464 THE BEST OF THE FUN 



I took down with me to the Forest the new edition of the 

 Druid's works, together with a well-written life of the 

 Druid — whom Lord Rosebery aptly termed " half-sports- 

 man half-poet — "Silk and Scarlet," "Post and Paddock," &c., 

 you know them all. And in their present form, as issued 

 from the office of Baily's Magazine, they are likely to 

 decorate the table of every fox-hunter, of every sportsman, 

 who likes his literature to be above the moderate. 



CHAPTER LXXIV 



THE LATE WILLIAM GOODALL 



Not only by Pytchley men, but by all who by practice or 

 hearsay know something of the Shires of England, will 

 the news of Will Goodall's untimely death be received 

 with sorrow. When still to all appearance in the prime 

 of health and strength, as he certainly was in the height of 

 his fame and capacity, a sudden internal illness seized him, 

 against which neither the best science of the day nor his 

 own grand constitution availed anything. So at the age 

 of forty-eight, after hunting the Pytchley for twenty-one 

 seasons, Will Goodall, the second of a glorious name, 

 died before his time, and was buried in Brington church- 

 yard, in " that nice open spot," as he described it in his 

 dying request to Lord Spencer. The latter, his friend and 

 benefactor for many a year, had, with Mr. Wroughton, 

 been unfailing and unsparing in anxious effort, if possible 

 to save or prolong the life of a faithful and brilliant 

 servant. Sir William Broadbent had been called in ; but 

 the whole tender treatment of a hopeless case had deve- 

 loped upon the shoulders of Dr. Bond, who stood by his 

 patient as it were by his own near relative. 



Of all distressing spectacles there can be none more 

 painful to witness than that of a human being, in full 

 vigour of strength and intellect, all at once beckoned by 

 death — bidden, against his or her will, at short notice to 

 surrender life and joy and friendship. What is known as 

 "sudden death" may often be a merciful one. It may 



