20 THE CREAM OF LEICESTERSHIRE. [Season 



for throwing off that would have made John Peel jump out of 

 his grave had he heard that hounds were fixed to meet when he 

 would have been toasting at dinner "the fox he had killed in 

 the morning." " Hope deferred makes the heart sick ; " so even 

 the most loyal yielded to the pressure of hunger and a hailstorm, 

 and dispersed, some to return no more, but most to lay in a 

 foundation for a second pilgrimage in the afternoon. The hours 

 passed by, and Time, that turns our hair to snow, in this case 

 worked the part of Mrs. Allen's Zylobalsamum to the green 

 sward, restoring, at least in part, its natural hue ; and soon after 

 three the Prince and his Melton train had arrived, and men 

 were again jogging into Ragdale from all sides. Nothing could 

 possibly be more picturesque than the scene, as one looked do^vn 

 from the Hoby road, where it overhangs the village, on the gay- 

 coloured group clustered in front of the quaint old manor 

 house (once the seat of part of the Ferrers family, but now a 

 farmer's homestead), the hounds dotted about in the centre, and 

 a string of carriages with brightest burdens in the road along- 

 side. An enthusiastic photographer was on the spot, and if he 

 succeeded in reproducing but the leading features of the picture 

 his sale should indeed be a ready one, though the photographic 

 art must have made great steps of late if that impatient toss of 

 his horse's head does not transform his Royal Highness into a 

 Centaur, and Mr. Henry Chaplin is not looming over the whole 

 background like a huge spectre horseman. Beside these there 

 were standing (or, in most cases, moving) Colonel Ellis, Lady 

 Catherine Coke, Lord Grey de Wilton, Mr. Gilmour, Mr. Coup- 

 land, Macbride, the whips, and the hounds ; and on foot, by the 

 Prince's horse, stood the farmer, with mouth, eyes, nose, and 

 every nerve expressive of intense delight, while some fifty horse- 

 men gazed on the operation. 



This process — one to which royalty probably becomes hardened 

 by almost daily experience — being ended, the pack were taken to 

 Thrussington Wolds, and all the polish of beautiful garments 

 and undeniable "getups" at once smothered in the mud and 

 Blush of the lanes and rides. But before going further let me 



