MELTON MOWBRAY 13 



Concerning the progress of Melton, " Nimrod," in an 

 article contributed to Frascr s Magazine, wrote : — 



When I first visited Melton there was only one inn, and that 

 a very bad one ; not one bank, and but few houses with which a 

 well-breeched Meltonian would be satisfied. But what a change 

 has taken place in these respects. There is nothing now wanting 

 at Melton for any man's comforts, provided he has the means to 

 pay for them ; and there are two hotels, the George and the Har- 

 borough Arms, which equal in accommodation and comfort any 

 that I have experience of. Some idea indeed may be formed of 

 the style in which the Harborough is fitted up, by the fact that 

 the very passages, upstairs and down, were entirely covered with 

 carpet. 



What would " Nimrod " have said to the Grands 

 and Metropoles of our own time ? 



When people began to flock to Melton, where houses 

 were being built by degrees, they naturally brought a 

 good deal of money into the place ; but this advantage 

 was to a great extent counterbalanced by the rowdyism 

 which went on, and the low practical jokes in which the 

 visitors thought fit to indulge. Needless to say there 

 was then no ladies' society in Melton, for men never 

 dreamed of taking their women-folk there. Families 

 resided in the neighbourhood, of course, and they hospi- 

 tably invited to their table those visitors who were living 

 en garfon ; but the visitors left the wives at home. Some 

 of Lord Waterford's exploits are mentioned in connec- 

 tion with Lord Stamford's mastership, but there were 

 plenty of others ready to join him in any mad frolic in 

 which he might indulge, while there were some who 

 backed their collection of door-knockers, London and 

 provincial, against that of even Lord Waterford. In the 

 days of which one is speaking everything gave way to 

 hunting. Long rides to covert and home again were 

 the rule, and the hunting man of the period had little 

 more time than to dress for dinner, dine, make his plans 



