CHAPTER II 



A WEEK AT MELTON 



Choice of Centres — The Railways — Rise of Melton — The Old 

 Club— Hunting Boxes — Hotels — Ladies in the Hunting Field 

 — Society — Number of Horses required — Going with the 

 Crowd — Dress — Expenditure — Economies — Hunting late in 

 the Season — Advantages of Melton — Surrounding Villages — 

 How to spend the Week — Monday with the Quorn — De- 

 scription of the Country hunted — Tuesday with the Cottes- 

 more — The Crowd — The Tilton and Owston Coverts — 

 Wednesday with the Belvoir — Famous men who have hunted 

 with the Belvoir— " Oxers" and "Bullfinches" — Croxton 

 Park — Notable Belvoir Coverts — The Brooks — Thursday's 

 choice : Mr. Fernie's or the Cottesmore — Vale of Catmore — 

 Arthur Thatcher — P^iday with the Quorn — ^The Foxes and 

 the Crowd — An Essex Sportsman's account — Going to the 

 Meet — Scraptoft — Gaddesby — Prince of Wales's Gorse — 

 Lowesby Hall : Lord Waterford's Feat — When to Jump and 

 when to avoid Jumping — Knowledge of the Country — Saturday 

 in the Melton country of the Cottesmore^ — The Essex Sports- 

 man again quoted. 



If the reader has made up his mind to have one or 

 more seasons in the Midlands, he will naturally wish 

 to know where to go, and it is the purpose of the 

 following chapters to put before him the advantages 

 and drawbacks of the different places from which he 

 has to choose. I have adopted the plan of taking my 

 reader to centres rather than to particular hunts, 

 because that is the natural and inevitable course for 

 the newcomer. There is much variety in the Shires, 

 and by going to certain recognised hunting centres he 



