Seasox 1876-77.] FIRST FRUITS OF 1876. 167 



north wind that treated your ears as if they were autumn 

 leaves. There was but a gentle crowd with the hounds — a 

 matter of strong contrast with the Kirby Gate gathering of the 

 Quorn, whereat the innovation of bicycles ( ye gods, what an 

 age we live in ! ) prepared us for the news that elephants are in 

 futui'e to form part of the Lord Mayor's Show. 



I do not know if Anno Domini 1876 be marked in the public 

 statistics as an exceptionally healthy one ; but I confess I 

 never saw men or horses with such a bloom on coats and coun- 

 tenances. Faces so rosy and skins so shiny have a happy 

 augury about them, and show a regularity of habit and diet 

 most creditable to summer quarters. We live in reformiuef 

 times nowadays, yet float along on a good Conservative stream, 

 whose waters have more the flavour of stout La Rose and 

 Lafitte than of the Gladstonian wash. Yes, men have turned 

 out this year with a radiancy that onl}^ thorough health, happy 

 anticipation, new coats, and a stable in rare condition could 

 beget. Nothing to mar their pleasm^e but a blind ditch, and 

 every moment of the morning bringing the nod or grasp of 

 sport and good fellowship. It may be almost traitorous to say 

 so, but six days a week {de rigueur at Melton) do not suit 

 everybody, even when the best of good living and the purest 

 of tobacco go to lessen the strain on the system. Lideed, I 

 fear it is only the orthodoxy of the Church militant that 

 imposes sufficient inaction and rest to keep a sound body 

 linked to a healthy soul in this blessed and grass-growing 

 diocese. Later on, if our weekly routine be not interrupted 

 by any demon of the Arctic Regions — roused to retaliation by 

 tlie home thrusts of the Alert and the Discovery — we ma}^ see 

 many a pleasant face, that would now put a pippin to shame, 

 looking a trifle tried and drawn, though no less pleasant than 

 now. But even then (if the shade of Moore will forgive the 

 flippant adaptation). 



When Many a cheek so red has paled, 



And many a cold been canght, 

 When many a leg so sound has ail'd, 



And many a rib grown short, 



