162 THE CREAM OF LEICESTERSHIRE. [Season 



infrmgement is expensive, and badgers being scarce in these 

 parts, there was little or no harmless amusement to be found ; 

 — and Melton is a place of far too rigid morality to allow of a 

 certain personage stepping in to find occupation for idle hands. 



ALL FOOLS' DAY, 1875. 



A SHORT life and a merry one will scarcely apply to the 

 season of '74 '75. A chequered existence and a lingering 

 death will sum up its career more correctly. With its end 

 now near at hand and unavertable, it struggles feebly on to the 

 last, though little glory attends its almost inanimate efforts. 

 " Capital weather for the lambs," remarks the well-satisfied 

 grazier; "Good seeding time," chimes in complacently the 

 tiller of the soil ; and both sentiments sound badly for fox- 

 hunting and its present prosperity. For neither of these 

 gentlemen is prone to over-sanguine speech, or to placing 

 too high an estimate on the blessings vouchsafed them in their 

 respective callings. Though ofttimes to be seen with face 

 radiant with " a wise content," they do not often too lightly or 

 too loudly express the feeling with their tongue. So you may 

 take it that the last month has been as dry and dusty a March 

 as ever blessed farming or destroyed hunting. 



Huntsmen need an elastic temperament, and perseverance 

 such as is not given to many mortals, to work on cheerfully at 

 their almost hopeless task. Were it not for the silently but 

 solidly expressed recognition of their services that flows in 

 about this time, I doubt if even thei?' stout spirits would not 

 sometimes sink. 



The epitome of the season 1874-75 may be jotted down in 

 doggrel, without any great effort of description or poesy — 



November's first day saw a run ; 



The rest of November saw none ; 



All December in frost ; 



Half January lost, 



Ere hunting had fairly begun. 



