WITH THE MADRAS HOUNDS. 31 



gallop, the distance out of town having been covered at some- 

 thing a trifle under racing time, to make up for the precious 

 moments lost in waiting for the conveyance. The Prince 

 barely stays for a cup of coffee before getting astride the 

 powerful grey to whom the responsibility is entrusted ; and the 

 staff scramble up at haphazard on to the hussar horses, the 

 biggest men apparently coming in for the weakliest animals. 

 The point of costume having been touched upon, I may add 

 that the regular Indian untanned leather boots are the 

 dominant feature of the dress of the Prince and his followers, 

 though the exigency of the moment compels one gallant lord, 

 whom I have oft seen riding out of Melton the smartest of the 

 smart, to limit his riding gear to a piece of string tied below 

 the knee of each trowser. 



But now to business. We are all wide awake by this time, 

 though many of us reached the meet with half-closed eyes. 

 Oh, dear ! this early rising is the most hateful portion of 

 Eastern life — at all events, till you have been long enough 

 abroad to subvert your whole system of living (natural and 

 acquired), and feel comfortable upon the operation. Could we 

 adopt the principle at home, think you, as our forefathers are 

 said to have done ? I fancy not — certainly for nothing short 

 of foxhunting, and even for that I wist that the crowds of 

 Leicestershire would exist no longer. However, whether you 

 are a man whose habits were formed on a model of method 

 and steadiness, whether you love your bed with the love of 

 natural indolence, or even whether you are on the eve of 

 getting a board of doctors to agree that your state of health 

 calls for six months' recreation in the mother country — in any 

 case loyalty demands that for this week you should burn the 

 candle of your powers at both ends, should actively testify your 

 enthusiasm all day, make merry all night, and, if need be, die 

 contentedly when all is over. 



But, though 'twere the last little spark in our souls, 

 We must light it up now on our Prince's day. 



