36 MR. SPONGE'S SPORTING TOUR. 



2;in-and-water, they discussed the doings of the day, and the 

 general arrangements of the country. 



Mr. Waffles had had him in sometimes, though for a different 

 purpose— at least, in reality for a different purpose, though he 

 always made hunting the excuse for sending for him, and that 

 purpose was, to try how many silver fox's heads full of port wine 

 Tom could carry off without tumbling, and the old fellow being 

 rather liquorishly inclined, had never made any objection to the 

 experiment. Mr. Waffles now wanted him, to endeavour, under 

 the mellowing influence of drink, to get him to enter cordially 

 into what he knew would be distasteful to the old sportsman's 

 feelings, namely, to substitute a " drag " for the legitimate find 

 and chase of the fox. Fox-hunting, though exciting and ex- 

 hilarating at all times, except, perhaps, when the " fallows are 

 flying," and the sportsman feels that in all probability the further 

 he goes the further he is left behind — Fox-hunting, we say, 

 though exciting and exhilarating, does not, when the real truth is 

 spoken, present such conveniences for neck-breaking, as people, 

 who take their ideas from Mr. Ackermann's print-shop window, 

 imagine. That there are large places in most fences is perfectly 

 true ; but that there are also weak ones is also the fact, and a 

 practised eye catches up the latter uncommonly quick. Therefore, 

 though a madman may ride at the big places, a sane man is not 

 expected to follow ; and even should any one be tempted so to do, 

 the madman having acted pioneer, will have cleared the way, or at 

 all events proved its practicability for the follower. 



In addition to this, however, hounds having to smell as they go, 

 cannot travel at the ultra steeple-chase pace, so opposed to " look- 

 ing before you leap," and so conducive to danger and difficulty, 

 and as going even at a fair pace depends upon the state of the at- 

 mosphere, and the scent the fox leaves behind, it is evident that 

 where mere daring hard riding is the object, a fox-hunt cannot be 

 depended upon for furnishing the necessary accommodation. A 

 drag-hunt is quite a different thing. The drag can be made to 

 any strength ; enabling hounds to run as if they were tied to it, 

 and can be trailed so as to bring in all the dangerous places in the 

 country with a certain air of plausibility, enabling a man to look 

 round and exclaim, as he crams at a bullfinch or brook, " he's 

 leading us over a most desperate country — never saw such fencing 

 in all my life ! " Drag-hunting, however, as we said before, is 

 not popular with sportsmen, certainly not with huntsmen, and 

 though our friends with their wounded feelings determined to 

 have one, they had yet to smooth over old Tom to get him to 

 come into their views. That was now the difficulty. 



