THE MISSED MEET 



(A Ballad of the Chase) 



THO' hoar-frost lingered in the shade, and rime lay white 



in copse and glade, 

 Upon the winter landscape played 

 A sun as mild as May. 

 With trampling hoof and stirrup-clink 

 The lanes beneath them rang ; 

 Whole hamlets ran to watch them prink in brown and 



yellow, black and pink ; 

 Blithely they laughed and sang : 

 So for the meet rode HARBOTTLE, SILLITOE, 

 GRIGGS and BRIGGS and BULLER-BROWN, and GRUMBY 

 on the grey : 



To meet the hounds at Hare Park Gate; the road was 



long, the time grew late, 

 And still they rode, serene, inflate, 

 The unfamiliar way. 

 The road divided left and right, 

 No signpost there to guide ; 

 The right-hand road lay cold and white ; the left-hand, 



bathed in sunshine, bright, 

 And fair, and smooth, and wide : 

 So to the left rode HARBOTTLE, SILLITOE, 

 GRIGGS and BRIGGS and BULLER-BROWN, and GRUMBY 

 on the grey. 



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