SEASON, 1874-75. 



A FROST BROKEN WINTER. 



Xext winter you will pass witli me ; I'll have 

 My house by that time tmned into a grave 

 Of dread despondence and low-thoughted care, 

 And all the dreams which our tormentors are. 



And we'll have tires 

 To thaw the six weeks' winter in our blood. 



1874 closed about as im- 

 l)iopitioiisly as it well could, 

 so if the New Year is to 

 be a happy one, it will at 

 all events start with the 

 advantage of contrast, and 

 is sure of a heartier Avel- 

 come than usual. 



Mr. Tailby found the 

 sense of inaction so unbear- 

 able that he even antici- 

 pated the tliaAV, determined 

 on seeing the old year out in 

 l^roper fashion, and, acting 

 on Capt. Thomson's theory, 

 that hounds, and hounds 

 only, ought to be considered 

 in determining when hunt- 

 ing IS practicable, betook himself to the chase on Thursday, 

 December 31st. The day Avas one of the most^ bitter of 

 this unfriendly winter ; and it would appear his defiance of 

 it must have actually shamed the clerk of the Aveather into 

 a less forbidding humour, for the latter changed his tactics 



