MB. SPONGE'S SPORTING TOUR. 29 



" I say, old Bardolph ! who do them 'ere quadrupeds belong 

 to ? " ashed one, taking a scented cigar out of his mouth. 



Leather, though as impudent a dog as any of them, and far 

 more than a match for the best of them at a tournament of slang, 

 being on his preferment, thought it best to be civil, and replied, 

 with a touch of his hat, that they were " Mr. Sponge's." 



" Ah ! old sponge biscuits ! — I toioiv him!'''' exclaimed a youth 

 in a Tweed wrapper. " My father married his aunt. Give my 

 love to him, and tell him to breakfast with me at six in the 

 morning — he! he! he!'''' 



" I say, old boy, that copper-coloured quadruped hasn't got all 

 his shoes on before," squeaked a childish voice, now raised for the 

 first time. 



" That's intended, gov'nor," growled Leather, riding on, indig- 

 nant at the idea of any one attempting to "sell him" with such 

 an old stable joke. So Leather passed on through the now 

 splendidly lit up streets, the large plate-glass windowed shops, 

 radiant with gas, exhibiting rich, many-coloured velvets, silver 

 gauzes, ribbons without end, fancy flowers, elegant shawls labelled 

 " Very chaste," " Patronised by Royalty," " Quite the go ! " and 

 white kid-gloves in such profusion that there seemed to be a pair 

 for every person in the place. 



Mr. Leather established himself at the " Eclipse Livery and 

 Bait Stables," in Pegasus Street, or Peg Street, as it is generally 

 called, where he enacted the character of stud-groom to perfec- 

 tion, doing nothing himself, but seeing that others did his work, 

 and strutting consequentially with the corn-sieves at feeding time. 



After Leather's long London experience, it is natural to suppose 

 that he would not be long in falling in with some old acquaintance 

 at a place like the "Wells," and the first night fortunately brought 

 him in contact with a couple of grooms who had had the honour 

 of his acquaintance when in all the radiance of his glass-blown 

 wigged prosperity as body-coachman to the Duke of Dazzleton, 

 and who knew nothing of the treadmill, or his subsequent career. 

 This introduction served with his own easy assurance, and the 

 deference country servants always pay to London ones, at once 

 to give him standing, and it is creditable to the etiquette of servi- 

 tude to say, that on joining the " Mutton-chop and Meaiy- 

 potato Club," at the Cat and Bagpipes, on the second night after 

 his arrival, the whole club rose to receive him on entering, and 

 placed him in the post of honour, on the right of the president. 



He was very soon quite at home with the whole of them, and 

 ready to tell anything he knew of the great families in which he 

 had lived. Of course, he abused the duke's place, and said he 

 had been obliged to give him "hup "at last, "bein' quite an 

 impossible man to live with ; indeed, his only wonder was, that he 



