DEAR MR. EDitor,

Nothing daunted by the jealous revilings of my contempora ries, or by your own editorial chastisement, neither of which I beg to assure you have given me one moment's uneasiness, I am about, in my usual straightforward manner, to throw a little light on the "Poonah Subscription," consisting of about eleven couple of under-breds, who hang out no inconsiderable dash of the Pie, that most contemptible and contrary of all animals bearing a canine figure and appellation; whipped by a clever lad on a sturdy grey galloway-and hunted whensoever a bag is to be had for bribery, by a very stylish and very stylish and proper workman, customarily followed or preceded by as numerous and uproarious a field as the magnitude of the society there might lead one to expect. At least two-thirds of these have cheroots in their mouths, which to my mind is just as it should be.

But first, since I detect you to tolerate a rejoinder on less important occasions, you will permit me to make my respectful compliments in a concise sort of way to Messrs. Philo Fun and Strap, whom I observe to be foremost in the crowd of my admirers. Strap's epistle is so close an imitation of my own in No. 9, that it might with propriety have been expressed in three words. His vituperation I despise in common with himself. Philo Fun's wits are woolgathering. I never said that Nimrod was the master of the old Nuggur Pack, nor can I find that Nimrod has ever said so himself. A wag observed the other day that P. F. had only to relate the particulars of a somerset over his horse's ears, as plain

matter of fact, to have ensured ready credence.

Now to my story, which is a short one. I was out with the Poonah dogs on a certain day of last year, when a noble live fox was permitted to effect his escape from the gloomy precincts of a satchel, at a certain place not very far from the city; and the form in which he legged it across country certainly went to prove that he was none the worse for being handled. I am rather addicted to look into these things myself, and took the liberty of observing the geography he selected, not so much from an idea of becoming wiser than my neighbours, but simply for my own private satisfaction you know the sort of feeling. Well, Sir, after a cast or two, a diminutive, wire-haired, sandy-coloured dog, with a devil-may-carish sort of look about him, prick ears, and a bony unyielding posterior excrescence the perpendicular relic of what had been a tail in puppyhood, but had now no pretensions to the denomination-affected, after a world of sneezing and sniffing and smelling and fidgeting to and fro, that he had hit it off to a nicety; in token whereof he uttered a lively squeak, and set off at his best bat in the very opposite direction to the right one. Of course all the rest did the same, but in lieu of attending to their work some were pursuing ortolans or marmots, with a dash first

then a dead stop dead stop and a short, unharmonious, disappointed bark; others were carrying a search warrant into the endless ramifications of a mole earth, and so forth. But the little tawny dog kept steady to his purpose, ever and anon cocking up a leg

and disburthening his nature against a convenient bush or stone; and in this example he was followed by all the others in rotation.

In a

At the end of four or five miles nature could no more, and without any apparent cause the little dog struck work, squatted on his unprotected posteriors, and commenced an active war against the fleas and vermin with which his hide was clearly infested. little time the party, finding the case to be altogether desperate, broke into squads and commenced hunting and hoix-overing on their own account with such portions of the pack as they could persuade, by hi-foxing, whistling, (chirping, and other like seductive extravagancies, to accompany them. I need hardly say they found nothing and no wonder, the fox was not within five miles of us.

Bending our steps homeward, we had occasion to cross the new Sungum Bridge, but the aforesaid sagacious sandy dog evidently regarded such a step to be little short of madness (by-the-by, I suspect his opinion is not altogether singular on this point), but be that as it may, the stubborn beast had kept us waiting near a quarter of an hour, when the huntsman most considerately dismounted, and having carried him to the middle of the fabric, did so belabour his denuded nether parts with a gigantic hunting whip, that he adopted the alternative of bolting home at speed, and had positively not given over howling when we arrived there ourselves.

Some weeks afterwards an an

nouncement of such exceeding novelty attracted my attention, that I deemed it expedient to be an eye-witness of the result. A bagged antelope was to be uncarted (so they called it) near Gibbett Hill. Now, as I had noticed the whipcord to be rather unsparingly administered in the case of a dog breaking to deer, I fancied they might have acquired a natural distaste for that sort of hunting; but no such thing, Sir, I can assure you. The antelope turned out to be a tame fawn, entirely disregardless of clamour and uproar, who positively refused to run an inch. They at

very

last hit on the expedient of leading or rather dragging her to a convenient distance, when the dogs were laid on. Perceiving all joke to be at an end, the animal set off in good earnest for the stable in which she had received her education, and presently gruelled her pursuers out of sight; upon which the huntsman spoke rather incoherently about the necessity of blooding the dogs, crammed in the ticklers, and was not two minutes in giving a good account of the game!!!

I regret to say that of the Bombay pack, so favourably noticed by Looker On, not a vestige remains. I have, however, one more cry to introduce to your pages, with a description of which I shall probably conclude my correspondence your next number. In the mean time I am yours obediently, NOSING TOM.

Neelgherry Hill, 1st March, 1831.

CHAPTER XI.

It was the morning after one of the most merry of merry parties at the Sungum Residency that the members of the Union and Dealtable Hunt had assembled on the plain beneath the little village of Kirkee (since brought into notice from giving name to the first battle with his Highness the Peshwa), that the unexpected appearance of the huntsman, in a dress so very different from his usual costume, caused a general shout of surprise and a loud simultaneous roar of laughter. To account for this sudden explosion of mirth at the worthy huntsman's expense, it is necessary to observe that in general, in the field, he was distinguished by the extraordinary apparel which has been described in the third chapter of these sporting recollections, but in the drawing-room he changed his fustian coat and tawny leathers for a suit which once, no doubt, had been of solemn sable, but time had turned the black to brown, and long use had rubbed it threadbare. In fact, a more shabby state of wardrobe was never exhibited out of Monmouth Street, but such was his happy indifference to personal appearance, that he never gave a thought to the tattered condition of his evening

habili

ments; and such was his enviable absenteeism of mind, that our noble host had determined to use a similar method of improving his dress with that which Walter Scott has described to have been successfully performed by Col. Mannering on poor Dominie

Sampson. A complete suit of new clothes thrown on him at once might have attracted notice, and therefore it was resolved to accomplish the metamorphose by instalments. Directions had accordingly been given to his dressing boy to abstract the old rusty brown coat and substitute a new bright blue one, garnished with large brass buttons, that he might make his entree among the next evening's party with more credit to himself and less annoyance to his host, leaving the kerseymere waistcoat for the next addition, and the pantaloons to match would, as a last reinforcement, complete the full exchange. But the boy, not understanding the orders he had received, immediately after his master had fallen asleep removed the whole of his old apparel, together with his hunting dress, leaving him nothing but his new suit; and at daylight next day, incredible as it may seem, yet so wholly abstracted was he from everything but the sport in prospect that, unconscious of the change in his garments, he actually rode up to the place of meeting with his light blue coat and kerseymere accompaniments, rendered more picturesquely ridiculous by his still wearing his huge military boots, broad-brimmed, poked-bonnet-shaped hat, shading his grim and nutmeg-coloured features.

the

Unheeding the boisterous laughter of the whole group, and perfectly unsuspicious of cause, he gave a general salutation to the party, and then proceeded with all his accustomed formality and seriousness to arrange for the coursing.

"What in the name of all that's

ridiculous can have come over our eccentric huntsman this morning?" exclaimed young Lesmore, while the party were about to divide for their look out. "Heavens! what a cruel coat!" proceeded he; "he surely must be more mad than usual; and where the devil did he get hold of that strange toggery?"

I will explain," said the smiling host; and having acquainted Lesmore with his design to have made the huntsman more respectable in his evening, by the plan which has already been related, he observed, "But I suppose some blunder has been made by his servant, and here you see we have him in the field with his dress suit, and probably he will favour us this evening by appearing at dinner in his hunting clothes." "Well," said Clifford, "I could scarcely have believed such total absence of mind to have been possible."

Faith," said Lesmore, "I can believe anything of him since I learnt from our host the other evening that he had seriously mentioned to him his design of rendering (through the means of the Latin Grammar) the English the universal language of mankind." "Yes," added the host, "'tis very true, such indeed was his proposed plan; and that his work might be attainable by all ranks, he had a scheme of printing it on coarse whitey-brown paper, and sold all over the world at a penny for each copy. But' continued the host, "not more visionary and scarce less wild was his most extravagant proposition to me, some time ago, to become the purchaser from the Peshwa of the ruined city of Beejapore, with certain lands adjacent. His intention, he said, was to rebuild and fortify the town on a smaller scale; to garrison it entirely with Ramouses; and to improve the

cultivation by a new mode of irrigation, aided by windmills and water-pipes." 'Ay," said Lesmore," and I suppose he would have called it Jeffery bad. Yet hark! yes, there he goes full tilt, and there runs the fox; come along, come along." "Hurrah," cried Elsmere, "for the light blue coat and kerseymeres!" and away went the whole throng.

The night had been wet, and the ground in many places sloppy and slippery, and the fox, finding it heavier than he liked, soon made a double which brought him round to his earth, into which he instantly bolted.

The huntsman, who rode close upon the dogs, immediately jumped off, looked into the earth for a moment, and then, to the surprise of all, pulled off his fine new coat, and, notwithstanding the muddy state of the ground, crammed it into the aperture, coolly exclaiming, "We must not be baffled in this manner," and then turning to Elsmere said, "Send for a pickaxe or a crowbar." "Or," said Clifford, "take Fillet by the legs and dig him out." "No, no," rejoined Lesmere, "though his nose has a capital shape for a shovel, I doubt his head being too soft.' "Thick enough, in all conscience,' uttered Clifford; "but what is doing now?”

During this conversation the huntsman had been listening with the deepest interest to the three half naked villagers, who, with earnest gesticulations and loud voices, had riveted his attention so completely that, forgetting the fox, and equally unmindful of his coat, he whispered to his syce, who instantly set off towards the Sungum at a good pace, while his master, mounting his horse, called to Lesmere and requested to speak with him. He then slowly and solemnly acquainted Lesmore with