The Project Gutenberg EBook of Mr. Sponge's Sporting Tour, by R. S. Surtees

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Title: Mr. Sponge's Sporting Tour

Author: R. S. Surtees

Release Date: October 28, 2005 [EBook #16957]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MR. SPONGE'S SPORTING TOUR ***

Produced by Michael Ciesielski, Josephine Paolucci and the
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Mr. Sponge's Sporting Tour.

R.S. Surtees

[Illustration: _Mr. Sponge completely scatters his Lordship_]

Transcriber's Note: Minor typos corrected and footnotes moved
to end of text.

TO

THE RIGHT HONOURABLE LORD ELCHO,

IN GRATITUDE

FOR MANY SEASONS OF EXCELLENT SPORT WITH HIS HOUNDS,

ON THE BORDER.

THIS VOLUME IS INSCRIBED,

BY HIS

OBLIGED AND FAITHFUL SERVANT,

THE AUTHOR.

PREFACE

The author gladly avails himself of the convenience of a Preface for
stating, that it will be seen at the close of the work why he makes such a
characterless character as Mr. Sponge the hero of his tale.

He will be glad if it serves to put the rising generation on their guard
against specious, promiscuous acquaintance, and trains them on to the noble
sport of hunting, to the exclusion of its mercenary, illegitimate
off-shoots.

_November 1852_

CHAPTER I

OUR HERO

[Illustration]

It was a murky October day that the hero of our tale, Mr. Sponge, or Soapey
Sponge, as his good-natured friends call him, was seen mizzling along
Oxford Street, wending his way to the West. Not that there was anything
unusual in Sponge being seen in Oxford Street, for when in town his daily
perambulations consist of a circuit, commencing from the Bantam Hotel in
Bond Street into Piccadilly, through Leicester Square, and so on to
Aldridge's, in St. Martin's Lane, thence by Moore's sporting-print shop,
and on through some of those ambiguous and tortuous streets that, appearing
to lead all ways at once and none in particular, land the explorer, sooner
or later, on the south side of Oxford Street.

Oxford Street acts to the north part of London what the Strand does to the
south: it is sure to bring one up, so