160 NIMRODS HUNTING TOUR 



with hounds were to be measured by the yard, it would be found to 

 exceed the circumference of the globe at least twice over. When I 

 first knew Leicestershire, twenty-two years ago, he was reckoned an 

 experienced sportsman, and supposed to know the country better 

 than any other man in it ; and he himself informed me that he has 

 hunted altogether thirty-seven years — viz. with the late Mr. Meynell, 

 with the present Lord Lonsdale when he was Sir William Lowther, 

 with Lord George Cavendish, with Sir Carnaby Haggerston, who 

 hunted the Duke of Eutland's country during his Grace's minority ; 

 and, as I can myself answer for his having been a constant attendant 

 upon the various masters of the hounds since Lord Sefton's time, he 

 may, without presumption, be entitled to the honourable appellation 

 of Sportsman. He has always been a steady and good rider to 

 hounds, though weighing at least sixteen stone and measuring six 

 feet two inches high, and I never before recollect hearing of his 

 meeting with any serious accident. 



Mr. John Fryatt, formerly groom to Mr. Brommell, but of late 

 years landlord of the George Hotel at Melton Mowbray, is entitled to 

 the thanks of the sporting world for the various horses he has 

 introduced into Leicestershire, by which the breed of hunters has 

 been very much benefited. 



The town of Melton Mowbray is very finely situated. It is 

 embosomed in a rich vale, with the river Stour iiowing by the side 

 of it ; and has a very handsome church, the tower of which is often 

 a grateful sight to a returning sportsman on a beaten horse. The 

 roads about Melton are uncommonly good — particularly that to 

 Leicester, from which it is distant fifteen miles. 



But what would Melton be were it not for the noble sport of fox- 

 hunting ? Something perhaps what Cheltenham would be without 

 its springs ; though springs alone would be no great recommendation 

 to Melton, as the visitors to that place drink something better than 

 water. The money, however, spent in this town alone by strangers, 

 who resort to it for the purpose of hunting, cannot be computed at 

 less than twenty thousand pounds per annum, as there are generally 

 from two hundred and fifty to three hundred horses quartered in its 

 stables. Leicester, Grantham, Nottingham, and the neighbouring 

 towns, also turn out their share of sportsmen. 



