MR. SPONGE'S SPORTING TOUR. 137 



Sponge having generously rewarded the man with a fourpenny 

 piece, for catching his horse and scraping the thick of the mud otf 

 him, again mounted, and cantered round the point he should at 

 first have gone ; but his chance was out — the further he went, the 

 further he was left behind ; till at last, pulling up, he stood 

 watching the diminishing pack, rolling like marbles over the top 

 of Botherjade Hill, followed by his lordship hugging his horse 

 round the neck as he went, and the huntsman and whips leading 

 and driving theirs up before them. 



" Nasty jealous old beggar ! " said Sponge, eyeing his lessening 

 lordship disappearing over the hill too. Sponge then performed 

 the sickening ceremony of turning away from hounds running ; 

 not but that he might have plodded on on the line, and perhaps 

 seen or heard what became of the fox, but Sponge didn't hunt on 

 those terms. lake a good many other gentlemen, he would be 

 first, or nowhere. 



If it was any consolation to him, he had plenty of companions 

 in misfortune. The line was dotted with horsemen back to the 

 brick-fields. The first person he overtook wending his way home 

 in the discontented, moody humour of a thrown-out man, was Mr. 

 Puffington, master of the Hanby hounds ; at whose appearance at 

 the meet we expressed our surprise. 



Neighbouring masters of hounds are often more or less jealous 

 of each other. No man in the master-of-hound world is too 

 insignificant for censure. Lord Scamperdale was an undoubted 

 sportsman ; while poor Mr. Puffington thought of nothing but 

 how to be thought one. Hearing the mistaken rumour that a 

 great writer was down, he thought that his chance of immortality 

 was arrived ; and ordering his best horse, and putting on his best 

 apparel, had braved the jibes and sneers of Jack and his lordship 

 for the purpose of scraping acquaintance with the stranger. In 

 that he had been foiled : there was no time at the meet to get 

 introduced, neither could he get jostled beside Sponge in going 

 down to the cover ; while the quick find, the quick get away, 

 followed by the quick thing we have described, were equally 

 unfavourable to the undertaking. Nevertheless, Mr. Puffington 

 had held on beyond the brick-fields ; and had he but persevered a 

 little further, he would have had the satisfaction of helping Mr. 

 Sponge out of the bog. 



Sponge now, seeing a red coat a little before, trotted on, and 

 quickly overtook a fine nippy, satin-stocked, dandified looking 

 gentleman, with marvellously smart leathers and boots— a great 

 contrast to the large, roomy, bargeman-like costume of the 

 members of the Flat Hat Hunt. 



"You're not hurt, I hope?" exclaimed Mr. Puffington, with well- 

 feigned anxiety, as he looked at Mr. Sponge's black-daubed clothes. 



