England -- Fiction; Fox hunting -- Fiction; Humorous stories; Hunting stories
He was 'got up' with uncommon care in the most complete style of the severe
order of sporting costume. It being now the commencement of the legitimate
hunting season--the first week in November--he availed himself of the
privileged period for turning out in everything new. Rejecting the now
generally worn cap, he adhered to the heavy, close-napped hat, described in
our opening chapter, whose connexion with his head, or back, if it came
off, was secured by a small black silk cord, hooked through the band by a
fox's tooth, and anchored to a button inside the haven of his low
coat-collar. His neck was enveloped in the ample folds of a large white
silk cravat, tied in a pointing diamond tie, and secured with a large
silver horse-shoe pin, the shoe being almost large enough for the foot of a
young donkey.
His low, narrow-collared coat was of the infinitesimal order; that is to
say, a coat, and yet as little of a coat as possible--very near a jacket,
in fact. The seams, of course, were outside, and were it not for the
extreme strength and evenness of the sewing and the evident intention of
the thing, an ignorant person might have supposed that he had had his coat
turned. A double layer of cloth extended the full length of the outside of
the sleeves, much in the fashion of the stage-coachmen's greatcoats in
former times; and instead of cuffs, the sleeves were carried out to the
ends of the fingers, leaving it to the fancy of the wearer to sport a long
cuff or a short cuff, or no cuff at all--just as the weather dictated.
Though the coat was single-breasted, he had a hole made on the button side,
to enable him to keep it together by means of a miniature snaffle, instead
of a button. The snaffle passed across his chest, from whence the coatee,
flowing easily back, displayed the broad ridge and furrow of a white cord
waistcoat, with a low step collar, the vest reaching low down his figure,
with large flap pockets and a nick out in front, like a coachman's.
Instead of buttons, the waistcoat was secured with foxes' tusks and catgut
loops, while a heavy curb chain, passing from one pocket to the other,
raised the impression that there was a watch in one and a bunch of seals in
the other. The waistcoat was broadly bound with white binding, and, like
the coat, evinced great strength and powers of resistance. His breeches
were of a still broader furrow than the waistcoat, looking as if the
ploughman had laid two ridges into one. They came low down the leg, and
were met by a pair of well-made, well put on, very brown topped boots, a
colour then unknown at Laverick Wells. His spurs were bright and heavy,
with formidable necks and rowels, whose slightest touch would make a horse
wince, and put him on his good behaviour.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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