438 THE BEST OF THE FUN 



evening to Welsh Road Gorse, and I reached home in 

 time for post. Grateful, however, am I for five as merry 

 days as ever fell consecutively to my lot. 



CHAPTER LXX 



MELTON AT HOME AND ON VISIT 



On Monday, March i8, 1895, nothing near me but wood- 

 land (which in all humility 1 am content for three weeks 

 yet as far as possible to waive), I gave myself a holiday, a 

 jaunt amid old battle-grounds. I took train to Melton. 



By reason of drought, heat, and dry blue mist, Monday 

 was a hopeless day, as far as the making of sport was con- 

 cerned ; but at least it gave opportunity of appreciating in 

 some degree how a Melton field is at present composed 

 and managed. The metropoHs of fox-hunting ever, it has 

 never in this quarter-century been more distinctly so than 

 now. "The glass of fashion and the mould of form " are 

 more its own than ever, whatever comparison you may 

 choose to make as to sterling sport. On the latter head 

 the Ouorn will certainly yield to none, in this capricious 

 winter of 1 894-1 895. They made great use of their final 

 months of 1894 ; and somebody will surely tell you of 

 their great achievement of Saturday last. But to continue 

 with generalisms, 'twould be well worth your while to see 

 with what courteous firmness Lord Lonsdale rules his field 

 (though that field be almost madly on the ride after a ten 

 weeks' frost), to note how exceptionally, nay, grandly, his 

 men are mounted ; still more, I take the liberty of saying, 

 to mark Tom Firr yet in his prime, and, should you wish, 

 to seize the opportunity of a few Leicestershire fences in his 

 wake. These last are, or may not be, an improvement on 

 what we may remember them, say, ten years ago. The ox- 

 rails have decayed ; but happily, and thanks to his lordship 

 and his brother, the foul fiend wire has not taken their 

 place for winter use. The field has, perhaps, changed less 

 in this decade than the fences. Fully three-fourths remain, 

 " their hair just grizzled," possibly " as in a green old age," 



