16 MR. SPONGE'S SrORTING TOUR. 



similar to the undress vests of the servants of the Koyal Family, 

 only with the pattern run across instead of lengthways, as those 

 worthies mostly have theirs, and made with good honest step collars, 

 instead of the make-believe roll collars they sometimes convert their 

 upright ones into. When in deep thought, calculating, perhaps, the 

 value of a passing horse, or considering whether he should have beef- 

 steaks or lamb chops for dinner, Sponge's thumbs would rest in the 

 arm-holes of his waistcoat ; in wliich easy, but not very elegant, atti- 

 tude, he would sometimes stand until all trace of the idea that ele- 

 vated them had passed away from his mind. 



In the trouser line he adhered to the close-fitting costume of 

 former days ; and many were the trials, the easings, and the alterings, 

 ere he got a pair exactly to his mind. Many were the customers 

 who turned away on seeing his manly figure filling the swing mirror 

 in " Snip and Sneiders'," a monopoly that some tradesmen might 

 object to, only Mr. Sponge's trousers being admitted to be perfect 

 " triumphs of the art," the more such a walking advertisement was 

 seen in the shop the better. Indeed, we believe it would have been 

 worth Snip & Co.'s while to have let him have them for nothing. 

 They were easy without being tight, or rather they looked tight 

 without being so ; there wasn't a bag, a wrinkle, or a crease that 

 there shouldn't be, and strong and storm-defying as they seemed, 

 they were yet as soft and as supple as a lady's glove. They looked 

 more as if his legs had been blown in them than as if such irre- 

 proachable garments were the work of man's hands. Many were the 

 nudges, and many the " look at this chap's trousers," that were given 

 by ambitious men emulous of his appearance as he passed along, and 

 many were the turnings round to examine their faultless fall upon 

 his radiant boot. The boots, perhaps, might come in for a little of 

 the glory, for they were beautifully soft and cool-looking to the foot, 

 easy without being loose, and he preserved the lustre of their polish, 

 even up to the last moment of his walk. There never was a better 

 man for getting through dirt, either on foot or horseback, than our 

 friend . 



To the frequenters of the " corner," it were almost superfluous to 

 mention that he is a constant attendant. He has several volumes 

 of " catalogues," with the prices the horses have brought set down 

 in the margins, and has a rare knack at recognising old friends, 

 altered, disguised, or disfigured as they may be — " I've seen that rip 

 before," he will say, witli a knowing shake of the head, as some woe- 

 begone devil goes, best leg foremost, up to the hammer, or, " What! 

 is that old beast back? why he's here every day." No man can 

 impose upon Soapey with a horse. He can detect the rough-coated 

 plausibilities of the straw-yard, equally with the metamorphosis of 

 the clipper or singer. His practised eye is not to be imposed upon 

 either by the blandishments of the bang-tail, or the bereavements of 



