MR. sponge's sporting tour. 423 



stares at both of them through his formidable spectacles, wondering 

 which would be the least likely to ruin him — at length decided upon 

 taking Miss Emily, the youngest, though for a long time the victory 

 was doubtful, and Amelia practised her " Scamperdale " singing with 

 unabated ardour and confidence up to the last. We believe, if the 

 truth were known, it was a slight touch of rouge, that Amelia thought 

 would clench the matter, that decided his lordship against her. 

 Emily, we are happy to say, makes him an excellent wife, and has 

 not got her head turned by becoming a countess. She has improved 

 his lordship amazingly, got him smart new clothes, and persuaded 

 him to grow bushy whiskers right down under his chin, and is now 

 feeling her way to a pair of mustaches. 



Woodmansterne is quite another place. She has marshalled a 

 proper establishment, and got him coaxed into the long put-a-way 

 company rooms. Though he still indulges in his former cow-heel 

 and other delicacies, they do not appear upon table ; while he sports 

 his silver-mounted specs on all occasions. The fruit and venison are 

 freely distributed, and we have come in for a haunch in return for 

 our attentions. 



Best of all, Lady Scamperdale has got his lordship to erect a 

 handsome marble monument to poor Jack, instead of the cheap 

 country stone he intended. The inscription states that it was erected 

 by Samuel, Eighth Earl of Scamperdale, and Viscount Hardup, in 

 the Peerage of Ireland, to the Memory of John Spraggon, Esquire, 

 the best of Sportsmen, and the firmest of Friends. Who or what 

 Jack was, nobody ever knew, and as he only left a hat and eighteen 

 pence behind him, no next of kin has as yet cast up. 



'Jawleyford has not stood the honour of the Scamperdale alliance 

 quite so well as his daughter ; and when our " amazin' instance of a 

 pop'lar man," instigated perhaps by the desire to have old Scamp for 

 a brother-in-law, oifered to Amelia, Jaw got throaty and consequen- 

 tial, hemmed and hawed, and pretended to be stiff about it. Puff, 

 however, produced such weighty testimonials, as soon exercised their 

 wonted influence. In due time Puff very magnanimously proposed 

 uniting his pack with Lord Scamperdale's, dividing the expense of 

 one establishment between them, to which his lordship readily as- 

 sented, advising Puff to get rid of Bragg by giving him the hounds, 

 which he did ; and that great sporting luminary may be seen 

 " s-c-e-u-s-e "-ing himself, and offering his service to masters of 

 hounds any Monday at Tattersall's — though he still prefers a "qual- 

 ity place." 



Benjamin Buckram, the gentleman with the small independence 

 of his own, we are sorry to say has gone to the " bad." Aggravated 

 by the loss he sustained by his horse winning the steeple-chase, he 

 made an ill-advised onslaught on the cath-box of the London ami 

 AVestminster Bank ; and at three score years and ten, this distin- 

 18* 



