On his right sat Mr Tracy Tupman - the Tupman, who to the wisdom and experience of more mature years was added the enthusiasm and ardour of a boy in the most interesting and pardonable of human weaknesses - love.

Time and feeding had expanded that once romantic form; the black silk waistcoat had become more and more developed; inch by inch the gold watch-chain beneath it had disappeared from within the range of Tupman's vision; and gradually had the capacious chin encroached upon the borders of the white cravat: but the soul of Tupman had known no change - admiration of the fair sex was still its ruling passion.

On the left of his great leader sat the poetic Snodgrass, and near him again the sporting Winkle; the former poetically enveloped in a mysterious blue cloak with a canine-skin collar, and the latter communicating additional lustre to a new green shooting-coat and plaid neckerchief.

Vocabulary:

Ardour: Passion and emotion.
Capacious: Large and comfortable
Encroached: Moved into areas where it should not be
Cravat: Old-fashioned necktie.
Fair sex: Victorian expression for women.
Former: The first of these.
Enveloped: Wrapped up in.
Canine: From a dog.
Latter: The last (or second) of these.
Lustre: Shine, (or metaphorically, prestige).
Plaid: A colourful pattern.
Neckerchief: An old word for a short cotton scarf