Ask Momma: The Richest Commoner In England

Now Mrs. Pringle had always had a very laudable
admiration of fox-hunters. She thought the best introduction for a young man of
fortune was at the cover side, and though Jerry Pringle (who looked upon them as
synonymous) had always denounced "gamblin' and huntin'" as the two
greatest vices of the day, she could never come in to that opinion, as far as
hunting was concerned.

She now thought if she could get Billy launched
under the auspices of that distinguished sportsman, the Earl of Ladythorne, it
might be the means of reclaiming him from Butter Fingers, and getting him on in
society, for she well knew how being seen at one good place led to another,
just as the umbrella-keepers at the Royal Academy try to lead people into
giving them something in contravention of the rule above their heads, by
jingling a few half-pence before their faces. Moreover, Billy had shown an
inclination for equitation—by nearly galloping several of Mr. Spavin, the
neighbouring livery-stable-keeper's horses' tails off; and Mrs. Pringle's
knowledge of hunting not being equal to her appreciation of the sport, she
thought that a muster of hounds found all the gentlemen who joined his hunt in
horses, just as a shooter finds them in dogs or guns, so that the thing would
be managed immediately.