158 MEMORIES OF THE SHIRES 



out gold, I never had any unpleasant remarks made 

 whilst getting it. I did, however, notice that when 

 some old friend returned to have a day with 

 the Quorn, he did not meet my greeting of warm 

 welcome in quite the same cheery spirit as of yore. 

 Also, I fear, there were many who avoided me if 

 possible, and who would rejoice if they escaped 

 detection, thinking no shame of not paying for their 

 sport. My task would have been much easier if 

 those from whom a cap was due had sought me out 

 and paid without being asked. One of the very 

 few exceptions who tendered the money unasked 

 was Lord Cecil Manners ; but as masters were 

 exempt, and he was representative of Bel voir, I 

 took upon myself to refuse it. In my opinion the 

 Melton Hunt owe a very big debt to the Dukes of 

 Rutland for having provided them with hunting 

 free of cost for so many years, and I should have 

 been ashamed to accept a cap from a son of that 

 house. 



In those early days of the " cap " there were 

 many amusing episodes ; but there was no foundation 

 for the yarn that I had a fall, stood on my head in 

 the ditch, and spent the rest of the day searching 

 for lost treasure. There may have been some truth 

 in the story that I chased a lady across country, but 

 the lady shall be nameless. My successor had rather 

 a funny experience with a lady — why is it ladies 

 object to pay hard cash ? He had pursued this 

 particular fair one all day, and she had managed to 

 evade him until just before the end, when he man- 

 aged to corner her. Of course she was profuse in 

 her apologies for not having seen him before, and 

 immediately handed over a coin wrapped up care- 



