He then proceeded
to pay his respects in detail. At length, having exhausted his 'nothings,'
and said the same thing over again in a dozen different ways to a dozen
different ladies, he gave a slight jerk of the head to Tom Towler, who
forthwith whistled his hounds together, and attended by the whips, bustled
from the scene.
[Illustration: CAPTAIN GREATGUN]
Epping Hunt, in its most palmy days could not equal the exhibition that now
took place. Some of the more lively of the horses, tired of waiting,
perhaps pinched by the cold, for most of them were newly clipped, evinced
their approbation of the move, by sundry squeals and capers, which being
caught by others in the neighbourhood, the infection quickly spread, and in
less than a minute there was such a scene of rocking, and rearing, and
kicking, and prancing, and neighing and shooting over heads, and rolling
over tails, and hanging on by manes, mingled with such screamings from the
ladies in the flys, and such hearty-sounding kicks against splash boards
and fly bottoms, from sundry of the vicious ones in harness, as never was
witnessed.
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