264 ikings of tbe 1bunting=jftelt> 



which he addressed to the editor of the Daily Telegraph, 

 at once denounced the " True Story " as " a He — an 

 odious, damned He ; upon my soul a He — a wicked He." 

 " Such," he says, " is the burst of indignation with which 

 EmiHa repudiates the foul aspersion of lago on the 

 spotless fame of the gentle Desdemona. Such is the 

 reply to Mrs Stowe on the lips of all to whom the 

 memory of Mrs Leigh is dear, and dear it must be to 

 all who knew her, as I did, nurtured under her wing, 

 and having from childhood throughout her lifetime 

 occupied a position little less than that of a son in her 

 family." ' 



Six years after thus breaking a lance in defence of 

 an injured lady's honour, on the 30th of November 1875, 

 Frederick Peter Delme-Radcliffe died at Hitchin Priory, 

 Hertfordshire, in his seventy-second year. 



It is, of course, mainly on ' The Noble Science ' that 

 his fame as an author rests. This has long been 

 recognised as a standard work, and Lord Fitzhardinge, 

 than whom it would have been difficult to find a better 

 judge, declared that its author was the best theoretical 

 huntsman that ever lived. Mr Delme-RadcHffe's style is 

 no doubt somewhat too diffuse and discursive for the 

 taste of the present day, and some of his views are 

 obsolete, but still ' The Noble Science,' edited and 

 annotated up to date as it has been by Mr W. C. A. Blew, 

 cannot fail to fascinate every sportsman who takes an 

 intelligrent interest in the science of fox-huntinfr. 



