-

love, and ye'll win a thousand with him, before September. Ye have all the handicaps before ye, my child; and ye are active, and strong, and able to go about: and I'll just give up my country walks to you, my deer. The wee horse has the shot of speed in him; and, ye know, he never will run on the short grass; and the stewards, my deer, and the Turf Club, think but little of him, and ye can put him into all the handicaps, while the bad name is on him: and ye'll just win in Limerick, Cork, Mallow, Fermoy, and Kinsale; and that ye may; for I love and regard ye, my deer; and ye're a good fellow, my love,aund an honorabil aund upright maun, my child and I'll just resign, aund geeve myself up to releegeeous devotion,-that's just what old will do."

"Bother, says Broderick," replied his friend, to this touching appeal, "ye are just wasting your breath, for, battle-axe to me, af Ï believe a word ye said from beginning to end; but come, I'll give you a bill for £100 for him."

"Now, my dear friend," said the aged man, "ye're a pleesint fellow, aund weeti, aund agreeabil, but ye know ye won't pay the bill, and then there will be the attorneys, my child, and the costs, my deer, and the ca. sa.'s, and the fi. fa.'s, aund yill be hunted from county to county, my deer, aund they'll teeke the body with the ca. sa., and the goods and the chattels, the goods and the chattels, with the fi. fa., my child; and ye'd only bring yourself into trouble, my love; and so I'll not have anything to say to your bill, my deer."

"Who the h-1 thought you would?" said the Dublin blade. "But here, look at this bill for £140; do you observe at its bottom value received, you old turf-gatherer? He's in the dragoons, quartered near you; just joined; his father is worth two millions: he gave one of his daughters, the other day, 50,000; and this customer is an only son; he has twelve horses in stable; not a play-man in his regiment; and there is never a check on a draft of his from the paymaster; and, as he is inclined to large draughts, we are likely to see more of them: his nurse is away; and, as he must get suck somewhere, by all the waters of the Liffey, I'm his care-taker. There's another, for £172, from a clergyman, just ordained; he has a capital glebe-house, and ten acres of land; and, as he must attend a Bible school every Saturday, you could always get at him upon week days. Here's an M. P.'s for you, for £210, it will be due in a month, and you will get a post obit for £800 for it. Here's another for you, for £120, from a youngster, near this he has (that is, he will have) £4,000 per annum, when his father dies; and he has dropsy on the chest, and his lower extremities have been swelled this month back; he must die in a week or two, and then the youngster will have dropsy in his chest, and I'll tap him! Stop, here's another, for £103, from the smuggler; he ran two cargoes the other day, and is coming to the meeting, and I will unload him in return. Now, which will you have, my old Toxophilite? Here, take the one for £140; give me thirty-five in cash, and I will allow you five pounds for commission; and send the wee horse to my stables."

"Well, my deer child, I'll just take the captain's bill; and I'll walk out to a friend, just to see if he'll advance me as much as will see me out of this; but if you'll only get the Doctor across it, ye know there

will be no more, my child, and I'll never look to ye, but give you my blessing, and the wee nag."

"By all the hake in Pill Lane, I'll never do the likes; but, just to shew you that it is all right, I'll put my own name across it for you."

"Well, my child, I'll just look out for a bit, ye know;" so saying, he left the room, and the Promethean philosopher addressed himself to his breakfast, with lordly indifference; his legs being placed upon one chair, and his back turned towards me. The waiter approached him, and tendered for his inspection a small billet, certainly not doux, for he started upon his legs, and, having complimented the waiter with a kick, which nearly sent him over my table, he said, "You tarnal villain! did I not order you never to bring me a bill? Go tell the ruffian, that, if he ever brings me a bill again, I'll knock his head against the wall; and d'ye hear, tell him to bring me over half a dozen pair of gloves, and a pair of red silk suspenders; I want them for my jock to-morrow ;-ay, and here he comes;" and then entered to him the most triumphant disfiguration of Nature that I ever saw, either on or off the stage. He had on a lordy (i. e. a frieze great coat), which covered him, and a pair of sallow trowsers, which, formerly, may have been nankeen (but which, from a long residence abroad, appeared to have resigned their country and its colour); and, at their extremities (“a world too short for his long shanks") appeared a pair of brown worsted hose, and a delectable coloured slipper, which might once have been red. His hair hung down before, and was a perfect hirsute cataract; it was of a claret colour, save where, either from the liquid having failed, or from want of manual application, the “ greys in the rear" looked like the North Pole. I think it is Quarles who says, "the body is the shell of the soul; apparel is the husk of that shell; the husk often tells you what the kernel is." I would have defied Quarles (from his attire) to have formed any conception of who the great man was who stood before me. He might be an escaped convict, or an emancipated barber; but he was a steeple-chase rider; and, although "his light grey eye shone with a maniac's fire," and Nature had refused the graces; and, although he had supplied himself, by art, with the greases; yet I preferred his appearance, tattered and torn as it was, to the presuming and debauched puppy, his employer. As he came into full view, the claret-coloured tinge of his hair shewed itself more fully than before; and his having stood the hazard of the die, and failed, became quite apparent, and yet he ought to have succeeded; for, if venturing his neck, by day, over wall, ditch, and drain, and his money, by night, over the dice-box, could claim for a man any knowledge of the die, his attempt at capillary restoration ought to have been crowned with signal success. He addressed his friend with, "'Pon my honour, most solemnly, I have gotten off nine pounds; it was the best sweet I ever threw off; and I decleere, most peositively, that I would not teek one hundid ginies to try it again." The other began with, "Sit down, my poor fel-lo. Are you shuck, my poor fel-lo; beat to a sop, my poor fel-lo? Never mind, ye know ye'll just give 'em goose for it the morrow's morn, as Fairgy would say: ye'll tickle up Aileen, and the Gay, and the Jer, my poor fel-lo, and we'll be rhinocerical, and ready for the June Kiis (i. e. Kirwans), my poor fel-lo." The other grinned a ghastly smile; and, as it passed fleetingly over his

careworn brow, it seemed like a sunbeam on a tombstone. There was a daring recklessness about the "jock," coupled with an expression, at times, of such heartfelt misery, that I really did not know whether to laugh at his outré appearance, or to mourn his apparently desolate situation; but all thought of the jock had fled when I heard the "Dame Court snob" give an imitation of the septuagenarian just departed. It was to the very life; the shrug of the shoulder, the wink, the nod, the very words, were all perfect; it was in vain that I endeavoured to control myself; Nature burst the limits, and I literally roared out in the most obstreperous laughter. The gentleman of the two trades did not seem at all annoyed; on the contrary, he appeared amused, and continued the imitation for some time. In the middle of a grand display, in walked the elderly gentleman again. No way abashed, the cosmopolite brought him over to his table, and, with a wink at his jock, demanded his opinion of the bill: the old man gave one glance at me; but, seeing me (as he thought) deeply engaged in the baneful process of forcing a sodden piece of a steak down my throat, he spoke out: "My dear John, I'm just minding to be done with all bills together; and I won't have the clergy's; for I respect the church, and I would not like to deprive the pareeshoneers of a good and an amiable man, by teakeing him on a Saturday, and jugging* him, and keeping the thirsty souls of the parish from their sermon on a Sunday, my de-e-r; aund, my child, I'll hav' nothing to seay to the M. P.'s; I got enough of the post obs. The lord, ye recollect the lord, my deer; and the post ob.'s for £6,000, my child; I geeve 'im my horses, aund my horses' clothes, aund bridles, aund saddels, aund everything, aund he feerly broke me, my deer; aund only for the ould horse that won the King's Plates, aund the whips, and the country walks, old wud be roaming over 'Merriky this momint, aund, perhaps, lost in the bottom of the deep."

The devil a deeper file ever went there, then," said the billsticker."

"Let me alone, sir," said the old fellow, in a huff; " and don't presume to make game of the grey head; you villain, let me alone. But now, my deer, ye'll excuse the old man for the bit of passion; aund, so I'll not have the M. P.; they are all P. M.; aund I'll not have the youngster neither, my deer; the old father, ye know, is as likely to live as himself, ye know; for I seen him, this very moment, walking up the hill to the barracks; aund he never stopped, aund he has as much dropsy in the chest as I have; aund I won't have the smuggler's, my deer; if he ran two cargoes, you know they're gone now; aund he thinks as little of a protest as a permit; aund 'ud just as soon pay the bill to the old man with the end of the main-sheet, my deer; for I did something in that line myself, my child; but, if you'll get the Dock (quære, Doctor?) across the capteen's bill, I'll borroy twenty pounds, aund I have nine pounds, that's twenty-nine, aund I'll get credit in the coach 'till I go to the short grass, aund old 'ill just never trust the South Country again."

"By all the crosses in a yard of check," said the other, "ye'll never get the bill under thirty-five pounds, and the horse; and if ye

Putting him into jail.

don't say, done! by all the parchments in the four courts, I'll buy a chest of tea, and cash it with little ―, the grocer; or I'll take a quarter cask of Benicarlo for Port, from "Hand me over the pewter," and I'll get the balance in cash, at nine per cent., and no mistake.

"I'll just

"I wud peositively touch the caush," quoth the jock. "Ye'd better not to inturfeere, sur," said the old man ; give you the wee horse, aund the twenty aund the nine, aund I'll give you the clothes of the wee horse, aund they are worth—”

"Worth! by the pump of old Trinity, I would not give them to my boys for shin-rags: two old blankets, and a moth-eaten hood. No, no, old fellow, you don't hoodwink me."

“Well, then, I'll give you the reecing snaffle, aund the threepound-weight saddle, and the twenty-nine pounds; aund give me the bill, and I'll be off to the short grass."

"Well,― done with you; although I know the saddle is cracked in the tree."

The aged man stumped out the money, handed over the pedigree of the wee one, received the bill, buttoned up his blue surtout, shook hands affectionately with the jock and his employer, and departed. The cosmopolite allowed him to go fairly across the square, then rang the bell; ordered his tiger off for the nag; and, doubling up the notes, and cramming them in his pocket, where they were hidden from the anxious eye of the jock, laughed aloud; and, taking a look at me, while the jock was sipping some tea, merely said, with a brilliant imitation of the jock, "Pe-ositively sold, and the caush peed." About ten minutes after, both parties left the room; and, upon inquiring from the waiter about them, I learned that the dasher was the owner of some steeple-chase horses, and a couple of racers; that he was "all right," having paid the landlord a large sum the day before; and that no person knew anything about him, his character and credit being alike taken upon trust. The waiter had gone as far as trust, and, supposing that with that awful word all things should end, stopped short; when a loud shouting was heard from the bank, and a gentleman, at the opposite side of the river, roared out to the waiter, who had thrown up the window, "Well, well?"

"He bid me tell your honour," said the man, in reply, "that it was only a fi."

"All right, then," said the gentleman; and he popped into a boat, and ferried himself over in double-quick time.

"What does that mean?" said I.

"The gentleman only wanted to know whether the execution against him was for the body or the goods, sir; and, as it was against his chattels, he is coming across, to take the air of the town.'"

(To be continued.)

22

RED DEER HUNTING ON EXMOOR.

To the Editor of the Sporting Review.

SIR,-Believing a little hunting news (rather a scarce article at this time of the year) might not be unacceptable, I am induced to send you an account of a run with a forest hind by the North Devon and Somerset staghounds, which occurred on Friday, the 15th of May; but, before I "lay on," it will not, I hope, be considered too wide a cast, if I briefly allude to the nature of the hunt, its character and bearing. Differing, as it does, from all other hunting establishments,-standing apart, the only thing of the kind in the kingdom,-it, of necessity, must be little known to the great majority of your readers. The establishment of a pack of hounds to hunt the red deer in the forest of Exmoor, and its adjoining wilds, is of ancient origin; and, with but few intervals between, can be traced to the time of Queen Elizabeth. Supported by royalty, and deemed worthy of its protection, the royal deer of the forest of Exmoor and its precints, were sheltered under peculiar laws and privileges. A heavy fine, or imprisonment, was imposed upon all who unlawfully killed them; and it was only within these few years that the disforestment took place, and the wild, but interesting inhabitants, left to take care of themselves. Mr. Knight, the proprietor of Exmoor, is a noble preserver, and he has many a fine herd; but still, though the red deer lair in the same woods, seek the same fastnesses, and wander over the same moor, they are, comparatively, confined within narrow limits, and, in a wide tract of country, are only remembered from having given names to places, formerly their favourite resorts; for instance, Hart-row, Hart-cleve, &c. However, many deer remain; and, if sheltered and encouraged by the neighbouring gentry, there are still sufficient to afford abundance of supply for the chase-a noble and manly sport, and worthy the countenance of a prince. It would appear that the early mode of hunting the deer was conducted with hardly any variation from that followed in modern days; and, notwithstanding the risk of, perhaps, being considered as "tying," or slow, I will, in as short a manner as I can, explain our mode of going to work in the North of Devon and Somerset, where alone, as I have before said, the true and genuine stag-hunt is to be found.

There are two seasons of business: autumn,-that is to say, from the 12th of August, to the 12th of October,-dedicated to the pursuit of the stags; and the spring, from the 12th of April to the 12th of May, peculiar to that of the hinds; the respective animals being, at those periods, in their primest health and condition: hinds, however, may be hunted, and often are, through November and December.

Arrived at the place of meeting, the harbourers, or men who have been on the look-out from the earliest peep of day, are first to be consulted. It may be, they have been unable to gain intelligence of a "warrantable deer," in which case the chance of the covers must be essayed. On the other hand, the slot of a stag has been seen on the