50 FOX-HOUND, FOREST, AND PRAIRIE. 



are for old age ; and failing nerve shows itself only in the 

 morning. We have seen another Kirby Gate ; and old 

 friends looked pleasant — and young. The same ceremony has, 

 doubtless, been enacted at many an opening meet elsewhere 

 during the past and present week — and a man never feels so 

 youthful and capable as when he grips hands that have been 

 open and unchangeable to him through years gone by. 



" The rolling seasons pass away ; 



And Time, untiring, waves his wing." 



****** 



" What fears, what anxious hopes attend the chase ! 

 Ah, happy days ! too happy to endure." 



Who was there ? is invariably the leading question in 

 reference to Kirby Gate. Below is a rough list of gentle names, 

 in reply. Who was not there ? is always the next query — to be 

 answered in sadness and regret. The kindly old Earl and 

 Capt. Hartopp (the friend and boon companion of all of us) are 

 the names that rise first on the lips. Beside these there were 

 many other absentees ; but, though we could wish them present, 

 no melancholy fate has prevented or postponed their coming. 

 Mr. Little-Gilmour does not often miss the opening meet. But 

 neither he nor Col. Forester (the two oldest Meltonians) put in 

 an appearance to-day. The octogenarian of the field was the Rev. 

 Mr. Bullen of Eastwell — looking as firm and happy in his saddle 

 as ever. If I mistake not, his years already number eighty- 

 seven ; he began hunting eighty years ago ; and he broke his 

 collarbone when fourteen. Had his well-known contemporary, 

 the Rev. John Russell of Devonshire, been also present — as was, 

 till a few days ago, expected — the meeting of two such pillars 

 of our old established church would in itself have been an event 

 worth witnessing. 



The following represent some portion of the field assembled : 

 Mr. Coupland, the Duke of Portland, Lord Newark, Count 

 Kinsky, Sir Frederick Fowke, Mr. and Mrs. Adair, Capt. and 

 Mrs. Molyneux, Capt. and Mrs. Ashton, Mrs. Sloane Stanley, Mr. 

 and Miss Chaplin, Mr. and Mrs. and Miss Clifford Chaplin, 



