Swdii lioppincj — Bcttisficld. 15 



Hobert Swan, as well-known in Yorkshire as ni Sir 

 Watkin's hunt, has taken to himself a wife, Miss 

 Wright, of Halstoii. By w^ay of doing the thing in true 

 sporting style, aiid with a dash of old Halston days, the 

 newly-married couple arranged to do Darby and Joan 

 from the w^edding on horseback to x\dcote, where they 

 w^ere to spend the honeymoon. I wonder whether their 

 horses' manes and tails were tied up wdth white ribbons 

 for the occasion, to make the thing quite correct ! 

 Would not pillion have been better ? 



For the next nine days not even the huntsman's 

 horn wall tempt inany a sportsman out of the arena of 

 politics. Wliat an excitement reigns in Shropshire and 

 Cheshire ! The squires are just beginning to realise that 

 •*' the cat is among the pigeons." 



FIFTH WEEK, November 23ed to 28th. 



What can a truthful chronicler say of the w^eek that 

 has just passed, except that it has rained and blown 

 pitilessly almost every day ? 



Perhapa it w^as the turmoil and passion, the clasliing 

 and dashing, of the opposing electorate armies that upset 

 the barometer, or perha^Ds these storms were sent us by 

 •our American cousins to cool our ardour, or increase the 

 -difficulties of the situation. 



Anyhow, one side have thus far come out of the fray 

 more jubilant than the other. 



Is it because they are accustomed to take wind and 

 weather as it comes, provided only that hounds run fast 

 .and straight r 



My readers must not expect, therefore, to hear of 

 -sport in the hunting field — for one fortnight such as this 

 they have plenty of other excitement to till their minds 

 — but after this week, how we shall buckle to, and ride 

 politics into oblivion. 



On Wednesday Sir W^atkin was at Bettislield — not an 

 •enjoyable place at any time, but when it leads you 

 instanter into the Fens, and those Fens are innnoderately 

 •«oaked, imagine, dear absont ones, the blackness of 



