18 THE CREAM OF LEICESTERSHIRE. [Season 



vation to a good sportsman kept at home by illness) ; and, 

 •with onl}^ Sii- Frederick Johnstone, Messrs. Dawson, Mui'ietta, 

 Foster, White Melville, Major Paynter, and half a dozen others 

 in attendance, six or seven couple of hounds ran him fast and 

 fiuious for some distance over the same fine line which had 

 just been traversed the other way. But, alas, the two wliips 

 soon cut in to stop the unorthodox fun ; and the culprits, 

 biped and quadruped, had to retmn with their tails between 

 their legs. The other run fox had by this time regained the 

 Coplow ; the re-united pack quickly pushed him through for a 

 short circle on the other side, and after he had run one more 

 tu'ing ring through the Billesdon Plantations towards Tilton 

 Wood, round by Tilton Village back to the same plantation, 

 he was killed. This terminated a day very fatiguing for horses, 

 but containing a good deal of pleasure for oneself. 



THE PRINCE OF WALES AT MELTON. 



The week ending March 18th, 1871, was made memorable at 

 Melton by the visit of the Heir Apparent, who came to stay 

 with Sir Frederick Johnstone, and enjoy a day or two from the 

 metropolis of foxhunting. Having virtually begun his season 

 with Mr. Chaplin and the Burton (after an essay or two in the 

 neighbourhood of Windsor), he has once more honoured the 

 Shires with his presence, and come to taste again the sweets of 

 the grass countries. His last visit was marked by a first-class 

 run with the Belvoir from Hose Gorse ; while this year the 

 incident of his visit was the smart burst with the Quorn from 

 Cossington — the difierence being that the former was on a state- 

 day, and the latter was the result of a quiet by-day, extemporised 

 solely with a view to showing him a gallop. This time the 

 elements alone ruled over the sport of his three days' visit, 

 showed themselves no respecters of persons, and all but sue- 



