MR. MEYNELL 55 



run is as follows : Mr. Lowth being- on a visit to a 

 friend living near Melton, was offered by his host a 

 mount on a young thoroughbred horse which, so far as 

 the owner knew, had never seen hounds. Mr. Lowth 

 rode the horse to the place of meeting, but had no idea 

 of riding him through a run. On the day after this 

 famous hunt some one suggested at dinner that the run 

 was worthy of being commemorated in verse, and as Mr. 

 Lowth was known to wield a ready pen, he was asked to 

 give his own ideas of the gallop. Mr. Lowth, who was a 

 stranger to Leicestershire (he lived in the H. H. country), 

 had of course no prejudice to affect him. He went to 

 his room with his head full of the stories he had heard ; 

 he sat down, and, before he turned in, had turned out a 

 poem which has remained famous from that day to this. 



I give here the usual version, to which are appended 

 the extra stanzas, a few lines in the usual edition being 

 given to show where the excised lines come in : — 



POEM ON THE FAMOUS BILLESDEN 

 COPLOW RUN 



Quaque ipse miserrima vidi, 

 Et quorum pars magna fut. 



With the wind at north-east, forbiddingly keen, 

 The Coplow of Billesden ne'er witnessed, I ween, 

 Two hundred such horses and men at a burst, 

 All determined to ride — each resolved to be first. 

 But to get a good start over-eager and jealous, 

 Two-thirds, at the least, of these very fine fellows 

 So crowded, and hustled, and jostled, and crossed, 

 That they rode the wrong way, and at starting were lost. 

 In spite of th' unpromising state of the weather, 

 Away broke the fox, and the hounds close together. 

 A burst up to Tilton so brilliantly ran, 

 Was scarce ever seen in the mem'ry of man. 

 What hounds guided scent, or which led the way, 

 Your bard — to their names quite a stranger — can't say ; 

 Though their names had he known, he's free to confess, 

 His horse could not show him at such a death-pace. 



