LEICESTERSHmE 169 



well-polished mahogany. Mr. Francis Grant does not return to 

 Melton, which I was very sorry to learn. I was in hopes once more 

 to have listened to the lively sallies of this fine young Scotchman, 

 which reminded me of the wild landscapes of his parent country ; 

 who, " all air, and disdaining the bars and ties of mortal mould," as 

 the Edinburgh Eeview says of the poet Shelley, is about to settle in 

 his native land; where, like his countryman Burns, he will " sit on 

 the fields of her battles, wander on the banks of her rivers, and 

 muse by the stately towers and venerable ruins, once the abode of 

 her heroes." 



On one of the evenings which I had the pleasure of passing, if I 

 may be allowed to call it so, at the sign of the Thistle, I had the 

 gratification of meeting with that excellent sportsman, the Earl of 

 Kintore, than whom I know no man so rapturously fond of fox- 

 hunting. 



The name of Captain Eoss has been so often before the public in 

 his various pigeon-shooting matches, that nothing is wanting to 

 establish him as a first-rate shot. I saw him hit a black wafer fixed 

 on the back of a common card at fourteen yards several times ; but, 

 strange to say, he only jnissed the card twice, at this distance, out of 

 three hundred shots — hitting the wafer one hundred and fifty-five 

 times ! Calling on Captain Eoss one morning, I found him practising 

 at fourteen yards. He then presented his pistol out of his drawing- 

 room window, and said, " Now you shall see me take the head off 

 the figure on Smith Barry's house." This was a small gilt figure of 

 Hope, about five inches in length, placed between the windows, to 

 shew that the house was insured at the Hope Insurance Office. He 

 lodged the ball in the left breast ! " That will not do," said he, "I 

 must have the head off."- — " Is it not dangerous? " said I ; " there is 

 Smith Barry and a friend sitting close by." — " Oh no," replied he, 

 " I have perfect confidence in my pistol." He fired again, and shot 

 off the head. The distance across the street was certainly not less 

 than fifteen yards ; but the space from Madam Hope to the chairs 

 on which Mr. Smith Barry and his friend was sitting, did not exceed 

 three. They shewed no symptoms of alarm on ascertaining, as they 

 arose to the window, whence the shot proceeded, but on the contrary 

 they took their seats again quietly after the first fire. 



