28 FOX-HUNTING IN THE SHIRES 



who have not missed a Melton season for a score or 

 more of years past. 



For those who cannot afford a house, or who prefer 

 the absence of care and responsibiHty that accompany 

 housekeeping, there are some excellent hotels, such as 

 the George, the Bell, and the Harborough Arms. These 

 are generally full during the winter months, and the 

 man who would secure rooms must take time by the 

 forelock in engaging them. Besides the hotels, there 

 are comfortable lodgings to be had, as well as ranges 

 of stabling with quarters for the grooms, which latter 

 are let separately, and are found convenient by those 

 who do not wish, or are not able, to take up their 

 abode in the town for the whole winter. 



Melton was at first a place where ladies were seldom 

 or never seen. For in the early days of the last century, 

 while Melton was still not quite sure whether its 

 prosperity depended on its Stilton cheeses and the 

 excellence of its pork pies, or on the patronage of its 

 hunting visitors, ladies as a rule did not and could 

 not hunt. The old style of side-saddle made it diffi- 

 cult, if not impossible, for a woman to ride over a 

 country with safety, and the modern saddlers have 

 done as much as any one to make hunting the popular 

 sport for women that it is to-day. In its earlier years, 

 then, when Melton society existed entirely for hunting, 

 every one hunted six days a week or was supposed to 

 do so, and, as the riders often larked home across 

 country after a bad day, very large studs were required. 

 In this respect the coming of ladies to Melton has 

 brought about a change. It is no longer absolutely 

 necessary to hunt every day, for there is much society 

 for those who are able to enter into it. Indeed some 

 people say there is too much, 2 .id that the pleasant 

 dinners and bridge parties interfere with hunting. 



