WEEK AT MARKET HARBOROUGH 67 



year after year ; statesmen, soldiers and bankers of 

 distinction, men who work hard and play hard, and 

 find quiet and comfort in the town and the most 

 delightful of playgrounds round it. 



Possibly we might distinguish Harborough from 

 Melton by saying that the visitors are older and for 

 the most part men who have chosen their line of life. 

 Hunting there is the business of the few, but the 

 recreation of the many. There would thus be fewer 

 six-days-a-week men at Harborough than at Melton, 

 for even in his holidays the busy man can hardly 

 find the strength to hunt six days a week. To do 

 so is, no doubt, to put a great strain on the physical 

 and muscular powers, greater as some of us have 

 found by experience than the ordinary worker can 

 manage. 



We may now consider the conveniences of Market 

 Harborough as a hunting centre, especially for busy 

 men and those who have ties which call them to 

 London from time to time. There are several ways 

 by which the man who intends to hunt from Market 

 Harborough can find accommodation. The first is to 

 buy or rent a house of suitable size. As to the prices 

 for such, the following are those actually paid. A 

 house and a little land has sold for £3000, and I am 

 told that a larger one is priced at ;^5ooo. A com- 

 fortable house, but without stabling, was sold a little 

 while ago for £1800. The rent of unfurnished hunt- 

 ing-boxes runs from ;£ioo to £250 for large houses, 

 ranging down to £60 or £yo for smaller ones, while a 

 furnished house for the season may be had for £150 

 to £300, or from about 5 to 10 guineas a week for 

 shorter periods. In all these cases the houses are 

 comfortable of their kind, and the stabling is generally 

 of a very excellent character. 



