187S— 70.] GEORGE WHYTE MELVILLE. 267 



may come a time "svhen to have given gold for silver in every 

 relation of life .shall he the one consoling reflection — a time 

 perhaps of hushed voices, stealthy footsteps, and a darkened 

 room, growing 3-et strangel}' darker with eveiy breath we draw. 

 Or- a time of earth-stained garments, and bespattered friends 

 proffering silver hunting -flasks in sheer dismay, and a favourite 

 Jiorse brought back with flging stirrups, dangling rein, and its 

 mane fidl of mud, while thr dull grey sky tvheels above and tlie 

 dank tufted grass heaves belou- ; nor in tiie intervals of a pain, 

 hecoming every moment less keen, ean /re stifle the helpless 

 consciousness that, before our crushed' frame sliall be lifted from 

 its wet slippery resting place, it will be tinie to die.'' He gave 

 Gold for Silver while he could. I take the extract from " Bones 

 AND I " — not his best book, but containing some of his richest, 

 deepest, and best thought. It makes one very very sad to read 

 this chapter now. Read it, brother sportsmen, and say if any 

 but a good, a thoughtful, or a noble man could have written it. 

 It chanced that, but a few evenings ago, three or four of us (we 

 were not all illiterate) ti'ied hard, and searched wide, to find a 

 j)lain definition for the word philosopliy. Analysis <f Nature — 

 human nature more especially, was, if not the most accurate, at 

 least more compatible with our ideas that we could frame. 

 Had we sought to prove the definition by instance, we need 

 have looked no further than Gold and Silver, as Wliyte Melville 

 thought it out in " Bones and I." 



We hunted on Friday, though our hearts were not in it, and 

 the weather was against us. Hounds moved ofi' about twelve, 

 the roads being at the time like adamant and the fallows 

 capable of carrying a waggon. Bleakmore had nothing in it, 

 and then they struck across country a mile or so, by a line of 

 gaps and gates, to a snug little plantation hitherto unknown. 

 It has been planted by Mr. Cheney, of Gaddesb}', and though 

 but very recently built, it already avails as a harbourage. Now 

 there were at least a brace of foxes up at once, and hounds 

 "were out after one without noise or commotion. The only 

 way to get after them was to jump into the spinney — tlience to 



