The Life of a Great Sportsman 



blind and admitted the late-coming daylight, a few flakes 

 of snow were falling slowly and gently, seeming like kindly 

 spirits from heaven, bearing sympathetic messages to the 

 bereaved on earth. The frost and the stillness made the air 

 deliciously crisp, and it was evident from the thin snowflakes 

 which fell intermittently, and the shining sun through the 

 breaking clouds, that the day just dawning, when the saddest 

 of all ceremonies was to be carried out, would not be burdened 

 with the added misery of wet weather. 



Magnificent as were the floral tributes I had already seen, 

 two more arrived, one from Maunsell's eldest stepson, the Earl 

 of Yarborough, who wintering abroad, had sent a splendid 

 trophy of large Neapolitan violets ; the other was a wreath with 

 a card inscribed, " From his life-long friend ' Roily ' " (the late 

 Lord Minto), composed entirely of white flowers, and so large, 

 that it covered a good quarter of the billiard table in the front 

 hall, the largest floral tribute I have ever seen, every flower 

 perfect, and it seemed as if its sender, the dearest and closest 

 friend of my brothers youth and manhood, had determined to 

 prove at the last by these flowers how great and beautiful their 

 love for each other had been through life, continuing until 

 death separated them. 



A little later I was glad to find that my niece Eva (now 

 Mrs. Jack Richardson) had arrived. She said no one had 

 asked her to come down, but she felt she could not stay away 

 from her Uncle Maunsell's funeral. It appeared that very 

 many other people were filled with the same longing to be 

 present at my brother's funeral, for from the large number that 

 attended, most of his friends and acquaintances, who could 

 possibly manage to come, must have been there. My nephew 

 Jack, who had been with his father to the very end, had been 

 iven charge of all the arrangements and they were carried 



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