140 THE CREAM OF LEICESTERSHIRE. L^'-asox 



LORD nOSSMORE. 



Ai'Kih 2m), 1S74. 



X^) sadder news lias fallen upon Leicestershire for years than 

 the sudden death of Lord Rossmore. It has come as an 

 awful shock upon those who knew lum so well — who were 

 accustomed to welcome his cordial daily greeting, and to sh«are 

 with him a sport in Avhicli he figured so prominently and plea- 

 santly. A happier, cheerier spirit than his came not into the 

 hunting field, and no man carried the warmth of friendship 

 more 0]>enly and heartil}' on liis countenance than he did. He 

 enjoyed life douhly that he enjoj-ed it with his friends — looking 

 upon companionship as the essential to all amusement, and 

 lovmg hunting as much for its social attractions and good- 

 fellowship as for aught else. And as it was never his wont to 

 speak ill or spitefully of others, so no one Avas ever heard to 

 speak save kindl}' and affectionately t)f him. In this he was a 

 l)right sample of the men who characterise the present happj' 

 ^lelton field — men who take each other as they find ; who are 

 ahove searching out and magnifying the little foihles of their 

 friends ; who are jealous not at all ; who, having once dubbed 

 and accepted an acquaintance as a *' good fellow," are content 

 to hold him as such till something more than the distortion of 

 his trifling peculiaiities can denude him of the title. 



A tine rider, too, was Lord Rossmore, and as bold a one as 

 ever crossed a country. One instance of his undaunted courage 

 is so vividl}' before me that I cannot but relate it. Many maj'- 

 remember that Wednesday morning of a few weeks ago, when 

 the Belvoir started from Coston covert, for a run that eventuall}'' 

 took them to the "Witham Woods. To those who do, it will 

 require no great further eftbrt to recall how curiously the 

 hounds of a sudden swung across a grass field through the 

 pressing horsemen, now warmed to excitement pitch by a 

 ({uarter of an hour's fiist galloping, and how desperate a set 

 of timber (defended too by a wide-set ditch) offered itself with 



