or some less immaculate work, - among these gentlemen might haply have
been discerned the form and spectacles of Mr. Verdant Green.


CHAPTER XI.

MR. VERDANT GREEN'S SPORTS AND PASTIMES.

ARCHERY was all the fashion at Brazenface. They had as fine a lawn
for it as the Trinity men had; and all day long there was somebody to
be seen making holes in the targets, and endeavouring to realize the
~pose~ of the Apollo Belvidere; - rather a difficult thing to do,
when you come to wear plaid trousers and shaggy coats. As Mr.
Verdant Green felt desirous not only to uphold all the institutions
of the University, but also to make himself acquainted with the
sports and pastimes of the place, he forthwith joined the Archery and
Cricket Clubs. He at once inspected the manufactures of Muir and
Buchanan; and after selecting from their stores a fancy-wood bow,
with arrows, belt, quiver, guard, tips, tassels, and grease-pot, he
felt himself to be duly prepared to


[104 ADVENTURES OF MR. VERDANT GREEN]

represent the Toxophilite character. But the sustaining it was a
more difficult thing than he had conceived; for although he thought
that it would be next to impossible to miss a shot when
the target was so large, and the arrow went so easily from the bow,
yet our hero soon discovered that even in the first steps of archery
there was something to be learnt, and that the mere stringing of his