"
"An I might advise," continued Bucklaw, who was now in his element, and
desirous of assuming the whole management, "as the hounds are surbated
and weary, the head of the stag should be cabaged in order to reward
them; and if I may presume to speak, the huntsman, who is to break up
the stag, ought to drink to your good ladyship's health a good lusty
bicker of ale, or a tass of brandy; for if he breaks him up without
drinking, the venison will not keep well."
This very agreeable prescription received, as will be readily believed,
all acceptation from the huntsman, who, in requital, offered to bucklaw
the compliment of his knife, which the young lady had declined.
This polite proffer was seconded by his mistress. "I believe, sir," she
said, withdrawing herself from the circle, "that my father, for whose
amusement Lord Bittlebrain's hounds have been out to-day, will readily
surrender all care of these matters to a gentleman of your experience."
Then, bending gracefully from her horse, she wished him good morning,
and, attended by one or two domestics, who seemed immediately attached
to her service, retired from the scene of action, to which Bucklaw, too
much delighted with an opportunity of displaying his woodcraft to care
about man or woman either, paid little attention; but was soon stript to
his doublet, with tucked-up sleeves, and naked arms up to the elbows
in blood and grease, slashing, cutting, hacking, and hewing, with the
precision of Sir Tristrem himself, and wrangling and disputing with all
around him concerning nombles, briskets, flankards, and raven-bones,
then usual terms of the art of hunting, or of butchery, whichever the
reader chooses to call it, which are now probably antiquated.
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