LEICESTERSHIRE 161 



The grand feature at Melton Mowbray is the Old Club, which has 

 been established about thirty-two years, and owes its birth to the 

 following circumstance. Those distinguished sportsmen Lords 

 Forester and Delamere (then Messrs. Forester and Cholmondeley) had 

 been living for some years at Loughborough, for the purpose of hunting 

 with Mr. Meynell, and removed thence into Melton, where they 

 took a house, and were joined by the late Mr. Smith Owen, of 

 Condover Hall in Shropshire. As this house, now known by the 

 name of the Old Club-house, only contains four best bed-rooms, its 

 members are resti'icted to that number ; but the following sportsmen 

 have, at different periods, composed it : — the Hon. George Germain 

 (now Lord Sackville), Lords Alvanley and Brudenell, the Hon. 

 Joshua Vanneck (now Lord Huntingfield), the Hon. Berkeley 

 Craven, the late Sir Eobert Leighton, the late Mr. Meyler, Messrs. 

 Brommell, Vansittart, Thomas Assheton Smith, Lindo, Langston, 

 Maxse, Maher, Moore, and Sir James Musgrave. 



There is something highly respectable in everything connected 

 with the Melton Old Club. Not only is some of the best society in 

 England to be met with in their circle, but the members have been 

 remarkable for living together on terms of the strictest harmony and 

 friendship ; and a sort of veneration has been paid by them to the 

 recollection of the former members, as the following anecdote will 

 prove. Not only is the same plate now in use which was pur- 

 chased when the Club was established, but even trifles are regarded 

 with a scrupulous observance. A small print of the late Samuel 

 Chifney, on Baronet, was placed against the wall by the present 

 Lord Sackville, then Mr. Gex-main — (so distinguished as a most 

 excellent sportsman, as well as a rider over a country op 

 over a race-course — in the latter accomplishment, perhaps, 

 scarcely excelled by any gentleman jockey) — and although since it 

 was first affixed the room has undergone more than one papering 

 and repairing, yet the same print, in the same frame, and on the 

 same nail, still hangs in the same place. 



" The rivets were not found that joined us first. 

 That do not reach us yet : — we were so mixed, 

 We were one mass, we could not give or take 

 But from the same, for he was I ; I, he." 



