{ ^7 ) 



THE CHIRPINGTONS OF LARKLEY HALL. 



E have hitherto picked out for the gentle reader's 

 edification only solitary flowers, ''buttonholes," 

 so to speak, from amongst the varied assortment 

 to be met with in the course of the hunting season with 

 our renowned pack of hounds, but this time we must alter 

 our programme a little, and endeavour to give a slight 

 sketch of, not one flower, but a whole bunch, all at once. 

 For the fact of the matter is, that the Chirpingtons are one 

 and all such a united family, such a happy family, and last, 

 but not least, such a "sporting family," that it is quite 

 out of the question to separate one from the other. We don't 

 think we shall be going very far wrong, indeed, in saying 

 that Tom Chirpington is about the most popular man in 

 the whole county, and his wife the most popular woman. 

 As regards the latter, a pretty good proof of her popularity 

 is that not one of her own sex seems ever able or even 

 desirous of picking holes in her, and that, the reader must 

 allow, speaks volumes in itself. Why, even Mrs. Babbler, 

 the bishop's wife, in whose drawing-room at the palace, 

 half the gossip and mischief-making of the country is 



