468 THE BEST OF THE FUN 



It was an intense delight to him to hunt hounds ; and it 

 was a happiness to go hunting with him. As was said a 

 day or two ago in no sense of impiety, by one who 

 appreciated him fitly and to whom his memory is dear, 

 " Will Goodall never did a mean or an unkind thing in his 

 life. If there be happy hunting-grounds in the next 

 world, he surely will be found hunting hounds." 



No more need be added here beyond expression of 

 deep sympathy with the widow who mourns him and who 

 tended him so unremittingly, so thoughtfully, and so bravely 

 through his last, his only illness ; and of hope that the 

 boys he has left (to the elder of whom he was proud to 

 point as "Will Goodall the Third") may grow up to do 

 credit to a name that has been honoured by hundreds 

 of good sportsmen and is honoured by many hundreds 

 still. 



They buried him this summer afternoon (Wednesday, 

 August 2i) beneath the elm-tree of Brington churchyard, 

 on the hilltop overlooking the green valley of H addon 

 and Buckby, each pasture and hedgerow in the distance a 

 memo, of his happy career. The sturdy elm in prime of 

 life has by curious coincidence itself been lopped during 

 the present year, by stroke of storm. But its remain- 

 der branches stretch shelteringly above his grave ; and 

 to-day o'erhung an assemblage doing fit honour to the 

 dead. 



Could the dead have looked down upon that cluster of 

 stalwart men, dark-clad and sorrowing, the very opposite 

 in aspect, but consistent in heart and sentiment, the same 

 he had met many a score of times at covertside, proud 

 indeed might he have been, and almost welcomed his 

 fate. 



Brothers, themselves men of mark in similar spheres 

 (Frank Goodall of the Kildare one of them), close followed 

 his coffin. Every Pytchley man within reach, headed by 

 the veteran Mr. R. Bevan, and scores of Pytchley yeomen 

 led by Mr. Sanders of Brampton, were at the graveside. 

 Lord Spencer and his countess (by whose thoughtful care 

 his coffin had been made beautiful as his final illness had 

 been eased) attended his burial. Frank Gillard and Tom 



