318 APPENDIX. 



The great Mr. Meynell was designated, by his admiring 

 friends, as " The King of Sportsmen ;" — " The Hunting Jupiter." 

 He had earned those titles by the success of his practice, — by the 

 sport which he had shewn ; but, without an acre of land of his 

 own in Leicestershire (the whole of his extensive estates being- 

 situated in remoter counties), he could not have carried on the 

 war, as a stranger, in the very heart of the best hunting country 

 in the world, had not his conduct, from the commencement to 

 the close of his career, been characterized by the deportment 

 which distinguishes a thorough-bred English gentleman. He 

 was, indeed, as much the repandu of the elite of Grosvenor 

 Square — as much at home at St. James's — as he was at Quorn- 

 don, or at Ashby pastures. 



" The evil that men do lives after them ; 

 The good is oft interred with their bones" — 



but with reference to this great professor of the science which 

 he adorned, it has been universally allowed by all who knew him, 

 that he was one of the most agreeable and accomplished of men, 

 and that he was most justly estimable in all the relations of 

 social life. 



It is much to be regretted, that none of his contemj^oraries 

 sliould have thought fit to compile and publish tlie memoirs of 

 one, who 



" Lived not for an age, but for all time" — 



seeing that they could not have failed in exciting that interest 

 which they must possess for all sportsmen. 



At such a distance of time, it is difficult to ascertain the 

 precise date of Mr. Meynell's first appearance in Leicestershire, 

 and other facts, of minor importance to my purpose, yet highly 

 essential to any one undertaking the task of his bioo-rapher; 



