g along to a distant meet,[27] at the heels of
the huntsman's hack,[28] whose face is about the color of the tails
of his old pink,[29] as he exchanges greetings with the coachman
and guard. Now they pull up at a lodge,[30] and take on board a
well-muffled-up sportsman, with his gun-case and carpet-bag. An early
up-coach meets them and the coachmen gather up their horses, and pass
one another with the accustomed lift of the elbow, each team doing
eleven miles an hour, with a mile to spare behind, if necessary. And
here comes breakfast.

[27] #Meet#: a gathering of huntsmen for a hunt.

[28] #Hack#: here, nag or horse kept for rough riding.

[29] #Old pink#: a red hunting-coat.

[30] #Lodge#: a gentleman's house.

"Twenty minutes here, gentlemen," says the coachman, as they pull up
at half-past seven at the inn-door.

BREAKFAST.

Have we not endured nobly this morning, and is not this a worthy
reward for much endurance? There is the low dark wainscoted[31] room
hung with sporting prints; the hat-stand (with a whip or two standing
up in it belonging to bagmen,[32] who are still snug in bed) by
the door; the blazing fire, with the quaint old glass over the
mantel-piece, in which is stuck a large card with the lists of the
meets for the week of the county hounds. The table covered with the
whitest of cloths and of china, and bearing a pigeon pie, ham, round
of cold boiled beef cut from a mammoth ox, and the great loaf of
household bread on a wooden trencher.[33] And here comes in the stout
head waiter, puffing under a tray of hot viands; kidneys and a steak,
transparent rashers[34] and poached eggs, buttered toast and muffins,
coffee and tea all smoking hot. The table can never hold it all; the
cold meats are removed to the sideboard; they were only put on for
show and to give us an appetite. And now fall on, gentlemen all. It is
a well-known sporting house, and the breakfasts are famous. Two or
three men in pink, on their way to the meet, drop in, and are very
jovial and sharp-set, as indeed we all are.

[31] #Wainscoted#: lined with boards or panels.

[32] #Bagmen#: commercial travellers.

[33] #Trencher#: a large wooden plate.

[34] #Rashers#: thin slices of bacon.

"Tea or coffee, sir?" says head waiter, coming round to Tom.

"Coffee, please," says Tom with his mouth full of muffin and kidneys;
coffee is a treat to him, tea is not.

Our coachman, I perceive, who breakf