CHAP. PAGE I. “The Genius Loci” 193 II. Tips, the Horse-breaker 207 III. Mr. Naggett 221 IV. Tom Turnbull 234 V. Old Ike, the Earth-stopper 247 VI. Miss Merlin 259 VII. Miss Merlin 272 VIII. Young Plumtree 286 IX. In the Trap 299 X. The Old Squire 312 XI. The Soakington Field-Day 325 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ MARKET HARBOROUGH OR, _How Mr. Sawyer went to the Shires_ ------- CHAPTER I ONE OF THE “OLD SORT” MOST men have a sunny spot to which they look back in their existence, as most have an impossible future, to attain which all their energies are exerted, and their resources employed. The difference between these visionary scenes is this, that they _think_ a good deal of the latter, but _talk_ a good deal of the former. With some fellows the golden age seems to have been passed at Eton, with others at the Universities. Here a quiet, mild clergyman gloats over the roistering days he spent as a Cornet in the Hussars; there an obese old gentleman prates of the fascinations of London, and his own successes as a slim young dandy about town. Everybody believes he liked that rosy past better than he did. Just as we fancy that the hounds never run nowadays as they used, when we had lungs to holloa and nerves to ride; and that even if they could go the same pace hunters are not now to be got of the stamp of our old chestnut horse, concerning whose performances we think no shame to lie, year by year, with increasing audacity; there is nobody left to contradict us, and why should we not? Now, Mr. Sawyer, too, will descend into the vale of years, with a landmark on which to fix his failing eyes, an era which shall serve as a date for his reminiscence, and a starting-point for his after-dinner yarns. This shall be the season when Mr. Sawyer went to the Shires. It is not yet very long ago. Perhaps it may be well to relate a few of his adventures and doings in those localities ere they lapse into the realms of fiction under the romantic colouring with which he will himself begin to paint them, when their actual freshness has worn off.