426 THE CEEAM OF LHIOESTEKSHIRE. [Season 



mortification and regret : and here we come to an end of the 

 parallels that even the exceptional season of 81-82 can furnish. 

 From Walton Thorns, exactly an hour to ground (near Cream 

 Gorse) — the first thirty-tiro minutes witliout a check, and the 

 whole over a fine country — this was Monday's run ; and here 

 is its fuller outline, as far as I can give it. 



Six Hills the meet — hut why so small an one ? AVas it 

 because a blank Monday had once been recorded; or that 

 stables are really in such straits that even a Sunday's rest will 

 not help the ball to roll on again on Monday ? A few were 

 watching anxiously and sadly in Melton ; but from all the 

 country round the Hunt and its neighbours were, if worthily 

 3'et thinly, gathered. Six Hills, it is true, is far from Leicester, 

 and farther still from Nottingham ; and a Quorn Monday 

 always offers a pleasing contrast to its giant Friday. But it is 

 not often I dare attempt to name even a ^Monday field ; and 

 here is a list that, without pretending to be complete, will yet 

 include quite three-fourths of those Avho mustered at Six Hills 

 — ]\Ir. Coupland and Miss Webster, Captain and Mrs. Ashton, 

 Mr. and Mrs. Younger, Mr. and INIiss Story, Mr. and ^liss 

 Fenwick, Mr. and Miss Brooks (of Whatton), Mrs. Grenfell, 

 Miss Wynn, INIiss Amphlett, I^ord Cloncurry, Lord Manners 

 (fresh from his grand militar}' triumi:)hs), Lord Lanesborough, 

 Sir A, Palmer, Sir A. Scott, Major Stirling, Captains Smith, 

 A. and F. Henry, Boyce, Molyneux, Starkie, Grimston, Moseley, 

 Messrs. Adair, Baldock, J. Behrens, W. Boden, Brand, Alfred 

 Brocklehurst, Black, Cecil Chajilin, Ernest Chaplin, J. Cradock, 

 Harrison, Hames, Harter, Knowles, G. Farnham, A. Martin, 



E. Martin, W. Paget, O. Paget, Parker, Praed, Pryor, Pose, 



F. Sloane- Stanley, Wade. 



The morning Avas dull and breezy, at first almost stormy 

 in its rough darkness. Walton Thorns, a strong blackthorn 

 covert of perhaps a dozen acres, lies about a mile from the 

 meet. Though a ploughed waste spreads out beyond and 

 behind it, Walton Thorns has all its old and high associations 

 in connection with the great grass countr}^ easily reached 



