fit to be angry, and the fact that both the said lover and the aforesaid parent were scarcely conscious of what they were saying, or perhaps doing.

Then, think of the effort which Jane felt she had to make in keeping up a conversation calculated to ward off any allusion to the matter nearest her father's heart. She affected good spirits, and as they passed the walls of the noble establishment which dignifies the surrounding dirt, she launched out into a high eulogium upon the "pietas augusta" of Queen Mary, and continued uninterruptedly to descant upon her virtues and charity till a peculiar noise to which, "in the afternoon," she was not altogether unaccustomed, announced to her that her respectable and gallant sire was-to use a strong expressionfast asleep.

To wake him would be to rouse the lion, or rather to disturb the bear; yet she felt by no means pleased at being thus entirely left to the mercy of the protestations and declarations of George Grindle by the soft, or rather noisy, slumbers of the gallant officer. The word love from his lips would be death to her; even though she was conscious that she was doomed, sooner or later, to hear it-she had seen in his manner, and discovered by his conversation during the day, that her companion held himself invincible in the art and mystery of ladykilling-nay, that he felt satisfied that she herself had already fallen a victim to his fascinations she had reason to believe she could not be blind-or even if blind-deaf, to the reasons why he had been transported from his father's carriage to hers; it was evidently to afford him an opportunity of what the saints call "improving the occasion," or as he would himself have said, "making his play."

Having therefore exhausted the hospital, Jane, who could not avoid remarking the fixed look of devotion of her opposite neighbour, began upon the universal topic of railroads-their speed-their danger -their advantages-the change they would work in society, to all of which George seemed to listen with the deepest attention, without even venturing a reply. Jane felt reassured; two miles had now been travelled, and the advances which she had dreaded had not been madethe infant passion had not been even whispered-her ear was still unprofaned her hand was yet unpressed.

What strange creatures women are the best, the wisest nobody but a woman perhaps will believe, that with all her dread of the siegewith all her disinclination to the parley, and with her firm determination as to the surrender, this fair and gentle " soldier's daughter" was rather disappointed-disappointed in the female sense of the word, at the perfect quietude of the dragon with whom she had been packed up. Such implicit deference to all she said-such a total absence of all remark piqued her into the belief that the dandy who pretended to her love, did not consider her worthy of his notice. After another observation upon trains, and trams, and trucks, &c., she again looked at him for a dissenting or assenting observation, when she found certainly to her surprise, that the ever graceful George, the admired of all beholders was, like her excellent parent at her side, in a state of blessed somnolency.

Then it was, that Jane first seriously instituted in her mind a comparison between her opposite companion and his absent half-brother.

True it was that Frank had found very few opportunities during the day of enjoying any thing like conversation with Jane; nor, knowing his views and resolutions touching her, and her position in his family, would he have availed himself of any opportunities which might have presented themselves; and true it is that the course Jane would have preferred to pursue, would have been to think nothing about either of them; but when the contrast was actually forced upon herwhen she recollected the intellectual qualities of Frank-his gentle and submissive approach to the balcony-the assiduous, yet on his part, natural and unaffected solicitude which he expressed touching the effect of the night air on her thinly-clad frame-the genuine anxiety to fetch her shawl, which implied as she thought an equal anxiety to prolong her stay where she was-the few observations which he made-his evident dislike of his brother's treatment of the "other two ladies;" in fact, his wholly unconscious development of the respect and admiration which he felt for Miss Jane Bruff, (made too in spite of himself), had-yes, had interested the said Miss Jane Bruff in his favour-barring always, as I have before said, any absurdity about love at first sight, or rather second sight as was the case in the affair under discussion.

The carriage rolled its onward course, and neither Agamemnon nor Adonis came to themselves. The first blush of returning consciousness burst upon them when Sugar and Salt abruptly stopped at the colonel's door in Harley-street, a proceeding on their parts which brought the head of the gallant warrior in contact with his daughter's sinister cheek, and almost threw the slumbering suitor opposite, involuntarily into the arms of his destined bride.

"That'll do. That'll do," said Bruff, as he valiantly exalted his head to the perpendicular, after the bump.

"Permit me," said George, stepping out of the carriage and offering his hand to Jane; "uncommon slow-eh? where-the what is-the steamboat gone.'

Jane just touched the proffered arm, and lightly bounded into the house.

Come, governor," said George, who was entirely mystified as to his position and his companions; "where are you?"

"Here, here," said the colonel; "but where are the ladies-ehwhat?"

Whereupon Sir George's servant stepped up to the door, and hinted that his master and the ladies were close behind, drawn up in Sir George's carriage to the trottoir.

"Ah! that'll do," said the colonel, "now-eh-now we will all be snug-eh-here you-draw off-before the other carriage-comehere." At which period the gallant officer felt it necessary to have recourse to the iron railings of his area to support himself with security. Up drove the carriage, and great and many were the persuasions which Colonel Bruff endeavoured to articulate to induce its inhabitants to renew the pleasures of the day; but George declaring that he must be off, and preferred walking, his worthy father undertook to set Lady Gramm and her poetical friend down, and Frank remaining where he was, the party separated, after perhaps the most unsatisfactory expedition-except that of Walcheren-that ever was undertaken.

Of course George drifted down to Crockford's, where he consoled himself in the morning-room, doing duty for the evening ones at that season, and gave a description of the Greenwich affair, which would have remained unequalled, had not his exemplary parent arrived about three-quarters of an hour later, to qualify the exaggerations of his incautious heir, and pronounce it to the four or five London-bound stragglers who were present," an uncommon pleasant day."

That somehow it had been, as the reader must plainly perceive, a dead failure, there could be no manner of doubt, and when morning came, both Sir George and his son-that is his elder son, were perfectly d'accord on the subject: then they repented and hesitated as to what was next to be done; neither had Jane exhibited the slightest preference for; nor shown the slightest attention to our hero, nor had our hero done any thing in the way of ingratiating himself with Jane-in fact, upon a reconsideration of the proceedings, they mutually reproached each other, with having, they scarcely knew why, exhibited a coup manqué.

Jane on their arrival at home hastened towards her room, tremblingly alive to the usual readiness of Lady Gramm and her literary shadow, to accept any invitation under any circumstances, and join a little sociability" at any hour of the night, knowing, with the colonel in his then state, what the scene would inevitably be. She paused on the staircase, to satisfy herself of the results of his efforts to make up a little "snuggery," and never did the sweetest tones of Grisi or Persiani sound more harmoniously in her ear, than did the roll and rattle of the wheels, which bore away the threatened visiters. She continued her course upwards, and immediately surrendered herself to the petits soins of Miss Harris, so as to prevent any further discussion with papa, whose activity of mind and body were certainly not improved by his Greenwich discipline, and who without even requiring the presence of Jane, wound up his evening with a glass of something comfortable, administered in the back dining-room by the hand of Mrs. Smylar, with whom it is just probable he might have discussed the events of the day, not excluding from his calculations, the exceedingly unprofitable outlay of his seventeen pounds nine shillings and elevenpence.

Whatever might have been the nature and character of the colonel's parley with the housekeeper, or whatever the declarations which in the then peculiarly candid state of what he called his mind, he might have made upon the occasion, it is certain that from this very evening (or morning as it was, before they parted), that amiable and respectable personage began to play a part with "Jane" (as she called her), in which she had never appeared before, and which contrasted itself strangely and strongly with the course of conduct which she had up to that period pursued. "When the wine is in, the wit is out," so says the proverb, and with some men the wit is never out till the wine is in; but the colonel's wit was of a different sort from that, and something came out, during his cosey téte-à-tête with Mrs. Smylar, that had better have been kept in; for, as the reader will probably hereafter see, whatever it was that he did say it was upon that hint she afterwards spake.

(To be continued.)

FOREIGN SPORTING.*

BY NIMROD.

SUCH is the effect of what are called prejudices, imbibed as they are said to be with a certain balmy liquid yclept mother's milk, and of which John Bull has perhaps taken more than his share, that it is almost impossible for an Englishman to picture to himself a being coming under the strict acceptation of the word sportsman in any country but his own-in France especially. But whence this boasted superiority of Britain's sons in this department of practical pastimes? I reply,where, but in his own country, will you find a parallel to the following picture of the British sportsman?

The British sportsman has a pack of fox-hounds in his kennel; at all events we will allude to one of his order who has, and at a minimum expenditure of three thousand pounds a year! And mark the regularity of the proceedings attending this department of an English sportman's establishment. I think I have previously stated that no merchant's affairs are conducted with a stricter attention to order and regularity; and a degree of discipline is enforced throughout the whole system of a kennel that is only to be equalled in martial life. Then walk into the stables of the British master of fox-hounds, and a sight is presented to your admiring eyes that no other country under the sun can show. Forty horses, of the finest shape, and of high blood, all perfect masters of their business, and in the highest state of condition that it is possible for the art of man to enable them to attain ! Again, should the British sportsman be content to fly at lower game, and have a pack of harriers in his kennel, the like order and discipline reign there, and his stable appointments are also available to his more moderate ends. But he may descend still lower in the scale, and enter the coursing-field. Look at him there, with his dogs in body clothes, and with skins like satin, the reward of his unceasing care since they were weaned from their dams. But his shooting establishment! Why here, perhaps, he may, to a certain extent, yield the pas; I was in the field with a German count who had thirty-five gamekeepers constantly in his employ, although, call them "keepers and watchers," and our Lord Segrave beats him by fifteen head of this order of green-coated menials. But in real truth, neither by the quantity of his game, nor the number of its keepers, is the character of the sportsman, or the sport produced by them, by any means to be estimated.

The question is, in what order and condition are the owner's dogs turned out? Are they perfect in their quartering the ground; steady to dog and gun, and down charge as though they were as dead as the game that lies before them, if pointers or setters; and never out of gunshot, and as mute as though they were tongueless, if spaniels. Then their owner, how is he turned out? Is he encumbered, as his brethren of the gun on the continent are, with a game-bag that would hold a young calf, and half-a-dozen other unnecessary appendages? No; he leaves these matters to his attendants, and sallies forth from his hall on a wellbroken pony, from whose back at least one half of his game is killed.

* Continued from No. ccxxxiii., page 59.

And see him on the Scotch moors, giving some hundreds a year for the privilege! Nor do grouse content him; the stag of the forest must fall to his unerring rifle, and he is found deer-stalking among the cliffs and crags of Ben-y-venie, or Cairn-cherie. He is next at Melton, with sixteen hunters and ten hacks, not forgetting the dog-cook. And why does he go thither? Because the country by which it is surrounded is the only one in the world in which fox-hunting can be enjoyed to the greatest advantage. Here he hunts six days a week, and goes through fatigue that no continental sportsman would be paid to go through. And suppose him to be a racing man, and on a large scale. His stakes alone will amount to five thousand pounds per annum, and his annual expenses of breeding, rearing, and training, to double that sum. What an awful consideration is it then, that, to square his accounts, he must realize fifteen thousand pounds in each year-a speculation which the pluck of an Englishman only-one of princely fortune at least-would ever dream of indulging in. But suppose him to be a man of moderate means, to whom such luxuries as these are not upon the cards. We find him with a leash of good pointers, a brace of well-broken cockers, and, perhaps, a small kennel of greyhounds at his own home, and with three or four hunters in stable, which enable him to take the field three or four times a week.

Let us now turn to the continental sportsman. If a master of hounds, in what consist his chief desires? Parade and show. Without laced coats and cocked hats, and music, the best run of the season would be considered a failure by the field. Then for a sample of their hounds, whither shall I go? To Count Hahn's boar-hounds? Yes, for they were good of their sort, when I saw them fourteen years back, for the game they hunted, being half hound, half mastiff, with the strength of lions, and chained to the wall to guard against their savage disposition.

But fox-hounds! a continental owner of such animals is yet to be looked for, and he will be looked for in vain. (There is a small pack at St. Omer, and also another at Boulogne, both kept by Englishmen, but they do not meet with much encouragement.) Surely the King of the French has hounds, as part of his establishment, the Bourbons abounding in sporting blood!* His majesty has none; but his heirapparent has, and I saw them at Chantilly last year, at exercise in the park, attended by five men in green jackets and caps, but not huntingcaps. They consisted of thirty-one couples; but their being in part designed for separate purposes, spoiled their appearance in a sportsman's eye, although he might have picked out about fifteen couples that

Prince Esterhazy had a pack of fox-hounds, some years back in Hungary, and during the residence of Lord Stewart, in 1826, at the chateau at which they were kept, they were hunted by the celebrated Tom Crane, who hunted the hounds of the Duke of Wellington in Spain, and subsequently the Fife pack in Scotland, in whose service he died. And the mention of the Boulogne fox-hounds-which are still in being, though with little encouragement-leads me to the mention of the following anecdote, by which it would appear that fox-hunting in France is not likely to be popular. A fox having been caught in a bag by the guard of a rabbit-warren, hired by an English gentleman, was sent to the manager of the Boulogne fox-hounds, and turned out on the morrow. Previously to“ shaking him," however, two gendarmes made their appearance, and requested to have given them, in writing, the names and residences of the whole host of Nimrods assembled for the day's sport; which request was complied with—a carbine, a brace of pistols and a sabre, being arguments against which the oratory of a Cicero or a Brougham would stand a poor chance.

Sept.-VOL. LX. NO. CCXXXVII.

C