144 mr. sponge's sporting tour. 



period of which we are writing than he did a dozen years before, 

 when he was Lord Hardup. These dozen years, however, had brought 

 him down in his doings. 



The dinners had gradually dwindled away altogether, and he had 

 had all the large tablecloths and napkins rough dried and locked 

 away against he got married ; an "" event that he seemed more 

 anxious to provide for, the more unlikely it became. He had also 

 abdicated the main body of the mansion, and taken up his quarters 

 in what used to be the steward's room ; into which he could creep 

 quietly by a side door opening from the outer entrance, and so save 

 frequent exposure to the cold and damp of the large cathedral-like- 

 hall beyond. Through the steward's room, was what used to be the 

 muniment room, which he converted into a bed-room for himself; and 

 a little further along the passage was another small chamber, made 

 out of what used to be the plate-room, whereof Jack, or whoever was 

 in office, had the possession. All three rooms were furnished in the 

 roughest, coarsest, homeliest way — his lordship wishing to keep all 

 the good furniture against he got married. The sitting-room, or 

 parlour as his lordship called it, had an old grey drugget for a carpet, 

 an old round black mahogany table on castors, that the last steward 

 had ejected as too bad for him, four semicircular wooden-bottomed 

 walnut smoking-chairs ; an old spindle-shanked sideboard with very 

 little middle, over which swung a few book shelves with the termina- 

 tion of their green strings surmounted by a couple of foxes' brushes. 

 Small as the shelves were, they were larger than his lordship wanted — 

 two books, one for Jack and one for himself, being all they contained ; 

 while the other shelves were filled with hunting-horns, odd spurs, knots 

 of whipcord, piles of halfpence, lucifer match boxes, gun-charges, and 

 such like miscellaneous articles. 



His lordship's fair was as rough as his furniture. He was a great 

 admirer of tripe, cow-heel, and delicacies of that kind ; he had tripe 

 twice a-week — boiled one day, fried another. He was also a great 

 patron of beefsteaks, which he ate half raw, with slices of cold onion 

 served in a saucer with water. 



It was a beefsteak-and-batter-pudding day on which the foregoing 

 run took place ; and his lordship and Jack having satisfied nature off 

 their respective dishes — for they only had vegetables in common — 

 and having finished off with some very strong Cheshire cheese, wheeled 

 their chairs to the fire, while Bags the butler cleared the table and 

 placed it between them. They were dressed in full suits of flaming 

 large-checked red-and-yellow tartans, the tartan of that noble clan 

 the " Stunners," with black-and-white Shetland hose and red slippers. 

 His lordship and Jack had related their mutual adventures by cross 

 visits to each other's bed-rooms while dressing ; and, dinner being an- 

 nounced by the time they were ready, they had fallen to, and applied 

 themselves diligently to the victuals, .and now very considerately un- 



