continued Watchorn, casting his eye over Cloverley Park, round the enclosure of Langworth Grange, and up the rising ground of Lark Lodge.

The more Watchorn thought of it, the more he was satisfied of its feasibility, and he trotted over, the next day, to the Old Duke of Cumberland, to see his friend on the subject. Viney, like most victuallers, was more given to games of skill -- billiards, shuttlecock, skittles, dominoes, and so on -- than to the rude out-of-door chances of flood and field, and at first he doubted his ability to grapple with the details; but on Mr Watchorn’s assurance that he would keep him straight, he gave Mrs Viney a key, desiring her to go into the inner cellar, and bring out a bottle of the green seal. This was ninety-shilling sherry -- very good stuff to take; and, by the time they got into the second bottle, they had got into the middle of the scheme too. Viney was cautious and thoughtful. He had a high opinion of Watchorn’s sagacity, and so long as Watchorn confined himself to weights, and stakes, and forfeits, and so on, he was content to leave himself in the hands of the huntsman; but when Watchorn came to talk of ‘stewards,’ putting this person and that together, Viney’s experience came in aid. Viney knew a good deal. He had not stood twisting a napkin negligently before a plate-loaded sideboard without picking up a good many waifs and strays in the shape of those ins and outs, those likings and dislikings, those hatreds and jealousies, that foolish people let fall so freely before servants, as if for all the world the servants were sideboards themselves; and he had kept up his stock of service-gained knowledge by a liberal, though not a dignity- compromising intercourse -- for there is no greater aristocrat than your out-of-livery servant -- among the upper servants of all the families in the neighbourhood, so that he knew to a nicety who would pull together and who wouldn’t, whose name it would not do to mention to this person, and who it would not do to apply to before that.

Neither Watchorn nor Viney being sportsmen, they thought they had nothing to do but apply to two friends who were; and after thinking over who hunted in couples, they were unfortunate enough to select our Flat Hat friends, Fyle and Fossick. Fyle was indignant beyond measure at being asked to be steward to a steeplechase, and thrust the application into the fire; while Fossick just wrote below, ‘I’ll see you hanged first,’ and sent it back without putting even a fresh head on the envelope. Nothing daunted, however, they returned to the charge, and without troubling the reader with unnecessary detail, we think it will be generally admitted that they at length made an excellent selection in Mr Puffington, Guano, and Tom Washball.

Fortune favoured them also in getting a locality to run in, for Timothy Scourgefield of Broom Hill, whose farm commanded a good circular three miles of country, with every variety of obstacle, having thrown up his lease for a thirty-per-cent reduction -- a giving up that had been most unhandsomely accepted by his landlord -- Timothy was most anxious to pay him off by doing every conceivable injury to the farm, than which nothing can be more promising than having a steeplechase run over it. Scourgefield, therefore, readily agreed to let Viney and Watchorn do whatever they liked, on condition that he received entrance- money at the gate.

The name occupied their attention some time, for it did not begin as the ‘Aristocratic.’ The ‘Great National,’ the ‘Grand Naval and Military,’ the ‘Sportsman,’ the ‘Tally-ho,’ the ‘Out-and-Outer,’ the ‘Swell,’ were all considered and canvassed, and its being called the ‘Aristocratic’ at length turned upon whether they got Lord Scamperdale to subscribe or not. This was accomplished by a differential call by Mr Viney upon Mr Spraggon, with a little bill for three pound odd, which he presented, with the most urgent request that Jack wouldn’t think of it then -- any time that was most convenient to Mr Spraggon -- and then the introduction of the neatly-headed sheet-list. It was lucky that Viney was so easily satisfied, for poor Jack had only thirty shillings, of which he owed his washerwoman eight, and he was very glad to stuff Viney’s bill into his stunner jacket-pocket, and apply himself exclusively to the contemplated steeplechase.

Like most of us, Jack had no objection to make a little money; and as he squinted his frightful eyes inside out at the paper, he thought over what horses they had in the stable that were like the thing; and then he sounded Viney as to whether he would put him one up for nothing, if he could induce his lordship to send. This, of course, Viney readily assented to, and again requesting Jack not to think of his little bill