150 NIMROD'S HUNTING TOUR 



winter. The Bicester country was never known to be so tender as 

 it was in the month of February last, and I liope I may never see it 

 so again. Draining, however, appears almost entirely neglected 

 there, whereas that is not the case in Leicestershire ; and I have 

 heard Mr. Lockley say that it does not require a horse to be so 

 good by a stone to carry his rider over the greater part of that 

 country now, as it did when he first rode over it, when much of it 

 was neither drained nor inclosed. The Widmerpool country, I have 

 heard him say, was all open in his younger days. 



I was asked by several why I had not come to Melton sooner in 

 the season, and before the dry weather set in ? My answer to this 

 was obvious. "A man," said I, "with five hunters and a hack, 

 makes a very respectable appearance in the Provincials, but he has 

 no business in Leicestershire. He would be more than half his 

 time kicking his heels in the town where he was quartered, whilst 

 his friends were enjoying themselves in the field." 



Exclusive of work for horses, when hounds are running, there is 

 another way of making use of horse-flesh in Leicestershire ; and 

 that is, in coming home from hunting, or what in the language of 

 the day is called "larking." One of the party holds up his hat, 

 which is a signal for the start, and putting their horses' heads in a 

 direction for Melton, away they go, and stop at nothing till they get 

 there. 



One of the leading men on these occasions is Mr. Maher — a 

 brilliant performer with hounds ; but without hounds in Leicester- 

 shire, few men have a chance with him, from his perfect knowledge 

 of the country. On the "Widmerpool day, he led about a dozen of 

 them a dance of upwards of nine miles over a beautiful country, 

 when at last the party was reduced to three — himself. Captain 

 Standon, and another, each riding one of his horses ; and I was told 

 they rode the distance in little more than half an hour. This is all 

 very well for Mr. Maher, with fourteen or fifteen horses in his 

 stables, but it accounts for one or two of my friends having almost 

 as large a stud at Melton, and only two horses fit to ride. 



A certain noble Earl — long since bid adieu to Leicestershire, but 

 who could almost say with Catullus, " Gymnasii fui flos, et decus 

 old "—has often been heard to declare that hounds sometimes are a 



