SIR HARRY GOODRICKE 149 



rather a rackety place ; men left their womankind at 

 home, and, like their grooms, came to Melton without 

 what advertisements call encumbrances. The bottle 

 circulated freely after dinner, and men gambled a good 

 deal. 



A few years before Sir Harry Goodricke took the 

 country, ladies, though they did not all hunt, began to 

 come to Leicestershire, Lady Wilton being one of the 

 first ; and as her position in society and her amiability 

 rendered her a leader of women, others hastened to 

 follow her example, and her husband at once set about 

 enlarging his house. Lady Stormont, Lady Edward 

 Thynne, Mrs. Drummond, and Mrs. Lloyd were of 

 the number of those who wintered at Melton, and the 

 magnetic influence of female society completely revo- 

 lutionised Melton. 



Rather bad luck attended Sir Harry at the opening 

 of his first season, for Mountford, his huntsman, was not 

 able to take his place in the field, owing, it is said, to 

 some affection of the throat, induced by constant holloa- 

 ing and over-exertion ; so, in the absence of his chief, 

 Will Derry, the first whipper-in (he had formerly dis- 

 charged the same duty with Mr. Musters) carried the 

 horn. But though a satisfactory lowim /enens,he was not 

 thought to be Mountford's equal. On the 21st Novem- 

 ber 1 83 1, Mountford being then laid up, the hounds 

 met at Brooksby, a mile or two on the Leicester side of 

 Kirby Gate, the familiar fixture selected by Henry 

 Aiken to represent " The Meet " in his well-known 

 picture. Some persons then travelled to the covert- side 

 like the man described by " Nimrod " in his Quarterly 

 Review article as " lolling in his chaise and four." More 

 than one noble lord drove up with his four-in-hand ; 

 while well-turned-out phaetons, buggys, and tilburys 

 helped to swell the collection of vehicles, and hacks of 

 the kind represented by Mr. Ackerman in " My Stud " 



