The Quorn. 85 



wafted over half tlie country. But you may still get 

 your hunting from it_, and the accommodation is no 

 less complete than ever. And yet, to settle down 

 in the midst of a manufacturing town, with a view 

 to foxhunting, has something incongruous about it. 

 It doesn^t seem natural that the first mile or two of 

 your journey to covert should be past factories, work- 

 shops and trams ; still less that the last stage of your 

 return home should be enlivened by narrow escapes 

 from hansom cabs, while, perhaps, your muddy pink 

 and broken hat provide jest and jibe for unsympathis- 

 ing ^^ factory hands."*^ Loughborough is less than 

 three miles from the kennels ; so as regards distances 

 and journeys you are no worse off than the huntsman 

 (besides having the pull over him of being able to 

 choose your own pace). Loughborough is a quiet 

 little town — though yearning to swell itself out after 

 the manner of its big brother. Both are on the main 

 line of the Midland Railway — Leicester about two 

 hours and a quarter, Loughborough some three hours, 

 from St. Pancras. 



The third alternative — viz., to take a hunting box, 

 away from the towns — recommends itself to many 

 people, especially such as, while wishing to spend 

 their season in a good country, are unwilling to bind 

 themselves down to hunting every day in the week. 

 A man must live somewhere ; so must his wife — and 

 children. And setting aside the mere accident of 

 his taste, surely the green lanes of Leicestershire are 

 to be preferred, for these others, even to the " salu- 

 brisome^' vicinity of Great Coram Street — still more 

 to the unhealthy miasma of upturned arable. He puts 



