The Hunt Dinner pictures the wind-up of a successful day's sport. The table has been cleared, punch bowls are introduced, the run has been recorded and canvassed, and the venerable ancestral hall, hung with the armour of an earlier generation of the occupant's progenitors, is ringing with the sounds of hilarity. The young squire, a man of mettle, has mounted a chair in front of the portrait of his sire, who it seems was a Nimrod in his day: field sports are obviously the family taste; the owner of the estate, standing at the head of the table to pledge a toast, and holding a huge prize cup, in which Reynard's brush is dipped, is waving his cap, and giving a 'View Halloo!' which is inspiring his guests, the bold hunters gathered round his mahogany, who are acknowledging his lead with an enthusiasm and entraînement which correspond to the ardour of their host; the bumpers are lifted on high with reckless hands, and numerous pairs of stentorian lungs are echoing the challenge with boundless goodwill; in some instances the good cheer is a trifle overwhelming, and one hero, though capsized in his chair, is still doing honour, with undiminished rapture, to the toast of the evening: even the privileged hounds are adding their voices to the general hilarity.
January 6, 1798. [Comforts of Bath]. Published by S. W. Fores, Piccadilly.
THE NEW BATH GUIDE;
OR MEMOIRS OF THE BLUNDERHEAD FAMILY.
IN A SERIES OF POETICAL EPISTLES
By Christopher Anstey, Esq.
I'll hasten, O Bath, to thy springs, Thy seats of the wealthy and gay,
Where the hungry are fed with good things, And the rich are sent empty away.
I'm certain none of Hogarth's sketches E'er formed a set of stranger wretches.
COMFORTS OF BATH. I.