II. 



A CITY "HUNTING MAN." 



By far the most horsey and stabley man with whom I 

 have the pleasure of an acquaintance is Mr. Thomas 

 Checkley, the junior partner in the old-established firm 

 of Countington, Checkley, & Company, who are de- 

 scribed by admiring friends as the "eminent haber- 

 dashers " of Cannon Street. 



Everything connected with Checkley's personal de- 

 coration and immediate surroundings is of the horse, 

 horsey. His watch-chain is a model in steel and gold 

 of a patent bit, and if his pin is not a horse-shoe, it is a 

 jockey's cap and whip, a spur, or a miniature copy of 

 some article from a saddler's shop. His house in Bays- 

 w^ater, whither I penetrated on one occasion to make 

 inquiries about a horse he wanted to sell, w^as furnished, 

 so far as it came under my ken, with suggestions of the 

 stable and the chase. 



His inkstand is a horse's shoe ; a pair of stirrup irons 

 forms his pen-rack, his paper-weight is a fallen horse, 

 in bronze, with the jockey standing by him ; and a 

 silver-mounted shoe, this time inverted, forms a recep- 

 tacle for his cigar-ash. A regular trophy of whips and 



