22 MR. SPONGE'S SPORTING TOUR. 



Dons, had been recommended to try the effects of the Laverick 

 Wells, or any other waters he liked, and had arrived with a couple 

 of hunters and a hack, much to the satisfaction of the neighbour- 

 ing master of hounds and his huntsman ; for Waffles had ridden 

 over and maimed more hounds to his own share, during the two 

 seasons he had been at Oxford, than that gentleman had been in 

 the habit of appropriating to the use of the whole university. 

 Corresponding with that gentleman's delight at getting rid of him 

 was Mr. Slocdolager's dismay at his appearance, for fully satisfied 

 that Oxford was the seat of fox-hunting as well as of all the other 

 arts and sciences, Mr. Waffles undertook to enlighten him and his 

 huntsman on the mysteries of their calling, and " Old Sloe," as he 

 was called, being a very silent man, while Mr. Waffles was a very 

 noisy one, Sloe was nearly talked deaf by him. 



Mr. Waffles was just in the hey-day of hot, rash, youthful indis- 

 cretion and extravagance. He had not the slightest idea of the 

 value of money, and looked at the fortune he was so closely ap- 

 proaching as perfectly inexhaustible. His rooms, the most spacious 

 and splendid at that most spacious and splendid hotel, the " Impe- 

 rial," were filled with a profusion of the most useless but costly 

 articles. Jewellery without end, pictures innumerable, pictures that 

 represented all sorts of imaginary sums of money, just as they repre- 

 sented all sorts of imaginary scenes, but whose real worth or genuine- 

 ness would never be tested till the owner wanted to "convert them." 



Mr. Waffles was a " pretty man." Tall, slim, and slight, with 

 long curly light hair, pink and white complexion, visionary 

 whiskers, and a tendency to moustache that could best be seen 

 sideways. He had light blue eyes ; while his features generally 

 were good, but expressive of little beyond great good-humour. In 

 dress, he was both smart and various ; indeed, we feel a difficulty 

 in fixing him in any particular costume, so frequent and opposite 

 were his changes. He had coats of every cut and colour. Some- 

 times he was the racing man with a bright-button'd Newmarket 

 brown cut-away, and white-cord trousers, with drab cloth-boots ; 

 anon, he would be the officer, and shine forth in a fancy forage 

 cap, cocked jauntily over a profusion of well-waxed curls, a richly- 

 braided surtout, with military over-alls strapped down over highly- 

 varnished boots, whose hypocritical heels would sport a pair of 

 large rowelled, long-necked, ringing, brass spurs. Sometimes he 

 was a Jack tar, with a little glazed hat, a once-round tye, a checked 

 shirt, a blue jacket, roomy trousers, and broad-stringed pumps ; 

 and, before the admiring ladies had well digested him in that 

 dress, he would be seen cantering away on a long-tailed white 

 barb, in a pea-green duck-hunter, with cream-coloured leather and 

 rose-tinted tops. He was 



" All things by turns, and nothing long." 



