54 THE CREAM OF LEICESTERSHIRE. [Season 



A ROUGH AND TUMBLE FROM THRUSSINGTON 

 NEW COVERT. 



For a sample we need go no furtluT than ^lontlay, February 

 19tli, with the Quorn, though each and every other day had its 

 good features, and has been in unison with the continuous flow 

 of good sport we are now enjoying. A better season than the 

 l)resent has not been seen since '61, when Leicestershire was 

 as much beswamjoed with rain and as prolific of gallant runs 

 as now. The grooms alone look melancholy over the present 

 state of things, for the deep, deep ground is cutting their 

 stables to" pieces, and the question "What for to-morrow?" 

 becomes nightly more difficult to answer. Even at Melton, in 

 many instances, men are beginning to find it is not so much a 

 case of what sport they may look for, but of whether they can 

 get out at all. 



Monday comes after a daj' of rest for man and beast, so the 

 beast was universally forthcoming, and no man would deny him- 

 self Six Hills with the Quorn if he could help it. A bright sun 

 in the early morning and a rising glass put weather considera- 

 tions out of sight till it was time to start for covert, and mis- 

 placed confidence brought suffering to follow in its path as 

 usual. An hour of pouring rain brouglit gloom to many a 

 smiling face, and ruin to many a faultless toilette ; but the 

 storm passed off as suddenly as it came, and the faces, if not 

 the toilettes, shone forth again like primroses. Mr. Musters 

 had given his merry men of Nottingham a holida}', in consider- 

 ation of their toil in his marvellous run of the previous Friday, 

 when the lightest and the hardest of them had striven in vain 

 to see the Squire scream over his fox at the end of six-and- 

 thirty miles ; and now he had j^laced himself at their head to 

 show them scenes of his former glory. As is usual at Six 

 Hills, the field was formed on the vires acqulrit eundo or rolling- 

 snowball principle. The captain of the forces and his staff 

 moved off the hounds almost unattended to Cossington Gorse, 



