ng them and the servants for a perfect Orpheus.

His chamber also bears evidence of his various avocations: there are
half-copied sheets of music; designs for needle-work; sketches of
landscapes, very indifferently executed; a camera lucida; a magic
lantern, for which he is endeavoring to paint glasses; in a word, it
is the cabinet of a man of many accomplishments, who knows a little of
everything, and does nothing well.

After I had spent some time in his apartment, admiring the ingenuity
of his small inventions, he took me about the establishment, to visit
the stables, dog-kennel, and other dependencies, in which he appeared
like a general visiting the different quarters of his camp; as the
Squire leaves the control of all these matters to him, when he is at
the Hall. He inquired into the state of the horses; examined their
feet; prescribed a drench for one, and bleeding for another; and then
took me to look at his own horse, on the merits of which he dwelt with
great prolixity, and which, I noticed, had the best stall in the
stable.

After this I was taken to a new toy of his and the Squire's, which he
termed the falconry, where there were several unhappy birds in
durance, completing their education. Among the number was a fine
falcon, which Master Simon had in especial training, and he told me
that he would show me, in a few days, some rare sport of the good
old-fashioned kind. In the course of our round, I noticed that the
grooms, game-keeper, whippers-in, and other retainers, seemed all to
be on somewhat of a familiar footing with Master Simon, and fond of
having a joke with him, though it was evident they had great deference
for his opinion in matters relating to their functions.

There was one exception, however, in a testy old huntsman, as hot as a
pepper-corn; a meagre, wiry old fellow, in a threadbare velvet jockey
cap, and a pair of leather breeches, that, from much wear, shone, as
though they had been japanned. He was very contradictory and
pragmatical, and apt, as I thought, to differ from Master Simon now
and then, out of mere captiousness. This was particularly the case
with respect to the treatment of the hawk, which the old man seemed to
have under his peculiar care, and, according to Master Simon, was in a
fair way to ruin: the latter had a vast deal to say about _casting_,
and _imping_, and _gleaming_, and _enseaming_, and giving the hawk the
_rangle_, which I saw was all heathen Greek to old Chr