262 The Pytchley Httnt, Past a7td Present. 



COLONEL AETHUR. 



As surely as " every bean lias its black, and every path 

 its puddle/^ so certainly must members of a hunt, as of 

 every other social circle^ drop out of their places one by 

 one, victims of time or else of circumstances. In these 

 days of agricultural depression the latter has had more 

 to do than the former in thinning out from the hunting- 

 ranks the old County Squires, but the former still 

 remains the greater and more inevitable evil of the two. 

 From the clutches of time there is no real escape, though 

 upon some favoured few he lays his hand so lightly that 

 it would seem as though he had winked at being cheated 

 of his rights. Though the capillary barometer may not 

 indicate "much snow/' and may have shown indeed for 

 years past neither variableness nor shadow of turniug, 

 there is no escaping the ravages of Chronos. There is 

 no rule, however, without its exception. Who that has 

 hunted with the "P.H.^' anytime during the last quarter 

 of a century does not now still see at its Meets, on wheels 

 instead of on horseback, a gallant Officer, the senior of 

 most there present ; in aspect the junior of half the field. 

 Genial, courteous, gentlemanlike, his raison d'etre in the 

 hunting-field seemed to be to make things pleasant all 

 round. To run the risk of imperilling his neck or frac- 

 turing a limb was with him at no time an object of 

 ambition ; but there was no one so ready to help in the 

 capture of an escaped horse or to assist a brother-sports- 

 man in distress. The very opposite of the other member 

 of the hunt, whose taciturnity has been referred to else- 

 where — the gallant Colonel here spoken of was the chief 

 priest of that item of hunting-ordinances known as the 



