mr. sponge's SPORTING TOUR. 29 



But though we are able to contradict Mr. Sponge's losses on the 

 turf, we are sorry we are not able to elevate him to the riches the 

 character of a fox-hunter generally inspires. Still, like many men of 

 whom the common observation is, " nobody knows how he lives," Mr. 

 Sponge always seemed well to do in the world. There was no appear- 

 ance of want about him. He always hunted ; sometimes with five 

 horses, sometimes with four, seldom with less than three, though at 

 the period of our introduction he had come down to two. Neverthe- 

 less, those two, provided he could but make them " go," were well 

 calculated to do the work of four. And hack horses, of all sorts, it 

 may be observed, generally do double the work of private ones ; and 

 if there is one man in the world better calculated to get the work out 

 of them than another, that man most assuredly is Mr. Sponge. And 

 this reminds us, that we may as well state that his bargain with 

 Buckram was a sort of jobbing deal. He had to pay ten guineas a 

 month for each horse, with a sort of sliding scale of prices if he chose 

 to buy — the price of "Erclcs" (the big brown) being fixed at fifty, 

 inclusive of hire at the end of the first month, and gradually rising 

 according to the length of time he kept him beyond that; while 

 " Multuin in Parvo," the resolute chesnut, was booked at thirty, with 

 the right of buying at five more, a contingency that Buckram little 

 expected. He, we may add, had got him for ten, and dear he thought 

 him when he got him home. 



The world was now all before Mr. Sponge where to choose; and 

 not being the man to keep hack-horses to look at, we must be setting 

 him a-going. 



il Leicestersheer swells," as Mr. Buckram would call them, with 

 their fourteen hunters and four hacks, will smile at the idea of a man 

 going from home to hunt with only a couple of " screws," but Mr. 

 Sponge knew what he was about; and didn't want any one to counsel 

 him. He knew there were places where a man can follow up the 

 effect produced by a red coat in the morning to great advantage in 

 the evening; and if he couldn't hunt every day in the week, as he 

 could have wished, he felt he might fill up his time perhaps quite as 

 profitably in other ways. The ladies, to do them justice, are 

 never at all suspicious about men — on the " nibble " — always taking 

 it for granted, they are " all they could wish," and they know each 

 other so well, that any cautionary hint acts rather in a man's favor 

 than otherwise. Moreover, hunting men, as we said before, are all 

 supposed to be rich, and as very few ladies are aware that a horse 

 can't hunt every day in the week, they just class the whole " genus " 

 fourteen-horse power men, ten-horse power men, five-horse power men, 

 two-horse power men, together, and tying them in a bunch, label it 

 " very rich" and proceed to take measures accordingly. 



Let us now visit one of the " strongholds " of fox and fortune- 

 hunting. 



