THE QUORN AT KIRBY GATE 



31 



Gartree Hill covert or watch the crowd assemble 

 in the big field by Kirby Gate. The police are 

 there to regulate the traffic at the fixture, the 

 vehicles being pulled up in lines two deep, allowing 

 room for the followers of the hunt to arrive. The 

 whole scene has a holiday-making air about it, a 

 freshness that gives an opening note for the first 

 blush of pink and the commencement of another 

 season's sport. 



The preliminaries are the same every year, the 



From Melton. 



crowd gradually arriving on the vast scene, which 

 is capable of staging them, eager to recognise the 

 features of well-known habitues of the hunt, who 

 season by season flight in like winter migrants from 

 all parts of the world, to make Leicestershire their 

 headquarters for the next five months. It is the 

 most interesting assemblage in the world to watch — 

 thoroughly cosmopolitan, representative of all ranks 

 and degrees in every walk of life. As a spectacle 

 it gives a splendid view of types, nationalities, and 

 personalities, whose hard, serviceable countenances 

 prove the vigour and wholesome energy promoted 

 by hunting, its influence being felt in many more 



