1.34 THE HUNTING FIELD 



Thus things went on for many years ; young Peters sprang 

 up, resembling the portrait we drew of our hero on the Duke 

 of Blazington's leaders, while Peter himself, instead of expanding 

 into the red cabbage-looking figure of his father, receded into 

 the little wiry old man now entering the hunting field. 



We should state, that Peter is now what the world calls 

 a gentleman — a gentleman in the idle acceptation of the 

 term, meaning a man with nothing to do, nothing to do except 

 hunt. Shorth' after the railwa}- mania broke out, the since 

 celebrated Jeames de la Pluce, Esq., attended by his pugilistic 

 wally, Fitzwarren, and a man in livery, drove up in a dashing 

 chariot and four to the Fox and Hounds, and politeh' intimated 

 to Peter that he was going to draw a line of railway slap 

 through his kitchen and back offices. Jeames, who is quite 

 the man of manners, accompanied the intimation with a hint 

 that the company " would be 'app}- to pay through the nose 

 for the ecomodetion." A bait so fairly thrown out was not 

 likely to be lost on a man like Peter, and after entertaining 

 de la Plucc with the best of exer^'thing, he stuck the Fox and 

 Hounds into him at three times its worth. Peter expatiated 

 on the loss it would be to him ; Mrs. Pigskin dilated on the 

 laceration of her feelings at leaving it, and de la Pluce swept 

 away their expostulations with so\-ereigns, those weighty 

 arguments, that settle all accounts between man and man, or 

 woman either. 



Peter now lives at Rosemary Cottage, about three quarters 

 of a mile from Fleec}- Hall, where the reader may remember 

 they first met him. Rosemar}- Cottage was built b}' a joll}' 

 bacchanalian, who having a presentiment that he would break 

 his neck some night going to bed drunk, built it all on the 

 ground floor. Unfortunatel}-, however, he sank a well, which 

 did his business quite as effectually as a staircase. 



Peter and Cottonwool began life about the same time, that is 

 to say, they commenced business about the same time — Peter's 



