A WEEK AT OAKHAM 227 



sport. The less often we can hunt, the more we need 

 that the quahty of the sport should be of the best 

 on those days that we can spare. Business men who 

 are in a position to hunt from Oakham can generally 

 spare Saturday, not seldom Friday as well, and 

 sometimes Monday. Now, from Oakham these three 

 days may all be enjoyed in the fairest country of 

 the Cottesmore and the Quorn. Then the leisure 

 which Christmas, and sometimes an early Easter, 

 bring to the worker will certainly be spent as pleasantly 

 here as elsewhere. Even the busiest man who can 

 afford time to hunt at all will have more for his 

 money. For him the capping arrangement will be 

 convenient and perhaps economical. He pays strictly 

 for what he has and, should he be unlucky in the 

 matter of frosts and of a frugal mind, as perhaps a 

 business man ought to be, he will, taking one season 

 with another, under the new arrangement of a £2 

 cap find himself free of obligations to the hunt for his 

 sport at a comparatively moderate expense. 



There is, however, another place that can hardly 

 be omitted from our list of hunting centres, though 

 it lies very wide of the best country. This place is 

 Stamford, which has some advantages over Oakham 

 for the man who can pay only flying visits, in that 

 it offers more hotel accommodation for the casual 

 visitor. It is also an ancient and pleasant town. 

 Stamford is about twenty miles from Melton and 

 about ten from Oakham, and is directly connected 

 with Market Harborough by rail. In the old coach- 

 ing days it was more of a hunting centre than it is 

 now, owing to its situation on one of the best-known 

 routes. But if the Marquis of Exeter's hounds be- 

 come an established fact, as may be well the case 

 before this book is in the hands of the public, then 



