mr. sponge's sporting tour. 309 



it in an hour well enough," said he, sticking spurs into the hack, and 

 cantering away. 



Having kept this pace up for about five miles, till he thought from 

 the view he had taken of the map it was about time to be turning, 

 he hailed a blacksmith in his shop, who, next to saddlers, are gene- 

 rally the most intelligent people about hounds, and how far it was 

 to Sir Harry's ? 



" Eight miles," replied the man in a minute. 



" Impossible ! " exclaimed Mr. Sponge. " It was only nine at 

 starting, and I've come I don't know how many." 



The next person Mr. Sponge met told him it was ten miles ; the 

 third, after asking him where he had come from, said he was a 

 stranger in the country, and had never heard of the place ; and, 

 what with Mr. Leather's original mis-statement, misdirections from 

 other people, and mistakes of his own, it was more good luck than 

 good management that got Mr. Sponge to Nonsuch House in time. 



The fact was, the whole hunt was knocked up in a hurry. Sir 

 Harry, and the choice spirits by whom he was surrounded, had not 

 finished celebrating the triumphs of the Snobston Green day, and as 

 it was not likely that the hounds would be out again soon, the people 

 of the hunting establishment were taking their ease. TVatchorn had 

 gone to be entertained at a public supper given by the poachers and 

 fox-stealers of the village of Bark-shot, as a " mark of respect for his 

 abilities as a sportsman and his integrity as a man," meaning his in- 

 difference to his master's interests ; while the first whip had gone to 

 visit his aunt, and the groom was away negotiating the exchange of 

 a cow. With things in this state, wily Tom of Tinklerhatch, a noted 

 fox-stealer in Lord Scamperdale's country, had arrived with a great 

 thundering dog fox, stolen from his lordship's cover near the cross 

 roads at Dallington Burn, which being communicated to our friends 

 about midnight in the smoking room at Nonsuch House, it was re- 

 solved to hunt him forthwith, especially as one of the guests, Mr. 

 Orlando Bugles, of the Surry Theatre, was obliged to return to town 

 immediately, and, as he sometimes enacted the part of Squire Tally- 

 ho, it was thought a little of the reality might correct the Tom and 

 Jerry style in which he did it. Accordingly, orders were issued 

 for a hunt, notwithstanding the hounds were fed and the horses 

 watered. Sir Harry didn't " care a rap; let them go as fast as they 

 could." 



All these circumstances conspired to make them late ; added to 

 which, when Watchorn, the huntsman, cast up, which he did on a 

 higgler's horse, he found the only sound one in his stud had gone to 

 the neighbouring town to get some fiddlers — her ladyship Laving 

 determined to compliment Mr. Bugles' visit by a quadrille party. 

 Bugles and she were old friends. When Mr. Sponge cast at half- 

 past eleven, things were still behindhand. 



