1872—73.] MARKET HARBORO'. 87 



cliorus into its depths. But, as usually the case in this well- 

 preserved domain, they were baffled by numerous fresh dis- 

 coveries, scattered, and had finally to be withdi'awn — after the 

 most dashing gallop of the year. 



Such a week of sport it has never been my fortune to 

 chronicle before ; and I question if anyone now hunting can 

 look back upon its superior. 



MARKET HARBORO\ 



" Leicestershire," for the previous week, slunk into the 

 diary — meagre, spiiitless, and disappointed — ^just as the 

 dowagers of the county and of Northamptonshire were mar- 

 shalling their charges in the cloak room of the Market Harboro' 

 Hunt Ball, previous to an entry in state. Covey after covey, 

 brood after brood, emerged from their snug nests in brougham 

 or barouche, shook out their feathers, and flocked in. About 

 the elder birds, as the}' led their charges up the full length of 

 the room, there hung a conscious stateliness, a becoming 

 magnificence, a kind of genial pomp, that was all it should be 

 on such occasions — while from both sides bold critical men 

 eyed each lot as freely as if behind their club windows on a 

 Drawing-room day. The young birds — with a plumage less 

 brilliant, perhaps, but softer and more ravissant by far than 

 their leaders' — hopeful, expectant, even tremulous, but with 

 cheeks calm and unruffled as masterpieces of Mme. Eachel. 

 In many cases, likely enough, a first ai^pearance — but did high- 

 bred damsel ever yet betray that this was her maiden ball, or 

 has a man yet been found with perception acute enough to 

 discover it ? Certes, the sex show theii* blood and birth here 

 in a way that was never given to the male patrician ! See one 

 of them enter her first ball-room, finding herself suddenly in a 

 scene dazzling in its brightness and electrifying in its novelty. 

 Will she not carry her head as high, and look around with a 

 glance as steady and self-possessed as a three-season beauty 



