MR. sponge's sporting tour. 235 



Mr. Bragg trotted briskly on with the hounds, preceded by Joe 

 Banks the first whip, and having Jack Swipes, the second, and Tom 

 Stot, riding together behind him, to keep off the crowd. 



Thus the cavalcade swept down the avenue, crossed the Swilling- 

 ford turnpike, and took through a well-kept field road, which speedily 

 brought them to the cover — rough, broomy, brushwood-covered banks, 

 of about three acres in extent, lying on either side of the little Holly- 

 burn Brook, one of the tiny streams that in angry times helped to 

 swell the Swill into a river. 



"Dim all these foot people!" exclaimed Mr. Bragg, in well- 

 feigned disgust, as he came in view, and found all the Swillingford 

 snobs, all the tinkers, and tailors, and cobblers, and poachers, and 

 sheep-stealers, all the scowling, rotten-fustianed, baggy-pocketed 

 scamps of the country ranged round the cover, some with doo-s, some 

 with guns, some with snares, and all with sticks or staffs. " Well, 



I'm dimmed if ever I seed sich a " The rest of the speech 



being lost amidst the exclamations of — " A ! the hunds ! the hunds ! 

 hoop ! tally-o the hunds! " and a general rush of the ruffians to meet 

 them. 



Captain Guano, who had now come up, joined in the denunciation, 

 inwardly congratulating himself on the probability that the first 

 cover, at least, would be drawn blank. 



Tom Washball, who was riding a very troublesome tail-foremost 

 grey, also censured the proceeding. 



And Mr. Pufimgton, still an " amaazin' instance of a pop'lar 

 man," exclaimed, as he rode among them, " Ah ! my good fellows, I'd 

 rather you'd come up and had some ale than disturbed the cover ; " 

 a hint that the wily ones immediately took, rushing up to the house, 

 and availing themselves of the absence of the butler, who had followed 

 the hounds, to take a couple of dozen of his best fiddle-handled forks 

 while the footman was drawing them the ale. 



The whips being duly signalled by Bragg to their points — Brick 

 to the north corner, Swipes to the south — and the field being at length 

 drawn up to his liking, Mr. Bragg looked at Mr. Puffington for his 

 signal (the only piece of interference he allowed him), at a nod Mr. 

 Bragg gave a waive of his cap, and the pack dashed into cover with 

 a cry— 



" Yo-o-icks — wind him ! Yo-o-icJcs — pash him up ! " cheered 

 Bragg, standing erect in his stirrups, eyeing the hounds spreading 

 and sniffing about, now this way, now that — now pushing through a 

 thicket, now threading and smelling along a meuse. " Yo-o-icks — 

 wind him! Yo-o-icks — pash him. up!" repeated he, cracking his 

 whip, and moving slowly on. He then varied the entertainment by 

 whistling, in a sharp shrill key, something like the chirp of a sparrow- 

 hawk. 



Thus the hounds rummaged and scrimmaged for some minutes. 



