LADV FOXHUXTERS 2S1 



no time for making love. We should apologize to the baronet 

 for not sooner sketching him, but the same sort of difficulty 

 has attended our efforts — we never knew where we had liim. 

 Our reminiscent readers will perhaps recall that in the early 

 part of these papers we mentioned the fact of Mr. Cotton- 

 wool having been partly converted to foxhunting, or rather 

 fox-preserving, from having seen Henrietta in the grasp of 

 Smashgate (waltzing, or attempting to waltz, as far as the 

 Smasher was concerned), which, aided b}- the promptings of 

 the ambitious Mrs. Wool, had induced our friend to have 

 the Master and " Co." to feed (vide No. i of these papers). 

 That man " Co.," as the country lad in London wrote to 

 his father, "he is a great man — he is in partnership with 

 almost everybody;" but the Co. in this case was meant to 

 include all the members of the hunt, or, perhaps, more 

 correctly speaking, it was meant for Sir Rasper in particular 

 and for the hunt in general. Sir Rasper was to be " Co." 

 As the best laid plans, however, will occasionally miscarry, so, 

 in this instance, Mrs. Cottonwoors project went awry. On 

 the day of the dinner, which Sir Rasper accepted " con- 

 ditionally," as indeed he accepts all his invitations during 

 the winter, "if lie gets home in time," he had gone eighteen 

 miles "t'other way" to meet Lord Uncommonswell's 

 magnificent hounds, which, never throwing off before eleven 

 b\' their clocks, or half-past eleven by other people's, had 

 been close upon twelve before they moved from the meet, 

 the Countess of Uncommonswell having come in her barouche 

 and six, with five out-riders, to smile benignl}- on the field, 

 and try to stick a couple of plainish sisters (now rendered still 

 plainer by the addition of red noses) into an}' ambitious 

 Nimrods who might aspire to wives out of a coronetted 

 carriage. It was a show day, in short, and of course late. 

 The meet might be unusually protracted perhaps, from 

 the circumstance of the countess not having any one in 



