Life at Edmondthorpe 



in the sister arts of riding and driving, I have never yet seen 

 her equal in either. So I thoroughly enjoyed my drive, and as 

 we got nearer the appointed place for the meet, horsemen and 

 horsewomen sprang up in every direction, with their horses' 

 heads all turned toward the same goal as ourselves. 



A slight stoppage was caused at a house close to the road, 

 outside which a good-looking chestnut horse, with a side-saddle 

 on his back, was jumping out of his skin with high spirits. 

 My charioteer, with her usual thoughtfulness, pulled up to 

 enable his mistress, patiently waiting at the door, to mount. 

 Unfortunately, we were somewhat late at the meet and the 

 hounds had moved~off, but I had the pleasure of seeing Lady 

 Yarborough mount her horse in the old agile manner and 

 canter off after the hounds. 



For some time, under the groom's guidance, I dawdled 

 about in the trap after hounds, but the day turned foggy, and 

 giving up the hope of seeing some sport, I displaced the groom 

 and drove myself back to Edmondthorpe. At teatime, my 

 brother and his wife appeared ; hounds had gone home early, 

 and it had been a very moderate day. The other guests had 

 gone, and we three spent a happy evening together. The next 

 morning saw the end of my visit, and I said good-bye to my 

 brother, just as he was going off to the meet again. It always 

 pleases me to recollect that my final impression of Maunsell 

 was such a happy one, and that my last sight of him should 

 have been in the time-honoured scarlet he loved so well. 



The beginning of my brother's last illness appeared when, 

 after two well-contested rounds of golf with Sir Francis Astley 

 Corbett on the Cromer Links, he developed a serious attack 

 of influenza, and although he recovered sufficiently on his 

 retfcrn to Edmondthorpe to ride again, and even to hunt 

 occasionally, it was apparent that his health had been seriously 



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