near Leeds, in the county of York, kept down the rents of the Slumpington and Squashington estates, in the county of Somerset, Scratchington, in the county of Salop, and Rushington, in the county of Kent. The existence of the daughters was an after-find, and perhaps our readers will allow us to dispose of that discovery as one of those catastrophes that are more easily imagined than described. Still there was the consequence of the hounds to console her; and perhaps our sporting friends will do us the favour of accompanying us to the kennel. Kennel did we say? There was no kennel-only an old root-house, with a bench in it. The following was the rise and progress of "moy establishment:" When Carol Hill Green descended on the auctioneer, there was then in the neighbourhood a small trencher-fed pack, called the "Jolly Rummagers," from the independent way they scrimmaged over everybody's land, and which had got into sad disrepute, as well for their trespasses as for their propensity to mutton. In fact, they were under sentence of capital punishment, when it occurred to the butchers, bakers, publicans, beershop-keepers, and people they belonged to, that it would be a good thing if they could get the major (then Mr. Guineafowle) to head them, which would give them respectability and greater liberty over the land. Accordingly they waited upon our friend, and represented to him the great advantage these hounds were of to the country in a public (house) point of view; expatiated on their anxiety to promote the sports and amusements of the people, than which there could be nothing more legitimate or more truly national than the noble pastime of the chase; and they concluded by informing our friend, that if he would only consent to lend them his name-let the hounds be called his, in fact-they would indemnify him against all costs, charges, damages, and expenses whatsoever. Honour on such easy terms not falling to the lot of man every day, the auctioneer, after due consideration, acceded to their proposal, and forthwith the hounds became his. He then struck the fine gilt button, and established a uniform-green, with a red waistcoat and white breechesand proceeded to qualify for his high office, by reading all the books he could borrow on the subject. Before taxing-time, however, came round, most of the worthies had vanished, and our friend was left sole master of the establishment. They were now Mr. Guineafowle's hounds, in every sense of the word. Many men, with no more taste for hunting than our friend, would have revived the old sentence of extermination; but our Guineafowle, having tasted the sweets of office, didn't like to lose it so soon. He therefore agreed, among his own and some of the neighbouring farmers, that if they would keep the hounds, he would pay the tax; and that his groom cow-keepinggardener, Jonathan Falconer, should collect them the evening before hunting, and distribute them after... This was thought very handsome of our friend, seeing that each hound would cost him fourteen shillings, and there were seven or eight couple of them. To be sure, as between the public and the tax-gatherer, there was always a slight discrepancy; the major, when on his high horse, at marketetables and other public places, talking of them as a full pack, five-and-thirty or forty couple; while to the tax-gatherer he used to say, with an airified toss of his head, that there were only a few couple, Quin 1602 to 19 gi that he kept out of charity, and he wished he was rid of them altogether. Indeed, he once went so far as to try to pass them off as fox-hounds, in order to escape the then certificate duty-alleging that they only condescended to hare in the absence of fox; but this the surveyor wouldn't stand, and our master didn't think it prudent to risk an appeal. A very severe contest having taken place for Mangelwurzelshire shortly after our friend's accession to the Carol Hill Green estate, in which he particularly distinguished himself, by voting for the Whig candidate, after promising and canvassing with the Tory one, he was rewarded by the majority of the militia, in lieu of being placed on the commission of the peace, as he wished; the justices of his petty-sessional division vowing they would all resign if he was. However, he got his majority; and then the hounds were Major Guineafowle's, and Jonathan Falconer got a cockade and a fine gold band for his hat. Many of our sporting readers, we dare say, will remember " Major Guineafowle's, the Carol Hill Hounds," figuring away in the papers, along with the packs of dukes, and lords, and other great men, making quite as great a figure on paper as any of them. A pack is a pack, in the eyes of the uninitiated, just as a child thinks a cherry is a cherry, when it eats a baking one. The major got leave over more land, too, though Lord Heartycheer at the earnest solicitation of whose steward, Mr. Smoothley, cur friend had voted as he did-said, in his usual haughty way, when applied to for some, that "though the man undoubtedly ought to have something for disgracing himself, he didn't know that letting him maraud over a country was the right sort of payment.' His lordship's natural fox-hunter's contempt for a hare-hunter had been greatly heightened by hearing from Dicky Dyke that the major classed their establishments together, and talked of Heartycheer and "oi" hunting the country. Very telling, however, the major's talk was when the first batch of daughters were emancipated from Miss Birchtwig's, and began twisting and twirling about to the music of the watering-place bands; the major still haunting the scenes of his early career-still talking about moy horses, and moy country, and moy hounds kept without a subscription. Offers came pouring in apace, each suppliant feeling satisfied that a five-and-twenty, or four-and-twenty, or three-and-twenty years (as the case might be) master of hounds "without a subscription" could want nothing but amiable, well-disposed young men for his incomparable daughters, and that was a character they all could sustain at least, for a time. Mrs. Guineafowle, being anxious to get the first brood off before her own beauties were ready to appear, favoured all comers, bringing men to book with amazing rapidity, and never letting one off without a thorough sifting. She took possessions, reversions, remainders, and contingencies into consideration, with all the acuteness of an assurance-office keeper. Having been done herself, she was not going to let any one do her. If the unfortunate passed the ordeal of her inquiries the Commons of the Guineafowle constitution-he was passed on to the Lords, in the person of our great little major, now "five-and-twenty years master of hounds without a subscription." Then the major, having got up as much consequence as a newly made sergeant, would receive the smirking, simpering simpleton with an awfully stiff bow, and motioning him into a chair, would invite him to unbosom himself-just as a dentist invites a patient to open his mouth. "Of course," Guineafowle would say, with a puff of his cheeks, and a dive into the bottom of his pockets, as he stuck out his little legs before him "of course I don't want you to go into elaborate detail-minutiæ, in fact to tell me the townships, acreage, and all that; what I want is merely a general outline of your p-r-o-r-perty and means of living, so that I may be able to judge whether you have the means of maintaining my daughter in the elegant luxury and comforts to which she has been accustomed; the lawyers will look to the detail of the matter, see that things are all right and on the square;" with which comfortable assurance Guinea would again inflate his cheeks and "pause for an Bless us, how that ominous speech used to scatter and annihilate the hopes and aspirations of sighs, and glances, and squeezes, and supperdances! Guinea knew how to wield the terrors of Roasters and Pinners, and had been done too often himself to let any one do him. But, to be brief; the consequence of all this was, that men whom our master of hounds without a subscription thought good enough for his daughters, did not think the daughters good enough for them—at least, not unless he came down with a good many guineas, which he always most peremptorily refused to do, doubtless considering it honour and glory enough for any one to marry the daughter of a master of hounds without a subscription, the owner, as he used to insinuate, of Slumpington and Squashington, and all the other places. Guineafowle had bowed out so many insinuating young men, who, as they snatched up their hats as they rushed through the entrancehall, felt quite shocked and grieved that there should be such a mercenary spirit in the world, that Mrs. Guinea was about tired of passing bills for her lord and master to reject; and the young ladies themselves had resolved just to accept offers without falling in love, until such times as there was a possibility of the suitors passing the upper house. This, however, they did not do, and Mrs. Guineafowle saw with concern her own dark-haired, dark-eyed beauties now treading on the heels of the light-haired angels of the former marriage. Miss Birchtwig had returned Laura, the eldest of the three dark ones, whom, like the street orange-women, she only counted as two, making up, perhaps, in extras what she took off the other end-Miss Birchtwig, we say, had “finished and polished" Laura, and returned her with such a glowing description of her virtues, that any one reading it would immediately exclaim, "Why, this Maida Hill establishment must be a real manufactory for angels!" Laura Laura was "obliging, enchanting, engaging, endearing, and so remarkably attentive to the instructions of her music, dancing, drawing, French, and Italian masters, that they all regretted her departure. Indeed, she had endeared herself to every one, while Miss Birchtwig doubted not, that having had to come in contact with some whose tempers were not quite in unison with her own, would have a beneficial result in exercising her patience;"-much such a circular as 30 she sent to the parents of all the "select number of pupils," leaving them, of course, to believe as much of it as they liked, according to their individual capacity for gammon. Best of all, Laura was a perfect beauty; an elegant sylph-like figure, with raven-black hair, a clear Italian complexion, and the largest, deepest, Lola-Montes-like blue eyes, with flashing fringes, that ever were seen. The whole country rang with her beauty. Dicky Thorndyke's report of her to Lord Heartycheer was so encouraging, that his lordship, who had always kept that "pompous, pot-hunting humbug"-as he profanely called Major Guineafowle-at a distance, observed, with a pout of his lips and a hoist of his snow-white eyebrows, that he "didn't know that there would be any great harm in letting Captain Guineapig towl over Barkinside Moor, and so up to their covers at Snipeton and Firle." And now, after this wide hare-hunting circumbendibus, made for the break off at the major's invitation to Tom Hall to partake of a hare-hunt, leaving our fair friends to put whatever charitable construction they like on his motive. purpose of introducing our distinguished friend, whare-hunt, leaving So ends this terrible long chapter. THE CEDAR IN THE PALACE GARDEN. BY W. BRAILSFORD. [This celebrated tree, probably the largest of its kind in this country, was planted by Dr. Uvedale, about the year 1680. It stands in the garden of the palace, once the abode of Edward the Sixth and Queen Elizabeth, and is a very conspicuous object in the town of Enfield.] 93idw-wow Of a man's enduring will, Jubilant o'er mortal ill, Scathed and 1 worn, it seems to be IT Storms and winds have raged in vain, di b asil Songs of love and legends old, |