FOX-HUNTING AND MELTON 11 



because their land happened to be favourable to the 

 sport, and attracted men from every part of England. 

 The visitors had the advantage of longer purses, 

 which meant better horses, but still we know the 

 locals held their own in the field. The sporting 

 writers of that period catered for a public who were 

 probably more snobbish than the readers of to-day, 

 and they knew that the doings of the titled swells 

 or those with a London reputation would be more 

 acceptable than the names of unknown squires. 

 Quite natural this, but it is as impossible to get a true 

 account of men and matters at that date through 

 such gossip as it would be to write a history of our 

 own times from a modern society paper. 



The face of Leicestershire must have altered 

 very considerably since the beginning of the century, 

 but I think there has been very little change in 

 the last fifty years from a riding point of view. In 

 the preceding half of the century the enclosing had 

 all been done, and except for the occasional appear- 

 ance of wire, igoo found us in much the same state 

 as 1850. I often hear people making assertions 

 about the fences being stronger at certain dates, 

 but these facts are gathered from unreliable sources, 

 and their theories are based on an imperfect know- 

 ledge of the treatment of quickthorn hedges. It 

 must be remembered that all the fences in Leicester- 

 shire were not planted in the same year. The 

 history of the hedge is something like this. The 

 quick, as the young thorn is called, was planted, and 

 was protected by post and rails on each side with a 

 ditch to carry off the water. Whilst the rails were 

 new, this was a formidable obstacle to encounter, 

 but time and weather speedily perish all wood except 



