264 MR. SPONGE'S SPORTING TOUR. 



in the department of elegant light literature generally, Mr. Grimes 

 was ably assisted by his eldest daughter, Lucy, — a young lady of a 

 certain age — say liberal thirty — an ardent Bloomer — with a con- 

 siderable taste for sentimental poetry, with which she generally 

 filled the poet's corner. This assistance enabled Grimes to look 

 after his auctioneering, bleaching, and paper-hanging concerns ; 

 and it so happened, that when the foregoing run arrived at the 

 office he, having seen the next paper ready for press, had gone to 

 Mr. Vospers, some ten miles off, to paper his drawing-room, con- 

 sequently the duties of deciding upon its publication devolved on 

 the Bloomer. Now she was a most refined, puritanical young 

 woman, full of sentiment and elegance, with a strong objection to 

 what she considered the inhumanities of the chase. At first she 

 was for rejecting the article altogether, and had it been a run with 

 the Tinglebury harriers, or even, we believe, with Lord Scamper- 

 dale's hounds, she would have consigned it to the " Balaam box," 

 but seeing it was with Mr. Puffington's hounds, whose house they 

 had papered, and who advertised with them, she condescended to 

 read it ; and though her delicacy was shocked at encountering the 

 word " stunning " at the outset, and also at the term " ravishing 

 scent " further on, she nevertheless sent the manuscript to the 

 compositors, after making such alterations and corrections as she 

 thought would fit it for eyes polite. The consequence was, that 

 the article appeared in the following form, though whether all the 

 absurdities were owing to Miss Lucy's corrections, or the care- 

 lessness of the writer, or the printers had anything to do with it, 

 we are not able to say. The errors, some of them arising from 

 the mere alteration or substitution of a letter, will strike a sporting, 

 more than a general reader. Thus it appeared in the middle of 

 the third sheet of the SwiUingford Patriot : — 



SPLENDID EUN 

 WITH ME. PUFFINGTON'S HOUNDS. 



This splendid pack had a superb run from Hollyburn Hanger, 

 the property of its truly popular and sporting owner, Mr. Puffing- 

 ton. A splendid field of well-appointed sportsmen, among whom 

 we recognised several distinguished strangers, and members of 

 Lord Scamperdale's hunt, were present. After partaking of the 

 well-known profuse and splendid hospitality of Hanby House, 

 they proceeded at once to Hollyburn Hanger, where a fine seasonal 

 fox, though some said he was a bay one, broke away in view of the 

 whole pack, every hound scorning to cry, and making the welkin 

 ring with their melody. He broke at the lower end of the cover, 



