dn't inform the field what the hounds cost his
lordship, or rather what they didn't cost him.

Woodmansterne, his lordship's principal residence, was a fine place. It
stood in an undulating park of 800 acres, with its church, and its lakes,
and its heronry, and its decoy, and its racecourse, and its varied grasses
of the choicest kinds, for feeding the numerous herds of deer, so well
known at Temple Bar and Charing Cross as the Woodmansterne venison. The
house was a modern edifice, built by the sixth earl, who, having been a
'liver,' had run himself aground by his enormous outlay on this Italian
structure, which was just finished when he died. The fourth earl, who, we
should have stated, was a 'liver' too, was a man of _vertu_--a great
traveller and collector of coins, pictures, statues, marbles, and
curiosities generally--things that are very dear to buy, but oftentimes
extremely cheap when sold; and, having collected a vast quantity from all
parts of the world (no easy feat in those days), he made them heirlooms,
and departed this life, leaving the next earl the pleasure of contemplating
them. The fifth earl having duly starved through life, then made way for
the sixth; who, finding such a quantity of valuables stowed away, as he
thought, in rather a confined way, sent to London for a first-rate
architect. Sir Thomas Squareall (who always posted with four horses), who
forthwith pulled down the old brick-and-stone Elizabethan mansion, and
built the present splendid Italian structure, of the finest polished stone,
at an expense of--furniture and all--say 120,000_l._; Sir Thomas's
estimates being 30,000_l._ The seventh earl of course they starved; and the
present lord, at the age of forty-three, found himself in possession of
house, and coins, and curiosities; and, best of all, of some 90,000_l._ in
the funds, which had quietly rolled up during the latter part of his
venerable parent's existence. His lordship then took counsel with
himself--first, whether he should marry or remain single; secondly, whether
he should live or starve. Having considered the subject with all the
attention a limited allowance of brains permitted, he came to the
resolution that the second proposition depended a good deal upon the first;
'for,' said he to himself, 'if I marry, my lady, perhaps, may _make_ me
live; and therefore,' said he, 'perhaps I'd better remain single.' At all
events, he came to the determination not to marry in a hurry; and u