being promulgated. Peradventure, you are all
acquainted with my prowess as a shooter; I won two silver tankards at
the Red House, Anno Domini 1815. I mention this to show that I am a
practical sportsman, and as to the theory of the Game Laws, I derive my
information from the same source that you may all derive yours--from the
bright refulgent pages of the _New Sporting Magazine_!"

IV. MR. JORROCKS AND THE SURREY STAGHOUNDS

The Surrey foxhounds had closed their season--a most brilliant one--but
ere Mr. Jorrocks consigned his boots and breeches to their summer
slumber, he bethought of having a look at the Surrey staghounds, a pack
now numbered among the things that were.

Of course he required a companion, were it only to have some one to
criticise the hounds with, so the evening before the appointed day, as
the Yorkshireman was sitting in his old corner at the far end of the
Piazza Coffee-room in Covent Garden, having just finished his second
marrowbone and glass of white brandy, George--the only waiter in the
room with a name--came smirking up with a card in his hand, saying, that
the gentleman was waiting outside to speak with him. It was a printed
one, but the large round hand in which the address had been filled up,
encroaching upon the letters, had made the name somewhat difficult to
decipher. At length he puzzled out "Mr. John Jorrocks--Coram Street";
the name of the city house or shop in the corner (No.--, St. Botolph's
Lane) being struck through with a pen. "Oh, ask him to walk in
directly," said the Yorkshireman to George, who trotted off, and
presently the flapping of the doors in the passage announced his
approach, and honest Jorrocks came rolling up the room--not like a
fox-hunter, or any other sort of hunter, but like an honest wholesale
grocer, fresh from the city.

"My dear fellow, I'm so glad to see you, you can't think," said he,
advancing with both hands out, and hugging the Yorkshireman after the
manner of a Polar bear. "I have not time to stay one moment; I have to
meet Mr. Wiggins at the corner of Bloomsbury Square at a quarter to six,
and it wants now only seven minutes to," casting his eye up at the clock
over the sideboard.--"I have just called to say that as you are fond of
hunting, and all that sort of thing, if you have a mind for a day with
the staghounds to-morrow, I will mount you same as before, and all that
sort of thing--you understand, eh?" "Thank you, my good friend," said
the