168 NBIROD'S HUNTING TOUR 



Walton Holts — the latter made by Lord Plymouth in the very 

 finest part of the country, but unfortunately not always a sure find ; 

 and Munday's Gorse, so called from the name of its owner, a real 

 well-wisher to fox-hunting. Mr. Munday — to his honour be it told, 

 as he never hunts — made a covert of twelve acres at his own expense 

 in the Seggs-hills country, which always holds foxes. Melton 

 Spinney, though only four miles from Melton, is in the Duke of 

 Eutland's draw. 



Leicestershire, desirable as it is, has two great disadvantages ; first, 

 the crowd in the field ; and secondly, it spoils a man for any other 

 country, on which account no poor man should ever go near it. On 

 the other hand its advantages are innumerable. It is the only 

 country in the world that appears to have been intended for fox- 

 hunting, and where fox-hunting can be seen in all its glory. The 

 flower of our English youth also (of those at least worth looking at) 

 have always been to be seen there, and a winter in Leicestershire 

 has ever been found to be, to those who are entitled to it, the ixissc- 

 partout that leads to the best society in the world. 



It is said of History, that it affords entertainment and instruction 

 by delineating the manners and customs of countries, and that its 

 merit consists in the justice and liveliness of the picture it represents, 

 as well as the peculiarities which distinguish national characters. 

 At Melton Mowbray, as may be supposed, are persons from all parts 

 of His Majesty's dominions, and Ireland and Scotland furnish their 

 share. The house occupied by Mr. Smith Barry and Mr. O'Neil, 

 and that inhabited by Captain Boss and the two Messrs. Grant, 

 stood exactly opposite to each other in one of the principal streets, 

 and, from the unbounded hospitality which was displayed in them, 

 they might almost have been mistaken for the signs of the Sham- 

 rock and the Thistle. Here, then, the peculiarities and idioms of 

 countries were apparent : — in the one was to be heard proposals for 

 a match, of heats between rival hunters, with " a twelve-feet drain — 

 a five-feet wall — and a barred gate," in the course ; and in the other 

 Mr. Francis Grant would be heard finding his fox in a wliin. In 

 one respect, however, there was neither difference nor distinction — 

 in the good fellowship that prevailed, in the excellence of their 

 French cooks, or in the streams of claret that flowed round their 



