mr. sponge's sporting tour. 205 



One great man to a house is the usual country allowance, and 

 many are not very long in letting out who theirs are ; but Puftmg- 

 ton seemed to have the whole of the peerage, baronetage, and knight- 

 age at command. Old Mrs. Slyboots, indeed, thought that he must 

 be connected with the peerage some way ; his mother, perhaps, had 

 been the daughter of a peer, and she gave herself an infinity of trouble 

 in hunting through the " matches " — with what success it is not neces- 

 sary to say. The old ladies unanimously agreed that he was a most 

 agreeable, interesting young man ; and though the young ones did 

 pretend to run him down among themselves, calling him ugly, and so 

 on, it was only in the vain hope of dissuading each^her from think- 

 ing of him. "" ' 



Mr. Pumngton still stuck to the " amaazin' pop'k'r man " char- 

 acter ; a character that is not so convenient to support in the country 

 as it is in town. The borough of Swillingforcl, as we have already 

 intimated, was not the best conducted borough in*#te world ; indeed, 

 when we say that the principal trade of the place was poaching, our 

 country readers will be able to form a very accurate opinion on that 

 head. When Puff took possession of Hanby there was a fair show 

 of pheasants about the house, and a good sprinkling of hares and 

 partridges over the estate and manor generally; but refusing to 

 prosecute the first poachers that were caught, the rest took the hint, 

 and cleared everything off in a week, dividing the plunder among 

 them. They also burnt his river and bagged his fine Dorking fowls, 

 and all these feats being accomplished with impunity, they turned 

 their attention to his fat sheep. 



" Poacher " is only a mild term for " thief." 



Puff was a perfect milch-cow in the way of generosity. He gave 

 to everything and everybody, and did not seem to be acquainted with 

 any smaller sum than a five-pound note : a five-pound note to replace 

 (riles Jolter's cart-horse (that used to carry his own game for the 

 poachers to the poulterers at Plunderston) — five pounds to buy 

 Dame Doubletongue another pig, though she had only just given 

 three pounds for the one that died — five -pounds towards the fire at 

 farmer Scratchley's, though it had taken place two years before Puff 

 came into the country, and Scratchley had been living upon it ever 

 since — and sundry other five pounds to other equally deserving and 

 amiable people. He put his name down for fifty to the Mangey- 

 sterne hounds without ever being asked ; which reminds us that we 

 ought to be directing our attention to that noble establishment. 



It is hard to have to go behind the scenes of an ill-supported 

 hunt, and we will be as brief and tender with the cripples as we can. 

 The Mangeysterne hounds wanted that great ingredient of prosperity, 

 a large nest-egg subscriber to whom all others could be tributary — 

 paying or not as might be convenient. The consequence was they 

 were always up the spout. They were neither a scratch pack nor a 



