202 THE HUNTING FIELD 



eyes are starting out of his head, the roses of his flabby cheeks 

 have dissolved into numberless little red veins, while his 

 mulberry-coloured nose has thrown out divers little knots and 

 hillocks, all indicative of devotion to the joU}- god. 



Codshead has on the verj- coat — nay, w-e believe, the very 

 coat, waistcoat, breeches, and boots — in which he appeared 

 fourteen years ago. The coat, we remember, was the first 

 dress one — the first 



" Bed by night, and chest of drawers by day," 



that appeared in our country, and of course produced a corre- 

 sponding impression. It then fitted him as a coat should fit, 

 easy and comfortable-looking, neither too tight nor too loose ; 

 the waist was where the colonel's waist was, and if the collar 

 was twice or thrice the breadth of collars of the present day, 

 it was not a bit more ridiculous than the hem-like things of 

 our times will be hereafter. It was then a fresh well-favoured 

 coat, and though we cannot say we admire the cut, it never- 

 theless became the colonel. Alas ! how changed are both coat 

 and colonel ! 



There is nothing hurts a man's vanit\- so much as the 

 conviction that he is getting fat. So long as he retains his 

 figure and activity he may be any age, but when this 

 " too, too sohd flesh won't melt," 



when relentless beef will load the neck, back, reins, loins — all 

 the places that used to be mentioned in Moore's once indelicate 

 almanack — a dreadful conviction comes over him that — to put 

 it in the mildest form — lie is not so young as Jic was. 



Against this terrible admission Colonel Codshead has long 

 borne up stoutly and manfully. — He will not admit that he is 

 an ounce heavier than he was twentj- 3-ears ago, and all because 

 by dint of extreme exertion and compression he can manage to 

 squeeze himself into the clothes he wore then. It certainly 

 says much for the elasticity and the accommodating nature of 



