A BRIDGE OF SIGHS. 555 



endeavour to time the feat. Bunker's Hill and Leicester's 

 Piece were the two chief draws of the day ; and between these 

 two (a couple of miles or so apart) was enacted most of the 

 day's play. 



But this is not Thorpe Trussels or Melton Spinney round 

 which we are shivering this treacherous afternoon ? Yet those 

 four figures grouped in yon gateway are surely Meltonian ? 

 One is Hon. Sec. to the Quorn, the others have worn the button 

 for many a year. Fool, your drifting mind has gone back a 

 score of years. It was 1870 when Mr. Ernest Chaplin worked 

 the home district for Mr. Chaworth Musters, and rode ever up 

 to hounds. Now the Juggernaut of Fortune has left its cruel 

 stamp upon his back — taking him for a victim who knew more 

 of hunting, and cared more consistently for it, than 'most any 

 one in the Shire of Shires. His glimpses of the sport are now 

 gathered from a pony-trap, while much older men, who love the 

 chase less and have studied it not one hundredth part, ride by 

 in happiness — knowing nothing, caring little, who may be the, 

 to them, stranger gazing after hounds so wistfully hour upon 

 hour. The contrast of such present and past is acutely 

 painful. I might better have spared myself, and foreborne 

 from inflicting it upon you were there not more vivid sympathy 

 in the woild of foxhunting than in other comminglement of 

 life. It is in some sense a relief to turn to the other three — 

 vigorous, active, participators still in what has to them been a 

 main occupation of life. These are Captain Boyce, Holland- 

 Corbet, and Riddell, who need no comment, but will accept 

 excuse and greeting from Brooksby. 



A BRIDGE OF SIGHS. 



It is not often that a thaw in good earnest asserts itself in 

 the country before making itself apparent in London. Thus 

 while many hunting-men were still casting dismal glances upon 

 the snow-covered roofs of the metropolis, the stay-at- homes were 



