ABSTRACT
Sir Philip, noted throughout the county for his dashing equipages, drove over to the Manor-House in the very sprightliest vehicle which it could enter the heart of man to conceive. A brilliant pair of high-stepping, spirited chesnut horses, always stylishly on the point of running away, came spanking down the avenue, ‘Youth at the helm’ and Lady Dendraith at the prow. Nothing would persuade the old lady to take the box-seat on her husband’s many chariots; it made her nervous; so she always took the post of ‘Pleasure’ in Etty’s famous picture. 1 Philip, on the wings of love – as Mr. Sedley jocularly put it – had already arrived, and he and Viola, with the radiant proprietor and his wife, were assembled on the doorstep to welcome the visitors. Sir Philip, waving his whip in gala fashion, drew up the prancing chesnuts, sprang down, helped ‘the old lady’ 2 to alight, and broke forth into loud expressions of satisfaction at the news.
