A WEEK AT MELTON 37 



In these days the heart of the visitor to Melton may 

 well beat a little higher at the thought of the sport that 

 awaits him on a Cottesmore Tuesday. It will be the 

 day of the week he will look forward to most eagerly, 

 and turn his thoughts back upon with the most 

 pleasure. 



Just at first when he reaches the fixture he will be 

 a little staggered by the number of people assembled, 

 for if there was a crowd on Monday, it is a multitude 

 gathered together on Tuesday. The train will have 

 brought visitors from afar. Market Harborough, as 

 well as Melton, looks to find its Tuesday's amusement 

 with the Cottesmore ; men travel up from Rugby ; 

 and those who live at Oakham, and are thus in the 

 centre of hunting fashion, are of course there to a man. 

 Beside the first qualms caused by the vast assembly 

 of men and women, most of whom mean to ride, and 

 all to see as much of the sport as circumstances and 

 their own nerve will allow, the newcomer may well 

 have his keen expectations somewhat shadowed by a 

 feeling of dismay when he sees the country. 



Tilton Wood is the first fixture of the season by the 

 Cottesmore for their Melton country. As we ride up 

 to the meeting place beneath Robin-a-Tiptoes, and 

 stand at the gate which looks down over the field 

 below, the crowd of horsemen, the dark masses of the 

 woods and the steep sides of the hills may well daunt 

 us. Can these be the fair green pastures, flat and 

 smooth, which we are accustomed to think of as the 

 Cream of the Shires ? But, indeed, if we have had 

 such thoughts of the country, it is time we should dis- 

 card them. If we desire flat and level plains of grass, 

 it is in Cheshire, and the Woore country of the North 

 Stafford hunt, rather than in Leicestershire that we 

 must look for them. With the exception of one or 



