Mr. Glumford, spurring
his own horse,--a heavy, dull quadruped with an obstinate ill-set tail,
a low shoulder, and a Roman nose. "I am very partial to horses myself,
and love a fine horse as well as anybody." Lord Ulswater cast a glance
at his companion's steed, and seeing nothing in its qualities to justify
this assertion of attachment to fine horses was silent: Lord Ulswater
never flattered even his mistress, much less Mr. Glumford.

"I will tell you, my lord," continued Mr. Glumford, "what a bargain
this horse was;" and the squire proceeded, much to Lord Ulswater's
discontent, to retail the history of his craft in making the said
bargain.

The riders were now entering a part of the road, a little more than two
miles from Westborough Park, in which the features of the neighbouring
country took a bolder and ruder aspect than they had hitherto worn. On
one side of the road, the view opened upon a descent of considerable
depth, and the dull sun looked drearily over a valley in which large
fallow fields, a distant and solitary spire, and a few stunted and
withering trees formed the chief characteristics. On the other side of
the road a narrow footpath was separated from the highway by occasional
posts; and on this path Lord Ulswater (how the minute and daily
occurrences of life show the grand pervading principles of character!)
was, at the time we refer to, riding, in preference to the established
thoroughfare for equestrian and aurigal travellers. The side of this
path farthest from the road was bordered by a steep declivity of stony
and gravelly earth, which almost deserved the dignified appellation of
a precipice; and it was with no small exertion of dexterous horsemanship
that Lord Ulswater kept his spirited and susceptible steed upon the
narrow and somewhat perilous path, in spite of its frequent starts at
the rugged descent below.

"I think, my lord, if I may venture to say so," said Mr. Glumford,
having just finished the narration of his bargain, "that it would be
better for you to take the high road just at present; for the descent
from the footpath is steep and abrupt, and deuced crumbling! so that if
your lordship's horse shied or took a wrong step, it might be attended
with unpleasant consequences,--a fall, or that sort of thing."

"You are very good, sir," said Lord Ulswater, who, like most proud
people, conceived advice an insult; "but I imagine myself capable of
guiding my horse, at least upon a road so