ME. SPONGE'S SPOUTING TOUR. 



399 



the Adelaide Gallery and Windmill-street, and the relative merits 

 of those establishments over the Casino de Venise in High Holborn. 

 Nor did morning produce any change for the better, for Sir Harry 

 and all the captains came down in their usual flashy broken-down 

 player-looking attire, their whole thoughts being absorbed in 

 arranging for a pool at billiards, in which the ladies took part. 

 So with billiards, brandy, and " 'baccy," — " 'baccy," brandy, and 

 billiards, varied with an occasional stroll about the grounds, the 

 non-sporting inmates of Xonsuch House beguiled the time, much 



R. srONGE, MY LADY. 



to Mr. Sponge's disgust, whose soul was on fire and eager for the 

 fray. The reader's perhaps being the same, we will skip Christmas 

 and pass on to New- Year's Day. 



'Twere almost superfluous to say that New- Year's Day is 

 always a great holiday. It is a day on which custom commands 

 people to be happy and idle, whether they have the means of 

 being happy and idle or not. It is a day for which happiness and 

 idleness are " booked," and parties are planned and arranged long 

 beforehand. Some go to the town, some to the country ; some 

 take rail ; some take steam ; some take greyhounds ; some take 

 irigs : while others take guns and pop at all the little dickey-birds 

 that come in their way. " The rural population generally incline to 



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