<h2><SPAN name="CHAPTER_LXX" id="CHAPTER_LXX"></SPAN>CHAPTER LXX</h2>
<h3>HOW LORD SCAMPERDALE AND CO. CAME OFF</h3>
<p>Our noble master's nerves were so dreadfully shattered by the lamentable
catastrophe to poor Jack, that he stepped, or rather was pushed, into
Jawleyford's carriage almost insensibly, and driven from the course to
Jawleyford Court.</p>
<p><SPAN name="Page_582" id="Page_582"></SPAN></p>
<p>There he remained sufficiently long for Mrs. Jawleyford to persuade him
that he would be far better married, and that either of her amiable
daughters would make him a most excellent wife. His lordship, after very
mature consideration, and many most scrutinizing stares at both of them
through his formidable spectacles, wondering which would be the least
likely to ruin him—at length decided upon taking Miss Emily, the youngest,
though for a long time the victory was doubtful, and Amelia practised her
'Scamperdale' singing with unabated ardour and confidence up to the last.
We believe, if the truth were known, it was a slight touch of rouge, that
Amelia thought would clench the matter, that decided his lordship against
her. Emily, we are happy to say, makes him an excellent wife, and has not
got her head turned by becoming a countess. She has improved his lordship
amazingly, got him smart new clothes, and persuaded him to grow bushy
whiskers right down under his chin, and is now feeling her way to a pair of
moustaches.</p>
<p>Woodmansterne is quite another place. She has marshalled a proper
establishment, and got him coaxed into the long put-a-way company rooms.
Though he still indulges in his former cow-heel and other delicacies, they
do not appear upon table; while he sports his silver-mounted specs on all
occasions. The fruit and venison are freely distributed, and we have come
in for a haunch in return for our attentions.</p>
<p>Best of all, Lady Scamperdale has got his lordship to erect a handsome
marble monument to poor Jack, instead of the cheap country stone he
intended. The inscription states that it was erected by Samuel, Eighth Earl
of Scamperdale, and Viscount Hardup, in the Peerage of Ireland, to the
Memory of John Spraggon, Esquire, the best of Sportsmen, and the firmest of
Friends. Who or what Jack was, nobody ever knew, and as he only left a hat
and eighteen pence behind him, no next of kin has as yet cast up.</p>
<p>Jawleyford has not stood the honour of the Scamperdale alliance quite so
well as his daughter; and when our 'amaazin' instance of a pop'lar man,'
instigated <SPAN name="Page_583" id="Page_583"></SPAN>perhaps by the desire to have old Scamp for a brother-in-law,
offered to Amelia, Jaw got throaty and consequential, hemmed and hawed, and
pretended to be stiff about it. Puff, however, produced such weighty
testimonials, as soon exercised their wonted influence. In due time Puff
very magnanimously proposed uniting his pack with Lord Scamperdale's,
dividing the expense of one establishment between them, to which his
lordship readily assented, advising Puff to get rid of Bragg by giving him
the hounds, which he did; and that great sporting luminary may be seen
's-c-e-u-s-e'-ing himself, and offering his service to masters of hounds
any Monday at Tattersall's—though he still prefers a 'quality place.'</p>
<p>Benjamin Buckram, the gentleman with the small independence of his own, we
are sorry to say has gone to the 'bad.' Aggravated by the loss he sustained
by his horse winning the steeple-chase, he made an ill-advised onslaught on
the cash-box of the London and Westminster Bank; and at three score years
and ten this distinguished 'turfite,' who had participated with impunity in
nearly all the great robberies of the last forty years, was doomed to
transportation. And yet we have seen this cracksman captain—for he, too,
was a captain at times—jostling and bellowing for odds among some of the
highest and noblest of the land!</p>
<p>Leather has descended to the cab-stand, of which he promises to be a
distinguished ornament. He haunts the Piccadilly stands, and has what he
calls ''stablish'd a raw' on Mr. Sponge to the extent of
three-and-six-pence a week, under threats of exposing the robbery Sponge
committed on our friend Mr. Waffles. That volatile genius, we are happy to
add, is quite well, and open to the attentions of any young lady who thinks
she can tame a wild young man. His financial affairs are not irretrievable.</p>
<p>And now for the hero and heroine of our tale. The Sponges—for our friend
married Lucy shortly after the steeple-chase—stayed at Nonsuch House until
the bailiffs walked in. Sir Harry then bolted to Boulogne, where he shortly
afterwards died, and Bugles very <SPAN name="Page_584" id="Page_584"></SPAN>properly married my lady. They are now
living at Wandsworth; Mr. Bugles and Lady Scattercash, very 'much thought
of'—as Bugles says.</p>
<p>Although Mr. Sponge did not gain as much by winning the steeple-chase as he
would have done had Hercules allowed him to lose it, he still did pretty
well; and being at length starved out of Nonsuch House, he arrived at his
old quarters, the Bantam, in Bond Street, where he turned his attention
very seriously to providing for Lucy and the little Sponge, who had now
issued its prospectus. He thought over all the ways and means of making
money without capital, rejecting Australia and California as unfit for
sportsmen and men fond of their <i>Moggs</i>. Professional steeple-chasing Lucy
decried, declaring she would rather return to her flag-exercises at
Astley's, as soon as she was able, than have her dear Sponge risking his
neck that way. Our friend at length began to fear fortune-making was not so
easy as he thought—indeed, he was soon sure of it.</p>
<p>One day as he was staring vacantly out of the Bantam coffee-room window,
between the gilt labels, 'Hot Soups' and 'Dinners,' he was suddenly seized
with a fit of virtuous indignation at the disreputable frauds practised by
unprincipled adventurers on the unwary public, in the way of betting
offices, and resolved that he would be the St. George to slay this great
dragon of abuse. Accordingly, after due consultation with Lucy, he invested
his all in fitting up and decorating the splendid establishment in Jermyn
Street, St. James's, now known as the SPONGE AND CIGAR BETTING ROOMS, whose
richness neither pen nor pencil can do justice to.</p>
<p>We must, therefore, entreat our readers to visit this emporium of honesty,
where, in addition to finding lists posted on all the great events of the
day, they can have the use of a <i>Mogg</i> while they indulge in one of Lucy's
unrivalled cigars; and noblemen, gentlemen, and officers in the household
troops may be accommodated with loans on their personal security to any
amount. We see by Mr. Sponge's last advertisements that he has £116,300 to
lend at three and a half per cent.!</p>
<p>'What a farce,' we fancy we hear some enterprising<SPAN name="Page_585" id="Page_585"></SPAN> youngster
exclaim—'what a farce, to suppose that such a needy scamp as Mr. Sponge,
who has been cheating everybody, has any money to lend, or to pay bets with
if he loses!' Right, young gentleman, right; but not a bit greater farce
than to suppose that any of the plausible money-lenders, or infallible
'tips' with whom you, perhaps, have had connection have any either, in case
it's called for. Nay, bad as he is, we'll back old Soapey to be better than
any of them,—with which encomium we most heartily bid him <span class="smcap">Adieu</span>.</p>
<div class="figcenter"> <ANTIMG src="images/image585.jpg" width-obs="259" height-obs="300" alt="" title="" /></div>
<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
<div class="footnote"><p><SPAN name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></SPAN><SPAN href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></SPAN> Query, 'snob'?—Printer's Devil.</p>
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<div class="footnote"><p><SPAN name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></SPAN><SPAN href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></SPAN> The Poetical Recorder of the Doings of the Dublin Garrison
dogs, in <i>Bell's Life</i>.</p>
</div>
<div class="footnote"><p><SPAN name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></SPAN><SPAN href="#FNanchor_3_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></SPAN> <i>Vide</i> 'Barnwell and Alderson's Reports.'</p>
</div>
<div class="footnote"><p><SPAN name="Footnote_4_4" id="Footnote_4_4"></SPAN><SPAN href="#FNanchor_4_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></SPAN> 'S,' for Scamperdale, showing they were his lordship's.</p>
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