EARLY DAYS IN LEICESTERSHIRE 21 



for introducing these personal details, though I 

 know they can be of little interest to anyone 

 because I could not give you my hunting experiences 

 without first tracing the outline of my life. It 

 may seem bad form to dwell too much on the doings 

 of a humble individual like myself, but I always 

 think generalities bore one more to read than the 

 minutiae of the humblest existence. 



In the season 1880-8 1, I commenced to hunt 

 regularly, and though I had only one animal, a mare 

 about fifteen hands, she never missed her two days 

 a week. I always hunted on Friday with the 

 Quorn and the other day was either a Quorn 

 Monday or a Cottesmore Tuesday. Mr. Coupland 

 was then master, and Firr was in the zenith of his 

 fame. 



The Quorn had great sport that season, and very 

 few Fridays passed without a good run. One of 

 the first days I rode my little mare we had a very 

 fast bursL from Ashby Pastures to ground in the 

 railway bank near Kirby . The distance is not much, 

 but I had never ridden in a similar gallop before 

 and the pace astonished me. I was, however, more 

 than satisfied with the mare, as I was fortunate 

 enough to be one of the few to get a good start. 



The previous season I had been only able to get 

 two or three days' hunting, on which occasions I 

 had hired the butcher's wonderful chestnut mare. 

 Mr. Morris was quite a character, and was at that 

 time the best known figure in the Melton Hunt. 

 He always rode in his blue smock, and must have 

 weighed eighteen stone ; but when there was a stiff 

 bit of timber to be jumped he was always ready to 

 have first cut at it. Strangers then expected the 



