarlet Coat. 17 



voiQ'ed to procure Mm a commission was Mr. 

 James Ward, tlien a very yoimg man, who 

 was paying his addresses to one of the Misses 

 Smith. He was a well-known member of the 

 Hampshire Hunt, and a county magistrate; 

 which latter position was bestowed on him at 

 the early age of twenty-one. But though Mr. 

 Ward could not gratify his friend in one 

 way, he resolved to do it in another. It was 

 his custom to make an annual idsit to his for- 

 mer guardian at Lyndhurst, taking his three 

 hunters with him, so as to join the !N'ew 

 Forest hounds. He now pressed Tom to 

 accompany him, who gladly consented. They 

 got to L}Tidhurst all right; but on the next 

 day young Ward, full of tender thoughts of 

 ^'the girl he had left behind him," changed 

 his mind, and rushed back to Shaldon, leaving 

 his three himters, his first-rate grooms, his 

 scarlet coat and boots, all unreservedly at the 

 disposal of his friend Smith. The latter was 

 now at the height of his ambition : the splen- 



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