20 MR. SPONGE'S SPORTING TOUR. 



At the period of which we write, however, " Laverick Wells " 

 was in great favour — it had never known such times. Every 

 house, every lodging, every hole and corner was full, and the 

 great hotels, which more resemble Lancashire cotton-mills than 

 English hostelries, were sending away applicants in the most off- 

 hand, indifferent way. 



The Laverick Wells hounds had formerly been under the 

 management of the well-known Mr. Thomas Slocdolager, a hard- 

 riding, hard-bitten, hold-harding sort of sportsman, whose whole 

 soul was in the thing, and who would have ridden over his best 

 friend in the ardour of the chase. 



In some countries such a creature may be considered an acqui- 

 sition, and so long as he reigned at the Wells, people made the 

 best they could of him, though it was painfully apparent to the 

 livery-stable keepers, and others, who had the best interest of the 

 place at heart, that such a red-faced, gloveless, drab-breeched, 

 mahogany-booted buffer, who would throw off at the right time, 

 and who resolutely set his great stubbly-cheeked face against all 

 show meets and social intercourse in the field, was not exactly the 

 man for a civilised place. Whether time might have enlightened 

 Mr. Slocdolager as to the fact, that continuous killing of foxes, 

 after fatiguingly long runs, was not the way to the hearts of the 

 Laverick Wells sportsmen, is unknown, for on attempting to 

 realise as fine a subscription as ever appeared upon paper, it 

 melted so in the process of collection, that what was realised was 

 hardly worth his acceptance ; so saying, in his usual blunt way, 

 that if he hunted a country at his own expense he would hunt 

 one that wasn't encumbered -vith fools, he just stamped his little 

 wardrobe into a pair of old black saddle-bags, and rode out of 

 town without saying " tar, tar," good-bye, carding, or P. P. C.-ing 

 anybody. 



This was at the end of a season, a circumstance that consider- 

 ably mitigated the inconvenience so abrupt a departure might 

 have occasioned, and as one of the great beauties of Laverick 

 Wells is, that it is just as much in vogue in summer as in 

 winter, the inhabitants consoled themselves with the old aphorism, 

 that there is as " good fish in the sea as ever came out of it," and 

 cast about in search of some one to supply his place at as small 

 cost to themselves as possible. In a place so replete with money 

 and the enterprise of youth, little difficulty was anticipated, espe- 

 cially when the old bait of "a name "being all that was wanted, 

 "an ample subscription," to defray all expenses figuring in the 

 background, was held out. 



