MR. HENRY GREENE 209 



on the members of the Melton Hunt (as it is called, and is too much 

 so in reality), I should peruse his account of a day's sport with much 

 more pleasure. For my own part, I never could see the merit of 

 a parcel of young dandified Nimrods quartered at Melton, because 

 it is the fashion, joining in an amusement about which they know 

 nothing, and care less ; nor the fun of their trying to get a start 

 before the hounds, and nine times out of ten pushing them over 

 the scent, unless it be a burning one, and then not one in fifty of 

 them seeing a yard of the run. Did it never occur to your corre- 

 spondent that though Mr. Greene may be made for the Melton 

 Hunt, and the Melton Hunt may be everything to Mr. Greene, 

 that the country was not made for either, and will not submit 

 much longer to be humbugged by both, as it has been. It may be 

 all very well to confine the " meets " to the grass country imme- 

 diately around Melton, or that part of it which is in favour with 

 these aristocratic bucks, exclusively for their amusement, but 

 unless a country is hunted regularly, both rough and smooth, I 

 shall venture to predict, from long experience, that it will either 

 soon cease to be hunted at all, or be subject to mutilation. I am 

 now speaking particularly as to the Widmerpool side, which, 

 in Osbaldeston's time, afforded the best runs of the season, and 

 now is almost neglected. The murmurs are loud in that neigh- 

 bourhood, and as the adjoining country, late Mr. Musters's, is 

 without hounds, it will very soon be without foxes, unless some 

 spirited individual takes the latter country, and begs for (which he 

 would soon obtain) the Widmerpool side, away from the Quorn- 

 don, which, in spite of the support it renders, in the shape of a 

 weekly encomium from Leicester, is in truth going as fast as it 

 can to the does. VENATOR. 



This somewhat bitter letter certainly had beneath it 

 a substratum of truth, as for a long time, as mentioned 

 on a former page, it was always said that the Melton 

 clique was all-powerful, and that, so long as they had a 

 sufficiency of fixtures within easy riding distance of their 

 headquarters, they cared nothing about hunting on the 

 rougher side ; and this was no doubt true, though 

 perhaps Mr. Greene did his best to free himself from 

 the trammels which had surrounded some of the earlier 

 masters. 



o 



