recarious tenure. 'What's the matter with the dogs' legs? How _queer_
they're standing!' whispered Mr. Winkle. 'Hush, can't you! Don't you
see they are making a point?' said Wardle. 'Making a point?' said Mr.
Winkle, glaring about him, as if he expected to discern some particular
beauty in the landscape which the sagacious animals were calling special
attention to. 'What are they pointing at?' 'Keep your eyes open,' said
Wardle, not heeding the question in the excitement of the moment. 'Now
then.'" How natural and humorous is all this.

This was partridge shooting, "old style"--delightful and inspiriting, as
all have felt who have shared in it. Now we have "drives" on a vast
scale; then you would follow the birds from field to field "marking them
down." I myself with an urchin, a dog, and a single-barrelled old gun
have thus followed a few precious birds from field to field all the day
and secured them at the last. That was true enjoyment.

III.--Horses and Driving in "Pickwick."

For one who so modestly disclaimed all knowledge of sporting and country
tastes, Boz shows a very familiar acquaintance with horses and their
ways. He has introduced a number of these animals whose points are all
distinctly emphasized: a number of persons are shown to be interested in
horses, who exhibit their knowledge of and sympathise with the animals, a
knowledge and sympathy which is but a reflection of his own. The cunning
hand that could so discriminate between shades of humorous characters
would not be at a loss to analyse traits of equine nature. There is the
cab horse, said to be forty years old and kept in the shafts for two or
three weeks at a time, which is depicted in Seymour's plate. How
excellently drawn are the two Rochester steeds: one "an immense brown
horse, displaying great symmetry of bone," which was to be driven by Mr.
Pickwick, and Mr. Winkle's riding animal, another immense horse
"apparently a near relative of the animal in the chaise." "He don't shy,
does he?" The ostler guaranteed him quiet--"a hinfant in arms might
drive him"--"He wouldn't shy if he met a whole waggon-load of monkeys
with their tails burnt off." A far more original illustration than
anything used by the Wellers, whose special form that was. I pass over
the details of the driving and the riding which show a perfect knowledge
of animals, such as "the tall quadruped." Nothing is more droll than the
description of the loath