448 MR. SPONGE'S SPORTING TOUR. 



lordship amazingly, got him smart new clothes, and persuaded 

 him to grow bushy whiskers right down under his chin, and is 

 now feeling her way to a pair of mustaches. 



Woodmansterne is quite another place. She has marshalled a 

 proper establishment, and got him coaxed into the long put-a-way 

 company rooms. Though he still indulges in his former cow-heel 

 and other delicacies, they do not appear upon table ; while he 

 sports his silver-mounted specs on all occasions. The fruit and 

 venison are freely distributed, and we have come in for a haunch 

 in return for our attentions. 



Best of all, Lady Scamperdale has got his lordship to erect a 

 handsome marble monument to poor Jack, instead of the cheap 

 country stone he intended. The inscription states that it was 

 erected by Samuel, Eighth Earl of Scamperdale, and Viscount 

 Hardup, in the Peerage of Ireland, to the Memory of John 

 Spraggon, Esquire, the best of Sportsmen, and the firmest of 

 Friends. Who or what Jack was, nobody ever knew, and as he 

 only left a hat and eighteen pence behind him, no next of kin has 

 as yet cast up. 



Jawleyford has not stood the honour of the Scamperdale 

 alliance quite so well as his daughter ; and when our " amazin' 

 instance of a pop'lar man," instigated perhaps by the desire to 

 have old Scamp for a brother-in-law, offered to Amelia, Jaw got 

 throaty and consequential, hemmed and hawed, and pretended 

 to be stiff about it. Puff, however, produced such weighty 

 testimonials, as soon exercised their wonted influence. In due 

 time Puff very magnanimously proposed uniting his pack with 

 Lord Scamperdale's, dividing the expense of one establishment 

 between them, to which his lordship readily assented, advising 

 Puff to get rid of Bragg by giving him the hounds, which he did ; 

 and that great sporting luminary may be seen " s-c-e-u-s-e "-ing 

 himself, and offering his service to masters of hounds any Monday 

 at Tattersall's — though he still prefers a " quality place." 



Benjamin Buckram, the gentleman with the small indepen- 

 dence of his own, we are sorry to say has gone to the " bad." 

 Aggravated by the loss he sustained by his horse winning the 

 steeple- chase, he made an ill-advised onslaught on the cash-box of 

 the London and Westminster Bank ; and at three score years aud 

 ten, this distinguished " turfite," who had participated with im- 

 punity in nearly all the great robberies of the last forty years, was 

 doomed to transportation. And yet we have seen this cracksman 

 captain — for he, too, was a captain at times — jostling and bellow- 

 ing for odds among some of the highest and noblest of the 

 land! 



Leather has descended to the cab-stand, of which he promises 

 to be a distinguished ornament. He haunts the Piccadilly stands, 



