"Ask Mamma"; or, The Richest Commoner In EnglandSurtees, Robert Smith
General
"Ask Mamma"; or, The Richest Commoner In England
Surtees, Robert Smith
England -- Social life and customs -- 19th century -- Fiction; Fox hunting -- Fiction
_“But I will tell you about fox No. 2. I was riding with a very
pretty young lady, Miss de Glancey, whom the Earl had just
introduced me to, when all of a sudden everybody seemed to be
seized with an uncontrollable galloping mania, and set off as
hard as ever their horses could lay legs to the ground. My horse,
who they said was a perfect hunter, but who, I should say, was a
perfect brute, partook of the prevailing epidemic, and, though he
had gone quite quietly enough before, now seized the bit between
his teeth, and plunged and reared as though he would either knock
my teeth down my throat, or come back over upon me. ‘Drop your
hand!’ cried one. ‘Ease his head!’ cried another, and what was
the consequence? He ran away with me and, dashing through a flock
of turkeys, nearly capsized an old sow._
_“Then the people, who had been so civil before, all seemed to be
seized with the rudes. It was nothing but ‘g-u-u-r along, sir!
g-u-u-r along! Hang it! don’t you see the hounds are running!’
just as if I had made them run, or as if I could stop them. My
good friend, the Major, seemed to be as excited as any body:
indeed, the only cool person was Miss de Glancey, who cantered
away in a most unconcerned manner. I am sorry to say she came in
for a desperate ducking. It seems that after I had had as much as
I wanted, and pulled up to come home, they encountered a most
terrific thunder-storm in crossing some outlandish moor, and as
his lordship, who didn’t get home till long after dark, said she
all at once became a dissolving view, and went away to nothing.
Mrs. Moffatt, who is stout and would not easily dissolve, seemed
amazingly tickled with the joke, and said she supposed she would
look like a Mermaid—which his lordship said was exactly the case.
When the first roll of thunder was heard here, the Earl’s
carriage and four was ordered out, with dry things, to go in
quest of him; but they tried two of his houses of call before
they fell in with him. It then had to return to take the Mermaid
to her home, who had to borrow the publican’s wife’s Sunday
clothes to travel in._
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account