•Jlt4 THE in XTING FIELD 



some ladies, when they hear of Captain Fearnought or Mr. 

 Daredevil getting two or three tumbles a-day, immediately set 

 them down as desperate tailors, imagining, of course, that they 

 tumble off. To adapt the doctrine of hunting mischances to 

 the " meanest capacity," the horses should be described as 

 getting the falls and not the men. But let us paint away at 

 the Colonel, for he covers a great breadth of canvas. 



The most forlorn-looking things in a hunting field are a pair 

 of old tight moleskin breeches, bursting at the knees. How 

 Colonel Codshead ever got his great uncompromising legs 

 wheedled into his, passes our comprehension. Were it not for 

 the danger that would attend the performance in consequence 

 of the frailty of the article, we should imagine that he had had 

 recourse to the old expedient of being slung into them, as it is 

 said the booted dandies of George the Third's time used to be 

 into theirs, when an exquisite giving an order to his leather 

 breeches maker added these emphatic words, " Mind, if I can 

 get into them I won't have them." Colonel Codshead's mole- 

 skins have seen many seasons — they are far anterior to the 

 coat — indeed we remember thinking, when it was launched, that 

 it would have been as well if he had carried his attentions a 

 little lower, and got himself a pair of new breeches also. Since 

 then the button-holes have been acting the part of a boy's nick- 

 stick prior to the holidays. Each succeeding season has scored 

 a rent until there is not a button-hole without a darn. The 

 whole ten buttons look as if they were ready to fly off at a 

 moment's notice. Tremendous work it must have been getting 

 them coaxed together ! The boots are quite of a piece with 

 the breeches, with wh(.)m, however, they do not seem on 

 visiting terms ; a great interregnum — supplied certainly with a 

 protuberance of most puddingej' calf — inter\-ening between 

 them and the moleskins. Spurs he doesn't sport — they might 

 be dangerous. 



Colonel Codshead's anonymous-coloured, collar-marked. 



