he.

CHAPTER XLIX

COUNTRY QUARTERS

[Illustration: LADY SCATTERCASH]

Sir Harry Scattercash's were only an ill-supported pack of hounds; they
were not kept upon any fixed principles. We do not mean to say that they
had not plenty to eat, but their management was only of the scrimmaging
order. Sir Harry was what is technically called 'going it.' Like our noble
friend, Lord Hard-up, now Earl of Scamperdale, he had worked through the
morning of life without knowing what it was to be troubled with money; but,
unlike his lordship, now that he had unexpectedly come into some, he seemed
bent upon trying how fast he could get through it. In this laudable
endeavour he was ably assisted by Lady Scattercash, late the lovely and
elegant Miss Spangles, of the 'Theatre Royal, Sadler's Wells.' Sir Harry
had married her before his windfall made him a baronet, having, at the
time, some intention of trying his luck on the stage, but he always
declared that he never regretted his choice; on the contrary, he said, if
he had gone among the 'duchesses,' he could not have suited himself better.
Lady Scattercash could ride--indeed, she used to do scenes in the circle
(two horses and a flag)--and she could drive, and smoke, and sing, and was
possessed of many other accomplishments. Sir Harry would sometimes drink
straight on end for a week, and then not taste wine again for a month;
sometimes the hounds hunted, and sometimes they did not; sometimes they
were advertized, and sometimes they were not; sometimes they went out on
one day, and sometimes on another; sometimes they were fixed to be at such
a place, and went to quite a different one. When Sir Harry was on a
drinking-bout they were shut up altogether; and the huntsman, Tom Watchorn,
late of the 'Camberwell and Balham Hill Union Harriers,' an early
acquaintance of Miss Spangles--indeed, some said he was her uncle--used to
go away on a drinking excursion too. Altogether, they were what the country
people called a very 'promiscuous set.' The hounds were of all sorts and
sizes; the horses of no particular stamp; and the men scamps and vagabonds
of the first class.

With such a master and such an establishment, we need hardly say that no
stranger ever came into the country for the purpose of hunting. Sir Harry's
fields were entirely composed of his own choice 'set,' and a few farmers,
and people whom he could abuse and do what he liked with. Mr. Jogglebury
Crowdey, to be sure,