CHAPTER XIV 

 OLD FRIENDS— MEN AND HORSES 



THE man who left the strongest impression 

 on my mind in early days was Mr. Little 

 Gilmour, though I was only a boy at the time, 

 and he was then on the shelf as far as hard riding 

 was concerned. He was a contemporary of my 

 father's, and their lights were probably brightest 

 from 1835 to 1855, whilst my arrival into this 

 world did not occur till i860. Whyte-Melville I can 

 also recall, an occasional visitor to Melton, with a 

 kind word for a small boy. A figure that is asso- 

 ciated in my mind with the same period is that of 

 Sir John Fludyer. I managed with his assistance 

 to get to the end of a run from Little Dalby to 

 Owston Wood, and ever afterwards when able to 

 have a day with the Cottesmore he took me under 

 his wing. Much water has flowed by since that 

 time, and I have met men of all sorts ; but " Sir 

 John " still remains my ideal of a gentlemen, both 

 in appearance and manner — kindly, courtly and 

 considerate. 



Capt. "Puggy" Riddle and Capt. "Tom" 

 Boyce were both regular visitors to Melton before 

 I emerged from the chrysalis of boyhood. The 

 latter was with us up to a few years ago, and to the 



last looked much as I remembered him forty 



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