THE SHIRES 



" Did you get away with them from the Punch- 

 bowl?" 



"Yes, I was among the lucky ones." 



" Is ' The King of the Golden Mines ' any 

 use r 



'• I fancy he is good enough." 



And yet he is reflecting on the merits of Self 

 and Co. with no little satisfaction, and does not 

 grudge one shilling of the money — a hundred 

 down, and a bill for two hundred and fifty — that 

 the horse with the magnificent name cost him 

 last spring. 



Their performance, I admit, does them both 

 credit. I will endeavour to give a rough sketch 

 of the somewhat hazardous amusement that puts 

 him out of conceit with the sport shown by his 

 father's hounds. 



Let us picture to ourselves, then. Rapid junior, 

 resplendent in the whitest of breeches and 

 brightest of boots, with a single-breasted, square- 

 cut scarlet coat, a sleek hat curly of brim, four 

 feet of cane hunting-whip in his hand, a flower 

 at his breast, and a toothpick in his mouth, 

 replaced by an enormous cigar as somebody he 

 doesn't know suggests they are not likely to find. 

 Though he looks so helpless, and more than half- 

 asleep, he is wide - awake enough in fact, and 

 dashes the weed unlighted from his lips, when he 

 spies the huntsman stand up in his stirrups as 



227 



