187 



be forgotten, that he takes the field in another 

 capacity, more immediately in request with his 

 master, as well as of more value to himself, 

 than the unprofitable business of dog-breaking. 

 He has his game-bag to fill, to supply the 

 demands of the housekeeper at home. It is 

 well if he have not also a private pocket or 

 two to fill ; whose contents, if within any prac- 

 ticable distance, will, somehow or other, find 

 their way to some convenient hedge-alehouse, 

 by the side of the turnpike road, where the 

 guard of the mail-coach is in the habit of stop- 

 ping for a minute, to make the knowing inquiry 

 of " Any bye-letters?" and is regularly answered, 

 two or three times a week, by the production 

 of a well-stuffed basket; which will further find 

 its way, without the aid of a direction, to some 

 of the great " turkey merchants" in the metro- 

 polis*. I am only throwing out this as a hint 



* If I am not very much misinformed, the creditor side of 

 the account of a single keeper, in the books of one of these 

 gentlemen, not a hundred miles distant from Bond Street, 

 has amounted to no less a sum than four hundred pounds in 

 the course of a season. I hardly know how to lend my faith 

 to the extent of this assertion, unless it be, that his lordship 

 (with all deference to the Corinthian capitals be it spoken), 

 finds it convenient to make use of his keeper's name, to cover 

 what would otherwise be considered a disgraceful transac- 

 tion. In which case, the latter only comes in for his per 



