MB. SPONGE'S SPORTING TOUB. 



17 



He could not beat Mr. Buckram's men, because they were always 

 on the look-out for objects of contention with sharp spur rowels, 

 ready to let into his sides the moment he began to stop ; but a 

 weak or a timid man on his back had no more chance than he 

 would on an elephant. If the horse chose to carry him into the 

 midst of the hounds at the meet, he would have him in — nay, he 

 would think nothing of upsetting the master himself in the 

 middle of the pack. Then the provoking part was, that the 

 obstinate animal, after having done all the mischief, would just set 

 to to eat as if nothing had happened. After rolling a sportsman 

 in the mud, he would repair to the nearest hay-stack or grassy 

 bank, and be caught. He was now ten years old, or a leetle more 

 perhaps, and very wicked years some of them had been. His 

 adventures, his sellings and his returning, his lettings and his 

 unlettings, his bumpings and spillings, his smashings and crashings, 

 on the road, in the field, in single and in double harness, would 

 furnish a volume of themselves ; and in default of a more able 

 historian, we purpose blending his future fortune with that of 

 "Ercles," in the service of our hero Mr. Sponge, and his 

 accomplished groom, and undertaking the important narration of 

 them ourselves. 



CHAPTER IV. 



"LAVERICK WELLS. 1 ' 



WE trust our opening chapters, 

 aided by our friend Leech's 

 pencil, will have enabled our 

 readers to embody such a Sponge 

 in their mind's eye as will assist 

 them in following us through 

 the course of his peregrinations. 

 We do not profess to have drawn 

 such a portrait as will raise the 

 same sort of Sponge in the minds 

 of all, but we trust we have given 

 such a general outline of style, 

 and indication of character, as an 

 ordinary knowledge of the world 

 will enable them to imagine a 

 good, pushing, free-and-easy sort 

 of man, wishing to be a gentleman 

 without knowing how. 

 Far more difficult is the task of conveying to our readers such 



