224 MR. sponge's sporting tour. 



to be, as Mr. Bragg said, " very little of the gentleman ; " Bragg, 

 however, being quite one of your " niake-hay-while-the-sun-shines " 

 sort, and knowing too well the style of man to calculate on a length- 

 ened duration o£ office, just put on the steam of extravagance, and 

 seemed inclined to try how much he could spend for his master. His 

 bills for draft hounds were enormous ; he was continually chopping 

 and changing his horses, often almost without consulting his master ; 

 he had a perfect museum of saddles and bridles, in which every in- 

 vention and variety of bit was exhibited ; and he had paid as much 

 as twenty pounds to different " valets " and grooms for invaluable 

 recipes for cleaning leather breeches and gloves. Altogether, Bragg 

 overdid the thing; and when Mr. Puffington, in the solitude of a 

 winter's day, took pen, ink, and paper, and drew out a " balance 

 sheet," he found that on the average of six brace of foxes to the 

 season, they had cost him about three hundred pounds a-head killing. 

 It was true that Bragg always returned five or six-and-twenty brace ; 

 but that was as between Bragg and the public, as between Bragg and 

 his master the smaller figure was the amount. 



Mr. Puffington had had enough of it, and he now thought if he 

 could get Mr. Sponge (who he still believed to be a sporting author 

 on his travels) to immortalise him, he might retire into privacy, and 

 talk of u when / kept hounds " •" when I hunted the country," 

 " when I" was master of hounds I did this, and I did that," and fuss, 

 and be important, as we often see X-masters of hounds when they go 

 out with other packs. It was this erroneous impression with regard 

 to Mr. Sponge, that took our friend to the meet of Lord Scamper- 

 dale's hounds at Scrambleford Green, when he gave Mr. Sponge a 

 general invitation to visit him before he left the country, an invita- 

 tion that was' as acceptable to Mr. Sponge on his expulsion from 

 Jawleyford Court, as it was agreeable to Mr. Puffington — by open- 

 ing a route by which he might escape from the penalty of hound- 

 keeping, and the persecution of his huntsman. 



The reader will therefore now have the kindness to consider Mr. 

 Puffington in receipt of Mr. Sponge's note volunteering a visit. 



With gay and cheerful steps our friend hurried off to the kennel, 

 to communicate the intelligence to Mr. Bragg of an intended honour 

 that he inwardly hoped would have the effect of extinguishing that 

 great sporting luminary. 



Arriving at the kennel, he learned from the old feeder, Jack 

 Horsehide, who, as usual, was sluicing the flags with water, though 

 the weather was wet, that Mr. Bragg was in the house (a house that 

 had been the steward's in the days of the former owner of Hanby 

 House). Thither Mr. Puffington proceeded; and the front door 

 being open he entered, and made for the little parlour on the right. 

 Opening the door without knocking, what should he find but the 



