268 The Pytchley Hunt^ Past and Present. 



same sort as those of the woman, who, having brought 

 a neighbour before the magistrates on a charge of 

 assault, on failing in her case, addressed her enemy 

 thus : " Fm a Christian woman and so bear no malice ; 

 I don^t wish you no harm of any sort; but if any one 

 was to tell me that you had got a wasp's nest inside 

 your breeches, I should be very glad to hear it." A 

 more suitable punishment for the merciless user of 

 the wire-fence in a hunting country could scarcely be 

 devised. 



By no means given to the evil habit of punning, the 

 opportunity of saying a smart thing was seldom thrown 

 away. Hearing an artist-friend complain of his liver 

 being out of order, he remarked, "Liver, my good 

 fellow ! Why I thought you painters never thought of 

 anything but lights." And to a friend who on a hot 

 dusty day had replied to his genial greeting of " How 

 are you, old boy ?" with " Oh, pretty tidy, thank you;" 

 he laughingly said, " I'm glad you feel it, you don't look 

 it." Unable to repress a little mild sarcasm, the writer 

 will not easily forget the amused smile that lit up his 

 face when, on being introduced one day as the author of 

 " Holmby House " to Miss Strickland, the historian, 

 she addressed him with the somewhat startling inquiry, 

 *^ Did your publisher find that the work paid him ? " 

 " Alas, madam, he dates the commencement of his ruin 

 from the hour that he undertook my unfortunate novel," 

 was the prompt response to the unexpected query. The 

 compiler of facts, incompetent to interpret the twinkle in 

 the eye of the writer of fiction, accepted the statement 

 with a conventional expression of regret, little thinking 

 that not one of her own works had met with so many 



