The Sport of Our Jincestors 



About an hour and a half after the servants are gone 

 forward with the hunters, a change of scene is to be ob- 

 served at Melton. Carriages and four appear at some 

 doors, at others very clever, and, most commonly, thorough- 

 bred hacks, led gently in hand, ready for their owners to 

 mount. The by-roads of this country being bad for wheels, 

 the hack is often the better conveyance of the two — always, 

 indeed, unless the fixture be at a place on, or not far from, 

 a turnpike road ; and twelve or fourteen miles are generally 

 performed by him within the hour. 



The style of your Meltonian fox-hunter has long dis- 

 tinguished him above his brethren of what he calls the pro- 

 vincial chace. When turned out of the hands of his valet, 

 he presents the very heau-ideal of his caste. The exact 

 Stultz-like fit of his coat, his superlatively well-cleaned 

 leather breeches and boots, and the generally apparent high 

 breeding of the man, can seldom be matched elsewhere ; 

 and the most cautious sceptic on such points would satisfy 

 himself of this fact at one single inspection. 



Before Leicestershire acquired its present ascendant rank 

 in the scale of sport, it was hunted by what were called the 

 Noel hounds, which afterwards became the property of the 

 Lonsdale family ; but, in those early days, this county 

 wore, to the eye of a sportsman, a very different appear- 

 ance from that which it now presents. A great portion of 

 the land was unenclosed ; neither was there a tenth part 

 of the furze-covers with which it now abounds. The foxes, 

 on the other hand, were wilder then than they are at present, 

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