NOT FIT COMPANY FOR LADIES. 05 



professor of •' The Noble Science," — who io all mat- 

 ters relating to the birth, parentage, and education 

 of fox-hounds, as well as their pedigrees, w^as con- 

 sidered a perfect oracle, — the hours passed rapidly 

 away, and I was just urging upon my friend Cod- 

 rington the necessity of our departure, w^hen the 

 Squire, having returned, and learnt who were in 

 his kennels, made his appearance, greeting us, as 

 usual, with great cordiality. A few of his particu- 

 lar favourites w^ere again called out for a closer 

 inspection, which occupied another hour, when 

 dreading a dark ride home over the downs, neither of 

 us being particularly well acquainted with the road, 

 I was again obliged to interfere, and hint to my 

 deeply engrossed friend the expediency of our 

 commencing our homew^ard journey. To this the 

 Squire put a decided veto, by insisting wx should 

 stay and dine with him. Codrington, being anxious 

 to return home, made every excuse, affirming he 

 was not fit company, in his present costume, to sit 

 down with Dick Burton, much less in the society 

 of ladies ; and truly, from handling the hounds so 

 long, and by their rubbing themselves against his 

 white corduroy trowsers, not to mention a certain 

 odora camim vis, imperceptibly perhaps, but most 

 unmistakably imparted to the said garments, he 

 certainly stood in need of a most complete change 



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