But to return from this digression, which my feeling for the
honour of my country obliged me to make -- our Yorkshire cousin has
been a mighty fox-hunter before the Lord; but now he is too fat
and unwieldy to leap ditches and five-bar gates; nevertheless, he
still keeps a pack of hounds, which are well exercised; and his
huntsman every night entertains him with the adventures of the
day's chace, which he recites in a tone and terms that are
extremely curious and significant. In the mean time, his broad
brawn is scratched by one of his grooms. -- This fellow, it
seems, having no inclination to curry any beast out of the
stable, was at great pains to scollop his nails in such a manner
that the blood followed at every stroke. -- He was in hopes that he
would be dismissed from this disagreeable office, but the event
turned out contrary to his expectation. -- His master declared he
was the best scratcher in the family; and now he will not suffer
any other servant to draw a nail upon his carcase.
The 'squire's lady is very proud, without being stiff or
inaccessible. She receives even her inferiors in point of fortune
with a kind of arrogant civility; but then she thinks she has a
right to treat them with the most ungracious freedoms of speech,
and never fails to let them know she is sensible of her own
superior affluence.
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